Ep 96: Give Back To Your Body - Prenatal + Postpartum Yoga with Julie Hawkins

Dr. Shannon chats with Julie Hawkins, a 500HR RYT prenatal and postpartum yoga instructor in the metro-Atlanta area.  Yoga is a beautiful way to incorporate movement into your pregnancy and postpartum journey. It can also bring about self- awareness, help transition into motherhood, and "give back to your body” in a beautiful, effective, and meaningful way.

We cover a lot in this episode:

• Julie’s beginnings in yoga while hiking the AT
• Why she began teaching and how her yoga practice evolved during her own pregnancies and births
• The specifics of prenatal and postpartum certification
• How yoga can impact self-care, returning to breath, and offer physical, communal, and mental support
• The benefits of prenatal and postpartum yoga
• Yoga pose modifications during pregnancy and postpartum 

Connect with Julie:

Jhawkyoga on instagram 

BeYoga on instagram 

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• 10:37 (Cont.) Ep 96: Give Back To Your Body - Prenatal + Postpartum Yoga with Julie Hawkins

Transcript

Unknown 0:00

Hello, hello, you're listening to the Alliant birth podcast. I am Dr. Shannon. I'm one of the hosts of the show. Today is interview day and I have a guest on the show and I am so freaking excited about this. I feel like this has been on my mind for a long time to have Miss Julie Hawkins on the show because she is a prenatal and postpartum yoga instructor. And I think a lot of moms ask about yoga and movements and what can they do prenatally what's acceptable, what's beneficial, what modifications do they need? And I think we're gonna get into it a little bit too with some of the other benefits of prenatal yoga in the aspect of like, connecting with you connecting with that and yourself connecting with that breath. And then I'll know a lot of moms are like okay, well, what movement can I get to now that I've had the baby and so I think postpartum Yoga is a beautiful way to intertwine that return to movement as well. So I know I get asked this a lot in office. I know. I tell my moms to do yoga a lot like I just I think it's a beautiful way to move and flow with the body and I think there's that saying that you're only as young as your spine is flexible. And so I think that's very, very true because nobody wants to be all super stiff. We know that that doesn't feel your best you don't feel healthy. So I'm excited to have Julie on the show today. She's a yoga teacher in the Atlanta area. She has been practicing yoga for 10 years and teaching for seven of those years. After the birth of her first daughter 2019. She decided to continue learning about the pregnant and postpartum process through prenatal yoga, and she fell in love with offering support and education to birthing people. She has seen benefits firsthand in her own birth but also in her students. And so I'm really, really excited to have you on the show today. Julie, welcome. Yay. I'm

Unknown 1:52

so excited to be here to thank you so much.

Unknown 1:55

You're welcome. I'm excited that you you know, wanted to do this because I have all these people that I'm like, oh, I want to have you on the show on your show. And I look at some people sometimes in there, I can see like terror in their face and I'm like, no, no, no, no, it'll be great. People want to hear what you have to say. So I'm grateful to have you on. Um, I know. I know. For me personally, I love yoga, I take yoga, I love all types. I say that. No sparingly. I love all types, because some of it can be really really intense. I think some people don't think that yoga can be very intense. It just depends, you know, on the class on the flow on the teacher on your body on that day, for different every day and every time time we take yoga and I think that's a beautiful part too. But I didn't start taking yoga until I was pregnant with my first and I think it was at that time. I was like, oh, I want to do these things to feel good and to be healthy and all of that. And so, I've just continued on to then I met actually I met a dear friend when she was like, I am pregnant too. And I didn't know each other at the time we were at the gym and she's like, Do you know what you're doing? And I was like, No, I don't know what I'm doing. Let's let's do this together since we don't know what we're doing. And so that's kind of our love relationship form there and now our 13 year old kids are friends. So yoga has been a big part of my life as a mother and so that's kind of neat to have that so I want to get into the why behind with you with your yoga instructor and how you found it because you found it 10 years ago and then started teaching seventh. So what what happened in that timeframe?

