Exercise during pregnancy

[Onestep2]

Hello ladies

Im currently about 6weeks pregnant and just really interested to hear from those who regularly exercise throughout pregnant.

Did you exercise a lot before pregnancy? What kind of exercise did you do throughout? How long did you keep up exercise before your due date? How did you keep motivated to go to the gym with morning sickness/feeling crappy?

I'm an avid gym goer and do a mix between cardio mixed group classes like metafit, spin class, bootcamps and also weight training in the gym. I'm determined to keep up exercise as long as I can as The gym really is one of my happy places!! I'm just interested to see how you all got on.

(I'm in no way a skinny toned fitness guru btw... I love food and carbs and cheese too much) 😂😂

** to add, I have told my PT in pregnant and know what I can and can't do, I'm just wondering how everyone else found exercise during pregnancy!

I did a mixture of Metafit, circuits/boxing/boot camp and running before and during both pregnancies. I was lucky not to have morning sickness or tiredness so I just carried on as normal! I'm my second pregnancy I did slow down a bit. I ran until about 6 months, but kept up the classes and just modified my workouts. I did a circuits class on my due date with DD2 so never really stopped! Like you, the gym is my happy place.

Hi there! I’m a few weeks ahead of you, normally a keen runner (3-4 times a a week) with the odd weights class thrown in. I’ve been finding running particularly hard which is disheartening :( usually a 10k is no big deal and I’m struggling to get through 5 some days! My breathing seems to be where I am struggling and getting puffed out. However- weights have been no problem, so I’m rebalancing what I do until the out of breathness starts.

So in short I think keep up what you are used to as long as your body doesn’t protest and don’t over do it you will be fine! And don’t be too sad if you are feeling useless some days! Pregnancy is weird!

I was spinning 5-6x a week and managed to keep it up throughout pregnancy & last went at 40+8/9. Had a couple weeks off & returned when my son was around 2 1/2 weeks. The weights etc I reduced in weight? (That sounds wrong but you get my drift) towards the end to be cautious but spinning I still was standing and doing standing sprints to the end 😂 think I hoped it would get things going. Definitely helped make labour and recovery a lot easier keeping up exercising. We were out and walking about as soon as we were home from hospital. Congratulations & good luck! I found a lot of the advice was outdated regarding HR & so on so I took the approach to be sensible and do what felt right. Midwives were happy and supported me in my choices, you will know what feels comfortable for you.

I was doing primarily hiit sessions and strength training with mixture of Pilates in there before. Unfortunately first trimester knocked me for six but around week 16 or so I’ve got back into exercise. I’m doing modified cardio on some days and yoga on other days with some strength training here and there. Just been listening to my body and doing what feels best oh and walking!

I didn’t really go in the first 12 weeks as I was so tired and feeling sick but once this passed I continued going 2-3 times a week; less intense cardio and rather than use weight machines like I had before I did lots of free standing exercises like squats, leg presses, mat exercises etc
It kept me feeling positive about the changes in my body and I think it helped me recover more easily after my baby was born

I was going to the gym 2-3 times a week before I was pregnant. Not like serious, hardcore workouts, just a fairly light 40-50 minute sessions working up a bit of a sweat.

Kept it up both pregnancies until about 32-34 weeks, basically until it stopped being comfortable, which might be different for everyone.

But I really recommend keeping up exercise with pg if possible, as I think it helped me have 2 pretty easy pregnancies.

Come to think of it was also doing gentle pregnancy yoga and antenatal aquaerobics first time, and fairly strenuous pregnancy yoga second time around. That yoga group was amazing - quite hard work but I felt like it was doing me a lot of good.

Thanks ladies!

It's reassuring to know that you all have managed to keep up exercise throughout your pregnancy.

I'm really going to try and keep it up as soon as possible, it's defo a de-stressor for me to go to a class or the gym!

I've managed to go to my Bootcamp on Tuesday and managed a weights session this afternoon though I felt I defo tired out easier!

Another quick question.... what about abs exercises? Like plank hold or Russian twists and sit up variations, should they be avoided even in first trimester? Bit unsure 🤔

I think once your bump comes along they advise against abs x

Prior to pregnancy I was running 3x, cycling 2-3x (wattbike or turbo as it was winter), swimming 2x and doing a weights session.

At 4 weeks I started vomiting and was pretty much bedbound with nausea and vomiting for 6 weeks. Once we’d sorted out the right medication I improved (10 weeks) but still felt dreadful until 16 weeks and was still vomiting most days up until 25 weeks or later.

