What, if any, exercise are you doing?

[Annie456]

Afternoon all,
Im 6+5 and generally too tired to exercise but have had a couple of more high energy days and feel like I should so "something". I know swimming would be good but I'm not sure I have 'that much' energy, and just wondered what anyone else is doing?
I used to be really active so not sure what's safe?

[barelyutterly]

At nearly 20 weeks, as a high-level amateur athlete, I am:

Cycling - up to 4 hours on my road bike. Most rides are more like 1.5-2.5 hours. Not racing anymore though as I'm just too slow. I am very confident in traffic and in general but will stop if it gets too uncomfortable or I start to feel the bump interferes with my balance and reflexes.

Running - up to an hour or 8 miles (only because I just started again when I got pg so been building up steadily again). Wanted to do some weight-bearing exercise plus in winter I quite enjoy it.

Swimming - will take this up again when cycling and running are no longer options.

Regarding intensity, I had to cut back in the first trimester just because my body didn't let me (not that I'd been pushing myself anyway). Energy was very low so some days were just about getting out and doing something, regardless of how easy or slow.

Second trimester I've had more energy but now I'm finding that the extra weight and encroachment on my lungs is slowing me down again. Again, just listening to my body and going with how I feel.

Here's a good article for anyone questioning whether a good amount of exercise is healthy in pregnancy. There's a lot of unfounded crap out there ("keep your HR below X beats" etc.) so worth reading if you're a fit active person before and want to keep it up during pregnancy. All bets are off if there are complications of course!

www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/the-pregnant-athlete

[Dirtygirty]

oops I knew something had gone wrong there

[Dirtygirty]

I have been swimming loads throughout this pregnancy and has been much better than first. I did swim a lot before though. I like front crawl most. Some days it has been the only thing keeping me going. Now at 36 weeks it seems like the only thing that makes me feel weightless.

[Dirtygirty]

I am now 36 weeks and have been swimming loads throughout my pregnancy though I did swim before too. Some days its been the only thing that has kept me going and I think it has definitely made my second pregnancy better than my first.

[Dirtygirty]

I am now 36 weeks and have been swimming loads throughout my pregnancy though I did swim before too. Some days its been the only thing that has kept me going and I think it has definitely made my second pregnancy better than my first.

[GoldFrakkincenseAndMyrrh]

Afraid I'm guilty as charged with a first baby (and DH who works long hours)! I've told him that I plan to go back to exercising 6 weeks after though and he's jolly well going to watch the baby. Then when we move priority #1 when choosing a new gym will be the crèche.

I think it's partly habit and partly what your 'extracurricukar' interests are. If I was given the choice of a weekly trip to the cinema or a weekly trip to the gym I'd take the gym.

[missp2010]

Blimey, I'm amazed that so many people can a) afford gym membership etc and b) have time to fit so much exercise into a typical week! Are you all pg with first babies???

I am 22 weeks with DC3 and have only just started to go swimming. I'm aiming to go two or three times a week, but to be honest at £3.70 a time I'm not sure I can keep that up for the rest of the pregnancy. Plus due to childcare I have to go in the evenings, which means it's really pretty late by the time I go to bed after I've tidied up the dinner stuff, sorted DDs lunch for next day, sorted any washing and done any cleaning that needs to be done. DH is good at doing his share, but he is at work all day and brings a lot to do at home (he's a teacher, so always loads of marking etc to do). Plus it's only reasonable that he gets to go out and get some exercise himself sometimes!

I would say I'm relatively active in that I walk anywhere we have to go, I am out with DS for a large portion of the day and seem to be forever rushing about cleaning and tidying the house. We go for walks at the weekend but with two young kids we don't get to go far or very quickly!

It seems I do very little compared to the rest of you. No surprises that I'm getting rather, large, shall we say :( any one else similar to me???

[mum295]

Thanks Gold! Once I've had the 12-week scan and know all's well I'll talk to the instructor to see if I can rejoin the BB class with amended options. She's a mum to young kids herself and has told me in the past that she specialises in pregnancy fitness, so am sure she'll be sympathetic.

[GoldFrakkincenseAndMyrrh]

Mum295 there are pregnancy options for the abs work. The ones where you're on your side and raise you hip off the floor for example. In fact there's pregnancy options for everything but I'm really lucky that my BB instructors know this as from reading around the Internet done people don't.

We're doing a mix at the moment and one of them has designed it so every track really benefits me and where I can stay as close to the 'normal' routines as possible, which was so sweet of her I nearly cried.

