Should you? Shouldn’t you? What’s recommended, and what’s off-limits? We take you through the dos and don’ts of pregnancy exercise.
by Health Editor, Radhika Holmström
Once upon a time, pregnant women were told to take it easy. Today, it can seem like the opposite; with bracing reminders that you’re “pregnant, not ill”, women are encouraged to keep going as normal. The reality is that, especially in the first few months, even those who usually take a vigorous workout in their stride can’t manage anything more demanding than walking short distances.
However, it’s great to get off the sofa once your energy levels start rising again, whether or not you’ve been in the habit before. Pretty well every health organisation stresses the role that exercise plays in fending off ailments from heart disease to high blood pressure; and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is no exception. As long as you’re not completely exhausted or have a condition that rules it out, exercise will help keep you in decent physical shape. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee it’ll guarantee you a good labour (even if you’re in peak physical condition, other factors may intervene) but it will definitely put you in the best position to cope afterwards. These 40 weeks put a lot of strain on your pelvic floor and stomach muscles, so exercise is one of your best bets for fitting back into normal clothes after the birth of your baby.
It is also one of the ways to keep in decent mental shape, too. All the mental health organisations recommend incorporating a bit of regular, moderate activity. That is particularly important at a time when you’re prone to mood swings at best and depression at worst; hardly surprising when hormones are flooding your body and you’re also realising just how much life is going to change – especially if this is your first baby. On top of that, your body is out of your own control, as week by week it changes and expands. That can be absolutely wonderful but it is also quite disconcerting, particularly to women who’re used to managing their own lives, workload and quite possibly companies too. Putting your body through its paces will help you hang onto a bit more sense of ‘self’; and if you’re doing an activity with other pregnant women there’s also a social spin-off, which may not seem so useful now but will almost certainly come into its own when you all have small babies.
Getting Going
This isn’t the time to take up a completely new, strenuous activity. If you’re a complete novice, RCOG recommends beginning with 15 minutes’ continuous exercise three times a week, increasing to 30 minute sessions, from four times a week to daily. The intensity should be sufficient to induce an increase in your heart and breathing rate but you should be able to maintain a conversation.
One option is a specialist antenatal yoga or pilates class; and in fact, even if you’re a regular pilates or yoga-goer you should switch to one that is tailored to pregnant women, because pregnancy puts all kinds of stresses on your body that you may be unaware of (your ligaments, for one thing, get much stretchier as the ‘relaxin’ hormone floods your system in preparation for childbirth; you don’t want to push them too far). Classes like this are a terrific way to tone up, become more flexible and meet other women whose babies are due at the same time as yours.
However, they’re not particularly aerobic – they don’t work your heart and lungs – so don’t forget to move as well. “Walking and swimming are good, because they’re low-impact and not too heavy on the joints,” recommends ante- and post-natal personal trainer Mary Huckle. West London-based prenatal exercise instructor Gill Clegg is a fan of outdoor lidos, though she cautions: “If you’re swimming breast stroke, don’t do the legs – just do little crawl-style kicks, as the ligaments in your pelvis are very stretchy. I used training fins to kick and it got my legs very strong for labour.”
Keeping Going
Even if you’re pretty fit already, don’t push yourself too hard. “Keep your heart rate to around 140 beats per minute,” advises Clegg, who recently had her own baby. Some activities are off-limits. After three months, avoid contact sports where you might be hit (like squash and judo) and ones like riding, skating and skiing where a fall could injure you; and don’t lie flat on your back, because this may make you feel faint. While swimming is great for pregnant women, scuba diving isn’t because the baby isn’t protected against a potential embolism.
That does, however, leave a wide range of activities you can take to a pretty high standard; after all, the 2012 Olympics included pregnant handball player Anna-Maria Johansson and shooter Nur Taibi, a mere six weeks off her due date. “I think the main thing women worry about is running, but if you’re a seasoned runner, you should be fine,” says Clegg. “From my own experience, I’d say that as well as keeping your heart rate down (get an inexpensive heart rate monitor) a couple of other things are important. Keep hydrated, to keep baby hydrated; whatever the weather, always have water with you. Don’t get overheated, as it indicates you’re pushing yourself a bit too much.”
“Generally speaking, if you’re already quite fit and healthy you can more or less carry on with anything you did before,” says Huckle. “As you become heavier, your cardio-vascular system works harder but in the second trimester you may be pretty energetic. Women in my running group have gone on well into the second trimester and you can do cardio and resistance too, as long as you’re not using heavy weights.” Do let teachers know you are pregnant; if possible find an instructor who works with pregnant women.
Picking up later
Even if you’re active up to the last minute, once you’ve given birth you will need to wait till your six-week checkup before you resume: if you’ve had a Caesarian, it’ll be longer. However, the work you’ve done will pay off not just in helping you get back into your jeans but in coping with a demands that a new baby brings. “Exercise will set you up for afterwards,” Clegg declares. What’s more, she adds, if you’re a previous fitness enthusiast and had to take your routine down a level for nine months, your muscles will remember how to get you back to pre-pregnancy levels.
Above all, do what you can. Admittedly there can be times when one yearns for the days when the recommendations were to lounge about for the duration but the fact is that nobody’s expecting you to emulate pregnant Olympians – just to keep moving. Just remember, keeping active for those nine months can only be a very, very good thing.
Once upon a time, pregnant women were told to take it easy. Today, it can seem like the opposite; with bracing reminders that you’re “pregnant, not ill”, women are encouraged to keep going as normal. The reality is that, especially in the first few months, even those who usually take a vigorous workout in their stride can’t manage anything more demanding than walking short distances.
However, it’s great to get off the sofa once your energy levels start rising again, whether or not you’ve been in the habit before. Pretty well every health organisation stresses the role that exercise plays in fending off ailments from heart disease to high blood pressure; and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is no exception. As long as you’re not completely exhausted or have a condition that rules it out, exercise will help keep you in decent physical shape. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee it’ll guarantee you a good labour (even if you’re in peak physical condition, other factors may intervene) but it will definitely put you in the best position to cope afterwards. These 40 weeks put a lot of strain on your pelvic floor and stomach muscles, so exercise is one of your best bets for fitting back into normal clothes after the birth of your baby.
It is also one of the ways to keep in decent mental shape, too. All the mental health organisations recommend incorporating a bit of regular, moderate activity. That is particularly important at a time when you’re prone to mood swings at best and depression at worst; hardly surprising when hormones are flooding your body and you’re also realising just how much life is going to change – especially if this is your first baby. On top of that, your body is out of your own control, as week by week it changes and expands. That can be absolutely wonderful but it is also quite disconcerting, particularly to women who’re used to managing their own lives, workload and quite possibly companies too. Putting your body through its paces will help you hang onto a bit more sense of ‘self’; and if you’re doing an activity with other pregnant women there’s also a social spin-off, which may not seem so useful now but will almost certainly come into its own when you all have small babies.