Exercise during Pregnancy

Pregnancy is not a sickness unless of course you are suffering from complications. With your doctor's consent, you can continue fitness during pregnancy.

It never even occurred to me to stop exercising during my pregnancies. In the end I was just pregnant and not sick, right. Nothing in my life had changed except for the little bump that started showing under my tank top after the fourth month. I felt great and was convinced that Zoe and Noah actually enjoyed moving together with me! But of course, fitness had always been part of my lifestyle.

If you have never been working out so far, then you shouldn’t start weight lifting now that you are pregnant. But you may still begin exercising after consulting with your doctor. The safest and most effective activities are swimming, brisk walking, indoor stationary bicycling, low-impact aerobics and pregnancy yoga. They carry little risk of injury, benefit your entire body and can be continued until birth.

If you have been working out regularly and if your gynaecologist doesn’t diagnose any medical or obstetric complication, you should definitely keep up exercising but without overdoing it. There are certain activities that you should avoid though:

•Holding your breath during any activity

•Activities where falling is likely (such as skiing and horseback riding)

•Contact sports such as softball, football, basketball and volleyball

•Any exercise that may cause even mild abdominal trauma

•Activities that require extensive jumping, hopping, skipping, bouncing or running

•Deep knee bends, full sit-ups, double leg raises and straight-leg toe touches

•Bouncing while stretching

•Exercises that require lying on your back or right side for more than three minutes. (especially after your third month of pregnancy)

•Waist twisting movements while standing

•Heavy exercise spurts

•Exercise in hot, humid weather

This is a program for you to work out at home. Warm up for five minutes first. Be creative, you can hoover the floor or clean the windows. Do 3 sets and 12-15 repetitions for each exercise and rest for 30 to 60 seconds in between the sets.