[Carnival]

I'm doing 1x dance-fit, 2x Zumba, and a swim on a Saturday morning. I dropped my circuits class as I didn't fancy the free weights element of it, and am only 8-10 weeks (haven't had my dating scan) I may return to it once I can freely discuss being pregnant with the trainer. I made the mistake of mentioning it to another trainer (in confidence) and she announced that the 'low' version of one of the routines would be better for me in front of the whole class, one of whom is another parent at the school my dd goes to. This is a bummer, as we plan to keep 'mum' as long as we can due to previous mc. My GP was quite rock and roll about the whole exercise thing, as I've been exercising frequently for a while now, she just said not to push my heart rate up too far.

I am exhausted though, but I sleep better on the nights I've exercised, so it balances out for me.

[Poppet45]

Great thread. I cycled 10k a day to work and back when I was pregnant. I didn't feel like doing any exercise at all in the first trimester because I was so tired, and I'm not an exercise nut it's just it was part of my commute, the fresh air stopped morning sickness completely and it meant I could have an extra half hour in bed as opposed to sit in a bus in a traffic jam. Also I got quite bad pelvic pain from walking but found cycling so gentle and a much more efficient way of moving! I stopped when we moved to a new city and I had to leave my job when I was 7 months pregnant.... and have to say that by the final few weeks the looks from white van drivers were priceless, including one bright chap who muttered 'you're pregnant!' at me in a traffic jam. I did my best to look shocked. After that I took up pregnancy yoga once a week and also aqua natal. Which was lovely. You'll never be as comfy in your final weeks of pregnancy as you are in a pool. If like me you resembled a large sea mammal it's like coming home. But yes hauling yourself out of the pool is hard work, and frankly heartbreaking... Still I managed my last aquanatal and yoga classes the morning before I went into labour!

[mum295]

FWIW, in first pregnancy I did very little exercise in first trimester as I felt so rubbish, then after 12-week scan resumed weekly personal training sessions at the gym (mostly bike/weights), swam occasionally and went to weekly pregnancy Pilates class, which was fab and helped me make one great new friend. Also had the odd swim. The midwife who helped me give birth was pregnant herself and asked me if I had been doing yoga/Pilates as I was able to be so active in labour, and she said it had helped.

This time around, things seem to be going the same way. Am currently 9 weeks and feeling tired/nauseous. Have been trying to do light treadmill work at the gym once a week but just made me feel more sick. Have ditched my usual Body Balance (yoga/Pilates) class to avoid abdominal work but once past the 12-week point I will be looking for a pregnancy class to attend - not so easy now I have to think about babysitting for DD! Will also probably start some personal training sessions and swimming in due course (gym has a creche, thankfully).

[dizzy77]

I love this thread. And I have taken the view (and advice) that you should keep doing what you're used to, if you feel up to it, so long as you don't push yourself so hard. After a little bit of a break with the snow and xmas I'd like to keep as active as I can.

I'm just gearing up to swim with my club, been doing it all the way through and delighted to get pushed a bit by someone as since I told the gym, they're going easy on me and I'm going easy on myself. The coach is really supportive, no diving and I've been able to relax my times a bit, but not v much. I'm let off diving and just now at 22 wks I've had to stop tumble turning. I've never heard the "no swimming" advice either although did note that like baths, it's not advised if your waters have broken.

That said, I did exercise about 5 times per week pre-pg: swimming twice, a cardio class at the gym and some weights or a run, depending on the weather. I'm missing the cardio classes but I also have found it really hard to stick to the low intensity moves as I'm used to really going for it, but bounce/bump/bladder is no fun at all.

[GeekLove]

I was running at least 8 miles a week and walking at least 4 miles a day at work/picking DC up as well as weekends taking DC swimming. I had intended to keep on for as long as possible but once I got to 4 weeks I just wanted to stay in bed for an extra half hour!
Took another 8 weeks to lose the tiredness.
However I am going on maternity leave at 35 weeks so have good intentions to do aquaerobics and proper swimming while DC is at nursery during the day.

[coastgirl]

I'm 9 weeks and getting back into the gym after Christmas and a nasty bout of flu. It's at work so that makes it easier and even though I was knackered after work today a workout made me feel better. I try not to wear myself out too much - I take each machine down a level but I still do weights for my upper body. I'll do this as long as I feel comfortable.

[bluebeach]

Bimey there are some fit people on here. I didn't have an exercise routine before I got preggers, mainly just walking anywhere I could locally and going for walks at the weekend.

Now I am 33 weeks and still trying to keep up the walking, though nothing more than a few miles at a time now.

My mum puts me to shame, when she was pregnant with my brother in the 70's she went for a checkup at the hospital on her due date, where she was told nothing would happen for a few days. Then to save her bus fare she walked the 7 miles home across fields and stiles!!

