Pregnancy Exercise Tips: Best Exercises for Every Pregnant Woman

There is no month that you won’t find a thousand pregnant women in your locality or hospital. But, do you know that a lot of them have failed in their responsibilities as pregnant women? What do you think is this responsibility?

Their responsibility is to make sure they keep fit by having enough rest and exercise. Although, it’s not that easy to exercise during pregnancy you have to try because it will help you a lot in child delivery.

Is It Safe To Exercise During Pregnancy?

But, do you think it is safe to exercise yourself when you are pregnant? I know a lot of things are running through your mind now and you don’t know what to do at this point.

Worry, no more because it’s quite safe to exercise during pregnancy.

Exercising during pregnancy is safe for you and your baby. At your first prenatal care checkup, ask your provider about what kinds of activities are safe for you to do. If you have certain health conditions or pregnancy complications, exercise during pregnancy may not be a good idea.

If your pregnancy is healthy, exercise doesn’t increase your risk of having a miscarriage, a premature baby (born before 37 weeks of pregnancy) or a baby born with low birth weight (less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces).

Miscarriage is when a baby dies in the womb before 20 weeks of pregnancy. Premature babies and babies born with low birth weight are more likely than other babies to have health problems at birth and later in life.

After, knowing the fact that exercising during pregnancy is quite safe, how many hours do you need to exercise yourself as a pregnant woman?

How Many Exercises Do You Need During Pregnancy?

Healthy pregnant women need at least 2½ hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week. Aerobic (also called cardio) activity is when you repeatedly move large muscles, like your arms and legs. Aerobic activities make you breathe faster and deeper and make your heart beat faster.

Moderate-intensity means you’re active enough to sweat and increase your heart rate. Taking a brisk walk is an example of moderate-intensity aerobic activity. If you can’t talk normally during an activity, you may be working too hard.

You don’t have to do all 2½ hours at once! Instead, break it up through the week. For example, do 30 minutes on most or all days. If this sounds like a lot, split up the 30 minutes by doing something active for 10 minutes three times each day.

At this point, you know how much time you need to exercise yourself as a pregnant woman. What are the necessary activities which are safe during pregnancy?

What Kinds Of Activities Is Safe During Pregnancy?

If you’re healthy and you exercised before you got pregnant, it’s usually safe to continue your activities during pregnancy. Check with your provider to make sure.

For example, if you’re a runner or a tennis player or you do other kinds of intense exercise, you may be able to keep doing your workouts when you’re pregnant.

As your belly gets bigger later in pregnancy, you may need to change some activities or ease up on your workouts.

If your provider says it’s OK for you to exercise, pick activities you enjoy. If you didn’t exercise before you were pregnant, now’s a great time to start. Talk to your provider about safe activities and start slowly.

Try to build up your fitness little by little. For example, start with 5 minutes of activity each day, and work your way up to 30 minutes each day.

These activities usually are safe during pregnancy:

1. Walking

There’s no easier exercise to fit into your busy schedule than walking during pregnancy. And it’s a workout you can continue right up until your delivery date (and even on D-day if you’re anxious to help along with the contractions).

What’s more, you don’t need any special equipment or a gym membership to participate in just some good sneakers.

2. Strength Training

Strength training can help you build muscle and make your bones strong. It’s safe to work out with weights as long as they’re not too heavy. Ask your provider about how much you can lift.

3. Low-impact Aerobics Classes

Low-impact aerobics don’t put as much strain on your body than high-impact aerobics do. In low-impact aerobics, you always have one foot on the ground or equipment. Examples include walking, riding a stationary bike and using an elliptical machine.

In high-impact aerobics, both feet leave the ground at the same time. Examples include running, jumping rope and doing jumping jacks. Tell your teacher that you’re pregnant so that she can help you modify your workout if needed.

4. Riding a Stationary Bike

This is safer than riding a regular bicycle during pregnancy. You’re less likely to fall off a stationary bike than a regular bike, even as your belly grows.

5. Yoga and Pilates Classes

Tell your yoga or Pilates teacher that you’re pregnant. She can help you modify or avoid poses that may be unsafe for pregnant women, like lying on your belly or flat on your back (after the first trimester). Some gyms and community centers offer prenatal yoga and Pilate’s classes just for pregnant women.

6. Swimming and Water Workouts

The water supports the weight of your growing baby and moving against it helps keep your heart rate up. It’s also easy on your joints and muscles. If you have low back pain when you do other activities, try swimming. 

