PRORehab Library

Exercise During Pregnancy?

Exercising during pregnancy can benefit you in many ways. Exercise helps reduce stress, anxiety and depression. It can decrease back pain and improve posture. Exercise helps with digestion and weight management, increases your energy, reduces “postpartum belly,” and conditions the heart and lungs. It also may prevent or control gestational diabetes. Exercising can even improve the labor process because of the increased strength, stamina and flexibility you develop, and it can contribute to a faster postpartum recovery.

It is best to use your own body, your own health, and your own regular activity level as a guide to develop your exercise program. Active women can generally continue their exercise program during pregnancy with some changes made to the intensity level and duration. Women who have less activity in their daily lives before pregnancy will want to start slowly. When a pregnancy is affected by medical conditions such as a previous history of miscarriage or premature labor, hypertension, anemia, placenta previa, vaginal bleeding, intrauterine growth retardation, it is best to discuss exercise with a health care to determine what is safe.

The body’s center of gravity is lower during pregnancy. This change may affect one’s ability to perform exercises that may have easy before pregnancy. The body is also more susceptible to sprains and strains while pregnant because ligaments and joints are much more flexible. Jerky bouncing movements should be avoided during pregnancy.

Safety guidelines to follow:

1. If you are just starting to exercise now to improve your health during your pregnancy, you should start very slowly and be careful not to over-exert yourself.
2. Regular exercise (at least 3 times a week) is better for you than spurts of exercise followed by long periods of no activity.
3. Listen to your body. If something hurts, if your heart rate is above 140 beats per minute, or if you cannot hold a conversation while exercising, slow down or stop.
4. Never exercise to the point of exhaustion or breathlessness. This is a sign that you and your baby are not getting the oxygen supply you both need.
5. Wear arch supports to help your feet support the extra weight being carried.
6. Take frequent breaks and maintain adequate hydration. Drink 1 pint of liquid before exercise and one cup of liquid every 20 minutes. Replenish lost fluids after exercising.
7. Monitor your heart rate during exercise. During pregnancy, your pulse should be at or below 140 beats per minute.
8. Avoid exercising in high heat and humidity to protect against heat stress, especially during the first trimester. Core temperature should not exceed 102 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. Avoid contact sports and high risk sports such as scuba diving, water skiing, horseback riding, and high impact aerobics.
10. Weight training during pregnancy should focus on improving your muscle tone in the upper body and abdominal area. Avoid lifting weights above your head and using weights that strain your lower back muscles.
11. After your fourth month of pregnancy, avoid exercises that involve lying flat on your back, because that position will decrease the blood flow to your uterus.
12. Include stretching in your warm up and cool down which should be a minimum of 5 minutes each. The cool-down allows the blood in your exercised muscles to return to your heart and uterus.
13. Eat a healthy diet that includes fruits, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. In the first two trimesters, an increased intake of 150 calories per day is recommended; an increase of 300 calories per day is required in the third trimester. Caloric demands are even higher with exercise.
14. Exercise sessions can last 15-30 minutes with breaks and monitoring of heart rate.

Exercises that can be performed:

• walking
• cycling (stationary bike is safer due to balance issues during pregnancy)
• low-impact aerobics
• water aerobics
• swimming
• kegel exercises

The three muscle groups you should concentrate on during pregnancy are the muscles of your abdomen, pelvis, and back.

• Strengthening your abdominal muscles will make it easier to support the increasing weight of your baby.
• Strengthening pelvic muscles will permit your vagina to widen more easily during childbirth and prevent urinary problems (leaking urine when you cough or sneeze) after delivery.
• Strengthening back muscles and exercises to improve your posture will minimize the strain of pregnancy on your lower back and help prevent discomfort caused by poor posture.

Abdominal isometric
Take a complete breath in through the nose, feeling your nostrils widen slightly. Allow the abdominal wall to expand upward. Then lips slightly parted, blow the air out through your mouth, slowly but forcibly, pulling in your abdominal muscles until you feel out of air. It’s like sustaining a note while blowing a trumpet or singing. The next progression is to sit in a rocking chair and blow out and tighten your abdominals as you rock back.

Pelvic tilts- standing
Pull pelvis up at the front with your abdominal muscles and down behind with your buttock muscles. This helps the standing posture.

Kegel exercises
Locate your pelvic floor muscles by trying to stop and start the flow of urine while going to the bathroom. Once you have located these muscles, simply tighten and relax the muscles over and over. Hold the muscles tight for 5-10 seconds many times a day.

You should stop exercising and call your health care provider if any unusual symptoms occur, such as:

• pain
• bleeding
• faintness
• irregular heartbeat
• pelvic pain
• difficulty walking

Knowledge in this area is far from complete. Concerns about the physiologic interactions between the changes of pregnancy and the demands of exercise have not been entirely laid to rest. Therefore, no definitive recommendation can be made to promote exercising during pregnancy. Nevertheless, there appears to be no reason that most women cannot continue with exercise during pregnancy and reap the possible benefits of improvement in well-being.

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