21. Minimum Viable Yoga
Hey Everyone,
This is a little embarrassing to admit to a nationwide audience, but until recently, my on-the-mat yoga practice was left on the backburner for awhile since having my son. Can you relate?
Even though I had relied on yoga for my overall health for years, having a baby during a global pandemic really changed how I went about my practice, and when I could do it. From sweaty classes with friends, followed by green drinks and catching up, the year 2020 saw my yoga life go from very social to more internally-focused.
My son’s time in the womb was full of vibrating mantras and as much prenatal yoga as my SI joint pain would allow. After his arrival, taking care of him became my yoga practice. His fussing was my reminder to breathe. Holding his newborn body while doing things one-handed around the house was my core strengthening. Gazing into his eyes as he breastfed was like meditating on the divine.
Because the essence of yoga is oneness, the early postpartum period felt very yogic to me.
As I bonded with Bodhi, I reserved physical activity for meeting the basic needs of food, hydration, sleep, and maintaining a functional home in which to raise our child.
After the first couple of months of getting our bearings as new parents, I was so ready to move my body with both hands free again.
On mornings when Bodhi slept on my husband’s chest while he played Zelda on his Nintendo Switch, I’d join an online class with one of my favorite teachers ever, yoga therapist Monique Lonner, of the Soul of Yoga Institute.
Because the classes were 75 minutes long, which was too long for me to do more than once every couple weeks, I started exploring what I call “minimal viable yoga.”
This concept came to me while I was training to become a yoga therapist, and learned about the minimum effective dosage used in medicine.
In the yogic sense, this is like the minimum amount of time and energy spent practicing yoga that supports your general well-being, and any specific goals you have, like healing a diastasis, or resolving upper back pain for example.
Because yoga can be approached as a therapeutic practice, you can dial it into exactly what you need. This often looks like practicing a short set of yoga postures that are specific to you and your body’s needs, making progress with that through repeated practice, and then introducing more or different poses, breathing techniques, or relaxation methods that keep you healthier overall, make symptoms more manageable and help you enjoy your life, even through hardships.
Whether you’re after a pelvic floor that doesn’t leak when you laugh, or to stay afloat after experiencing a loss, a minimum viable yoga practice can support you when time and energy are scarce as you raise a family.
Welcome to Yoga for Mom-Life. I’m Susana Jones, and I help Moms who struggle to keep a healthy routine in early motherhood. With simple, impactful yoga that complements milestones in your child’s development, you both get to be the change you wish to see in the world.
Build positive MOMentum today at YogaforMomLife.com.
OK, so because “minimum viable yoga” has roots in a healing system, we’re going to get a teeny bit scientific, and approach the yoga mat like a laboratory of sorts. Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews, who authored Yoga Anatomy (2012, p. xi) first brought to my attention the parallel between empirical study and yoga practice, as I was preparing to teach my first class of yoga teachers-in-training:
To “experiment” with yoga is to experience it, so observing our process before, during, and after a yoga practice is an empirical endeavor of sorts, where the sample size is 1. You. And you matter, a lot.
The empirical nature of yoga, meditation etc, is a concept shared among present-day scholars like Ken Wilber who seek to integrate eastern traditions like Yoga and Buddhism with western science (Wilber et al., 2008, pp. 1-2).
Their insights, combined with the need for a nourishing routine that works in the lives of Moms raising young kids is the focus of my Master’s thesis in Integral Health, which I’m due to complete in June. After that, we party.
So that’s the framework, and the ultimate goal.
Unlike just about every other kind of experiment, all you really need for this one is a pulse and about 25 sq. feet in which to practice yoga.
But, because it’s January, you probably have a fresh notebook or planner of sorts for the year ahead. Use this to jot down observations of yourself before, during, and after yoga.
If that’s too much ‘cause you’re barely hanging on, a pulse and a yoga mat are sufficient.
Either way, you’ll be taking note of what changes during and after doing a bit of yoga. Why? So you can see how that particular practice changed things in some way - for your body, your mental state, your emotions, or your sense of connection with the universe - Whatever yoga is about for you, you’ll know how that particular yoga session may have contributed to that.
This is useful, because every yoga technique you learn, whether it’s a pose, or breath-related, is a tool that once learned, you get to keep for the rest of your life. And knowing what it’s useful for, and practicing using it is what your partner may be doing out in the garage anyway, so you might as well do some of that for yourself, too ;)
So, a pulse, and a mat, a little know-how, and some repeated practice. That’s what forms the basis of a life-giving routine for a time of life with kids that doesn’t offer many breaks.
On the know-how side of things, a great way to try out some minimum viable yoga is thru my on-demand library, which is available as a quarterly membership. The practices are between 5-30 minutes long, and I created each one to fit into the contours of life as a Mom, which doesn’t always give us a perfect space, and a huge stretch of time in which to do real self-care.
For this reason, I film some yoga sessions next to the bed, like my Evening Decompression, which is 10 minutes long, and savasana, where you lie down at the end, happens as you hit the sack for a well-deserved night of sleep.
Even if that sleep happens in three hour segments, as it does in the early days after childbirth, at least you will have had the chance to de-stress your body and mind, which helps the sleep you do get be that much more restorative.
Other practices, like Yoga Nidra, and Alternate Nostril breathing, I show from a couch, and a bench, like the places that are actually part of your daily life.
