Baby, It's Time to Exercise

Exercising while pregnant may be far from your mind. You could be sick or just tired, but exercising could be exactly what you need. Moderately working out with a “normal” pregnancy for 30 minutes, 5 or more days a week, is recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Why exercise?

The benefits of exercising while pregnant are numerous. It can help minimize backaches, which are common to pregnancy, by improving your posture. Exercising also helps you to not gain as much weight, which can contribute to the back pain. Additionally, with regular exercise, you can impede or make your gestational diabetes better as well as diminish bloating, constipation, and swelling.

If you are feeling tired, take a bit of time and do some aerobic exercise to increase your energy. Working out also helps improves your sleep and improve your mood with the release of more endorphins. Aerobic exercise helps you and your baby use oxygen better. It can boost your endurance, strength and muscle tone which may help you deal with labor better. This will help you get back in shape sooner after your baby is born.

So baby, let’s get started!

What are some of best aerobic exercises during pregnancy?

Swimming

Swimming is great exercise for pregnant women. Swimming allows you to feel weightless even with the added pounds which makes it easier on your joints. Another reason to swim is the water can keep you from overheating while you exercise, which can be a potential problem.

Walking

Walking is another wonderful exercise during pregnancy. The best thing about walking is that anyone can do it and it is free. Walking is also not hard on your joints. You can get started after you have become pregnant. All you need is a good pair of shoes and some space.

Low impact aerobics

Aerobics are a good way to exercise while pregnant. Low impact means that you always have at least one foot on the ground. You can do them in a group class or at home. There are videos on Youtube that are low impact aerobics for example dance, indoor walking workouts.

Running

If you ran before you were pregnant, you can still continue, but you may need to alter your regimen. A good rule is don’t do any running that is more than what you did before you were pregnant. So if all you ran before becoming pregnant was 3 miles, now is not the time to ramp up to 5 miles.

Cycling

Riding a bike is a good way to exercise as long as you did it before you were pregnant. Because your center of gravity changes, you could fall and get hurt. Indoor cycling is safe enough for all healthy pregnant women as the risk of falling is not as high.

Other forms of exercise that are good during pregnancy include:

• Prenatal Yoga, which can help you alleviate back pain and keep your flexibility.
• Strength training, but you will most likely need to modify it. To adapt exercises you may use less weight and do exercises where you don’t need to lay on your back. Just do exercises with body weight to be safe if you haven’t been strength training before pregnant.

A few things to keep in mind when working out while pregnant:

• Talk to your doctor and get the okay to do any physical activity, but remember that the vast majority of pregnant women can exercise while pregnant.
• Remember to adjust your calorie intake and to drink enough fluids.
• Don’t do sports that have a high risk of falling.
• Don’t lie on your back as this puts too much pressure on a major vein that can cause less blood flow to the heart, uterus, and brain.

Even though there are some things you may have to modify while pregnant, exercising the benefits far outweigh the risks. Baby, get moving!

Cindy lives in Michigan with her husband and three children. Her children keep her very active. She is a homemaker and enjoys making healthy meals at home for her family. One of her favorite activities is to exercise. She loves reading about health topics and writing on her blog. Cindy takes courses about health through Coursera and ITunes University.

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