Exercise in pregnancy

[hazelnutlatte]

Hi, can anyone point me to any useful info about exercising during pregnancy? Or give me your experiences?
During my last pregnancy I did very little exercise, other than pregnancy yoga which was so gentle it was more like a relaxation class than exercise. I didn't do regular exercise before I was pregnant either, and I felt pretty unwell throughout my pregnancy and had back pain and was incredibly tired all of the time, so generally felt rubbish.
This time I'm hoping things will be different! I'm much fitter now than I've ever been (I do 3-4 classes a week at the gym) and I'm hoping that this will help me have an easier pregnancy this time round. I'm confused about what exercise I should be doing during pregnancy though. Guidance seems to be conflicting - do I carry on as normal as long as I feel ok or are there some exercises I shouldn't do? Are abs / core exercises ok to do? Squats and lunges? Can I still exercise until I'm really sweaty and out of breath or do I need to tone things down? My yoga teacher has banned pregnant women from his class even though that's the easiest class I do - he says he is not qualified to teach pregnant women. I'd love to find out if there are any specific yoga poses I need to avoid so I can continue doing a regular yoga class, as the pregnancy yoga really wasn't exercise at all.
Any advice would be much appreciated!

Bumping this for you in the hope of a more useful answer, but I think generally you're all right to continue with things you already do. Not sure about abs/core specifically. Swimming and walking are the only things you should take up when pregnant, as I understand it. Maybe you could look for a pregnancy yoga class?

I ran and did relatively intense gym routines until the last few weeks of all my pregnancies, and despite a few complications my obstetrician gave me the all clear.

He said that heart rate based measures are now considered outdated, and the most important thing is that you are exercising at a true conversational pace - as in, you could carry on a full chat while you are exercising, not just gasp out some sentences! For me that meant long slow runs were fine, but had to walk up hills for example.

I also got some good excercise DVDs, my favourite one was Sara Haley's pregnancy did as it has quite a few different routines and they are properly challenging, not like some of the preg ones which felt like relaxation ones like your yoga! Some weeks I couldn't do much but in my energetic days it was great as they could be done within a toddler nap time

Of course, if you have any complications / cramps / bleeds this might be very different and need an all clear from your mw/doctor.
Also, I know that luck also plays a big part, but I'm sure that the exercise really helped me get back into my usual energy and shape very soon after each delivery!

Ooh and just reread your initial post - squats and lunges are usually meant to be okay but you do need to be careful about ab work (especially if you had any separation after your first pregnancy) and any inverted yoga postures, that's why I stuck with my pregnancy DVDs.

Thank you both - I'd love to find some proper guidelines that say yes you can do this, but don't do this - but everything seems to say on the one hand do whatever you feel ok to do, but on the other hand don't do anything but without any evidence to say why it might be harmful.
I'm in early pregnancy at the moment so don't feel or look pregnant yet so I suppose I'll just carry on as normal for a little while - I had no problems with stomach muscle separation after my last pregnancy but maybe I'll take the core exercises a little more gently from now on just in case!
I suppose it's like everything in pregnancy - no one wants to tell you that it's ok to do something because there might be a tiny theoretical risk.

I'm pregnant with my third and a yoga teacher/pt so will give you my opinion on it all!! There is a dearth of decent research on the subject unfortunately so this is mostly my experience talking..

Carry on doing what you did before, take it to the level you feel confident at. You will find as you get bigger that that will reduce as you will get out of breath much quicker. Squats and lunges etc are fine.

In yoga, 1st trimester: avoid closed twists, eg revolved triangle, anything that twists the abdomen closed rather than open, also avoid inversions and jump backs etc if you usually do a vinyasa. From second trimester you are ok for most things but will start to find them harder as bump gets in the way. At all time be careful not to over stretch your hormones make you more bendy, if you push yourself deeper than normal you are likely to do damage..

Re:core and abs. My personal experience is to avoid. Many trainers recommend plank, I am not convinced past the first trimester that this has benefits. It will strength your obliques but I suspect this can actually add to abdominal separation as the strong obliques pull the abdominal wall further apart.
My personal advice would be to avoid core and abs. To be honest, they are going to be stretched beyond recognition anyway! Leave them for now, work on it post partum!

Peppa that's really helpful thank you! By inversions do you just mean headstands etc? Is down dog ok? Will avoid core exercises - it's going to be obvious to everyone in the class I'm pregnant isn't it!

Down dog absolutely fine, yes by inversions I just mean head/hand/shoulder stand.. Legs up the wall is fine though (and actually quite beneficial for swollen ankles!)
Enjoy your classes! Without a doubt the fitter you are the better your recovery post baby will be :0)

Peppa, that is really useful thanks. I'm getting conflicting messages at the moment, my body balance instructors say leave out the abs, but the body pump ones are saying continue as usual for now. I just do lots of pelvic tilts in the abs tracks!

Yes I found I got huge amounts of conflicting advice even just doing a straw poll of my friends who are trainers. I think that the training programmes by and large are quite sketchy on Pre and post natal, in general it would seem not be covered in huge detail (probably because of a dearth of research)
When I have asked people WHY they would recommend core/plank in 2nd/3rd trimester, given the state of the muscles at that point they usually struggle to answer.

