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yoga for women

Books Postpartum Pregnancy/Parenting Notes Wellness

On the Asceticism of Motherhood: Agi Wittich

July 12, 2025
Yoga Readers Book Club reading Geeta Iyengar’s Yoga: A Gem for Women

How I Found Agi Wittich

I first came across Agi Wittich and her work on Facebook. I saw a post about ‘Yoga Readers‘ — an online book club that reads and discusses books on yoga. Agi is unique in that she brings structure and academic rigor to reading yoga, a direct result of her extensive work in academia. In a world where yoga is a popular buzzword and just about everyone claims to be a teacher or expert, I find her approach refreshing—it compels me to think about my postpartum yoga practice and what it means to me as a woman, mother and yoga teacher.

It was in one of these meetings that Agi said, “As a woman, I’m in postpartum until I’m in another phase of a woman’s life.” As someone who had crossed the one-year postpartum mark, I was intrigued by this statement. It made me question the idea of ‘normal’ that women in postpartum often think about. I often wonder if I’m irrevocably changed and should put the past version of me to rest. I decided to ask Agi to speak with me about her experience and thoughts on motherhood and postpartum as a yoga teacher. I was sure that, just like her book club meetings, our conversation would also be remarkable and insightful.

Yoga as a Tool for Postpartum Presence

Agi’s statement stems from her study of Yoga: A Gem for Women, Geeta Iyengar’s seminal book — the first book to focus on yoga primarily for women. In the book, Geeta details how yoga can benefit women in different phases of life (menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause) and provides detailed yoga sequences for each phase, including postpartum yoga practice. She speaks from a point of kindness and compassion for a woman’s changing body, focusing on nurturing women through these phases for long-term health and happiness. I love what this means for the yoga practice — that it’s not a static sequence of asanas that limbs execute day after day. Rather, it’s a practice that curves and bends and twists with us as we navigate what it means to live and breathe and interact with the world, and have a body that is receptive to life.

That our practice serves our bodies and not the other way around.

The Asceticism of Motherhood

Agi also put into words an experience me and other mothers know intimately – the ‘asceticism’ of motherhood. As our babies start to explore the world, they grab and pull at our earrings, our hair, our jewellery, and our clothes. Mothers find themselves removing anything that ‘gets in the way’ (of our babies, but also our lives). This process of shedding the unnecessary goes beyond just the physical and also reflects in out emotional landscape — we let go of relationships, thought patterns, even just things that can no longer be adjusted to the complexity of our new lives. (Postpartum is often about reassessing and then reclaiming these things — perhaps discarding them was a momentary need and they are useful after all.) In a strange way, this act of asceticism helped me assert myself  — I would take for myself what served me and leave the rest to its destiny.

Why These Conversations Matter

My conversation with Agi helped me see my postpartum phase not as a recovery period, but as a lived, ongoing practice in its own right. Motherhood—like yoga—needs presence, flexibility, and a willingness to keep evolving. The postpartum phase doesn’t have a fixed end point, it’s a stop on the journey. These conversations help me approach this phase without losing myself, and that’s why I share them—because if listening to others helps me, then it might help you too.

Agi Wittich and postpartum yoga practice.

Agi Wittich and postpartum yoga practice.

I recently also had a conversation with Ashtanga yoga teacher Mariela Cruz about her experience with motherhood and yoga. You can read it here.

Yoga

For All You Goddesses…

March 8, 2016

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And the last pose for this series is, befittingly, the Goddess Pose.  The Sanskrit word for this one is Utkata Konasana (I did have to look this up).  Of all the hip openers in this series, this one is the most intense.  The simultaneous movement of  opening up the hips and sinking the hips down to the floor ensures that the stretch is deep and intense.  Reaching up with the arms also helps in opening up the chest to enable better breathing.

Benefits:

  • Great stretch for the hips and the groin.
  • Strengthens the core.
  • Holding for long periods will help in strengthening the legs
  • Opens up the shoulders and chest and makes you feel like a Goddess.
  • Helps in preparing the body for childbirth so can be done by pregnant women all the way to the end of the pregnancy.
Those of you with stiff ankles, hip and knee joints will face some discomfort when practicing this pose.  My suggestion is to use blocks or roll up blankets and place them under your ankles.  This will give you a stronger stance.  Gradually you will be able to do this pose without the help of props.
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Yoga

Pose #5 for Women – Setu Bandhasana

March 5, 2016

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I remember when I first started practicing yoga, the Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose) used to be my least favourite pose.  It felt really uncomfortable and even gave me a back ache sometimes.  I put it down to being overweight.  I thought that because I was heavy, my hands were unable to support the weight of my lower body.   Of course now I know better.  And now I come across so many people who don’t!  So many people tell me that their arms are not strong enough or their thighs/hips/butt are/is too big/heavy which prevents them from doing this pose well.  Study your technique.  The key to any yogasana lies in the technique.  Study your technique.

Benefits of the Setubandhasana:

  • Stretches the chest, neck, and spine
  • Strengthens the core muscles and the legs.
  • Enables blood flow to the brain and this helps in reducing stress and bringing about a feeling of rejuvenation and wellbeing.
  • Provides an excellent massage to the abdominal organs.
  • Massages the Thyroid gland.
  • Helps in reducing discomfort during
  • Reduces discomfort and pain during menstruation.

To avoid making the mistakes I did when practicing this asana remember to:

  • Evenly distribute your weight on the soles of your feet.
  • Push your soles into the floor evenly.
  • Engage the thighs and the core muscles.
  • Roll your shoulders back and away from your ears.
  • Using your legs push your chest closer to the chin.
  • Keep the back of your neck long and pushed against the floor.

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