Exercising early in pregnancy when overweight

[MsJ9]

Hi all, I'm already very overweight so I'm conscious that I want to be as healthy as I can during this pregnancy. I'll be 5 weeks tomorrow, I should be OK to go for a gentle swim, right? I know a lot of online advice suggests exercising during pregnancy is perfectly safe but I'm just a little worried as I'm already going to be classed as high risk because of my weight so I don't want to do anything to risk baby.

You will be absolutely fine. If you do not currently exercise, the recommendation is good amounts of gentle exercise (swim, walk, hike, bodyweight exercises - although avoid abs exercises). if you do, you can keep doing what you do already.

The physical activity guidelines are the same for pregnant as non pregnant women so "adults should do at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) to 300 minutes (5 hours) a week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (breathless but can talk)"

Yes you will be fine. I’m still cycling and running as I did before. I wouldn’t try anything dramatic but a swim will be absolutely fine :)

Thanks, I'll go for a nice gentle swim and see how I get on. I'm just in major paranoia/anxiety mode so question everything at the mo!

Don’t take up CrossFit (totally fine if you’re already used to
It though) but a swim, some walking, yoga, gentle home workouts etc. are totally fine. If you get on with those, you can gradually increase your intensity.