Fitness During Pregnancy

Fitness during pregnancy is extremely important. Exercise helps ease labor pains and helps the mother adjust to her changing body throughout the entire pregnancy process. But fitness during pregnancy doesn’t entail exactly what regular fitness does. There are certain exercises and movements that should be avoided during certain trimesters, and there are specific stretches and exercises that benefit a pregnant body. This article explains why fitness during pregnancy is important and offers suggestions for exercise by trimester.

“My experience as a boxer (both as a practitioner and a trainer) never prepared me for prenatal exercise. When I began feeling sluggish during my workouts about 6 months ago, I thought it was on account of all the holiday goodies I had indulged in. But when I discovered I was going to become a mommy, I turned all my energy on discovering how to build on my knowledge of fitness in the prenatal realm. I read everything I could find, talked to my doctor, consulted with my own trainer, watched videos, and began to try things out for myself.

1) Conflicting information.

First of all, there’s a ton of conflicting information out there…people trying to sell products, self-proclaimed experts, systems that only work for certain individuals, etc. The field of prenatal fitness is relatively new. Up until 2002, the pros recommended keeping your heart rate under 140bpm. In my book, that’s a brisk walk. Now all the research shows that it’s not a matter of heart rate, but instead your own perceived rate of exertion. Some people can get a work out keeping their heart rate down, but if you are an athlete, or at least exercise on a regular basis, you may not even break a sweat at that level.

The best guide is how you are feeling. You should be able to carry on a conversation while you are working out, but you should be sweating (not excessively).”

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1) Conflicting information.

Nell O'Leary

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