Originally published In Village Eye Magazine:
Keeping fit during pregnancy has many benefits, including a faster return to pre-pregnancy weight and fitness. It’s not just mums-to-be who benefit from exercise during pregnancy-babies do too! Babies born to mums who have exercised throughout their pregnancies tend to be leaner and have lower levels of foetal stress-very cool! Importantly, exercise makes you feel good and helps you to regain a sense of control over your body as it goes through changes during each trimester.
There are three important areas to focus on:
Low to moderate intensity resistance training:
The hormonal effects of pregnancy make your joints less stable, making them more prone to pain and injury. Resistance training keeps the muscles around the joints strong, which helps to support them. Muscular fitness also helps to make managing the physical changes of pregnancy less tiring.
Cardio:
Cardio is really useful for keeping your energy levels up. In order to avoid risk factors such as overheating and umbilical cord issues, it’s better that activities are kept low impact. Regular runners should reduce intensity as pregnancy progresses and should have reduced activity to brisk walking by their third trimester.
TA (transverse abdominis) and pelvic floor exercises:
As your baby grows, it stretches and weakens a muscle which stabilises your spine called the transverse abdominis (TA), which is why many women get back pain as pregnancy progresses. Very gentle exercises for the TA can keep it working well and keep back pain to a minimum. Pelvic floor muscles also get stretched by the growing baby, so it’s important to exercise them too as they play an important role in the delivery of the baby and help to prevent unwanted accidents. Please don’t do pelvic floor exercises while on the loo though, as it can increase risk of bladder infection!
There are a few things which should be avoided during pregnancy-sit ups, crunches, planks and similar exercises, and it’s important to not do any exercises lying on your back after week 16 because this can restrict the blood flow back to your heart!
Exercise intensity is also reduced during each trimester, so I recommend people think about pregnancy fitness before they get pregnant! Having good fitness levels before pregnancy will mean you’re in a better place at each stage as intensity is reduced. It’s also not advised to do resistance work during pregnancy if you’ve never done it before, so it’s important to get some experience beforehand.
When working with mum’s to be with my Online Personal Training service, I provide individualised workouts and give feedback and guidance on these workouts each week, adapting them as you progress through your pregnancy. I also provide pelvic floor exercises to follow and set up reminders throughout the day to make sure you don’t forget to do them-they really are important! As well as this I’m able to react to your needs. If you’re having a busier week than usual, I’ll adapt your workouts for that week to help balance your energy levels, while also making sure you still get what you need for your fitness and wellbeing. You’ll benefit from having a qualified professional in Adapting Exercise for Ante and Post Natal Exercise to ask questions to as you progress through your pregnancy fitness journey. I’ll also help you with your return to fitness after the birth of your baby, helping you to ensure that you’re exercising at the right level for you and working on the right things in the right order, at the right intensity level for you.
-Steve Shreeve