After finding out you’re pregnant, one of the first questions you may have is “What can I do for exercise?” Exercising is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle, and exercising during pregnancy is just as important {if not more so!}
Here are 3 tips to guide you as you decide what is best for your body & baby during these 9 months:
- Check with your doctor/midwife.
This is first because it’s most important. Don’t base your decisions only on what you’ve read or heard. Get a professional opinion from someone who know you and your history of health.
- Do what you’ve been doing.
Have you been working out consistently with a certain dvd? Or maybe you’ve been running several times a week for several months and you just got a positive pregnancy test? Unless your doc tells you otherwise, there’s no reason to stop. Anything you’ve been doing consistently before pregnancy should be fine to continue during the next 9 months. If you have not been exercising consistently and you just discovered the happy news of pregnancy, now is not the time to begin a rigorous exercise plan. Don’t go out and sign up for a marathon if the last time you ran was sometime during the dark ages. Start by taking short walks and build up in both duration and intensity. The exercise will be awesome for your physical & mental health!
- Listen to your body.
This is a big one for me. I run and workout pretty consistently, so I already know what’s “in” for me as far as what my doc says. There are some times, though, that I can tell my body is just not up for a big workout. Over the last ~2 months, I’ve had pains I didn’t have during my pregnancies with Anna Grace & Nate. So, my physical activity has gone waaaaay down because of that. {& my heating pad usage has gone waaaay up! blessed invention!!} Listening to your body is going to be a theme throughout your entire pregnancy, so start now as you decide what the best type of exercise is for you & baby.
- What I Do
With my first 2 pregnancies, I ran throughout the 40 weeks. I even went on a short run the night before giving birth to Nate. During this pregnancy, I’ve had some significant struggles with round ligament pain. I noticed it around 20 weeks or so {even though I had no clue what it was} and decided running was not going to be in the picture anymore. I continued to exercise {walking, using an elliptical, pilates, and/or using a 20 min workout DVD}. But as I grew, the pain increased – especially during and after workouts. Since ~34 weeks, I have been sticking to walking, pilates, and some 3rd trimester prenatal yoga videos I discovered on youtube. The stretching in the yoga videos has been awesome. I figure any stretching is perfect – especially before the ultimate stretching of childbirth!
If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I will answer as best as I can!
Don’t miss a post from this series!
- I’m Prego…Now What? {Introduction}
- Your Body Communicates
- Nutrition during Pregnancy
- Exercise during Pregnancy
- How to Talk to a Pregnant Woman
- Preparing for Baby
- Making Meals after Baby
Comments
4 responses to “Exercising During Pregnancy {Pregnancy Series}”
Agreed! The whole “do-what-you’ve-been-doing” (as long as it’s gotten the OK, of course) is some of the best motivation for me pre-pregnancy. Gotta exercise before Baby so I can continue through pregnancy, exercise through pregnancy so I don’t gain an inordinate amount of weight and have the physical strength for deeeeelivery, exercise afterwards for very very obvious reasons. Kind of like those prenatal vitamins: “take before, during, and after pregnancy”. In other words, all the time.
haha! very true. Plus, it’s a great way to clear your mind mentally – especially during the last weeks when you might be tempted to go crazy with all the hormones, waiting games, and comments! 😀
From my experience I beleive too that exercising before pregnancy is very important. I had never exercised before my first pregnancy and it was quite miserable. I was very sick. Gestational diabetes then preeclampsia developed. While one can develop these complications despite exercise they can be prevented for other people by exercising. About a year and a half before my second pregnancy I started taking exercise classes that were pretty intense. I lost some weight and my cholesterol went down. I had wanted to exercise during the entire pregnancy but placenta previa was discovered at the half way point and I had to stop exercising for the health of myself and baby. My second pregnancy was lots better. For the middle months I did not feel pregnant at all. I definitely recomend exercising before, during (if you can) and after. And do as intense workouts if you can before pregnancy to get your body fit. Thanks for the articles Christa:).
Great tips, Abby. I totally agree!