You don’t need to belong to a gym or own special equipment to be active. You can walk in a safe area or do exercise videos at home. Or find ways to be active in your everyday life, like doing yard work or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

RECOMMENDED: 8 Helpful Guides to Keep Fit After Child Delivery

Do you know that there are several exercises or activities which aren’t safe during pregnancy? You aren’t away of this, right? For sure, 95% of pregnant women don’t know that numerous exercises shouldn’t be done during pregnancy.

What Kinds Of Activities Aren’t Safe During Pregnancy?

Be careful and check with your provider when choosing your activities. During pregnancy, don’t do:

• Any sport in which you can get hit in the belly, like ice hockey, boxing, soccer or basketball.
• Any exercise that makes you lie flat on your back (after the third month of pregnancy), like sit-ups. When you lie on your back, your uterus puts pressure on a vein that brings blood to your heart. Lying on your back can cause your blood pressure to drop and limit the flow of blood to your baby.
• Any activity that has a lot of jerkies, bouncing movements that may cause you to fall, like horseback riding, downhill skiing, off-road cycling, gymnastics or skating.
• Activities that may make your body temperature too high, like Bikram yoga (also called hot yoga) or exercising outside on hot, humid days. You do hot yoga in a room where the temperature is set to 95 F to 100 F. It’s not safe for pregnant women because it can cause hyperthermia, a condition that happens when your body temperature gets too high. Some studies suggest that spending too much time in a sauna or hot tub may make your body temperature too high and increase your risk of having a baby with birth defects. To be safe, don’t spend more than 15 minutes at a time in a sauna or more than 10 at a time minutes in a hot tub.
• Activities that can cause you to hit the water with great force, like water skiing, surfing or diving.
• Skydiving or scuba diving. Scuba diving can lead to decompression sickness. This is when dangerous gas bubbles form in your baby’s body.

Wow! This is an amazing article with a powerful explanation.

Do you know that everything in life that as a beginning must also have an ending?

So, when do you think it is the appropriate time for you to stop exercising yourself?

When Should You Stop Exercising?

When you’re doing physical activity, drink lots of water and pay attention to your body and how you feel. Stop your activity and call your provider if you have any of these signs or symptoms:

• Bleeding from the vagina or fluid leaking from the vagina
• Chest pain, fast heartbeat or trouble breathing
• Feeling dizzy or faint
• Headache
• Muscle weakness, trouble walking or pain or swelling in your lower legs. Pain or swelling in your lower legs may be signs and symptoms of deep vein thrombosis (also called DVT). DVT happens when a blood clot forms in a vein deep in the body, usually in the lower leg or thigh. If untreated, it can cause serious health problems and even death.
• Regular, painful contractions. A contraction is when the muscles of your uterus get tight and then relax. Contractions help push your baby out of your uterus.
• Your baby stops moving. This may be a symptom of stillbirth (when a baby dies in the womb after 20 weeks of pregnancy).

Do you know that pregnancy can change how your body responds to exercise? I know you don’t believe it but it quite true.

Does Pregnancy Change How Your Body Responds To Exercise?

Yes. During pregnancy, your body changes in many ways. When you’re active, you may notice changes in your:

• Balance: You may notice that you lose your balance more easily during pregnancy.
• Body Temperature: Your body temperature is slightly higher during pregnancy, so you start sweating sooner than you did before pregnancy.
• Breathing: As your baby develops and your body changes, you need more oxygen. Your growing belly puts pressure on your diaphragm, a muscle that helps you breathe. You may even find yourself feeling short of breath at times.
• Energy: Your body’s working hard to take care of your baby, so you may have less energy during pregnancy.
• Heart Rate: Your heart works harder and beats faster during pregnancy to get oxygen to your baby.
• Joints: Your body makes more of some hormones during pregnancy. This can make the tissues that support your joints more relaxed. Try to avoid any movements that may strain or hurt your joints. Hormones are chemicals made by the body.

I believe you would love to start exercising again after giving birth. But, the problem now is that you don’t actually know the right time to start.

When Can You Start Exercising Again After Giving Birth?

Ask your health provider when it’s OK for you to be active again:

• If you have a vaginal birth without any complications, it’s usually safe to start exercising a few days after you give birth or as soon as you’re ready. Vaginal birth is the way most babies are born. During vaginal birth, the uterus contracts to help push your baby out of the vagina (birth canal).
• If you have a c-section or a complication during birth, you may need to wait longer to start exercising after birth.

If you were active during pregnancy, it’s easier to get back into exercise after your baby is born. Just start slowly. If you feel pain or have other problems during exercise, stop doing the activity and talk to your provider.