Unknown 3:26

So about 10 years ago, this is a big part of even my life story is I was I just finished hiking the Appalachian Trail the majority of it, and I found that there I hiked with a yoga instructor and I started feeling the physical benefits of like, I'm using my body so much I need to give back to my body also. But then I after I hiked I went through probably my most stressful year of losing my mom. And that's when I just turned in to myself running wasn't how to change my stress, other physical movements where I needed to sit with myself. So that's when I move into my personal practice. And truly after that I moved back to Georgia and the first thing I did was literally my first yoga teacher in Georgia is my teacher who trained me all 500 hours. And just to say a nod to how some can be intense some cannot be me and my husband were talking last night my style of teaching vinyasa is very strengthening, which is different from how I teach other classes and maybe even approach a prenatal but you can get a whole spectrum with yoga and that's what I love. And so I dove in I took the 200 just to learn and started teaching right away and haven't looked back. Ah, so

Unknown 4:51

tell me okay, I even wrote notes. Gosh, to give back to your body. You said that. That's beautiful. That's a beautiful ending. You needed to sit with yourself. I'm like, I'm already taking notes and we're like at the beginning of this interview. Good gracious Julie. Um That's it but that's exactly it. That's That's exactly it now with the I want to speak a little bit with the two hour training 500 hour like what's the difference there? What does that mean? What you know, how does that progress

Unknown 5:20

so to be a certified teacher for most, pretty much everywhere, you have to complete your 200 hour, and that's 200 hours of training. Most of it is actual lecture and practice and then a good portion of it is also practice teaching. And that's how you can be certified to teach you can go on how to get your 500 which is just 300 more hours. And that's just more in depth. There's so much to learn. I feel like I could even go for 1000 and still be learning and all of it pairs with like the way yoga Alliance which is the main governing body. It pairs with how often how much you've taught like I'm now an E R two I have 200 Er y two y 200 And that's because I have the teaching experience on top of my education. So that's okay. And then and then for prenatal, you take I want to say it's 40 hours, but you can't get registered as a prenatal teacher until you've taught and so someone who has p or YT they're finally have caught enough prenatal bodies to be considered registered. Someone can go on yoga Alliance and find me if they're looking for a teacher. And so that's how those certifications work and they all just build on each other. It's all continuing education. You have to keep up your continuing education like anytime you're working with the body or people or anything. Yeah,

Unknown 7:06

okay. And that makes sense. Okay, so you're why we I can't believe you and then when you hiked with the yoga. Did you know that yoga instructor when you went or did you just happen to meet them?

Unknown 7:19

No, I just met them. I didn't hike with anyone I knew. Yes. Yeah. So I met I met her and it was really just about three days and she would do her practice and I would do it with her and then I just

Unknown 7:33

look at it. That's so neat. That's so neat. My father in law did the he had the the whole trail. I think he was like either 70 or 71. And he did it alone too, and ended up meeting and it's like, I don't know what the trail like brings out in people and he he had a lot of shifts and changes with that. And now he's even hikes tons of other trails but still kept in touch with some of those people. So I just think that's neat. That outdoor movement connection as well to that, you know, led you to yoga.

Unknown 8:04

Yes. Yeah, that was definitely life changing

Unknown 8:08

live data. Yes. Yes. One of those one of those moments. Okay, now. So you started taking yoga obviously before kids and all of that fell in love with it went back to do your training. So you could teach so now let's move into how yoga had flown into your life and then how your life had unfolded with it, especially as far as being pregnant. And what you noticed with that?

Unknown 8:35

Yeah, so at the beginning, I was pushing my body physically so hard. I was a big runner, and I was lifting I was just using my body in more of a fiery way. And so yoga paired with that really well, even though I was usually going through a strong practice in those early days. With a lot of strength to it. It's still added softness to everything else that I was doing. And the biggest thing is even when the times the days periods, weeks, however long I am maybe not using my mat part of so much of my training was the primary Yama and breathwork. And I use that all day throughout the day. And now luckily I've to the point where I can just jump into it quickly. At high stress moments or or anything so that's the biggest way it's present in my life, especially when I look at my pregnancies one I was still very strong still doing all the very fiery pushing my limits movement with my body. And then the other one, I was not I was much softer that both of them. My breath work, I think was the biggest impact

Unknown 10:05

or the breath work remained. And it's almost like, because that's how I think of with chiropractic care. too, as far as I want people's nervous system to function and adapt to the stressors in life. And so kind of looking at cares versus building up those adaptability reserves. That's kind of like what you did with the yoga as far as like that breath work you built that framework in to where you could always return to that quickly and easily because you were keeping it regular

Unknown 10:32

in your life, you know? Absolutely.