[lilly13]

I was quite surprised myself. The consultant is a top notch specialist with over 20 years of experience and Tatler rankings, so I do not question his credibility. I think everyone has different perception of risk and safety. For instance, a lot people told me that I would miscarry if I carry on with my dynamic yoga practice, however, this form of exercise felt right to me and I had a strong practice with inversions every day in the 1st trimester. Yet I did not swim, because I was a bit spooked. The water in my pool is ozonised (rather than chlorinated), however, you just never know if anyone checks the levels of harmful bacteria, etc. Even if there were many germs, this might not have necessarily led to an infection, and/or fetal defects.. I suppose this comes down to one's judgement...

[Piranha1981]

I'm surprised about the swimming advice - given how much I stink of chlorine after a pool session I can't imagine much surviving in there!!

Like others have said, exercise levels are really dependent on a) how much you did prior to becoming pregnant and b) how you feel during your pregnancy. I had just run a marathon when I became pregnant so I was confident continuing with a fairly rigorous exercise routine - and in fact it was the only thing that seemed to get rid of nausea (but then I didn't have really bad morning sickness, more just feeling a bit nauseous and not really feeling like eating much).

I did aqua aerobics, yoga 2x per week, ran 1/2 x per week and did some aerobics classes in early pregnancy. Ran a couple of races (10k at 11 weeks and a half marathon at 22 weeks) before deciding to stop running as it wasn't actually that comfortable.

Now 37 weeks and doing antenatal yoga 3x week, swimming 2x week and walking everywhere which feels like enough - so I've kept up the regularity of the exercise while lowering the intensity. Again, exercise seems to really help with aches and pains and staying calm and relaxed.

I'm just hoping that all this exercise is going to pay off in labour and post-birth recovery!! I'm also quite worried about how I'm going to get my exercise fix post-birth since it's not going to be as easy to have selfish "me" time.

[jasmine51]

I'm really shocked re the swimming advice. I've been checking all my books and even the most conservative ones dont mention any danger from swimming germs. If the chlorine level was low enough to let anything survive I dont think the pool would be open anyway. I have had 4mc and whilst I was advised to take it easy with the jogging I wasnt warned off swimming...really shocked at that consultant

[thefurryone]

Oh my word did your consultant actually say that to you with a straight face!! Whilst I wouldn't particularly recommend swimming in stagnant or polluted water, public and gym pools tend to have pretty strigent approaches to chlorination.

I've don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting anything other than veruccas from a swimming pool and those come from the changing room floor. I've also never noticed any swimming pool water entering my vaginal cavity pregnant or not, and I'd have thought a tampon in there would be more likely to encourage infection than prevent it.

Oh well, I guess we all have different approaches to what we consider risky activities.

[lilly13]

I have been told by my consultant that the risk with swimming is not in swimming per se, but in a potential uncleanliness of the pool and, hence, the risk of an infection which could result in fetal defects. of course, it is a conservative approach and subject to individual enterpretation.... having said this, pool uncleanliness is quite common (well, depending on where you live... I have seen many people at my gym not taking showers before going to the pool and that made me think...) I started swimming after 21 weeks and I still wonder what's out there. I suppose you can always use a tampon if that's the only excercise you can do and it makes you feel better.

[thefurryone]

I've never heard anything about not swimming in the first trimester. There is nothing on the NHS website about it either www.nhs.uk/Livewell/pregnancy/Pages/Exerciseandpregnancy.aspx

TBH whilst I know there are some things that it makes sense to avoid in this period a part of me can't help thinking that a lot of medical professionals/ pregnancy books use 'it's ok but not in the first trimester' as their stock response for things they don't actually have a clue about. I suppose it's a case of not actually knowing what causes most miscarriages and not wanting people to blame them if they end up miscarrying the day after having gone for a swim.

That said I didn't swim in the first trimester but that was only because I didn't think the other swimmers would appreciate it when I threw up in the pool!

[sh77]

My exercise is walking to my bed. I am 30 weeks and bloody knackered.

[jasmine51]

I hadnt heard about not swimming, quite the opposite in fact. I do know there is a caution about too much front crawl and breast stroke later on because it can strain the back too much. I might be completely ignorant though (too many rocks falling on head). Having said that, my aquanatal class is only open to 16 wks and beyond....

[Annie456]

Good point Jasmine about the teeny harnesses and rock shoes .
Has anyone else been warned about not swimming in the first trimester? It's only another 5 weeks but if there is a real risk then I'll hang on and stick to walking / pilates. I might have a look for some pregnancy pilates DVDs...
Thanks again everyone!