When advancing your yoga asana practice, it’s important to develop strength and balance all over the body, but it’s essential to focus on a strong core! The centre of the body is a major source of strength for all asanas. Try doing a chaturanga using mostly your arms, then do one while holding your entire core tight – it makes a huge difference!
Core strength is more than six-pack abs. Actually, the strongest parts of your core are hidden deep in the body, and only specific exercises will strengthen those. Here are a few work-out moves to focus on those deep core and abdominal muscles: -Planks: all types of planks - regular plants, forearm planks, side planks. Hold for as long as your can. -Crunches and other abdominal exercises that engage your oblique muscles, and the entire length of your abdomen. -Stability ball exercises: crunches and other abdominal exercises done on a stability ball are greatly intensified. A strong core makes a strong yoga practice! **If you’re pregnant, please contact Vanda for more information about which core exercises are safe and which should be avoided in different stages of pregnancy. Next year, in 2015, Singapore turns 50! In celebration of this 50th anniversary, all Singaporean babies born next year are set to receive a special gift, to commemorate the past and encourage a bright future! These gifts will be called Jubilee Baby Gifts. Although it hasn’t been decided exactly what they will be, there are plenty of ideas floating around! The organizing committee wants the gifts to be significant and meaningful to Singaporeans all over the world. The committee is currently taking suggestions on what the gifts should be so if you have any ideas, head over to this website to put in your suggestion from now until 15 May! http://www.heybaby.sg/jubilee/ Send in your suggestions for gifts to all 2015 Singaporean babies – to represent the hope and future of Singapore! Check out the website Mommy’s World – a website and resource for moms, dads, and parents-to-be in Singapore! They’re running a contest this February: all you have to do is sign up as a member and you could win a S$20 shopping voucher! Contest closes on 15th March. See contest rules here to sign up: http://mommysworld.com.sg/contest-contact/contests Giving your newborn a gentle massage stimulates the physical development and improves the emotional well-being of the infant. Massage also strengthens the immune system, alleviates common digestive problems and promotes a more peaceful sleep for your newborn. It is no wonder that infant massage is becoming more popular in Singapore.
The benefits are two-way if the massage is delivered by the loving hands of the infant’s parents. Parents have intimate knowledge of their infant’s physical condition and would be able to respond to the physical cues of the infant. Vanda joined the class conducted in Singapore by Sylvie Hetu, a Canadian qualified Infant Massage Instructor with the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM). “I believe infant massage will benefit my five-month-old baby boy. Through massage, I use affectionate touches to communicate with him and strengthen our parent-child bond,” says Vanda, principal instructor at VandaYoga. We’re all for active exercise for all stages of life, even pregnancy. During a healthy pregnancy, the general word from doctors is that you should be able to keep up with all the activities you were doing before with a few modifications. But does that apply to all types of exercise? This photo of a pregnant woman lifting weights, along with her accompanying comments about pregnancy and its exercise limitations (or lack thereof) has caused quite a debate among women worldwide. See her story here:
http://news.insing.com/feature/photo-of-pregnant-woman-weightlifting-sparks-debate/id-7b313101 What do you think? Should this mother be celebrated? Criticized? Or should we all just accept that different things work for different women, and celebrate motherhood in its many beautiful forms? Pregnancy and giving birth, along with all its wonderful moments, brings a lot of changes to the body. Especiallythese days, when there is lots of pressure on new moms to get “back into shape”, we’re loving this project out of the US that showcases the beauty of the woman’s body after giving birth. As they state on their website, they are “dedicated to embracing the beauty inherent in the changes brought to our bodies by motherhood, childbirth and breastfeeding”. Check out the photos that have already been taken, and watch out for this project in the future, as it aims to remind moms that the ultimate goal isn’t getting back into those skinny jeans, it’sabout embracing everything new in motherhood in all its beautiful manifestations. Congratulations, you’re expecting! Once you’ve enjoyed the wonderful news alone for a bit, it’s time to tell everyone else. Normal announcements are happy as they are, but sometimes mums-to-be want to have a little fun with breaking the exciting news to your loved ones. Maybe you want a creative way to tell your immediate family, or a funny way to announce you’re expecting on Facebook. Couples find endlessly fun ways to make the big announcement, as these two articles show: http://www.parenting.com/creative-ways-to-announce-pregnancy?pnid=510768 http://happyhomefairy.com/2013/07/06/30-creative-ways-to-announce-pregnancy/ Our favourites are: 1. The mums who used upcoming holidays like Christmas and Easter as a theme to announce their happy news. 2. The wife who told her husband while using the self-timer on the camera - his first happy reaction was caught on film! Any yogis out there announce their bundle of joy in unusual ways? :) To all the breast feeding moms out there - a little something to brighten your day (or middle of the night!) :) |
Blog by VandaA yoga practitioner for over fifteen years now, Vanda is a yoga instructor dedicated to spreading her love of yoga and benefits of yoga to people who come her way. She believes strongly in empowering women in their pregnancy and childbirth journey. Archives
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