What exercises are you doing?

[RowenaJB]

Hi everyone,
I've just started maternity yoga and really enjoying. I'm going to try and go every 2 weeks. I'm also thinking about a weekly swim - although I'm not a strong swimmer and might only make a couple of laps!
Just wondered if and what exercises everyone else has been doing and what you would recommend? x

I did running, circuits and body pump til around 25 weeks.
Now 30 weeks and I'm doing a weekly circuits session (though obviously adapting the trickier stuff!) as well as lots of walking.
Not bothering with pregnancy yoga this time due to cost. I enjoyed it in my last pregnancy but it wasn't really a form of exercise, more about breathing techniques and good birthing positions etc.

Fantastic and well done, that sounds like you are keeping very fit and healthy. I know what you mean about PY. As this is my first I'm finding the breathing advice very helpful and very much enjoying the stretching as it's relieving the tension in my muscles from stress of work. A really nice teacher and group of people as well and think this makes a difference. As I'm probably not going to do NCT it's nice to meet and chat to other expectant mums too.
I do walk to work most days which is about 20 minutes up a steep hill, although not intense exercise I'm enjoying having regular steady exercise. That hill is also going to be great to push the buggy and try and burn off excess weight when baby arrives! :)

I walk 2 miles to work and 2 miles home every day. The home leg is the killer, all uphill.

Aqua aerobics - great exercise and v supportive of aching joints and back

I swam in the first trimester, but decided to stop as it was leaving me too shattered afterwards. I am a good swimmer, so was doing about 1200m without really thinking about it, and that was on top of the 30 minute walk to the pool and home again. In hindsight, it was a bit much.

Now I workout for maybe 30-40 minutes, 3-5 times a week at home (so I can go to the loo whenever I need to, etc). Normally I do the same workout videos as before, but modify them - so I step instead of jumping, do weights when they do abs, etc.

At the beginning I found all the pregnancy workout videos really frustrating, as they never got my heart rate up at all. I think I've found a good balance now between making pregnancy stuff harder, or non pregnancy stuff easier.

I'm 32 weeks now and will just keep doing as I have been. We do quite a bit of walking as well, but I don't count that as exercise as I can't walk very fast any more.

I don't really consider pregnancy yoga to be exercise though - as a pp said, it's not very cardiovascular - more stretchy stretchy breathy breathy.

Body Combat, Zumba, Tae Bo etc, not a yoga person myself . Taught my last Bodypump class 5 days before having DC2, people in my class were starting to look a little worried

Lol good on you Hazlenut!

Also good idea about adjusting the workout videos goodnessgraciousgoudaorinal. Will be trying this too.

I used to do a lot of home exercise on the wii although it might be in shock and tell me off about the weight I've put on - I wonder if there's a setting to say 'I'm pregnant'!! :)

During the week I swim, use cardio machines (lightly) and do some light weights and pilates based exercise. Then at weekends we might go for a walk or I do gardening/DIY. If I start to find this difficult, I'm going to switch to walking and maybe some aqua natal. But so far I'm doing ok (28 weeks).

I'm also going to start trying some of the stuff on the spinning babies website. Our NHS antenatal class recommended it. I had a look over the weekend and some of it looks really bizarre (hanging off stairs etc) but its supposed to be good for getting your pelvis into a happy place for giving birth!