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Photo: Il-Young Ko
Working Out During Pregnancy
Michelle Myers Health February 10, 2011

Two days shy of 7 months preg­nant, Noah and I are off to teach Tur­bo­Kick! (He’s actu­ally very good at fol­low­ing my cues — I’m ready to see his punch­ing and kick­ing skills out of the womb!)

As research in preg­nancy has con­tin­ued, the rules about exer­cise have changed. I’ve had women in my classes tell me that as soon as they found out they were preg­nant, their doc­tor instructed them to stop work­ing out. Now, stud­ies show exer­cise in preg­nancy boosts energy, aids in sleep, reduces stres & dis­com­fort, and eases childbirth.

Work­ing out can also have pos­i­tive impact on baby as well. For exam­ple, as early as age 5, chil­dren score higher on gen­eral intel­li­gence tests if their moth­ers worked out while they were preg­nant with them.

How­ever, there are lim­its, and I’m learn­ing those lim­its con­tinue to evolve dur­ing preg­nancy. Work­ing out in preg­nancy is a con­stant effort to lis­ten to your body and DO WHAT IT SAYS.

Here are some gen­eral guide­lines that will help you in exer­cis­ing safely through­out your pregnancy:

DISCLAIMER: Before beginning any exercise program, you should always discuss it with your doctor first.

Fuel your body properly.

Your body needs about 300 extra calo­ries per day dur­ing preg­nancy. Make sure you fac­tor in what you are burn­ing into your daily calo­rie needs so your baby is get­ting the proper nutri­tion for devel­op­ment. It’s also impor­tant to drink plenty of water before, dur­ing, and after your work­out. If your body gets dehy­drated, it could cause con­trac­tions or raise your body tem­per­a­ture to dan­ger­ous lev­els for you and your baby.

Wear loose-fitting, breathable clothing.

The last thing you want are addi­tional dis­trac­tions like a shirt that’s too tight, a sports bra that doesn’t fit, or shorts that are too short thanks to your expand­ing belly. Also, later in preg­nancy, if you expe­ri­ence swelling in your feet, you may need to buy/borrow big­ger sized ath­letic shoes.

Say good-bye to chest presses and crunches.

After your 1st trimester, no more lying on your back. Just like your doc­tor advised you to stop sleep­ing on your back, this is the same prin­ci­ple. To keep your chest mus­cles strong through­out preg­nancy, you’ll have to depend on wall push-ups.

Stop lifting heavy on lower-body exercises.

Through­out your preg­nancy, as far as how how you can go, your range of motion for squats and lunges will change. Don’t put a bar on your back after your first trimester. Through­out the 2nd trimester, you can hold light dumb­bells. Once you’re in the 3rd trimester, your body weight should be plenty to keep your mus­cles strong!

Now is not the time to take on something new.

When it’s time to lose the baby weight, you can decide to take on hot power yoga or triathalon train­ing. For now, stick to fit­ness activ­i­ties your body is used to. If you didn’t work out before you found out you were preg­nant, start small and slowly build up. Great begin­ner activ­i­ties are walk­ing, strength train­ing, and swim­ming. It’s also a great idea to enlist the help of a fit­ness pro­fes­sional to develop a plan that’s just right for you.

Can you speak normally during your workout?

You don’t want your heart rate to stay too high for too long. If you don’t wear a heart rate mon­i­tor, use the talk test. For the major­ity of your work­out, you should be able to speak with­out sound­ing like you’re drown­ing. Remem­ber, your main goal in preg­nancy is a healthy baby — not the strength of your aer­o­bic threshold.

Activity that requires balance should be avoided.

By the 3rd trimester, women have gained an aver­age of 20–40 lbs.…most of which is all in one place. Your cen­ter of grav­ity has changed, is chang­ing, and will con­tinue to change through­out your preg­nancy. Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t train your body to adjust to its new posi­tion because it will be dif­fer­ent next week.

Do you look pregnant?  It’s time to take it easy.

Your joints are shift­ing, so high impact activ­ity can make you more prone to injury. Also, con­tact sports always leave the oppor­tu­nity for an acci­dent, and you don’t want to risk a fall or a blow to the belly. Sit on the side­lines for now — it’s only 9 months!

Be flexible.

You may have to con­tin­u­ously adjust your activ­ity or the length of your work­out on a daily basis. Dur­ing my 1st trimester and the major­ity of my 2nd, I would run a few miles for car­dio some days and feel just fine. Last week, I set off to do my nor­mal run, and about 1/2 mile in, I had to change to a fast walk. Run­ning just wasn’t com­fort­able any­more. Make the nec­es­sary adjust­ment, and move on.

Leave your competitive spirit behind.

I con­fess — this one is espe­cially dif­fi­cult for me. I may be the one teach­ing the class, but I’m def­i­nitely not the one get­ting the low­est or jump­ing the high­est. But that’s okay. If you’ve showed up for your work­out that day, you’ve suc­ceeded. Don’t com­pare your­self to any­one else. Just be proud of your­self for your ded­i­ca­tion to your health and the health of your baby.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

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