Unknown 10:36

And I love that you talked about your two pregnancies being different as far as when you're pushing being a little bit more fiery and one being a little bit softer, but having that commonality of the breathwork

Unknown 10:47

Yeah, yeah, cuz with my first I was still a personal trainer. I was in the gym, every day, the majority of the day, and I was teaching yoga right after my. The first years after my training, I taught wrong and only strong. I wasn't ready to teach the whole spectrum yet,

Unknown 11:09

because you weren't at that point

Unknown 11:12

yet, you know? Yeah. And so everything about that pregnancy was so strong and so fiery. But I still had the softness and it's so funny because that's my fiery child.

Unknown 11:25

Fire.

Unknown 11:27

And then my younger one, I didn't move my body in terms of lifting. I wasn't running during my second pregnancy. I was well, I guess I was running after a toddler. Yes, a different kind. of running. Yeah. And then so my second daughter she's Yes, she's my little

Unknown 11:47

car and yeah, I don't know if you have class. We have to leave at 530 My body made her feel bad. And I yeah,

Unknown 11:58

I'm now so you said you taught classes through both of your pregnancies.

Unknown 12:05

All the way through with my second pregnancy. I think I gave myself four weeks off. And she came like two days after her due date. So I think I gave myself a month off with her but the first one to 39 weeks and she came at 42. Yeah.

Unknown 12:26

In her own time. Yes. Um, now I do want to chat a little bit with so that's kind of how, you know, looking at how yoga impacted your pregnancies and you were able to keep that movement up. I would say there's something for starting that practice, per like pre consecutively, you know, and I could speak two days on that as well too. You understand? That with chiropractic care as far as like, yes. You know, the earlier, the better, but again, too, I didn't start yoga until I was pregnant. And so in my mind, too, I'm like, Oh, this would have been great to have beforehand, you know, so I was looking at that, but I know that there's that aspect of looking at starting under that yoga aspect pre conceptually trying to maybe shift that in earlier because then you kind of know your body and then as you grow with pregnancy, I think those modifications it comes a little bit easier. I don't know or like you just feel more in tune. I feel like

Unknown 13:33

and that's what I think it is. I always say I think prenatal yoga, whether it's an intro or a reinforcement of self care, that's what yoga can be anyway, so if you're tuning in to how you are before conceiving, then, you're right, you will see all the transitions but even if you permit in in your second third trimester and you're trying to tune in, then you're already switching the brain into paying attention. To feeling differences and being okay with things being different. And you can

Unknown 14:11

connection with your breath. Yeah, yes, absolutely. Yeah. And then as you do those movements, you'd be like, Wow, everything is kind of moving shifted, changing with pregnancy. Um, okay, so did taking yoga. prenatally Do you think that impacted your birth and how do you feel with that? Well, for me, the

Unknown 14:34

funny thing is, is the first one, I said I would never take prenatal I would teach it I was against it. It was just I was in that whole everything has to be pushing yourself mode. And I saw prenatal yoga is soft, which it is not. But that's what I thought my first one, but I did take modifications to my movements. Maybe I could have done more to call on my nervous system a little more at that time. But with the second one, I only did prenatal even my regular vinyasa classes ended up with a lot of prenatal aspects in them for from teaching, and that's all I did in terms of taking care of myself. And in terms of going through pregnancy, I think that I had to work harder in the second pregnancy to tune in because of everything else walking around chasing other kids. Lots of outside noise. Yeah, we were in the lockdown of COVID anymore. For my second one, the world was moving again. And it was just I think I had to work harder to slow down. But yeah, and both in both, I think that prenatal helps, and I didn't know what I was doing in the first pregnancy like many people, yeah, but having the yoga knowledge I was able to tap into some modifications that I later learned. Were support supportive to the prenatal body. So that I think, had a great impact on both pregnancies, and

Unknown 16:22

I was gonna say yeah, and then hopefully impacted those births. And I know your births were probably, I mean each birth is different, you know, but how you focused with that first one, it was a little bit more fiery as far as the classes that you had and I do want to speak to that because I always in the office, a lot of people as far as yoga isn't it's not enough for them, you know, as far as if they've got those fiery tendencies that that hit workout that speed, you know, those type of things. And I always like to say, it's just you got to it's the teacher. It's the style. It's the class like it can be I love a fiery or spicy sometimes I'll say spicy. Like, it can definitely be that way. But then you can feel with your body no prenatal, you can still do some fiery stuff, you know, but it's kind of what your body is craving

