Pregnancy exercise with high level of fitness

[ClimbAHill]

I’m looking for some tips for exercising during pregnancy. I’m generally pretty fit - running, hill walking, cycling and climbing.

I haven’t been doing much except walking the dog recently. A combination of feeling rubbish, dark mornings and nights as well as some anxiety after having a MMC earlier in the year.

I’ve just had my scan and everything looks ok and also starting to feel a bit better so want to get back into an exercise routine. I’m going to try and keep running but had SI problems pre pregnancy so not sure I’ll manage much. I don’t mind a bit of Pilates and have a dog to walk but what else can people recommend that’s a bit more interesting?

I’m most motivated to exercise when it’s hard enough to be interesting. I’m not adverse to the gym but it’s closed at the moment anyway. I’ve got kettlebells but they’re quite heavy. Dvds or youtube videos might be good.

I did a few specific pregnancy workouts that were quite challenging. Basically I just kept up HIIT and was still planking at 36 weeks. If I can remember the name of the one I used to do I'll post it.

might not be your cuppa tea but u can get online subscription to les mills and get loads of diff videos covering yoga, body combat, cardio stuff, dance type stuff - can even do indoor cycling if u have an indoor bike!? i got given a subscription for my bday at first lockdown and its been really good, particulary like the yoga and body combat ones. they vary in duration, so some are short like 15/20 mins and go all way up to an hour. its not super cheap and obv lots of free stuff u can get, but this is fun and lots of variety.
congrats on the new pregnancy :) how far along r u? hope u manage to keep running as much as poss.
totally know what u mean, lost my head with anxiety after a MMC - actually found exercise was literally the one thing that kept me on the straight and narrow.

If you're on Instagram, check out Emily Skye (emilyskyefit). She's had two kids and developed pregnancy/ post pregnancy programmes. I think she's doing some free programmes at the moment and she's really lovely.

Thanks Respectabitch, HITT sounds good.

I’m 13 weeks leftitlate37. I’d forgotten about Les Mills, I have used it before. I’ve got most of a turbo trainer but lost a crucial handle in a house move! Running is already flaring up my SI but it calms down again so I’m not ready to stop completely quite yet. I usually wear compression tights which help but they are too tight round the waist now and not sure I’m willing to fork out for maternity ones if I’m not going to run much.

Emily Skye looks good as well. She’s got an online program as well as stuff on Instagram.

I did a lot of babyfit by amy on YouTube, there are ones for varying points of pregnancy and you can go harder or not if you want.

I did a few of the beach body workouts too, but thats subscription based - they have great non pregnancy workouts

Also bumps and burpees on Instagram.

I found i got slower and slower as pregnancy progressed, and enjoyed these. So they may not be hard enough for you. 5 weeks post partum now and dreading getting restarted!!

Hi OP, congrats, and I also had a MMC so understand your anxiety. I did a lot of exercise throughout my pregnancy and still did workouts with a 12kg kettlebell. Your best guide for what you can do is just to listen to your body and don't push yourself too much. If you're not already following bumps and Burpees on Instagram they have some great workouts. I was doing a workout 30 mins before I started having contractions... Good luck with your pregnancy

Hi @ClimbAHill I used to workout 4-5 times a week before pregnancy, then got covid at 5 weeks, and had bad nausea all the time since. But I used to do all YouTube workouts, Chloe Ting, Pamela Reif, Pop sugar, Heather Robinson. If you just type in YouTube whatever workout your feeling and length of time you'll find loads. Pilates is also pretty good, wasn't expecting much but if you do a long enough video it certainly burns the muscles! You could write your own pyramid set (2,4,6,8,10,8,6,4,2 reps) just pick a few exercises like jump squats, crunches, jumping Jack's etc and go up in reps then back down.