Photos by Eloi Scarva
Everywhere you go these days, you’re likely to see someone walking around with a yoga mat, on their way to or from a class. And quite often, that person is young, fit, healthy and beautiful. But what if you don’t feel like you fit this stereotypical look. Do you really think you can make yoga a part of your life? Surely you’re too old and too inflexible right? Absolutely not, says local yoga instructor Margarida Luz.
“Yoga is for everyone at every stage of life, but many people don’t feel comfortable going to a commercial yoga studio,” says Margarida, “I want to help people who think that yoga is not for them, who say to themselves “I’m too old for yoga. I’m too stiff for yoga and my mobility is limited.” Yoga is exactly for these kinds of people, not just for flexible beautiful young ladies. This is a stigma that social media is creating. I want to contribute to society by making yoga accessible to people who feel excluded.”
A certified yoga instructor for more than nine years, Margarida specialises in teaching yoga to the elderly and to pregnant women, and even women going through menopause.
“I’m in menopause myself, and I’ve been using yoga to address many of the symptoms, to strengthen my body and to help my mental health. Of course, I still teach group classes in studios, but more and more my work is focused on helping people to use yoga to become healthier at all stages of life.”
Observing that pregnant women did not have many options for learning yoga in Macau, in 2019, Margarida trained to receive her certification as a pre-natal and post-natal yoga instructor.
“You need special certification because you need to understand the anatomy and physiology of pregnancy to create a safe space for pregnant ladies do yoga,” she explains.
As she began teaching prenatal yoga, Margarida came to the realisation that in the past, women were more able to follow closely the development of their pregnancies, and also they had more support from other women in the family: grandmothers, mothers and aunts, to share their experiences of prenatal care and childbirth as a common part of domestic culture.
“I was not only helping pregnant ladies to move their bodies more during pregnancy, but also I was helping them to prepare for labour, to understand their bodies and enable their babies to turn into the optimal foetal position,” Margarida comments.
“Nowadays, people are too busy and pregnant women often work until almost the day they give birth. They only stop working the day that they go to the delivery room and so they have no time to dedicate special attention to the significant changes their bodies are going through during pregnancy, and they generally do not have a voice when they go into labour. They just go to the hospital without a birthing plan and the maternity staff decide how their birth experience unfolds. And of course, there is a factor of fear there when you don’t understand what’s going on with your body and how labour works,” she adds.
“So now I try to help women better understand how they can navigate their pregnancy and labour in a good way and in a way that is easier for them and for the baby.”
Margarida acknowledges that she had quite a traumatic experience when giving birth to her son many years ago, and this also motivates her to want to help pregnant women through yoga. Given the possible risks in the first trimester, she generally only teaches women once they have reached the second and third trimesters.
“After 14 weeks is the best time to start because the foetus is small, but fully formed. There are still some positions that pregnant ladies cannot do like deep twists and forward folding, or having their belly pressed on the ground, so I remove or modify these kinds of yoga postures. That’s why a yoga teacher needs to really understand the physiology of pregnancy.”
As her students get closer to their delivery date, Margarida also teaches breathing techniques to help them manage their contractions, and exercises to make the birth process easier.
“By this stage the baby is almost fully grown, so we focus on positions that make space for the baby and make the mother feel more comfortable; stretching and opening up the hip area to prepare for an easier delivery.”
Margarida also explains that the benefits are not just physical.
“It’s about learning to trust your body and overcoming any fears. I normally guide pregnant ladies in meditation to connect emotionally with their babies. In Sanskrit, yoga means to join or to unite, so in a very simple way, it means to unite the physical and the mental aspects of a human being. When you unite these two parts, you understand yourself and you can be fully present and aware for any situation in life.”
Margarida hails from old Macanese families on both sides, but she was actually born in Hong Kong and then moved with her family to Brazil where she lived until she was 10. Then she came back to Macau for her high school studies, before moving to Paris for her university studies. Later she lived in Mexico for 16 years before eventually returning to Macau and working in the events industry for a time. Now she has found her true passion, and teaches yoga in three languages, English, Portuguese and Cantonese.
“This opens up the range of people that I can reach,” she acknowledges.
As well as prenatal yoga, Margarida has also begun focusing on yoga for elderly people too.
“Yoga is very good for seniors because when we get older, our bodies tend to get stiffer and stiffer and our muscles weaker, especially if we don’t move more. In a very gentle way, yoga helps seniors to move their bodies, to reclaim their mobility, and also to keep joint health and mental health. If you commit to being consistent and practicing at least once a week, you will see very big changes, not only physically but mentally as well.”