Unknown 17:12

for and that's another thing what I learned is real yoga is not soft. Yes, you're teaching yourself to slow down and tune in and a lot of times that is a lot of making yourself slow down. And so that's where it gets that term I just saw. But you you can do so much. The pregnant body is amazing. And especially if you've been doing a lot of stuff that's pushing yourself before you're pregnant. You can keep a lot of that as long as you also add some extra tuning in, I think, extra awareness because you're going through transitions every single

Unknown 17:56

day. Your body is different every single day and it's like that every day for everybody. But I feel like more so with pregnancy because there's Yeah, lots of lots of people changing with your body. Now, let's go into the goals of prenatal and postpartum yoga. I want to touch and you you actually did already speak to some of the certification process for prenatal in that how to be certified. You have to have taught a certain number of pregnant bodies to have all of the certain letters or whatnot. But with those certification classes, tell us does it cover prenatal and then we want to go into postpartum as well too, because there's going to be differences for the postpartum body. So just touch a little bit on those prenatal certifications.

Unknown 18:38

Their prenatal and postpartum the certification to be able to teach is their joint. It's, you're certified for prenatal and postpartum. But then, honestly, what I've seen is it focuses mostly on the prenatal body, not as heavy on the postpartum body. And there there's really continued education where you can dive in deeper into the postpartum body and kind of focus more on it. Luckily, where I got my certification, she was a postpartum Pilates instructor, as well. And so she got to see a lot of that in that felt very supported and being able to deal with postpartum bodies after that specific prenatal training that I took.

Unknown 19:27

Very cool. So I like that that's combined. And I'm glad that they do that, you know, to teach about the postpartum period because that's that what comes that's what comes after the prenatal. I'm so with you and specifically, what are your goals with prenatal yoga? When you're teaching it?

Unknown 19:48

The biggest thing for me is education, and education about what's going on. Just like you do with this podcast and in your office is the more you know, the better you can make a choice. or not you say knowledge is power. And so everything that I do it, I teach it like a class like if I add a movement and I tell you the why we're adding it in. If I hear bodies are feeling certain discomforts and we'll make sure to put them in and I'll voice This is why we're doing it. But also, I like the community that it builds between mothers with me, I can help connect them to other people or even other modalities that they may not have. Heard of, for taking care of their body. So that's my biggest thing is education when I teach and then also, hopefully giving a little bit of self care. Usually if they've showed up to a prenatal class, they're already committed to putting self care into their world. But not always, a lot of times they're there because someone told them to go or whatever. And so hopefully, it's self care for them because self care while you're pregnant is huge. But then once that baby comes and you're giving and giving and giving, you have to set yourself up to receive somewhere and that's hard. If you're a new mom, a new mom have now multiple kids, but it's hard or if you come out when you have that postpartum anxiety or postpartum depression, having these tools in your pocket are so key. And hopefully you can tap into more hopefully it's helped you build the community to reach out where you main goals and then the side effects of pelvic health and joint how and everything like that. That's so good. And that's a lot of what brings people into the class. But my goal as a teacher tends to be heavier. on the education side.

Unknown 22:12

Now and I love the it's like the ripple effect aspect of you know, starting under care and it's kind of that way with a lot of birth workers that maybe are they're not necessarily that primary the OB or the midwife because it's kind of like okay, everybody's they get that they understand that. But there's a ripple of other people that you can include in that and that you have your referral networks and bases as well too. And all of these resources for people that come in to take your classes and so I like that use you see like that now sometimes if they're coming into yoga they may not see like that and be like oh, you know, I really just want to move my body baby position doesn't feel good low back that you know any of those type of things. We think yoga is great, but little do they know it's like haha, you've got you're gonna have this amazing self care you might start to build your community with other moms and then you also have like that referral base network, you know, with your teacher as well, too. So, um, I do want to speak a little bit to the aspect of the benefits of yoga, like structurally as well too, because I already said we're kind of, you know, we're as young as our spine is flexible or as healthy as our spine is flexible. All the joints of the spine have these wonderful Makina receptors that sends all this information back up to the brain. And so sometimes when I'm taking yoga, that's all I can think of, you know, it's just like, oh my gosh, I am just flooding my brain with all of this like good sensory information. I want that sensory information to be correct. So obviously, I want the joints to have been lined up and everything but it's, that's another fun thing to think about, like the actual physiological aspect of how that spinal motion impacts the brain. But then when you partner that with the breath, work and impact on the vagus nerve and impact on the calming presence of the nervous system, like I don't know, it's just really cool.

