Running and other exercise when pregnant

[fitzbilly]

I'm very excited that I am finally pregnant, and I am just after some advice and other people's stories as to what they did during pregnancy.

I have a half marathon in two week's time, I am now 7 weeks pregnant and for the last three or four weeks I have not been able to keep up my usual training pace or manage the usual mid-week interval training.

Today I went on my usual long sunday run and my natural pace, which is usually just under ten minutes per mile, was more like eleven minutes per mile. I am going to aim to keep it at about eleven minutes for the race rather than try to get a PB or get in under two hours.

I guess slowing down makes sense, I am mindful of my heart rate and have been monitoring that too, so it doesn't get too high. That also means I run slower.

I would love to carry on running throughout pregnancy, how have other people found this?

Also, I climb and surf but I'm thinking those will be out of bounds soon due to my changing centre of gravity and the risk of falls.

What else can I do to stay fit?

[kvmum]

You sound so lovely and motivated. Of course keeping fit is excellent. And here comes the But...I was fine with DD now aged seven. I cycled until 5 months preggers with her (colleagues took bike away as it made them uncomfortable in the end) and got into Buggy fit asap after she was born. All fine. But I have had a few miscarriages since...one, after running that day...I will feel guilty and uncertain about that decision forever. Your body is doing very complex stuff and, my advice would be to start pregnancy yoga and swimming. All good for baby and no risk. Its a short time you have, to be growing this life. You can go high impact again very soon after birth. Take care.

[Heatherbell1978]

It's definitely true that the fitter you are the healthier your pregnancy and easier your birth. But I would also caution against doing too much, you really want to keep your heart rate down. When I was pregnant with DS (now 18m) I did loads of walking, to and from work each day (10k) and pregnancy yoga. Easy birth and a year after he was born my stomach was flat as a pancake. I should add I struggled to do much aside from walking with buggy after he was born due to tiredness but your muscles don't forget!

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es]

The other thing you need to start considering is your pelvic floor, the ligaments become laxer during pregnancy and obviously as time goes by there is more and more downward pressure, these factors in combination with high impact exercise can cause long term problems in that area. Lower impact exercise such as swimming and walking is definitely safer in this respect.

[zeetea]

I'm interested to see what others suggest - I do a lot of high intensity/weight lifting and although not yet even TTC I'm already worried about how being pregnant will effect all that - I would hate to lose a lot of my muscle/strength, and I wonder how long it would take to build back up again :(

How about rowing, if you've got access to one? You might be able to find them cheap on gumtree too. That's low impact but similar to running on the met-con side x

[fitzbilly]

Thank you for all the helpful responses.

I am cautious that I need to keep my heart rate down, and am doing that by monitoring my heart rate during running.

I think after this half marathon I will cut down the milage and add on some lower impact exercise to my week.

I am still interested in other people's experiences of running when pregnant too.

[HalleLouja]

Why don't you post on the running thread? There is at least one runner on there who did it until the day she gave birth pretty much.

[MrsMook]

My friend did the GNR at 5 months pregnant. If your body is used to it, and allows you to do it gently then keep going.

My body has been considerably less cooperative. First time I ground to a complete halt due to the exhaustion/ nausea, then followed immediately by SPD. Second time was better. I managed to keep up buggy fit and the gym until my hips complained around 20 weeks. I just did what my (unforgiving) body allowed.

[BlueChampagne]

I did lots of cycling. Kind to hips and pelvic floor.

[ilovepinecones]

hello i also am a keen runner. This is my second pregnancy. I gave up running first time at around 7 months. This time at around 5 months. There are no risks to carry on though if you feel up to it. I just didn't feel comfortable with a huge bump! For first preg I stepped up the gym - my lovely dh wrote me a customised plan - included weights, core, bike and stepper. I also went to preg yoga 1x week and swim 1x week. This time round I have no time for gym (though prob should and could still do it at home if I could be bothered!), though I do swim 2x week and yoga 2x week.

[ilovepinecones]

yes would also say partly not exercising as much as still feel crap at seven months plus so so tired!!

[ilovepinecones]

oh god yes - pelvic floors! Do them - they are so boring but it will be worth weight in gold if you want to get back to running post birth quickly as well. That was the shocker for me. Mine were shot to pieces and so couldn't jog at all for a good three months after giving birth.

[Mummybare]

Be careful of your knees and hips too - the hormone relaxin that allows your pelvic bones to separate in order to give birth affects all your joints during pregnancy. The ligaments here get stretchy too and this can leave them vulnerable to injury if you're subjecting them to high impact. Of course, the effect of this will be different from person to person, but it pays to be kind to joints - if they get damaged they can take a loooong time to heal.

[cinnamongreyhound]

I ran until the day before my due date, definitely slower and it was winter so no overheating problems! I did a 9 mile race at 12 weeks which nearly killed me but it was a team event and I didn't want to let people down, so ran at my expected pace. From
Then on I slowed down but still ran, my last race was at 24weeks and that was slower than my usual time. Running is my socialising and I didn't want to lose that but generally I felt well and carried on with no stop date in mind. I found the first trimester the hardest, second was fine and third was fine while running but found I was much more tired afterwards for the rest of the day.

[Babylonmood]

Congratulations! I'm very jealous of your motivation. Just be aware that for a lot of women, the next 6 weeks can be the most exhausting and all you want to do is go to bed at 8pm. You might find exercise particularly difficult and get a bit down heartened. Don't! Your energy will come back and you can have an active fit pregnancy. Just maybe give yourself a little break the n the next few weeks.