Antenatal yoga classes provide women an outlet to explore their feelings, become more comfortable with their bodies and form bonds with other women that are going through the same thing.    You become a part of a community that is focused on being positive and supportive to one another which helps keep you motivated and emotionally sound.  Pregnancy can bring a lot of stress on a woman, especially if this is her first child.  Learning how to channel your energy and find ways to relieve stress can greatly improve the pregnancy and the health of the baby.

Antenatal yoga, combined with a form of cardiovascular exercise, is an good  way for a woman to stay in shape during pregnancy.   Here are a few poses that are great during pregnancy.

Cat-Cow: This pose helps you to relieve back pain, which is a very common problem during pregnancy and work on your abs.

• You will position yourself on your hands and knees, with your arms shoulder width apart and your knees hip width apart.  Make sure to keep your arms straight, but do not lock your elbows.
• Tuck your butt under and round your back as you inhale.
• Relax the back into a neutral position as you exhale

Squatting: This helps open and relax the pelvis and strengthens your upper legs.

• Stand facing a chair or some form of support bar you can grab onto.  Open your feet a little wider than your hips with your toes pointed outward.
• Lift your chest, contract the abdominal muscles and relax the shoulders.  Then, as if you were going to sit down, lower your butt towards the floor.  Use the bar or chair to keep your balance and most of your weight should be on your heels.
• Inhale deeply and when exhaling rise to a standing position

Relaxation: This pose opens up your hip and groin area and works wonders for relieving backaches.

• Take your yoga pillow and lay it beyind you, lengthwise.  Lower yourself onto the pillow with your head rested at the top.
• Stretch the body out.

Remember, the type of yoga poses you perform are dependent on what trimester you are in. If you are taking antenatal yoga classes, make sure to speak with the instructor first as they will be able to show you which poses you can perform.

We all know that a lot of men are about being physical, like working out and playing sports such as football, baseball, golf, tennis and basketball.  What they do not realize is that practicing certain type of poses will help alleviate some of the irregularities they may acquire from performing certain movements. When partaking in certain sports you tend to use specific muscles more often which can cause tightness or an imbalance from your counterpart muscles.  Specific yoga poses for men can help loosen those muscles and bring their body back to their natural alignment.  Here are a few of the best yoga for men poses:

Downward Facing Dog – This pose will help stretch shoulders, calves, and hamstrings as well as strengthen your core, legs and arms.

Forward Fold – Helps stretch calves, hips and hamstrings while strengthening knees and legs.

Crescent Lunge – This will help stretch the groin and loosen tight hips as well as strengthen legs and arms.

Bridge – Stretches your spine, neck, hips and chest.

As you can see yoga for men has many benefits, especially for those that are involved in sports.  If going to a studio is not your thing, you can find a good yoga for men DVD that will take you through many yoga poses that are geared towards men.  Also, if you think to practice yoga you have to wear funky outfits, well think again.  You will find a variety of yoga clothes for men available.  The yoga clothing for men is designed with them in mind, taking into consideration that you do not want to have shorts or pants that bunch up in the crotch area and want breathable, flexible and comfortable clothes.

The increased popularity of yoga for men has made many studios and yoga clothing companies come up with creative ways to show men than yoga can be manly. That no matter what your fitness level, whether you are looking to get back into shape or are a fitness guru, there are various types of yoga methods for you.

There are a number of positions that yoga pillows will really help your body out and aide in a deeper and more relaxing stretch.  For the backbend pose, you place the bolster just behind you as you are sitting.  Lying back and adjust the pillow so it rests just underneath the shoulder blades.  Place a small towel or folded up blanket beneath your head.  Extend your arms out and bend your knees; this position will help stretch out your back and spine.

To aide with a Viparti Karani or “Legs up the wall” pose, set the support several inches away from the wall.  You then sit sideways at one end of the support and rest your side against the wall.  At this point you can adjust and swing your legs up onto the wall resting your body against the support while keeping your legs firm.  You can then close your eyes and focus inwardly as your legs and torso are given a phenomenal stretch.

Using the yoga pillow in a forward bend is another great way to take advantage of this yoga prop.  Sit on the floor with your legs extended and the yoga bolster resting lengthwise in your lap.  Let one end rest against your stomach and you may want to add a soft blanket under your bottom for additional comfort.  From here you bend forward, pressing through your heels and inhaling as you stretch forward.

While these poses can be done with a simple yoga pillow there are many different ones.  You can find yoga meditation pillows in all shape and sizes; depending on what you are looking for and what you need help with.  It is important to consider sizes when purchasing a yoga pillow, because they have pillows designed for children, for tall people, and for short people.  Getting an improperly sized pillow can actually turn into more of a hindrance than an aide.

Yoga is a great discipline and while we can’t all be experts in it, finding things that can help us improve will go a long way.  A yoga pillow is one of these things and an item you should look into even if you are an expert practitioner.  Not only will the pillow help with some more difficult poses, but it will allow you to do poses you otherwise couldn’t.

The use of yoga flash cards is the same as any other flash card; you are trying to learn the poses yourself and memorize them so you can do your own workout anywhere and at anytime.  The knowledge of which poses will help you the most and creating your own routine is the next evolution in yoga.  You will be able to be more independent and take yourself to new limits you never expected.  Taking advanced classes to learn new poses and having yoga discussions will all become available to you as you turn into your own instructor and guide on the path to deeper levels of meditation and relaxation.

Yoga pose cards come in many different formats.  The major differences are between whether the pictures are drawings or actual photos.  Some people find the drawings are easier to follow as they are showing the function and form, while the photos can be a bit confusing if taken at the wrong angle.  Other people feel that the actual photos help them picture the way the pose should look easier than the drawings.  Which is more helpful is up to you and your own opinion.  The back of the cards will have the name of the pose, what muscle groups it helps with, and the proper technique for assuming the pose.  Many places will even offer free yoga cards to go along with the class, especially if it is a weekly class.  Some places you can find them online for download, where you can print them out on sturdy paper and cut them out yourself.  The value of yoga cards doesn’t even require memorization.  You can pick out which ones you want to do for the day and take them with you to whatever remote location you picked to practice yoga in today and just read them over before each pose.

Yoga cards are a great tool in helping expand your knowledge of yoga and help become your own guide and instructor.  The value of having the information in an easy to transport way will let you get more out of each yoga session.  Plus you can always print out copies for your friends and hand them out as a sort of daily session for everyone in your yoga group to do.