Some exercise for pregnant women are necessary and important for both mother and child.
A pregnant woman should concentrate on doing aerobic exercises that are not too demanding on her body.
Avoid doing intense pregnant workouts because they might be harmful to both you and your unborn child.
When you work out, your health and the health of your baby come first. Your aim is to be physically fit, not competition fit.
Stretching too much is something to stay away from when working out during pregnancy.
For instance, if you can connect your chin to your knee while you’re not pregnant (a strenuous stretch), you shouldn’t do it while you’re expecting.
The idea is to be flexible while avoiding activities you would normally try to undertake if you weren’t pregnant.Additionally, exercises that entail a lot of bouncing, like those in many training programs, should be avoided by pregnant women.
Even though it’s an excellent aerobic workout, doing this when pregnant is dangerous for you.
A solid exercise regimen will improve your physical stamina, strength, and energy levels while also easing pregnancy-related back pain.
Additionally, it can help your body lose weight more quickly after giving birth and can help your stomach stay flat following delivery.
A proper diet plan is just as important as a good exercise program for giving you the meals that will keep the extra weight off while giving you the energy and nutrients you and your unborn child need.
When you’re pregnant, it’s even more crucial to stay away from junk food than when you’re not because it increases blood fat levels and offers few nutritional benefits.
Benefits of exercise for pregnant women
You and your foetus gain from regular exercise throughout pregnancy in the following significant ways:
- lowers back ache
- relieving constipation
- reduces the possibility of developing gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and caesarean delivery
- encourages pregnancy weight gain that is good
- strengthens your heart and blood vessels and increases general fitness
- after your baby is born, it helps you shed the baby weight.
Safe exercise for pregnant women
These exercises are most secure for pregnant women, according to experts:
Walking:-
Walking is the most commonly chosen type of physical activity during pregnancy and provides several health benefits to both mother and child.
The evidence for beneficial effects of walking during pregnancy on fetal health, as with maternal health, is promising.
Investigations suggest that walking during pregnancy leads to healthy birth weight and may reduce the risk of preterm birth, although the cumulative evidence is currently weaker than it is for maternal health.
Walking during late in pregnancy is associated with a decreased risk of several adverse birth-weight related neonatal outcomes (including macrosomia, shoulder dystocia, hypoglycemia, and congenital anomalies).
Swimming and water exercises
It can be a great way to exercise during the first two trimesters – a bit riskier in the third as energy and dexterity levels lessen. Going swimming during pregnancy is an excellent idea because the body benefits from it in several ways:
The circulation gets gently going, muscles and joints are gently trained and blood pressure is regulated. There is less water retention, the risk of thrombosis is reduced and the immune system is strengthened. In this way, many typical pregnancy symptoms can be alleviated. It’s twice as much fun when you do something for your health together
Precaution during swimming
During pregnancy, there are a few things to watch out for:
- You shouldn’t swim if you already have a vaginal infection.
- Some midwives advise using a tampon with yoghurt or specific suppositories due to the possibility that the pH of the vaginal flora can change during pregnancy.
- Try going swimming when it’s not rush hour to prevent running into each other by accident.
- Remove yourself from the water right away if you feel ill or have any circulation issues.
- Ideally, there is always a lifeguard on duty to step in.
Therefore, swimming in isolated bathing lakes is not advised during pregnancy.
Riding a stationary bicycle
During pregnancy might be problematic since your expanding belly may compromise your balance and increase your chance of falling.
A stationary bike is a superior option for cycling.
Modified Pilates and yoga
Yoga encourages stretching and deep breathing while lowering stress levels and increasing flexibility.
Pregnant women can take prenatal yoga and Pilates classes. In these programs, modified poses are frequently taught to account for a pregnant woman’s fluctuating balance. Avoid holding still or spending a lot of time lying on your back in any stance.
Benefits of yoga in pregnancy
- A happy and healthy pregnancy
- The yogic practices strengthen pelvic floor and abdomen muscle. It paves way for easy delivery without complications. Also regular practice reduces the mental stress and anxieties that may arise during child birth.
- Greatly enhances the mental and the physical development of the baby in the womb.
- After childbirth, one can quickly regain one’s physical state prior to pregnancy.
If you have previous experience running, jogging, or playing racquet sports, you might be able to continue doing these activities while pregnant.
Talk to your ob-gyn about these activities.
Exercise for pregnant women: Is It Safe ?
As with any exercise program, you must make sure that you are performing the right exercises and that you are performing them correctly to avoid any potential issues that may arise if you do things incorrectly. Exercising while pregnant is safe and advantageous to both you and your unborn child as it increases the likelihood of having a healthier pregnancy.
It is fine to start or maintain your usual physical exercise if you are healthy and your pregnancy is normal.
Your chances of miscarriage, low birth weight, or early delivery does not increase if you exercise.
During your early prenatal appointments, it’s still crucial to address exercise with your obstetrician-gynecologist (ob-gyn).
You can talk about what activities you can do safely, if your ob-gyn gives you permission.
Intensity of exercise during pregnancy
The recommended weekly amount of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for pregnant women is 150 minutes.
A rhythmic movement of the body’s major muscles, such as the arms and legs, constitutes an aerobic activity.
Moving at a moderate intensity causes your heart rate to increase and causes you to start perspiring.
Normal speech is still permitted, but singing is not.
Brisk walking and general gardening are examples of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (raking, weeding, or digging).
You can split the 150 minutes into smaller 10-minute workouts spread out over each day, or into five 30-minute workouts on different days of the week.
If you’ve never exercised before, start out cautiously and build up your activity over time.
Start off with just five minutes per day.
Up until you can continue to be active for 30 minutes every day, add 5 minutes each week.
If you were very active before pregnancy, you can keep doing the same workouts with your ob-gyn’s approval. Nevertheless, you might need to eat more calories if you start to lose weight.
Precaution
- Water is important to consume before, during, and after exercise. Dehydration symptoms include light headedness, a racing or pounding heart, and incontinence or dark yellow urine.
- To assist protect your breasts, put on a supportive sports bra.
- A belly support belt may ease discomfort later in pregnancy when running or walking.
- Stay away from getting too hot, especially in the first trimester.
- Drink a lot of water, dress comfortably, and work out in a space that is kept at a consistent temperature.
- When it’s really hot or humid outside, avoid exercising.
- As much as possible, refrain from being motionless or lying flat on your back.
- Your uterus presses against a sizable vein that carries blood back to the heart when you’re on your back.
- Blood can collect in your legs and feet when you are standing still. Your blood pressure could temporarily drop in these positions.
Important precaution
Pregnant women with the following illnesses or pregnancy problems shouldn’t exercise:
- Cerclage
- certain heart and lung conditions
- the possibility of having twins or triplets (or more) with preterm labour risk factors
- after 26 weeks of pregnancy, the placenta previa
- During this pregnancy, preterm labour or membrane rupture (your water has broken)
- Preeclampsia, or high blood pressure brought on by pregnancy
- severe anaemia