Unknown 0:00

It is. And even though coming to yoga and we do work on breathwork I'm not a childbirth educator, there's not a specific breath but I teach a lot of different breaths and teach about like not retaining the breath to add stress because retaining the breath is great outside of pregnancy, but in pregnancy, it can add stress because one you don't have as much space and what I learned in my births is that's what I relied on all my yogic breath. That's, that's the thing that I think made my birth 10 times more positive experience and I hope to give even just a window of that to birthing people feel what their breasts can do, and hopefully tap into it in any

Unknown 1:06

exactly and to find the breast that works for them because I taught I did like a little breathwork women's retreat last year and I taught different breathwork exercises to connect with and it was so funny because I have one two that I just don't like, but I'll teach it to people because that's just because I don't like it doesn't mean it doesn't you know someone else does it. But when we would do like the alternate nasal breathing, you know, so opening moments I have people in that class are like, Ah, I don't like that and so like well now you know, right so like, don't go if you notice that that's happening or something with your breath is happening then you know that this doesn't sit well with you. So it's, it's interesting when you tell people Oh, there's different ways to breathe. And then each yoga class is going to have different you know, different ones. I like that. You mentioned the not retaining though, which yes, because there's not a lot of space to this isn't that a lot of space. Now, with postpartum yoga, what is your focus there and how does the class look different or feel different?

Unknown 2:11

So the biggest thing there really is the graph. In a prenatal class I very rarely have the students lying down on their back. That's just not the best position especially for later in pregnancy, but um postpartum that is such a great way to feel your breath because once again, you're that sensory what you're sending is, you're supported by the ground, and you can focus just on your abdomen while it breathes your chest sloth rises and falls. And all of a sudden you have so much more space your body is like what do I do with this and you really kind of do need to relearn how to breathe. That sounds so silly and so simple. But it's it's amazing watching people have it click postpartum Oh, that's what my core is because it's that's the first intro to core work. It's hard. I mean, you can do it right after the baby comes out. Unless you have a C section but if you have an actual birth, you can do it right away. But even a C section you can do it really soon. And that's the first core work you can do because so many people have been in their mind that they want to get their four back. And I did air quotes, but it's your breath and teaching it with the breath and pelvic floor engagement to a postpartum person is getting the whole quarter work versus jumping back into what you want to do, which usually isn't that whole for if it's for exercise. So that's the biggest difference in terms of what I focus on. And then postpartum people are so hard to get back into the class not back into a body or anything like that. But now

Unknown 4:24

that I've done so I just did another podcast on that with the postpartum doula. And we say it's the most vulnerable population is the hardest population to reach.

Unknown 4:34

Yes, it is. And so one thing that I have been trying to develop and it's finally coming to where I am actually able to do this is to go to moms go into their home, let them be there with their baby and let them learn that they can take care of themselves and they can at the same time there because especially for first time moms, there a lot of times your brain is just like exploded with emotion, chaos, Mom Brain everything. And you don't know how to take care of yourself and the kids. So that's what postpartum I want to be like, No, you're still a whole person, even though they lost part of it out of you. You're still a whole person and they are now a whole person.

Unknown 5:27

That huge transformation. Yeah, I am. So I was reading over our notes before we did the show. And I read you wrote, so we have a little outline that we're working off and you wrote creating a space for you to be you alongside your new role of mom and when I read that, like I got chills, and I was like, I'm gonna cry on the show because that's so that's a beautiful way to see and think of postpartum Yoga, you know, and and it really can be though, it can be and it can't be done. It got sometimes two I think with new parenthood, whether it's first second third, it's like oh my gosh, I've added another being here that needs something from me. I you know, I need something I don't know what I need, but it's that can be something that you can do at home. It can be gentle, it doesn't require you to leave necessarily, you know, with what the services that you're able to offer to as far as coming into the home and looking at online things so it can really, it can be done, you know, with baby with the baby, you know, that's what I usually try to tell my mom like do with the baby you know they're doing tummy time they're doing this you're doing tummy time to

Unknown 6:40

what I love being around postpartum moms because then I get the hold of baby sometimes. I love that minor big and run now. Finally baby every now and then. Exactly.

