Exercising during pregnancy is completely safe for you and your baby. During your prenatal care checkup, consult your doctor about what types of exercises are safe for you to do according to your condition. If you have specific health conditions or pregnancy difficulties, then exercise during pregnancy may not be suitable.
Suppose your pregnancy is healthy, and you don’t have a specific medical condition. In that case, exercise doesn’t raise your risk of having a miscarriage, a premature baby or a child born with low birth weight.
How much exercise is safe during pregnancy?
Pregnant ladies should get at least 150 minutes of minimum-intensity aerobic activity per week. Anaerobic exercise is one in which you involve large muscles of the body (like those in the legs and arms) rhythmically. Medium intensity means you are moving enough to increase your heart rate and start sweating.
Examples of Medium-intensity aerobic exercise include brisk walking and general gardening. You can split the 150 minutes into 30-minute exercises on five days of the week or into smaller 10-minute exercises per day.
If you are new to exercise, start to increase your exercise gradually. Start with as little as 5 minutes every day. Include 5 minutes per week until you can stay active for 30 minutes a day.
If you were physically active before pregnancy, you could keep doing the same workouts with your doctor’s approval. Nevertheless, if you start losing weight, you may require to increase the calories that you eat.
Following exercises are safe during pregnancy.
Professionals say that these exercises are safest for pregnant women:
- Walking—Brisk walking offers a complete body exercise and is available on the joints and muscles.
- Swimming and water sports—Water sports utilise multiple body’s muscles. The water keeps your weight, so you can easily avoid muscle strain and injury.
- Fixed bicycling—Because your growing belly can impact your balance and make you additional prone to falls, riding a traditional bicycle during pregnancy can be dangerous. Cycling on a fixed bike will be the right choice.
- Prenatal yoga and Pilates—Yoga relieves stress, enhances flexibility, and promotes stretching and concentrated breathing. There are prenatal yoga and Pilates courses created for pregnant women. These classes usually teach modified poses that adjust a pregnant woman’s shifting balance. It would help if you also avoided postures that need you to be still or lie on your back for long times.
If you are a professional runner, jogger, or racquet-sports player, you may be capable of keep doing these exercises during pregnancy. Consult these things with your doctor.
Exercises you should avoid during pregnancy.
During Pregnancy, you need to avoid exercises that put you in a risk of harm:
- Sports that have a risk of getting hit in the stomach, like boxing, soccer, ice hockey, and basketball.
- Skydiving and scuba diving.
- Movements that have the risk of falls, like surfing, off-road cycling, gymnastics, downhill snow skiing, horseback riding and water skiing.
- Hot yoga and hot Pilates this may overheat your body.
- Exercises are done above 6,000 feet.
When should I quit exercising?
It would be best if you stopped exercising when you see the following warning signs during your workout. If you notice any of them, stop and contact your doctor:
- Bleeding from the vagina
- When you start feeling dizzy or faint.
- Shortness of breath before starting an exercise
- Chest pain
- Headache
- Muscle weakness
- Calf pain or swelling
- Regular, painful contractions of the uterus
- Fluid gushing or leaking from the vagina
Precautions you should take exercising during pregnancy.
There are some precautions that pregnant ladies should take during exercise:
- Drink at list 8 to 10 glass of water before, during, and after your exercise. Symptoms of dehydration possess dizziness, a racing or pounding heart, and urinating only tiny amounts or having urine that is dark yellow coloured.
- Wear a sports bra that provides you with a lot of support to support protecting your breasts. You can use a belly support belt; it may ease discomfort while walking or running.
- Avoid being overheated, particularly in the first trimester. Sip plenty of water, wear loose clothing, and exercise in a temperature-controlled room. Do not exercise outdoors when it is hot or humid.
- You should avoid standing still or lying flat on your back as much as feasible when you lie on your back, your uterus presses on a large vein that returns blood flow to the heart. Standing static can cause blood to pool in your legs and feet. These positions may push your blood pressure to drop for a short time.
