Yoga for Moms: A Realistic Morning Flow

I have recently had to evolve my home workout routine to cater more to maintaining my mental health and so I have incorporated quite a bit of yoga. Since the world has recently seemed to be turning upside down, gyms and workout classes aren’t an option for most. Yoga classes included.

We’ve all had to find different, healthy coping mechanisms. I highly recommend yoga for moms who feel like they’re stuck in a rut physically and mentally. YouTube has essentially saved me these last few months as I have a playlist that I’ve stuck to and rotated! 

I used to do some poses that you would call “hard” yoga poses. Now, I would not call any of my yoga poses “extreme”. As a new mom, my yoga routine changed as I had to pace myself postpartum. My postpartum yoga routine was adjusted to help me work my way slowly back to where I used to be. Yoga for moms, particularly moms recently postpartum, should be carefully selected and ideally embarked upon with the approval of your doctor. 

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Why is yoga so healthy? To me, the biggest reason is that it incorporates breathing and meditation. Many of us hold our breaths for short periods throughout the day without even realising it. Yoga forces you to catch yourself doing that as you get used to breathing in and out with your body’s movements. 

How many times a week should you do yoga? Listen to your body. Start out a few minutes a day one or two times a week if you need to and ramp it up if you think your body can handle it and if you’re enjoying it. 

Does yoga help you wake up? Certainly, there are some yoga positions that are supposed to help wake you up and energise you for the day. The ‘happy baby’ pose does that for me. You’ll see below that it is in the beginning of my morning flow yoga routine and is one of the yoga poses where you’re lying down and on your back. 

What is Morning flow yoga? Morning flow yoga is a routine that allows your body to gently ease itself into movement straight from sleep. You are able to rev up slowly to the level where you finish off energized for the day. That’s why yoga for moms is so helpful. I’m going to show you my morning yoga flow. 

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An ideal morning

I manage to creep out of bed without waking anyone up. With my activity tracker strapped on and decked out in any one of my Adidas performance workout gear, I go to the living room and securely shut the door behind me. It blocks out all sounds from outside the room for these 15 minutes that I will get to myself all day. On the rare occasion, we’ll go for an early morning family walk and I’ll do my routine in the park instead. 

I note my activity tracker because despite what some may think, yoga is not all about relaxing. You can also get your heart rate up and I like to track that.

A more realistic mommy type of morning 

My daughter wakes me up. We go to the living room together and she helps me roll my yoga mat out and also insists on doing some poses with me. Or she just runs around me while I work out. I manage to distract her with one thing or the other. Usually my activity tracker. She takes it and plays with it while I work out. So much for tracking my activity. The door is wide open and I’m chatting with her and my husband while I work out. 

9 Morning Yoga Poses for Busy Moms

Waking up 

1. Lunge Pose

You can take it a step further by slowly lowering that right leg onto the floor. If you feel any kind of pain or discomfort in the knee on the floor, protect it by placing something  soft beneath it. 

2. Happy baby Pose

Make sure your lower back is grounded throughout this pose. You may also choose to hold on to your big toe instead of using your hand to hold on to the bottom of your feet. This is one of my favourite yoga poses on the floor.

Stretching out

3. Big Toe Pose

4. Extended Side Angle Pose 

It makes your muscles stronger and tones them too. 

Morning Yoga for Flexibility

5. Cow Face Pose

6. Head-to-Knee Forward Bend Pose

Strength

7. Tree Pose

Avoid pressing into your knee joint by placing your above your knee joint rather than on it. 

8. Warrior 2 Pose 

Stretch out both arms as much as possible without moving your hips. This pose is also said to increase your self-confidence and your courage. 

Finally, 

9. Always end with corpse pose/Savasana

No matter which yoga routine you do, try to always end with Savasana. Yoga poses for moms should include all these different types of positions but ideally you should end with this not only to rest for a second, but also to centre yourself before your day properly starts.

Do you practice Yoga in the mornings as a busy mom? Have you found that it helps you handle the rest of your day more easily?