Unknown 6:56

Now, how do you approach yoga in your classes? Kind of specifically, like what? What do your yoga classes look like?

Unknown 7:09

So the biggest thing is I really I'm glad that I my brain allows me to do it this way as I make a plan just based on like maybe what the season is or if I know some of the people who are going to be in my class I can make a loose plan. But once I'm in a room with people, that's when I ask questions about their body. If it's prenatal or postpartum moms, I get to ask more specific questions based on their phase of life right now. And then I can address and that the biggest adjustment that I'll make is like calming or energizing like the energy of the class based on are we moving a little faster? Are we there isn't songs going to be more upbeat? Is that what we need? Or are we on the more restorative and calming side because in my mind for my classes, I always have these equations of how to deal with the body. So I know that no matter what our goal is, I'm going to deal with these joints in this order, in this way and I can do a different pose. Reflection, a different pose for extension, different twisting, like I have it in an order, it's going to be safe for the body. And that allows me to turn to the people who are in my class and be there for them. It's not I'm not getting up there to do a performance where you watch me talk for an hour. Now no, this is if y'all weren't here, then I don't have a job. But also that's what can create the community. Like if you feel seen when you've gone to a class like I know I'm super guilty, I go and hide in the back of the class and don't talk to anyone when I take. But if you do feel seen in a class, that's something that's going to make you come back. That's something that's going to make you ask the question that you're not ready to ask yet or don't even know you have it yet. So that's how I approach I trust myself with the physical body. And over the years of teaching, I trust that I can put together a safe class and I just see who's there and see what

Unknown 9:27

yeah, when and see what energy they're bringing, you know, and then you can kind of base those do we need more fiery, spicy, you know, movements and things are calming and then you can even incorporate you know, aspects of both. So that's really

Unknown 9:46

helped me know which funny Yamas to put in because those are big things that will change the energy of the class like a more energizing breath versus something that's going to be more strong.

Unknown 9:57

Mm hmm, exactly. Um, so what are some of the things you know, what do you hear from folks as far as people that have taken your class like, how they've benefited? What do you what do you hear from them?

Unknown 10:15

The biggest thing that I hear is education. Like I thought like, a couple people have been like, I just thought that that pain was just gonna be there. And I don't claim to make a pain go away, but education of how to tune into your body and how to gently move it to put things back and back in line but to work things out if you haven't honed in on that motion. Yeah so that's the biggest thing is like, I learned this, whether it's and most of the time, I will say it's the physical body because a lot of birthing people, they something comes up in their pregnancy and they're like I've never experienced that before. And so having support that's where I hear it's like I didn't know this could happen and then you helped me learn about it. So that's the main thing I hear. And then the next is going to be that it's all okay. You get so nervous. No matter if it's your first second pregnancy. You get nervous for whatever reasons and being around a group of people who are all having their own challenges being around a teacher who is able to say, Yeah, that's what you're going through, and it's okay. Like, I think that that's so community and education are the two biggest that I see or hear about.

Unknown 11:54

And I would say it's like that body awareness. You know, as far as like and I get what you're saying with that education piece. So not so much like, you know, you took a class and now I know where the piriformis muscle is, you know, yeah, there might be that aspect of like, yeah, that's that deep muscle. You're my butt. That tends to hurt, you know, because that's and that's something that I work in the office do with prenatal care, like that's a it's a specific muscle that can take a beating, but pregnancy so yeah, there can be that awareness, but also, awareness of okay, how does my right side feel versus my left when you're doing certain movements and motions and I can twist more this way and I can not twist as much that way and No, no, it's just a really, I feel like that's a big one. That I noticed a

Unknown 12:37

big thing that I I teach this in all my classes, but in general is we'll do, maybe we do right arm, right leg on the physical body, and we're very heavy on that. And then we'd sit with being imbalanced being not what we consider our normal because our brain tends to just say, oh, that's, that's off balance. That's wrong. We're gonna fix it. But it's okay. And so sitting with that and balance because that's especially going through the actual labor and birth part is, you're not going to you're not supposed to fix what's uncomfortable right then. That's not what you're supposed to do. And so, making starting with something tiny is I moved my right leg and I didn't move my left I'm imbalance. Okay, sit with it. So starting that process of getting the brain to not fix everything, because it's not supposed to for a lot of things,

