Exercising While Pregnant – Handy Advice for All Mothers
Exercising while pregnant is beneficial to mothers & their babies as it helps in maintaining maternal fitness, strength & keeping body well-toned.
A female who stays active all through gestation is actually making it simpler for herself in adapting to her altering body. The objective here is not weight loss but to maintain optimal fitness level that helps in quickening & easing labor, delivery & recovering thereafter with lesser complication.
Child delivery should be thought to be similar to endurance events wherein more fit one is; more ably one could be coping with the birthing process. However firstly do seek your physician’s approval prior to starting off with any form of exercise. For being on the safer side, enlisting the guidance and assistance of personal trainers is recommended for charting out a fitness program that is specially tailored to the pregnant woman.
Handy Pointers for Exercising During Pregnancy
- Hormone vacillations in the body have a tendency of relaxing connective tissue which makes the joints unstable & heightens risk of injuries, hence pregnant women must be careful when they stretch & be doing it in a gradual yet controlled way.
- Aerobic activities performed must ideally be at less-intensity with a pace of supposed effort not crossing 6 in a scale of one to ten.
- Training with cardiac rate under 140 heartbeats/ min.
- Exercising on alternating days for allowing recuperation.
- Any progressions in exercises must be gradual, particularly for women who were inactive prior to conceiving.
- Weight-training helps to maintain muscular tone & enhance muscle strength & staying power while also bringing about postural improvement.
- Nimble & sporty females that trained pre-pregnancy could continue to do so during gestation. For females that have been inactive for 6 months or above must ideally be waiting till the conclusion of their initial three months of gestation prior to commencing with a novel exercising regimen.
- When gestation advances, aerobics activities must be selected for minimizing strain on the joint areas – like swim, walk, cycle, ellipticals & water aerobics.
- Expectant mothers would be having a higher BBT (basal-body-temperature) hence their cooling systems need to quite effectual via perspiration, hence they must don clothing that help their bodies in dissipating heat sufficiently and in breathing freely. Pregnant women must be in environments that have proper ventilation wherein they are comfy and not feeling hot.
- Maintaining optimal hydration levels.
- Physical work capacities drop in the initial & mid trimesters, however it might augment in the mid trimester which is the opportune time for training to stay fit & maintaining proper body weight.
- Post-pregnancy training could be started 4-6 weeks post c-section after getting a clean chit from the physician.
- Progressing slowly & intensities must be kept low to avert lactic acid accruement in maternal milk.
Exercising While Pregnant – What’s Contraindicated?
- Using light weight & more repetitions of fifteen to twenty could be done though avoid holding breath.
- Do not stand immobile for protracted spans of time since it can cause the venous blood to pool.
- Hypoglycemia could arise in mothers when they strenuously exercise in the final three months of gestation. It could be resolved by revving up consumption of carbs with foods or sports beverage prior to exercising.
- Do not lie on the back following the initial trimester as it could hamper blood supply to the foetus.
- Do not engage in any exercise which involves chances of traumas to the abdomen, falling & excess strain to the joints. Hence, do not scuba dive or engage in any contact-sports for being on the safer side.