Practising yoga during pregnancy can be beneficial for both, your body and your mind. It offers gentle stretches, relaxation, and strength-building that prepare the mother for birth.

Certain poses and movements, however, must be modified, or avoided altogether to ensure safety and comfort. Here is a trimester-by-trimester guide to safe and supportive yoga poses during pregnancy.

First Trimester: Building Strength and Releasing Tension

In the first trimester, you can maintain your usual physical activity, you make minor modifications for safety. Focus on strength-building poses to support your back and hops and avoid any fast or intense movements.

Head-to-Knee Forward Bend

Sit on a cushion or folded blanket with your left leg extended

Place the sole of your left foot against your inner right thigh

Inhale as you reach your arms overhead, then exhale to fold forward gently

Hold for up to one minute, then switch sides

Modification Tip: Place a cushion under your knee for support and use a strap around the ball of your foot to ease the stretch.

Cat-Cow Pose

Begin on all four limbs

Inhale as you arch your spine, lower your belly and look up

Exhale as you round your spine, tuck your chin to your chest

Repeat for up to one minute

Second Trimester: Embracing Flexibility With Caution

The hormone relaxin in this period increases flexibility by loosening ligaments. During this period, it is best to avoid deep twists, intense backbends or hot yoga.

Bound Angle Pose

Sit on the edge of a cushion, and press the soles of your feet together

Bring your feet in toward your hips to deepen the stretch

Hold this position for up to one minute, and repeat it 2 to 4 times

Modification Tip: Place a cushion under your knees for added support, or recline back on a cushion to reduce pressure on the spine.

Child's Pose

Start on all four limbs, bring your big toes together and spread your knees wide

Lower your hips back onto your heels and reach your arms forward

Hold for up to one minute, breathing deeply

Third Trimester: Moving Mindfully

As the baby grows, it might be more challenging to move with ease, thus practising mindful movements with breaks as needed could avoid intense twists.

Warrior II Pose

Step your left foot back, aligning it with your right heel

Open your hips to face the side and raise your arms parallel to the floor

Bend your front knee, making sure it stays aligned over your ankle

Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides

Modification Tip: Perform this pose next to a wall for support, or place a chair under your front thigh for added stability.

Easy Pose

Sit on a cushion, crossing one leg over the other

Place your hands in a comfortable position and close your eyes, breathing deeply

Hold for up to one minute, then switch leg positions

Modification Tip: Use cushions under your knees or sit with your back against a wall for extra support.

Disclaimer: This is not a medical advisory, to ensure complete safety while practising yoga during pregnancy, please consult your doctor and trainer.

You use your chest muscles, or pecs, all the time—when you push a door, lift a child, or even just sit up straight. They're a key part of your upper body strength. By exercising your chest regularly, you're not just building a stronger, more defined chest. You're also improving your posture and making everyday tasks feel easier. It's a crucial part of any good fitness routine.

What Are Lower Chest Exercises?

Your chest muscles, or pecs, are made of two main muscles. The pectoralis major is the large, fan-shaped muscle that gives your chest its overall look and helps you move your arms. The smaller pectoralis minor is located underneath it. While many exercises work your entire chest, you can adjust some to focus specifically on the lower part of your pecs. For a well-rounded routine, try to do strength-building exercises at least two days a week.

Incline Pushups

This exercise uses a bench to focus your pushups on the lower chest. Stand facing the bench, place your hands on the edge, and get into a straight plank position. Lower your chest toward the bench and push back up. Do 8-12 repetitions per set.

Decline Dumbbell Press

Using a decline bench, this exercise targets your lower chest. Lie on the bench holding dumbbells, and press them up from your chest to a 90-degree angle. Lower them slowly, then push back up while squeezing your chest muscles. Do 8-12 repetitions per set.

Decline Dumbbell Press with Rotation

This variation adds a twist to the decline press. Lie on the bench holding dumbbells. As you push the weights up, rotate your wrists so your palms face away from you. Slowly lower the weights and rotate your wrists back to the start. Do 8-12 repetitions per set.