Unknown 13:39

and to sit there and to see what that feels like. So then when you do practice with that left side, you can be like, Oh, I am aware that this is still off, you know, like, what are some things in ways I can support the body to support that, like, it's it's kind of you almost have to have, that awareness can precede, you know any of those changes? Yeah, you want us to sit with like uncomfortable this Oh, right. But, um, I love that you said Yeah, with even with like birth, you're not supposed to fix what's, you know, uncomfortable. And so it may be it's a little bit of a process of like letting go some of those things. That's a big one. In birth. Yeah. Like when at birth? Yeah, letting go of expectations, letting go of control.

Unknown 14:30

And that's what I say in like the stretches, especially with burpee birthing people, everybody loves pigeon, because it just feels good. It gets that piriformis it gets into areas that are so hid in our hips. Mm hmm. Yeah. And they're so tight and they're holding your body. And then you got that relaxed and that they're like tight and loose, and I don't know what to do. So when people get into a stretch, and I make them hold it with pregnancy, I don't do super long holds. But I challenge people to say to themselves, when their brain says I want to get out of this, just to ask, ask why. And to sit with it versus just jumping out of it. Obviously if you're in a pain that's that's not what we want and

Unknown 15:22

right. What about this is making it uncomfortable? Yeah, and you can pause before that reaction. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Ah, okay. So what our I'm not to go too heavy into specific poses, because obviously, if you're listening to this, you're not watching. So it's gonna be hard to do poses. And even if we do start our little YouTube channel, Julie's not doing yoga right now. So I'm sitting in my closet, she's a classroom. So just what are some of the main modifications that you teach in some of your prenatal classes?

Unknown 16:02

The biggest one, and I do this also non prenatal, but the biggest one for prenatal and even postpartum is move the joint first, before any hold are stretching. Because as everything is moving as relaxin is making it possible for everything to move, jumping straight into a stretch, it's there's so often you're going to compensate for something because you're not you know, joint stack on top or anything like that. So moving the joint helps put things in place but also it helps you study. So like if you're moving your hips in a specific pose, that's like a low lunge and you make big hip circles. That's a big one that I do because it makes you tap into feeling your hip joint, and all of its range of motion. It makes you contract and relax the pelvic floor which is necessary you need both. So moving the joint before I'll hold a pose. That's a big one for prenatal and then you've got so much relaxing in the body. You don't want to do long holds. And then the other thing is transition. Like something in a yoga class like that seems simple or that you do often not pregnant is like stepping foot forward. There so much that can that's a complicated

Unknown 17:46

thing. It is there's a lot of muscle involved in it.

Unknown 17:49

And if you've got a belly in the way it's different, so every transition in a prenatal class, I teach you step by step, there's never set to the front of the map. There's where to put your hands each time where to support yourself through each transition. And one that's for safety and comfort. But to when you're are postpartum and you're swinging a baby carrier around or whatever. If you've already started slowing down and paying attention to your transitions, and a yoga class, hopefully it spreads to other places where you mindfully move through motions for safety, for safety, and that will also help you get your breath and muscles back to a place of support for your body. And then the other thing that is also really fun, is I love doing a wall series you can do most postures with the wall and it takes four folds out which is often not comfortable for pregnant body. It also can take a couple of transitions out of a class to make it simpler so that someone's not get feeling like they're getting up and down and up and down all the time. And so you can even do a Vinyasa on the wall. Whereas I probably wouldn't put a Vinyasa or a belly down vinyasa, the traditional vinyasa that we think of. I wouldn't ask a pregnant body to do that on the floor because it's the plank. It's the push up, but you can do it on the wall and get a lot of the same engagement and you can add balance with it there. So that's a fun thing I like to put into my prenatal classes is wall work. And you their walls everywhere. You can stop and use a wall for a stretch or anything and so that's another tool that they can take out of the classroom versus thinking they have to roll out their mat. Yeah, all these positions. It's like no, just step over to a wall, do a couple of things and move on. Yeah, so those are probably the main modifications I'll do for a prenatal class.

