Exercise and pregnancy

[Newmumtobetwothousandandtwo]

Hello!

Nervous first time mum to be.

I‘ m 15 weeks pregnant and have done no exercise since week 4 because I felt so sick and tired. I’m really out of breath and have put quite a lot of weight on due to eating through morning sickness! Really keen to start up again but the advise seems to be ‘ fine if you already were’ . I’ve had a big break and was only running 2-3 times a week for 30 mins. Does anyone know if it’s safe to attempt a run?

Urgh I found all these guidelines so confusing, I posted about this myself earlier on in my pregnancy (am 26 weeks now).

In the end, I decided to take it as 'anything you could already do before and still feel comfortable doing'. So just not pushing myself more than usual basically, and nothing where I was likely to fall. I am similar to you, not always a consistent gym-goer and maybe ran a couple of times a week...not 'a runner' by any stretch of the imagination. But I carried on while I felt comfortable to.

Mainly now I've been trying to do swimming and a couple of gym visits a week, but usually do an uphill walk on the treadmill, a bit of cross-trainer, some rowing machine, leg exercises like squats, and sometimes some of the weights machines for arms etc. Not all in one session 😂

The bottom line is exercise is good for us and recommended during pregnancy so as long as you're comfortable and not pushing yourself to hard, you should be ok :)

Hi @Newmumtobetwothousandandtwo ! Similar experience to me. First pregnancy I was floored with low iron in 1st trimester so cut back on exercise. This time started iron straight away to try and avoid a repeat of that and then got hit by all day nausea and spent about two months in bed eating more carbs than usual and hardly moving (to the extent my hb1ac level was higher than it should be - arghhh - managed to persuade them that it's been forced higher by bad diet and no exercise so getting it retested)

I was doing a bit more exercise than you before, but have got back into it gradually. You should be fine to try a run but take it easy and listen to how your body is feeling. I track my training intensity with a computer program so I can see how much load I'm putting on myself (- not suggesting you do that!) and it's been really useful to see that you can build it back up if you take it steady and don't try and train if you still feel zonked from the previous session. - you won't be completely detrained because your body was used to doing it before.

Good luck OP 👍

I hope I’m replying in the right format- this is also new to me! Thank you both very much- really helpful advice. I do have a gym membership so I think taking it steady with uphill walks then trying a gentle run might be a plan- plus giving the pool a go!

I’m laughing at pre pregnancy me who was going to eat so healthily and exercise every day - how I underestimated pregnancy 😂

I jogged up until 18 weeks but started to find it a bit difficult. I was no 'runner' before but was relatively fit. I was into weight lifting / strength training prior to pregnancy & my midwife told me it was safe to continue with adaptions & any exercise has benefits. I'm 24 weeks, but still doing weights & strength training. I realise I just need to listen to my body, track my heart rate on fitness app / tracker & take longer rest periods and rest days. Good luck getting back into the swing of things! I definitely have more energy in second trimester x

Thank you! Tracking heart rate sounds like a great idea x

You sound exactly like me! I ran a couple of times when I found out I was pregnant but then stopped because I felt too awful. Have put weight on due to all the eating to help with nausea. Now 15 weeks! I have been out running a couple of times since about 13 weeks (literally just a couple) and found using the couch to 5k app really useful. Even though I could happily run 5k before I was pregnant, I didn't want to just try and go back to that immediately as I was worried about pushing myself too much. So I started on I think week 4 of the c25k app, which was a mix of running and walking. I could have just done a mix of running/walking myself, but having the app tell me exactly what to do stopped me from overdoing it.

I've only been out 3-4 times so I don't think I'll get back up to running 5k but it's just nice to get back out again.

By all means exercise, but just take it easy and go slow.

I used to run a couple of times a week, and so continued this into pregnancy, feeling it was a good thing to continue. However at 11 weeks, a run triggered a heavy bleed.

Had a trip to A&E and an awful couple of days thinking I’d lost the baby until a scan confirmed all was ok. They didn’t really know why it happened - but one theory was that the run teamed with the added pressure down there caused a polyp to burst. Don’t know, but it was a lot of blood.

After that I gave up exercise, apart from a bit of walking, as was scared of losing the baby. However, now at 28 weeks I’ve gotten really unfit and put on more weight than I should have.

So I wish I’d not completely given up but found something low impact to do instead of losing my fitness.

Anyway back to the original point - it should be safe to exercise but don’t push yourself, and stop if you feel any strain in that area, however small.