Oh it's bloomin' nightmare isn't it. I really wanted to carry on exercising during pregnancy as I wanted to feel as well as possible and not get too fat!

At six weeks I told my Zumba instructor I was pregnant in case she needed to change any of the moves for me. She was quite funny with me and said I shouldn't be doing the class until I was 12 weeks. She let me do that class but made me do everything low impact. I didn't go again after that as I felt self conscious like she thought I shouldn't be there. When I went to my booking appointment with the midwife, she said that what the instructor told me was a load of rubbish and as I'd been exercising before pregnancy I could carry on as normal. Sadly I miscarried at 10 weeks (which I certainly don't attribute to that 1 half-arsed Zumba class), and I feel too self conscious to go back to the class as I don't have the massive bump I'm supposed to have by now! I wish I'd never said anything because I really enjoyed the class and now I'm missing out

I also do pilates and yoga, which I stopped going to as I assumed I needed a specialist pregnancy class and the pregnancy classes I found said that you couldn't start them until 16 weeks. Not sure if you can carry on with your usual class until 16 weeks? It seems counterintuitive to do planks and various other ab work when pregnant. We also do shoulder stands in yoga which I think PP said is a no, no.

Your Zumba instructor was definitely wrong there thesmallbear! The trouble, particularly with a lot of things like zumba is that often the instructors have no prenatal training and often not a great grounding in anatomy/physiology. They hear the word pregnant and panic - basically they would rather you do very little/don't come as they are afraid of being blamed if something were to happen. It can be very frustrating!

Any yoga/pilates instructor worth their salt should have some idea of prenatal capabilities and be able to advise you but unfortunately that isn't always the case.
Things like Zumba, aerobics, step etc are absolutely fine throughout pregnancy and if the instructor disagrees challenge them on it!

Went to the gym today, told the class instructor I'm pregnant and she was fab - gave me advice that was pretty identical to peppas from earlier in this thread and also told me exactly which exercises in the class I needed to modify so I could do the class without thinking I was doing something wrong! I feel much better now about what I can and can't do. Tbh I had thought the gym instructors might be a bit clueless as they are not running pregnancy specific classes so I was pleased to find I can carry on with my normal classes.
I have to say its hard to not push myself in classes though - I usually try and do the hardest option of each exercise and carry on until my legs turn to jelly and I'm a sweaty mess! Today I was very restrained and kept reminding myself to calm down each time I got a bit out of breath - I'm sure half the class will have twigged that I'm pregnant. Any tips for inventing an ailment for when I get awkward questions from others in the class?

I would just go for a sore lower back..that could explain not doing core and not giving it too much welly! Give it a rub and wince a couple of times that might deflect attention!
If you are pretty fit though don't worry about getting a bit out of breath, as long as you could still talk while doing the exercise you should be ok :0)

Peppa Surely it should be trained out though as pregnant women must go to classes all the time. The instructor said that her sister was a midwife and that is where she'd got the info from, but my midwife said you can carry on exercising as normal. The instructor said I should be doing everything low impact as I shouldn't be raising my blood pressure, but I thought exercise raised your heart rate not your blood pressure? I went from doing loads of exercise to just going for walks. I ordered the 'Davina - My Pre & Post Natal Workouts' DVD in the end as I was so sick of doing nothing. Unfortunately it came after I had my miscarriage so I didn't have the chance to try it out.

I've never seen any pregnant women at yoga or Pilates but the instructor does say 'are the any injuries or medical conditions' at the beginning of each class so maybe he can adapt it. I wouldn't want to let anyone know I was pregnant early on after what happened last time though. I'd rather go to classes where I can keep the pregnancy a secret and know I'm safe doing the same exercises as everyone else.

You would think that people would be trained but actually (sometimes alarmingly) there is very little coverage of pregnancy/special populations in fitness training. Something like Zumba probably required a pretty short training course without a huge amount of detail.
Yoga and Pilates require a lot more training although often only advanced teachers train for prenatal. Any teacher should know the basic things to avoid in pregnancy though. You would need to tell them though, annoyingly the first trimester is the most restrictive for things like twists etc..

And you really don't need to be doing low impact..carry on at your pre pregnancy level..I am currently pregnant with my 3rd and today did a round of circuits with skipping, weights, jumps etc.. All fine!

Thanks for all the useful info Peppa. Just wondering exactly what it is about closed twists and inversions that is dangerous in the first trimester. What's actually going on in my body that makes these moves harmful to the baby? Am I squishing the pregnancy sac or something? If so, when TTC should I not do any yoga in the two week wait period when it's too early too test? Thanks.

With the closed twists it is the twisting of the uterus that is the issue. So I guess you actually might want to avoid from poss date of implantation a week/10days or so into your tww.. But not all
Yoga, only the closed twists..
The theory is that during the first trimester when the egg is implanting and attaching you don't want to twist/pressurise the uterus as it could affect it.

Inversions..partly the danger of falling as your balance is often off, partly that the blood is flowing the wrong way from the uterus. I still
Do inversions in pregnancy, I just don't stay up for long and am careful with my balance but I wouldn't recommend them to pregnant clients just to be on the safe side!