Getting regular exercise during your pregnancy helps you stay healthy, keeps your weight gain in a safe range, helps you lose weight faster after pregnancy, improves your mood, reduces your stress, and helps you sleep well. Some studies have shown that women who exercise during their pregnancy are less likely to have complications with their labor and delivery.
Activity Guidelines During Pregnancy
It is best to consider your own body, your own health, and your own regular activity level as a guide to determining your exercise program. Women who are very active before they get pregnant can generally continue their exercise program with some changes made to the intensity level and duration. Women who did not exercise regularly before they got pregnant should start slowly. Women who have medical conditions affecting their pregnancy (previous history of miscarriage or premature labor, hypertension, anemia, placenta previa, vaginal bleeding, intrauterine growth retardation, and others) must discuss exercise activities with their health care provider.
Your center of gravity is lower during pregnancy. This may affect your ability to perform exercises that you may have been able to do easily before you became pregnant. You are also more susceptible to sprains and strains while pregnant because your ligaments and joints are much looser and more flexible. Many exercises are safe during your entire pregnancy. However, you will need to follow some simple guidelines to avoid problems:
- Regular exercise (at least 3 times per week) is better for you than spurts of exercise followed by long periods of no activity.
- Listen to your body. If something hurts, slow down or stop.
- 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.
- Wear comfortable exercise footwear that gives strong ankle and arch support. Wear a good fitting support bra to protect your breasts.
- Take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water.
- Monitor your heart rate during your exercise program. During pregnancy, your pulse should be at or below 140 beats per minute while exercising. If you cannot hold a conversation while exercising, you are doing too much.
- Avoid exercising in very hot weather. During the summer, try to get your physical activity in the early morning or in the evening when it is cooler.
- 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.
- After your fourth month of pregnancy, avoid exercises that involve lying flat on your back, because that position decreases the blood flow to your uterus.
- Include relaxation and stretching before and after your exercise program. Spend at least 5 minutes warming up before exercise and 5 minutes cooling down afterwards.
- Activities that should be avoided during pregnancy include downhill skiing, water skiing, scuba diving, horseback riding, contact sports, high impact aerobics, and anything that involves jerky and bouncing movements.
Safe Prenatal Exercises
Walking, cycling (a stationary bike is safer than riding a road bike since your sense of balance is off during pregnancy), low-impact aerobics, water aerobics, swimming (avoid diving and jumping), stretching and toning exercises (calisthenics) and Kegel exercises are all good choices during pregnancy.
A good prenatal workout should include:
- A 5 to 10 minute warm-up
- A 20 to 30 minute low-impact, low-intensity aerobic activity session (swimming, cycling, walking, aerobics, or other safe exercises).
- Careful heart rate monitoring (your pulse generally should be at or below 140 beats per minute during the aerobic activity session).
- A cool-down period with gentle stretching, relaxation, and breathing exercises.
Signs to Stop Exercising
You should stop exercising and call your health care provider if any unusual symptoms appear such as pain, bleeding, faintness, or irregular heartbeat (skipped beats or very rapid beats), pelvic pain or difficulty walking.
Important Muscle Groups to Exercise
In addition to your heart, the three muscle groups you should concentrate on during pregnancy are your abdomen, pelvis, and back.
- Strengthening your abdominal muscles makes it easier to support the increasing weight of your baby.
- Strengthening pelvic muscles permits your vagina to widen more easily during childbirth and prevent urinary problems after delivery such as leaking urine when you cough or sneeze.
- Strengthening back muscles and exercises to improve your posture minimize the strain of pregnancy on your lower back and help prevent discomfort caused by poor posture.
Exercises to Prepare for Labor and Delivery
The following exercises help to strengthen and tone the muscles you will be using during labor and delivery. Try to perform these exercises every day.
Kegel Exercises
A Kegel is another name for a pelvic floor exercise. The pelvic floor muscles are attached to the pelvic bone and act like a hammock, holding your pelvic organs. By exercising these muscles, you are less likely to tear your perineum during birth, less likely to need an episiotomy, less likely to have urine leakage when you sneeze or cough and more likely to have an easier birth. Doing Kegels is easy and convenient. They can be done anywhere, anytime and no one will know that you are doing them!
To do the 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. Work up to doing Kegels many times a day, holding the muscles tight for up to 5-10 seconds before releasing.
Tailor Sitting
- Sit on the floor. Bring feet close to your body and cross your ankles.
- Maintain this position for as long as you feel comfortable.
Tailor Press
- Sit on the floor. Bring bottoms of your feet together as close to your body as you feel comfortable.
- Place hands under your knees and press down with your knees while resisting the pressure with your hands. Count slowly to three, then relax.
- Gradually increase the number of presses until you’re doing them 10 times, twice a day
Tailor Sitting and Stretching
- Sit on the floor with your back straight. Stretch your legs in front of you with your feet about a foot apart. Allow your feet to flop outward.
- Stretch your hands forward toward your left foot then back.
- Stretch your hands forward toward center then back.
- Stretch your hands forward toward your right foot then back.
- Gradually increase the set of stretches until you are doing then 10 times, twice a day
Pelvic Tilt Exercise
- Tighten the abdominal muscles and the buttocks by squeezing and tucking under.
- Keep knees relaxed.
Pelvic Rocking
- Get on hands and knees with your hands directly under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
- Inhale deeply and slowly. Exhale while pulling the abdomen in and tightening the buttocks so your whole spine curls into a C. At the same time tighten the pelvic floor muscles.
- Relax, but keep your back straight.
- Repeat these steps eight times.
