AlmaKnack: What do tigers dream of . . . .

. . . when they take a little tiger snooze?

This post isn't about tigers. It's about my prenatal yoga experience. I have never been able to successfully complete a yoga session. I could never keep up with the breathing. I've had bad sciatica for about two years now and it's worse now that I am pregnant so I decided to give prenatal yoga a try.

My friend and I found a Groupon for Joy Yoga Center in the Washington corridor. So we decided to check it out. I must say I am very pleased. I love my instructor! Absolutely love. She has one of those voices that makes the back of your neck tingle and she is so sweet. We introduce ourselves every class and we share our experiences with the group. On our first session I told her my previous yoga experiences and she was very nice and said she would try to focus on the breathing more, she said some instructors don't. So far it's been great. My sciatica is better, my neck and shoulder pain are gone. I love it. I feel very zen.

Based on this great yoga experience my friend and I decided to add another class during the week. Joy Yoga only offers one on Tuesdays so I told her that the Motherhood Center offered a free class if you checked in on Yelp! so we went on Thursday. OMG! What a difference. This is like hard core yoga. Seriously. The other class is baby cakes compared to this one and all this instructor says with each pose is "3 rounds of breathing". I don't know when to exhale or inhale but thankfully because of the other class I did pretty good on this one not great but otherwise I would have been terrified. I left that class sore and bewildered. Now I know why Jennifer Aniston has such an amazing body and attributes it all to yoga. It's because yoga is hard and extremely disciplined.

I left that class with so many questions. How can these pregnant women be so flexible? And why is it called tiger pose? What is the point of me doing this crazy pose up against the wall? I've never seen a tiger pose like that. Tigger bounced on his tail.

Even though this class is a lot more intense I am very happy with it. I am going to continue yoga two times a week, Tuesdays at Joy and Thursdays at Motherhood Center.

I am a complete convert. I think yoga is amazing. I'm even considering a doula . . . that's how much 4 prenatal yoga sessions have changed my life. Actually, I'm not really considering a doula, I thought about for a hot second and yoga hasn't really helped with my anxiety that much yet but it has helped with my aches and pains.

Here are some of my favorite poses, probably because they're the only ones I can somewhat do comfortably, I still need more practice.