‘Cause as wonderful and enriching it is to join a 60 minute class in a peaceful studio with others, life doesn’t always make that possible.
Meanwhile, the aching back, irritability, and tiredness tell us that we need yoga sooner than later. And Yoga specifically because it addresses the entire physical system as well as the mind and spirit. The breath is the special ingredient in yoga, and the way it ties into the practice makes it super effective and transformational.
And because we, as Moms, have a great need for effective self-care, and not a lot of support in fulfilling that need, the comprehensiveness and therefore the efficiency of yoga is key for us.
Even for moms who do other forms of exercise. I ride Peloton, I take PVOLVE classes, I chase my kid til I’m out of breath. Still, the inward-focus of yoga, and the way it uses the breath to massage my organs, and glands, and muscles, and how it coaxes my nervous system into a more balanced, flexible state is something I cannot get in any other form of exercise.
Working out is great. I don’t feel my best without it. But working in is essential as well, especially as we process and navigate the complex changes that are happening for us as moms, and how those changes interface with our children’s developmental stages.
Now, on the practical level, as long as you’re not super hungry or insanely tired, you can do yoga any time. If you are super hungry, eat a meal instead, and if you are insanely tired, take a nap instead. Seriously. The point of yoga is to nourish you, not deplete you.
And if that means that yoga stays on the backburner in 2025 while you get used to sitting down for meals, and resting when you are tired, that would be a huge win, and a great foundation for having more yoga in your life.
OK, but assuming you’re eating and sleeping - which are victories unto themselves when you’re raising small children - your “minimum viable yoga” will depend on what you observe about yourself before, during, and after practice.
I suggest playing around with 10 or 20 minute practices. If you’re one of my Replenish & Thrive members, you know those are a tap away on your home screen. If you’ve found a teacher you like elsewhere on the internet, stick with them for a bit.
In other words, don’t overcomplicate things by scrolling through YouTube to check out every yoga teacher online. That will devour the small amount of time and attention you have for actually doing the yoga that actually supports you on all levels. So don’t let the internet get the best of your intentions.
Wherever you get your instruction, or maybe you open up your yoga teacher training materials from me back in the day - those were fun - think less is more.
You heard it, do less yoga, with more awareness. Note how you’re feeling - physically, mentally, emotionally or energetically before yoga. Notice your experience during yoga. And observe yourself after.
If there’s a chief complaint that prompts you to get on the mat one day, rate it’s severity on a 1-10 scale. For example, if you’re feeling some anxiety, you’d check in, measure how anxious you feel and jot down something like,
“I feel anxious at a 6 out of 10 scale before yoga.” Do your practice, staying self-aware. Complete the practice, and then rate it again, making a note such as “after yoga, I feel anxious at a 2 out of 10.”
Now, because 6-2 = 4, you will have observed a 40% reduction in anxiety as a result of your yoga practice.
I learned this rating system for before and after healing practices from Bret Mosher, a Doctor of Chinese Medicine. He said it’s one of the most important things to share with clients because it helps them quantify the benefits they perceive from a treatment. And your experience matters.
Yoga is a form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, so this framework is useful to anyone practicing it, for any reason.
Now, just to see if maybe I had come up with the idea of “minimal viable yoga,”
I found Claire Mulvaney’s article on TeachYoga, in which she writes about “minimum Viable Commitment” for yoga practice. It’s is linked in my show notes.
I’m honored to add to Claire’s insight with the casual-empirical approach I’ve described, and gauging the changes we experience based on what we observe before, during, and after yoga.
I also found a journal article by a researcher in India (Narayanan, 2024) who explored the potential of AI to generate individualized, therapeutic yoga recommendations that serve as the minimum viable “dose” if you will, of patient-specific yoga to improve health outcomes. So, I’ll be staying on top of that.
And speaking of other thought leaders in this space, many of whom I’ve referenced in this week’s episode, is there a guest that you would like me to bring onto this show? I LOVE talking to people I don’t know.
Founders, researchers, therapists, doctors, advocates, philanthropists, and generally people who get it. If they’ve had a child and work on behalf of maternal well-being, I want to talk with them. Send them the contact page of my pretty new website at YogaforMomLife.com.
And thank you!
For all us moms out there doing our best to cover the bases and be a bit of the change we wish to see in the world, anything that gives back to us, more than it takes, is where it’s at.
Thank you for tuning in and sharing this show with the Moms you love and admire. I’m lining up some great guests for the year ahead, dreaming BIG and enjoying the ride. Reach out with any questions you might have, and if you’re ready to make yoga a bigger part of your 2025, sign up today, and you’ll feel like a yoga goddess, even in your mom uniform.
It’s Yoga for Mom-Life, and it’s about time.
References
Kaminoff, L., Matthews, A. (2012). Yoga anatomy (2nd ed.). Human Kinetics. xi.
Narayanan, M. M. (2024). Yoga AI - Integrating artificial intelligence with yoga and therapy for personalized healthcare. Innovative Publication, 11(2), 68-70. https://doi.org/10.18231/j.agems.2024.015
Wilber, K., Patten, T., Leonard, A., et al. (2008). Integral life practice: A 21st-Century blueprint for physical health, emotional balance, mental clarity, and spiritual awakening. Integral Books.