Decline Pushups

This exercise is like a regular pushup, but you raise your feet to put more focus on your lower chest. Place your feet on a bench or box and your hands on the floor. Lower your body, then push back up. Do 8-12 repetitions per set.

High-to-Low Cable Fly

This cable machine exercise specifically targets the lower chest. Set the cables high, grab a handle in each hand, and step forward. With a slight bend in your elbows, bring your hands down and across your body in a wide arc. Do 8-12 repetitions per set.

Dumbbell Pullover

This move works your entire chest, including the lower part, with a good stretch. Lie on a bench with one dumbbell held over your chest. Slowly lower the weight in an arc behind your head, then pull it back up to the starting position. Do 8-12 repetitions per set.

Cable Crossover

A cable machine is great for working the lower chest. Set the pulleys high, grab the handles, and step forward. With a slight bend in your elbows, bring your hands together in front of you, squeezing your chest. Slowly return to the starting position. Do 8-12 repetitions per set.

Parallel-Bar Dips (Chest Dips)

This exercise works many muscles, but leaning forward puts the focus on your lower chest. Grip the bars and push yourself up. Slowly lower your body by bending your arms until you feel a stretch, then push back up. Do as many as you can with good form.

Walk into any major city gym today, and you’ll hear it in the buzz: “HYROX ready.” It’s not just a fitness sprint—it’s a culture shift. What started in Germany in 2017 as a geeky concept for “everyday exercisers alongside elite athletes” has rapidly become a global force (with over 650,000 competitors worldwide in 2024). So, what’s driving people out of their usual classes and across the finish line of a fitness race that demands as much grit as a mini-triathlon?

HYROX bridges two worlds- the clarity of a structured endurance event and the grit of functional strength training. Participants complete eight 1-kilometer runs—interspersed with ski ergs, sled pushes and pulls, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmer’s carries, sandbag lunges, and wall balls. It’s measurable, repeatable, and inclusive—and that formula is winning hearts.

Born in Germany in late 2017, HYROX emerged from a simple yet bold idea: create a fitness competition that anyone—from the everyday exerciser to the elite athlete—could tackle. Founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste designed an event balancing accessibility with athletic rigor. They intentionally eliminated high-skill or high-risk movements like box jumps or monkey bars, choosing exercises rooted in natural human movement. The result: a standardized format—eight functional stations broken up by one-kilometer runs—held indoors, globally consistent, and universally fair.

In a world of fitness-at-the-fringes where “functional fitness” isechoed on TikTok and in diets—HYROX fills a need. It’s not about sculpted muscles or Instagram-worthy yoga poses. It’s about real-world physicality: pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying—then running. Fitness expert and Leading Indian Triathlete Deepak Raj, captures it, “HYROX is the World Series of Fitness… combining functional strength and cardiovascular endurance”. No wonder gym floors are buzzing with “finishers’ patches” and talk of “my next HYROX.”

That desire for holistic fitness is more than vanity it’s about confidence in everyday strength. If you can run 8 km, push a sled, lift a sandbag—and keep going you’ll feel it in your bones.

A standard HYROX race alternates physical tasks with running, validating both power and endurance. Each athlete covers:

1. 1 km run
2. 1,000 m Ski Erg (upper body and core)
3. 1 km run
4. 50 m sled push, followed by sled pull
5. 1 km run
6. 80 m burpee broad jumps
7. 1 km run
8. 1,000 m rowing
9. 1 k
10. 200 m farmer’s carry
11. 1 km run
12. 100 m sandbag lunges
13. 1 km run
14. 100 wall balls to finish

Competitive divisions- Open or Pro, Singles, Pairs, or Relay—cater to all fitness levels. The average finisher clocks around 90 minutes; elite athletes break 60 minutes, with world records just dipping into the 50-minute range.

What’s Fueling the HYROX Boom?

Participants no longer chase only aesthetics. Functional strength—lifting, carrying, running—is today’s measure of fitness. HYROX provides that holistic test in a tangible package. Race day gives meaning to hours in the gym. It’s a finish line against your own potential or against global peers.

