what exercise can i do, please?

[fillyjonk]

am around 5-6 wks pg

i have been going running etc, but i am pushing myself and IIRC there is something about not letting the heartrate go high?

My heartrate skyrockets very easily, when I am running and it always has even when i have been undeniably in shape. I want to be cautious here

how about stuff like cycling (on statics)?

I take it there are no problems with Pilates/yoga/NIA

oh and yes, swimming, I KNOW, though it is the world's boringest sport

thoughts?

I kept going to the gym throughout my last pg. Whilst ttc and for the first 16/17 weeks I ran 15km in 3 sessions a week and did a class and swam every other week. After that I split the 15 km over 5 days, continued with the class and upped swimming to every week. I kept this up 'til 7.5 months (34 weeks I think), then xwitched to daily swimming (I was huge by then and getting quite tired what with ds1 too). Also was walking 5-10 km a day (depending on whether I walked my dh in to the railway station or not).

I listened to my body and stopped/toned it down when I felt I needed to, but didn't pay any attention to heartrate, since mine always beats much faster than even the 95% rate when I measure it mid-exercise (and I can still talk at that pace).

Anyway, had a nice easy labour and had lost my baby weight in 10 days (although my stomach still couldn't be squeezed into my pre-pg clothes for another month!). Ds2 was born on a Monday and on the Thursday I went out for a run and it didn't kill me.

With ds1 I stopped all exercise almost as soon as I found out I was pg since "it felt wrong". Then fell ill at 5 months and mostly stayed in bed until ds1 was born. Took 9 months to get any kind of fitness back and lose the baby weight.

Would exercies throughout again if I ever do it again.

My second pg was a much more positive experience.

My experience so far (I'm at 17 weeks and a bit) is that exercise makes me a lot more tired and hungry than it did pre-pregnancy. What all these exercise-during-pregnancy books and so forth didn't tell me (or at least didn't emphasise enough) is that the combination of pregnancy and actual exercise creates an unrelending need for FOOD! Way more food than seems reasonable to me, but a bit less so now that I'm into the second trimester.

My midwife says that bicycling is fine, and I've been doing it to get around, but I kind of wonder when I'm weaving in and out of traffic trying to avoid massive potholes.

I practice aikido, and was told to avoid over-stretching, not to stretch the abdominal muscles at all (which seems a bit counter-intuitive to me) and not to lift people on my hips or be lifted (which usually means having all your weight on your belly -- bad idea). The idea is not to over-stress your ligaments etc. when the relaxin kicks in. Also, avoid abdominal trauma (Duh), no punches to the belly, for obvious reasons. I'm also falling lightly, no big pounding high-falls for me!

So, what I'd say is:
-- Stay hydrated. Seriously, lots of water.
-- Eat shortly before exercise and have more food on hand just in case.
-- Make time to rest up afterwards, again, more than usual.
-- If you actually exercise normally, you'll probably want to ease off a bit during pregnancy, but it's a good idea to keep it up to a certain extent.
-- Don't get jabbed in the belly.
-- Don't over-stretch, especially in the second half of pregnancy.
-- Listen to your body, blah, blah, stop if it hurts, especially stop if you can't breathe or are feeling like you're going to pass out.

Apart from that, and not scuba-diving (decompression is extra-dangerous in pregnancy), research indicates you can do whatever you like!

I think i said in another post, but i actually ran the marathon pregnant!! OK i dint know...but beany is still there..
Since then I have used cross trainer,and static bike,cant really run at mom,as my boobs are way too sore.
I think you liek yogimum said, if you exercised before,its cool to carry on, if you didnt, then I would get some advice from the trainers at the gym or your doctor as to how much you should be doing?
Yoga is supposed to be great..I do yoga, but make sure you tell the teacher you are pregnant, there will be some postures that you wont be able to do.
congratulations fillyjonk! xx

I know swimming is boring, i hate it and haven't swum a length in years, but I did aquanatal swimming sessions and they were great, I met some really nice people and got to listen to good music whilst not having to expose my bump to loads of people other than pregnant women and new mums and found it much easier than other excercise when heavily pregnant. Once we had our babies we could take them along and they sat in the car seat at the side of the pool watching, then had a short free session in the learner pool afterwards. dd is 2 now and has always been very confident in water, probably helped by the fact she got used to the pool so young, she'd have heard the sounds through the water while I was pregnant. My work aslo classed it as antenatal treatment as was recommended by mw, so I could go in work time, although I only did this a couple of times as I didn't want to take the p**s. Depends on the instructor too, ours was great, might be worth looking into.

I get so annoyed about all the things they tell us we're not allowed to do while pg. I still run (gently), cycle everywhere, go on the cross trainer and will do yoga and aquanatal when I get bigger (am only 13 wks). We all know our own bodies and know to stop if breathing is difficult, feeling dizzy etc. I think it's fine to run until at least 6 months and then maybe slow it down a little. The only thing I have completely given up is football and I fully intend to carry on as long as my body lets me. How can keeping your body healtyh and fit be a bad thing???

I can only speak from experience, am in no way qualified, but I do aqua aerobics (the guy who runs it tells me what not to do) and I go on the cross-trainer - but I just don't ever over do it. if it is feels weird or funny, stop immediately. It does make me feel like a million dollars when i come out!