Pregnancy and Exercise

Exercise is an essential part of a healthy pregnancy. Benefiting both you and your baby, exercise is a key to maintaining your muscle strength, aerobic capacity and well-being. Cardiovascular workouts also build up your strength, making labor faster and more bearable and less stressful for both mother and child. Other benefits include helping you stay within the weight gain limits recommended by your doctor and controlling common discomforts of pregnancy, such as low back pain. And afterward, the more muscle mass you have, the quicker you will regain your pre-pregnancy shape.

What to Do

Meet with your doctor to design a customized pregnancy exercise plan that's safe and effective for you and your baby. One factor your doctor will consider is whether you have already been exercising regularly. If you have been, your doctor will encourage you to continue, but probably will modify some of what you do.

Self-care Steps for Exercise During Pregnancy

• Exercise moderately three to five times a week. Rule of thumb: Never exercise so vigorously that you cannot speak easily while exercising. Reduce your intensity if you feel out of breath while talking.

• Don't let your heart rate exceed 140 beats per minute. Women who exercised before pregnancy usually can walk 30 minutes a day without exceeding that limit. Expectant mothers just starting to exercise should walk 10 to 15 minutes every day and increase these times gradually.

• Avoid overheating. Unlike you, your unborn baby can't get rid of excess body heat through perspiration. As a result, the fetus can quickly become overheated.

• Stay hydrated. Drink water before, during and after your workout. Cool down after every 10 to 15 minutes of exercise.

• Chose good exercise options, such as beginner's yoga, swimming, walking, light weightlifting, stationary cycling, dancing and calisthenics for pregnant women.

• Wear a supportive bra, properly fitting athletic shoes and loose-fitting clothing.

• Warm up first. Include stretching, but take care not to overstretch ligaments, especially those in your lower back.

• Stop if you feel dizzy, faint, overheated or in pain.

• Use caution with abdominal exercises. Avoid sit-ups and abdominal crunches after three months.

• Exercise pelvic muscles. Exercising the muscles in your pelvic floor from the time you are aware of your pregnancy can help ease your labor and delivery. Pelvic-floor exercises are called Kegel exercises. When done correctly, they involve tightening, squeezing and lifting the muscles between your pelvis and tailbone.

• Avoid activities that could result in a fall, such as biking, step aerobics, horseback riding and downhill skiing, especially after the 20th to 24th weeks of your pregnancy. Many doctors make this recommendation because pregnancy shifts your center of gravity.

• Avoid deep knee bends, sit-ups and toe touches.

• After the first three months of pregnancy, avoid exercising while lying on your back. The weight of the baby may interfere with blood circulation.

• Avoid hot tubs and saunas, especially in early pregnancy.

• Avoid exercising at high altitudes and going deep sea diving.