My fitness felt like it took a bit of a nose drive during my time off. I managed to do one or two gentle swims per week from about 13 weeks. I tried running at 18 weeks but due to baby’s position and a sensitive bladder I just felt like I needed to pee constantly and it wasn’t worth the effort. I walked lots though. I started seeing a PT around then and we did lots of strength based work - mostly body weight stuff and I realised the crosstrainer was great for cardio without the bladder issue. I also started doing turbo or wattbike sessions again.

I gradually built my fitness back up from 18 weeks and by the end of my pregnancy could do an hour on the crosstrainer or wattbike and a weights session in one go. I was still able to do press ups at at least 34 weeks. I was in the gym at 40+5 and did a 45 minute crosstrainer followed by mostly bodyweight exercises (lots of squats, lunges and step ups to try to encourage baby down!) and a swim... my waters broke that night!

I had an emergency c section but was walking a couple of miles per day from about a week, got back on some very gentle weights/bodyweight exercises and bike work from about 4 weeks and ran 5km at 6 weeks (I hadn’t set out to! The drs said I could run and I just thought ‘I’ll just run slowly and stop if it hurts or I feel too tired’ but I never got there!). We’re now at 9 weeks and I’m running 3x, biking 2x and squeezing weights and swims in where I can. I definitely think that maintaining a reasonable level of fitness has made the recovery much easier!

I had just started yoga in a new place who wouldn’t let me keep going. Didn’t know enough themselves. Fair enough.

At 12 weeks I got on the mat hosp pg yoga class and managed 3 sets of 8 weeks, finishing the week before my due date.

Between that, lots of walking still at decent speed, and some swimming, I managed to stay pretty supple, mobile and active all the way through (I was not a gym goer at that stage - I manage it for periods but don’t love it).

The pg yoga in hospital also helped learn the breathing and relaxation techniques that were very useful in Labour - far better than the antenatal classes were, and the midwife teaching was always happy to answer questions too.

Indicators that your body wants you to slow down

• a heaviness in your vagina. You’ll probably find by third trimester that you don’t want to do high impact stuff anymore. Your body will be losening up for birth and you’ll need to take care of that pelvic floor
• pulling muscles. If you keep pulling muscles again it’s probably the relaxin. This happened to me late second tri and so started to slow down then.

Now isn’t the time to push for your personal best or push yourself to your limit. But there is no reason to stop what you are doing in the first trimester and just keep a monitor as you go into second and third and if something doesn’t feel good itis probably time to start slowing down.

I did mostly cycling, including up a steep hill to work. Stopped at 32 weeks.

Sorry,. I forgot earlier that the instructors would have been happy for me to continue the regular class IF I was a regular attendee at that stage - but I was only getting back into it. If I was a regular, I would recognize what was right or wrong, whereas as a new person to them (and it having been a couple of years since my previous group), neither of us would have known if it was normal or not.

Midwives view was that you keep as active as you can, as long as you can, without pushing things too far. So you will need to slow down a little, but keeping active really helps later.

This is brilliant ladies!

Thank you!!

It sounds like, for now anyway, i can pretty much keep up what im doing just now and just listen to my body and rest/slow down as and when needed.

@starfishSandwhich its reassuring to hear that it didnt take you long to get back to exercise after the birth! How did everyone else find returning to exercise after baby arrived?

@Biddypop would you reccomend yoga then? its not something i have ever done actually!

I loved it! It meant plenty of real stretching, and some of us were very active (for yoga that is) down the back while others were more gentle towards the front. (I was still in the active group to the end as I was at it from early on so was able to keep it going). Stretches/poses were adapted to take account of less mobility, and for different people at different stages, and some were specifically for PG.

But it was really good to be in and out of the hospital frequently for non-medical stuff, and to practice all the breathing etc. As it was so much more than the antenatal classes gave (I did both in hosp) and because it was a midwife based in the hospital, she had time to answer various questions over the course of the classes which were not always about the particular pose we were doing - so that was helpful too.

I find yoga really good as a real exercise but one that slows you down a little too (I always need to reduce stress) and you do need to slow down at least a little in pg.

Ive had a wee look and there is only normal yoga classes withing reasonable travelling distance from me. as im still really early on would you think it would be fine to go and start that?

ive done pilates and body balance in the past which have some yoga based moves and i was always shocked at just how difficult yoga can be! i think i was under the impression that because it wasnt the high impact exercise that i was use to that it would be easy!

For the first I ran until my shorts didn't fit and then swapped to swimming.

For the second I kept commuting by bike until I left for maternity... My boss had a pair of cycling shorts made for me with a baby on board logo sticker on the bum. Not sure it made me any safer but it was a giggle.
We also went to see the tour de France and got a huge cheer from the crowds going up Alp dHuez... I was really obviously pregnant and dh had DD in a trailer who was doing a royal wave all the way up. Happy days. Thank you for reminding me of past daftness.

I was lucky and didn't have any morning sickness for either.