With standardized format and inclusive categories, HYROX strips away elitist barriers and invests in community support—solidarity through struggle. COVID taught us that wellness needs structure and connection. HYROX provides both in one race—physical demand paired with social engagement. Certified coaches, programming apps, and recovering protocols make training smart and safe. Whether tackling a sled or pacing your fifth kilometer, expert guidance keeps participants moving confidently.

If you scroll through Hyrox’s global social feed, you’ll see 75-year-olds crossing finish lines side by side with 25-year-olds.

1. The Desire for Holistic Fitness

More people want to be not just lean or muscular, but truly “fit for life.” HYROX’s hybrid format pushes participants to build strength, endurance, mobility, and mental resilience, fostering functional fitness that translates to everyday energy and confidence.

2. The Power of “Event Motivation”

Goal-oriented training is a proven driver of consistency. With HYROX setting tangible targets, whether finishing, setting a personal best, or qualifying for the World Championship, enthusiasts of all ages are finding newfound motivation to show up, train smart, and push their own boundaries.

3. Accessibility and Community

Unlike ultra-endurance or niche sport events, HYROX is designed for all fitness levels. Its team, doubles, and mixed relay formats encourage friends, families, and coworkers to participate together, breaking down barriers and building thriving, supportive communities both online and offline.

4. Post-pandemic Wellness Shift

The pandemic reinforced health as a daily priority. Indians, especially urban professionals are investing more in preventative wellness, looking for platforms like HYROX that offer both structured challenge and supportive social engagement.

5. Expert-Led Training Ecosystem

With certified trainers, nutrition experts, and digital guidance widely available, aspiring participants feel empowered to safely prepare for their first (or fastest) HYROX. This ecosystem created by Hyrox India demystifies the process, minimizes injury risk, and maximizes result-driven training.

Those who train for HYROX don’t just lean up—they gain lung capacity, metabolic strength, mental grit, and a community that applauds finishing over fancy. As Deepak who has ran the IRONMAN competition puts it, “‘HYROX ready’ signifies more than fitness. It reflects personal growth through sport, functional ability, and achievement with others”.

Let’s say you sign up for a race with your friends. You train together, share meals and regrets and splits. On race day, the music blares like a mini-rave, volunteers chant your name, and strangers cheer you on. You cross the line, sweaty and spent—and you’re welcomed like you’ve returned home.

What Does “HYROX Ready” Mean for Health?

Mr Deepak adds, "HYROX has started a fitness movement and the buzz around being HYROX Ready reflects a meaningful movement, one where fitness is not a fad, but a lifestyle. It signifies the value Indians now place on functional ability, community achievement, and personal growth through sport. As more people embrace HYROX, we see a positive ripple effect: healthier hearts, stronger bodies, sharper minds, and a sense of belonging. If the current momentum is any indication, “HYROX ready” will soon become shorthand for holistic, all-round fitness, setting a new benchmark for people's health journey and Hyrox becoming a big fitness event”

Fitness is no longer about chasing Instagram angles. It’s about chasing health, connection, and purpose and HYROX offers all three. You are training for life, with markers, support, and challenge that demand more than a T-shirt and squat rack allows.

Deepak Raj, fitness expert, Leading Indian Triathlete, IRONMAN 70.3 Goa and CEO, Yoska, Country Head and Race Director at HYROX India

Just one bout of physical activity, specifically resistance training or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may trigger a measurable anti-cancer response in the body. That’s not wishful thinking. It’s the takeaway from a compelling new study by researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia, who found that a single workout could slow the growth of cancer cells by as much as 30%.

While exercise has long been considered a complementary therapy in cancer care, this study sharpens the focus. It suggests that even short-term, intentional movement could offer physiological benefits for breast cancer survivors at the cellular level. And that’s a big deal.