Unknown 20:23

Or prenatal. Yeah. And I know you mentioned a little bit with the postpartum as well too, you know, and like that. Because even you can kind of return back with that Wallwork. I know I did an episode of like, my there's like five things that I do go over with all of my moms, no matter you know, no matter what kind of birth they want to have, no matter what their goals, desires are anything like that. Or what their aches and pains are like why they even came into the office. And one of them I do love is having them like on all fours and cat cow and cat cow changes. You know where you arch the back and then where you let the belly drop down and kind of that movement and flow. That's a great spinal, you know, exercise really helps a baby position though and that's one thing I love about that. But knowing too, that's kind of the same thing with the Forward Fold. It's like cat cow kind of changes and as belly gets big enough it's like why I'm just I'm not cat coward anymore. You know, you're you're kind of just you know, on open doors, but you can do hit swings you can do the wall I know. So I love I love those modifications because you can kind of take that with you.

Unknown 21:33

And I love especially well with anybody but with a pregnant body when that barley is heavy and you're working on a cat cow it's what we're used to hold the corn and or hopefully you might be used to pulling the cord and letting that be the driver but I love doing your driver is your hips. And so it focuses on a little bit of motion in the hips, but also letting that be the source versus trying to use these core muscles that are stretched right now and don't need to be the driver of anything at this point. And then once you get back to postpartum and you're still using the pelvis as a driver of a cat cow, then you start to really feel those full muscles being able to come back and wrap. Even though when I have a prenatal class I feel like I'm always like, how did the baby the baby but using your core muscles, but

Unknown 22:36

right and we should but it's Yeah, I like that you're mentioning that. That's not that core doesn't have to be the driving force for that cow like really? Looking and shifting and changing and then bringing that awareness to like, Okay, if we need to move the hips, how does that feel? Like how do I tell my brain to move the hips? Exactly. That can be difficult. I've had do a lot of foot exercises lately. And I've gotten like all kinds of strengthening things. And now I'm like I can like spread my toes. I feel like a like a yogi. I feel like I have Yogi toes now. Because I feel like that's something to where you get grounded and you really try to feel with each individual toe I showed my my oldest and he was like, how do you do that? Like you need to work on these things because this is really this is really helpful. But it's that focus that intentional. That awareness. I guess you know kind of had to some yoga but to the that little bit that would be that you know I love it. Um, all right, friends. So where can people find you? I know people listen to the show all over and your base kind of in like Metro North Atlanta area. But where can people where can all our local people find you?

Unknown 23:54

So luckily, the main studio that I teach out of is on the square in Marietta called be yoga. And I teach prenatal class there but I also teach regular vinyasa classes there and which is nice because since there are not many in person classes in our area having a teacher teach both there. I get pregnant bodies in my regular classes. And I love that I get postpartum bodies in my regular regular classes and I know that they are saved there but I also have a specific prenatal to give me information to give the community and then like I said, I'm working on being able to do privates and especially for postpartum come into that house. And so the easiest way to find me is J. Hawk yoga on Instagram. And that's going to have my classes and my information and contact.

Unknown 25:01

Yes, we'll link all that in the show notes too when we do this, and then I'll definitely link to be yoga as well. I've taken yoga there. In fact, there was I took classes there when I was pregnant. I don't know which kid this was. So it was either 14 2014 and 10 years ago. And I think the lady up dog smoothie now is her name Amy. Yes. Okay.

Unknown 25:34

Does she teach Pilates? So she teaches Pilates the old owner of God used to teach the prenatal

Unknown 25:41

Okay, so I don't know that I took the prenup, but I know I remember me specifically with the Pilates class. And so I maybe either took it postpartum maybe I wasn't I know I took some pregnant classes there but she had this hip series that I learned in her class and that I still do to this day like as a runner and it is the most amazing thing. So I love all of my I love be yoga. That's a wonderful yoga studio. I love all the information that you shared today. This was so good, so many good little nuggets. I took a lot of notes and so I have all these little quotes from it everything but I think it's a beautiful thing to add into your prenatal journey and your journey into parenthood and becoming an adjusting to this new identity as well and so little did people know that that's what they were going to hear in the show. That's how they're probably going to hear like, oh, do these movements and do this but it's more it's more than that. It's more, it's so much more. I know I love it. So thank you so much, Julie for being on the show today. So again, thanks for listening, everyone. Stay tuned. Every Wednesday we have a new show drop. Be sure to leave your reviews, and share our episodes with all of the birthing world and those friends and family that you have. Thanks again for tuning in.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai