Exercise & Pregnancy

Meet Anthony Mayatt, owner of Breathe Fitness. Anthony is our resident Fitness Guru and will be bringing you some great fitness tips on a monthly basis. If you have any questions, please email fitness@bumpsnbubs.co.uk

Welcome to my first article here based on exercise and pregnancy. What I do want to stress first is that I would recommend hiring a qualified pre and post natal trainer if you are pregnant or just given birth so that you know you are in safe hands. There is safe exercise you can do on your own but if entering a gym then I would recommend having that trainer with you.

Benefits

These are the list of benefits to exercising during pregnancy

• Labour is perceived to be less painful (not proven)
• Improves circulation
• Reduces swelling
• Less weight gain
• Improves balance and posture
• Reduces cramps, aches and joint soreness
• Improves aerobic and muscular fitness
• Reduces post natal belly fat
• More rapid return to pre-pregnancy weight and strength

I am sure you are reading those benefits and thinking yes without a doubt I must exercise now I am pregnant. Before you do though you must follow these guidlines as you cannot just exercise the same way as everybody else due to physiological changes happening within your body.

• Try to exercise at least 3 x per week.
• Don’t exercise laying on your back after the first trimester (after 3 months)
• Don’t do exercises that mean a sudden change of direction.
• Avoid exercises that put trauma on the abdominal region i.e. crunches
• Try not to overheat and make sure you replace all lost fluids
• Warm up and cool down every single session.
• Consume enough calories roughly 300 additional calories a day to maintain metabolic homeostasis.
• Also do not hold your breath during exercises, if you havn’t exercised before then start very slowly and progress over time.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY consult your doctor regularly to make sure everything is progressing safely.

If you was to notice any small change in your body physiologically then stop exercise all together and seek advice of a doctor. This could be as small as a headache to bloody discharge. That is obviously a very severe problem and is very unlikely to happen but make sure you listen to your own body.

I am not going to post any actual exercises you can do as I feel it would be better to seek advice from a professional in person. It wouldn’t feel right to give you an exercise that you could preform wrongly by yourself and cause a problem.

Post natal

Ok so once you have given birth the main question I am always asked is how long should I wait before I can start exercising again. There really is no general time frame as it depends how healthy you were leading into the pregnancy. If you exercised during pregnancy then you can start immediately whereas if you stopped during pregnancy then it is best to start back very slowly and progress. Everyone should be able to do lower abdominal and pelvic floor exercises immediately to help to start strengthening up the core muscles. Aim to get out and walk more so that you can improve your cardio fitness and over time pick up your training even more. Over time you will notice your strength return then you will be able to do more with your exercise regime.

I hope this blog gave you some useful info away from the usual exercise list as I felt it was important for people to know a different side to when and how to exercise during and after pregnancy.

See you all soon for another blog!

Anthony Mayatt, Personal Trainer and Sports Scientist (BSc Hons)
www.breathefitness.uk.com

Follow on Twitter – @breathefit