Exercise and early pg - am I stuck with doing yoga at home?

[EldonAve]

All the classes say I need to be >14 weeks

would have thought that running and biking would be OK as long as it's at a similar level/intensity to your pre-PG fitness, and you take care not to overheat.

Why >14 weeks - I don't get it?

Agree, don't overheat but you can exercise at the same level as prior to pg, so long as that wasn't too mad.

I continued running until bump got in the way and did spinning and body pump at a slightly easier pace - right from the start until week 39.

how active are you now? with ds1 I was v fit before, and continued to run until I was 33 weeks with him, but scaled down a little week by week. it wasn't the bump that stopped me in the end, but the fact it was a v hot summer and it was making me feel uncomfortable. I alternated it with prenatal workout dvds - there are loads around if you look on amazon or ebay, and I was a gym member then and got a personal trainer to make me a pg appropriate routine which I did until birth. my advice would be if you are fit, keep it up without being silly. I recovered the most quickly from that birth - when I had my second and third I didn't have the time to exercise as much, and once when I was in the gym a staff member who saw me from teh back doing weights came up to me to say 'they are much too light for you that looks too easy' then stopped short when she came around to my front and saw my bump

I was reasonably fit pre DC1 but quit the gym when DC2 was a year old as I had no time

Agree that you should continue to do your usual exercise but with scaling it back a bit and precautions against overheating/lifting etc. As you progress into your second and third trimesters, the increase in relaxin makes your joints more floppy so you need to be more careful about, for example, turning your ankle if running. I am a keen runner/triathlete/horse rider and have continued running until into the third trimester (am on my fourth pregnancy). The cycling stopped early (second trimester) due to the discomfort of being on a road bike and, for the same reasons as horse riding, I was more cautious about falling off and doing the bump an injury. I have only stopped running recently (am now 32 weeks) as I had flu and am being a bit wary of getting going again as I can generally run around pushing two kids in a buggy and they seem to have grown since my flu!

I'm 15 weeks and still cycling 10 k a day, have just given myself an extra 30 an hour to do it in. My midwife says as long as I'm not out of breath its fine. Am really trying not to think about getting knocked off or falling off and am much more cautious and stick to the off road routes where possible. That ice and snow was a bit hairy, mind.

Yoga teachers generally won't teach anybody in their 1st trimester the general philosophy is to rest and do gentle yoga unless you are a very keen yogi and have a very regular practice.

If you don't do inversions, twists, or back bends and keep it gentle then you should be okay. Francoise Freedman - yoga for pregnancy the best book IMO.

Sorry most yoga teachers (i'm a qualified one) would turn you away unless you were a regular - they are worried about miscarriage.

Thanks, I have the Francoise Freedman book