Exercise ideas

[BatKat]

Hi everyone. I’m hoping to get some advice around exercising whilst pregnant. I was super active before I got pregnant with a mixture of running, netball and gym classes.

I’ve been wiped out with nausea and exhaustion and so haven’t been able to do much exercise at all over the last couple of months. I’m now at the 15 week mark and slowly feeling more human again and so keen to get a bit more exercise in.

I tried pregnancy yoga last night and although I enjoyed it, I would prefer to do this alongside something more intense. My gym does a lot of circuit, HIIT, spin and body pump classes but i’m not sure if these are appropriate when you are pregnant, does anyone know? The classes at my gym are very big and so I wouldn’t be able to get much specific help from the instructor.

Any advice/ideas would be greatfuly received! The only thing I don’t like is swimming!

I was told by my gym instructor that I shouldn’t be doing anything that made me so out of breath that I couldn’t hold a conversation.
My gym set me up a programme of about ten minutes on the bike and cross trainer at level 1-2, arm and chest exercises on the exercise bikes and mat work like leg lifts lying on my side, squats just using my body weight.
Pre pregnancy I used to use a lot of weights for squats, arms and chest so it wasn’t a massive change. I do think carrying on exercising has helped me return to normal quicker since I had my baby
I’d ask your gym if there’s someone trained in fitness during pregnancy you can have a chat with

If it feels ok you can pretty much do whatever you were doing before. I'm 30 weeks and still do HIIT (with a couple of modifications on things like Burpees and crunches) plus cardio and a challenging pregnancy workout at the gym. Google "pre push workout 1st and 2nd trimester" if you want a downloadable workout that is more challenging.

Just listen to your body basically.

You can still do most things that you did pre pregnancy so circuits, hiit and spin should be ok. I'm 24 weeks and still doing circuits, kettlebells and running. I've just stopped metafit as the jumping was making me feel A bit off balance. I've also started swimming once a week which I was never into before but I find it quite relaxing and eases backache.
Honestly I think being active during pregnancy is one of the best things you can do. I've had no nausea and lots of energy. Although that could just be luck!

I came on to ask this very question.

I was very active up to about 6 weeks when I started feeling faint while exercising and generally wiped out. I'm now 19 weeks and need to resume exercise so I tried a zumba class yesterday (first one ever!) - it felt fine at the time but very achey around my bump today. I don't feel I could resume running or things like bootcamp or HIIT, and I'm a bit nervous of accidentally overdoing things.

brogueish, while you are more vulnerable to hurting your back or overstraining your muscles while pregnant, due to the relaxin in your body and the extra weight, rest assured that these things don't threaten or damage the pregnancy. Sounds like you had mild muscle strain in the muscles of your belly yesterday, which as long as it goes away within a day or two should be harmless and even good for the muscles. Obviously you don't need to do anything you don't feel comfortable doing or want to do, but generally if you hurt yourself you'll know it right away, and baby will be fine.

If you haven't kept up at it since you got pregnant, I wouldn't go back to a higher intensity workout like HIIT or spinning after time off from workouts in early pregnany. I did spinning regularly before I was pregnant and I kept it up in a modified form until I was about 14/15 weeks. Then I got too busy with work and didn't have the time for about 3 weeks. I was enough out of shape already after that, that I wouldn't have gone back after that time off. Yoga is great and you will really start to feel being pregnant in your joints soon so having that time to stretch and also strengthen certain areas will help a lot, especially in your preparation for birth. Personally, I would switch to good ole walking and swimming. An hour's walk a few times a week or 30-45 minutes of swimming will be plenty for you as you start to get more pregnant. The swimming especially is great for keeping the mobility in your pelvis and hips. I would skip the high intensity stuff at this point if you've not being doing it up til now. You'll have plenty of time to go back to that after baby arrives. I would focus on just staying active and keeping your joints mobile and making sure you don't injure yourself at this point.

With my son I did gym cardio (bike or elliptical trainer) until 35-36 weeks after stopping running at 25 weeks. I also swam until after my due date but you've already stated you're not a fan of that!

This time I stopped running at 34 weeks, but have been mostly just walking since then because I've had a couple of complications straight away after that.

If you haven't kept up at it since you got pregnant, I wouldn't go back to a higher intensity workout like HIIT or spinning after time off from workouts in early pregnany.

I don't think this is necessarily true. I struggled to exercise between 8 and 16 weeks thanks to a double whammy of nausea and anaemia. I lost some fitness, but was able to pick up more intense workouts again afterwards with no problems.

Thanks, QueenAravis, that's very reassuring. It's depressing how quickly I feel that my fitness has dropped so I will aim to work up again gradually - maybe not to exactly where I was pre pg though!

Thank you all - very helpful comments. I will defo ask around the instructors at the gym and might even give swimming another go!

Bodypump is safe in pregnancy - you can find modifications here www.lesmills.com/knowledge/pregnancy/pregnancy-modifications/

You can continue to run in pregnancy. Stay comfortable, so consider reduce your speed (and therefore distance) but you can keep going for the same time as long as you're not getting over-tired/breathless. Also consider adding walking intervals (like a 5k-to-couch!)

Whatever you decide to do, remember to add pelvic floor exercises.

I did my usual pre-pregnancy ballet, circuits and weights classes up until 38 weeks.

Tap I had to drop a bit earlier because the bouncing around got a bit much in the pelvic area and there isn't really any way to modify the impact the way there is with the above. A shame, because I used to love the way DS1 would kick like mad during tap - he's now a mad-keen tap dancer himself

Was too knackered to do much exercise at all beyond the odd pregnancy yoga DVD with DS2. Pregnancy + running around after a toddler is beyond exhausting.