Exercising During Pregnancy?
Helpful Tips to Stay Fit While You’re Pregnant
Continuing to exercise so you stay fit during pregnancy and enter childbirth in good shape sounds not only pleasant but also beneficial. However, exercising during pregnancy is quite different from usual. Your body is changing, you might feel very tired, and you may wonder what is safe and appropriate to do during your workouts. Therefore, in this blog, we offer a few practical tips to stay fit while you’re pregnant.
Why Exercise During Pregnancy?
Being and staying fit during pregnancy is important for many reasons. The fitter you are, the stronger you will be going into labor, for example. It also helps prevent excessive weight gain during pregnancy. Regular exercise increases the likelihood of a speedy recovery after childbirth. Most importantly, exercise makes most people feel much better, whether they are pregnant or not. If you were very active before, it’s beneficial to continue exercising during these nine months as well.
Kickboxing? Marathon? Or Something a Little Less Intense?
Were you running marathons before? Lifting heavy weights with ease or relieving stress with kickboxing? No matter how athletic you are, expect that exercising during pregnancy will be somewhat different. Your body is changing, becoming less resilient, and you will need to protect your belly. Instead of sparring in kickboxing, opt for bag training. If you lift weights, do more repetitions with less weight. If you have always been a runner, continue as long as it feels good, but don’t overdo it. You’ll often intuitively know your limits.
So Tired, and Then Exercise?!?
Pregnancy demands a lot from your body. You might just feel exhausted and the thought of working up a sweat with all the fit moms-to-be might seem overwhelming. You’re already glad if you can keep your eyes open halfway through the day! If you’re that tired due to your pregnancy, don’t worry about having to exercise. It’s not a requirement; your body is designed to handle childbirth. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. You’ll still manage the birth.
Move Every Day
Whether or not you were active before, if you have the energy, exercising during pregnancy is highly recommended. Our advice is to try to move regularly if you can. This could be taking a walk (aim for those 10,000 steps!), going for a bike ride, or swimming if that’s available near you. Swimming is always a great option because it’s intensive without the risk of overloading or injuries, which is especially important during pregnancy. Your bones and tissues are softer, making you more prone to injuries. In general, aim to move for an hour every day and, if possible, do an hour of intense exercise once a week.
Home Workouts for Pregnant Women
You can now do intensive workouts at home with online training programs or a personal trainer. For instance, Training for Mama’s offers both online and personal training sessions for pregnant women. We previously offered our clients a free online workshop from Training for Mama’s to introduce them to home workouts for pregnant women. We can give you lots of advice and information, but when it comes to working out responsibly and getting your muscles engaged, we prefer to leave it to the experts.
“How Many Weeks Into Pregnancy Can You Still Do Planks?”
That online workout was a huge success, attended by many of our clients. Besides exercising, many questions were asked, such as which abdominal muscles to train or avoid, how to do effective cardio, and up to how many weeks into pregnancy you can still do planks. These are real exercise questions best answered by a trainer, ideally one with extensive experience in training pregnant women. We work with such experts to ensure our clients have access to high-quality care, even in non-medical areas like exercise.
Workshops and Recommendations for Our Clients
As a client of our midwifery practice, in addition to our information evenings and workshops held at our practice or online, we have various partners in our network that we recommend and occasionally organize workshops with. This includes workshops on exercise and movement during pregnancy. Interested? You can always sign up with our practice.
