anyone else continuing to exercise in early pregnancy?

[sallycinamon]

Sorry, as I'm sure this has been done before but I can't work out how to 'switch to alphabetical order' now Mumsnet has this 'new look'!

Anyway, I'm 5.5 weeks pregnant and continuing to run on the treadmill and do other cardio stuff at the gym for as long as possible. I had a quick chat with one of the gym instructors there and she said just to carry on exactly as normal for the time being so I have been. The only thing is my mum is a bit disapproving of all this. I exercised through my first pregnancy and my mum is convinced this is why i had such a long labour and an emerg c-section. It would just feel more 'wrong' to me to stop exercising just because I am pregnant.

What have other mumsnetters done regarding exercise?

Thanks!

Why would exercising have made your labour longer and resulted in a c-section?!? Would have thought if anything being fit makes labour easier to cope with and the body bounce back quicker!! Mums are daft sometimes! I was a regular gym user before this pregnancy (my 2nd) but I have to admit I haven't been going since I was about 10 weeks (am 31 wks now) but while I was going I was pretty much doing what I had been - treadmill, cross-trainer and rowing machine. I have heard that you should not let your heart-rate go beyond 140bpm though, when pregnant.

Keep going as long as you want to! You'll obviously have to scale down what you do as your pregnancy progresses.

i kept gentle exercise ( swimming, yoga, pliates) until weeks 42

there are some things you cant do later on, like abdom exercises and high impact stuff, and you need to go easy on stretches but afaik most gym stuff is fine. but i'm not an expert

yes about heart rate & generally just make sure you don't overheat and when tired, rest/have more rest periods.
No heavy weight lifting - carefull with lifting above shoulders. No ab crunches.
take care

I kept jogging all the way thru 2 pregnancies and they were pretty easy deliveries, by medical standards. I always read that exercise results in faster and better recovery post=partum (I think there are a lot of studies to back that up). And possibly in a lower risk of obesity in the infant (studies still going on about that one).

Watch out for dehydration, overheating, too much stress on joints or ligaments, and fatigue (that means, you shouldn't feel anything worse than pleasantly tired post exercise).

Thanks for the replies!

Just wondering why it is important not to let your heart rate go above 140 beats per min? What would happen? It's hard to know how fast your heart is beating unless you are wearing one of those gadgets on your arm (which I don't have!).

I kept going to the gym, using the treadmill and doing pilates up to week 20 with DS1. I was the fittest I had ever been in the run up to falling pregnant with him. I was keeping my heart rate at 140 or lower. But at 20 weeks I started having contractions and stopped exercising following advice. At 25 weeks I was hospitalised for 3 weeks with threatened early labour and was housebound for the rest of the pregnancy taking drugs to keep the contractions away and DS1 still came at 35 weeks. All of this was never put down to anything in particular - stress say some, flying say others, exercise? I don't know, but am pretty cautious these days. I am now week 14 and will do some Body Ball classes run at my hospital by physios and designed specifically for antenatal and postnatal mummies.

keep it up and use the heart rate monitor as a guide if you like but you are best to go by preceived extertion. As others have said, be very careful stretching, drink plenty and don't overheat. Listen to your body and don't ignore any signs to ease off or stop that you might have done pre-pregnancy for fear of seeming to be slacking. And remember that you might feel different this pregnancy that last. I ran to the end during my first pregnancy but with my second, I stopped at about 5 months as it just didn't feel right nor comfortable. I exercised in the gym to the end with both though and although I have never been able to find any research to prove whether being fit helps or hinders your actual labour, it has been proven that being fit helps with your recovery.

Good luck with it all

I think heart rate is because your heart is already going overdrive and you don't want blood pressure to go over the roof.
By end of first trimester your body should be pumping up to about 25% more blood through your system. I think?
Basically as everyone said, just slow down a bit as weeks go by and do give in to fatigue. Know when to stop.

I think if you search on Google you'll find the heart rate guidelines are considered obsolete, I ignored them, perceived exertion makes more sense. You want to feel pleasantly tired after exercise, not shattered.