Led by PhD researcher Francesco Bettariga, the ECU study explored how exercise impacts breast cancer survivors not just in the long term, but immediately. The team zeroed in on myokines, which are proteins secreted by muscles during exercise. Myokines are emerging as powerful players in the body’s defense system, with proven anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects.

Participants in the study—all breast cancer survivors underwent either a single session of resistance training or HIIT. Researchers then measured their blood before, immediately after, and 30 minutes post-exercise. The results showed a clear and consistent increase in myokine levels across both workout formats.

This spike wasn’t just theoretical. Bettariga’s lab data indicated that these boosted myokine levels could reduce the rate of cancer cell growth by 20–30%, after just one session.

Why It Is More Important for Breast Cancer Survivors?

We already know that cancer—and the treatments used to fight it—can wreak havoc on the body’s immune system and metabolism. Fatigue, inflammation, muscle loss, and long-term damage to cellular function are all common side effects. That’s part of what makes this study so significant: it demonstrates that even bodies under considerable strain from cancer treatment can still mount a biological defense through exercise.

“The results from the study show that both types of exercise really work to produce these anti-cancer myokines in breast cancer survivors,” Bettariga noted. “The implications are powerful—this is strong motivation to integrate exercise into cancer care.”

What’s unique here is the immediacy. Most studies emphasize the long-term benefits of exercise over weeks or months. This one highlights a biochemical response that kicks in within minutes.

Link Between Inflammation And Body Composition?

Beyond myokines, the study also looked into another critical component of cancer recurrence: inflammation.

Persistent inflammation plays a major role in tumor progression. It promotes the survival and spread of cancer cells and suppresses the immune response, making it harder for the body to fight back. Worse, both cancer and its treatments can increase inflammatory biomarkers in the bloodstream.

According to Bettariga’s extended research, the answer lies in body composition—specifically, reducing fat mass and increasing lean muscle through consistent exercise.

“Strategies are needed to reduce inflammation,” he said, “which may provide a less supportive environment for cancer progression, leading to a lower risk of recurrence and mortality in survivors of breast cancer.”

Building lean muscle through resistance or interval training doesn’t just make you stronger. It could actually help change the biochemical environment of your body to be less hospitable to cancer cells.

Why Diet Alone Isn’t Enough?

The study also underscores an important caveat: quick-fix weight loss strategies don’t deliver the same benefits. In fact, losing weight without preserving or building muscle may do more harm than good.

“You never want to reduce your weight without exercising,” Bettariga cautioned. “You need to build or preserve muscle mass and produce these beneficial chemicals—like myokines—that you can’t get through diet alone.”

That means crash diets, juice cleanses, or calorie-cutting without movement won’t contribute meaningfully to the anti-inflammatory or anti-cancer response. The muscle is the medicine in this case—and it has to be activated.

How to Add HIIT or Resistance Training into Your Routine?

If this all sounds powerful but overwhelming, start simple. The study wasn’t testing elite athletes. It was studying real breast cancer survivors, many of whom were new to structured exercise routines. For resistance training: Think compound movements that target large muscle groups—like squats, lunges, push-ups, or lifting light weights. You don’t need a gym or equipment to start. Even bodyweight training done consistently can build lean mass.

For HIIT, try alternating 30 seconds of high-effort movement (like jumping jacks, stair climbs, or brisk uphill walking) with 1–2 minutes of slower recovery. Repeat the cycle for 15–20 minutes.

The key isn’t the duration, it’s the intensity and consistency. According to Bettariga’s findings, even one session is enough to jumpstart the body’s internal defense mechanisms.

Can This Improve Future of Cancer Care?

There’s a growing shift in how we view recovery and survivorship. No longer is exercise considered a “bonus” or “optional.” Increasingly, it’s being recognized as a core component of medical care—one that can potentially alter the trajectory of disease, especially in cancers with high recurrence rates like breast cancer.

While more research is needed to explore the long-term implications of myokine production and its effect on cancer recurrence, the current data is promising. At a time when many cancer survivors are looking for ways to reclaim control over their bodies, this study offers something rare: a simple, immediate action that can make a real difference.