exercise during pregnancy

[AnnaK]

Hi there!
I am just pregnant and quite scared for various reasons, one of which is weight gain. I have always struggled with my weight and the thought of being overweight afterwards... Very vain and selfish I know.
Anyway, I have been told I can carry on going to the gym as before but gently. Does anyone know about pilates during pregancy? I have recently bought some excellent videos and think it is a shame to stop because I was just beginning to see the benefits. I would really appreciate your views.

Oooh... never said that using a heart monitor wasn't generally effective for fitness. Just that I believe Preggo women shouldn't generally worry about heart rate (unless you know you're prone to over-doing it and you need that external STOP! reminder).

I am SO rubbish at sports. I try to go running & cycling, anyway. Used to skate, esp. skater-hockey, will play footie & squash if it's understood I'm rubbish. First thing I did when I found out was PG first time was type "running and pregnancy" into a Web search engine... LOL.

Does anyone know anything about abdominal exercise? I had thought it was a no-no and my pregnancy book seems to reflect that. But then I went a physio class for pg women at my hospital and the physio seemed to be emphasising the benfits of ab exercises (helped with birth and getting figure back I thought she said) providing you didn't lie on the floor and pull legs up or sit up (I think I've got this right; there was a lot to take in). Web sites seem to reflect that general low impact aerobics are okay (and they don't exclude the ab exercises). I went to an aquaerobic class last night and the ab exercises felt fine - basically involved swinging legs side to side under body then fwd & back under body. Does this sound okay or shld I stop doing them?

I use to do loads of abnominal exercise before pregnancy but once i found out i was pregnant i stopped exercising that area. I wouldn't advise doing abnominal exercises other than what you're taught to do by a professional. I still carried on doing light aerobics avoiding anything too strenuous and have to say that i have been very lucky in getting my figure back after both babies. It did take about 2-3months but that's without me doing any exercise or anything - just running around being a mum

Pilates also works on the abdominal muscles - although it concentrates on the pelvic floor (but they are linked) and I did Pilates classes until I was about 6 and 1/2 months pregnant.

My GP paid me the biggest compliment without realising it while I was pregant - he said he found it difficult to examne me because my stomach muscles were so strong (NOT something I had ever had before I started Pilates!).

The Pilates technique in itself helps tone the muscles, but most of the specific abs exercises were safe, as long as you were still happy with lying on your back (which I was up to the stage, when we stopped for the summer holidays anyway).

Thanks - this is helpful. Think I will carry on doing the aquaerobics - instructor says its fine - but take the abdos easy (no-one can see anyway as underwater!).

alison

I have a French book on pregnancy as well as the What to expect one (dh is French) and it says any swimming is good except butterfly, and breaststroke is particularly good as it 'strengthens the thigh muscles'. But then this book also recommends eating fresh oysters, so maybe the rules are different over there?

The advice seems to be different everywhere you look! Seems a bit wierd that pg women are repeatedly told how good swimming is then told not to do breaststroke when that is the stroke by far the most of us find it most comfortable to do! Not sure I could do more than about 5 lengths of crawl.

Marsup - from another thread I think I recall you are due 31 Dec - same as me

Agree with the comment about c**p advice in books. I got very annoyed when browsing in the "Best Friend's Guide to Pregnancy" book in Tesco this morning. It basically implied that the only woman who would want to keep doing exercise during pregnancy, esp. anything "strenuous" was probably an exercise freak, endangering her baby, control-freak about keeping her pre-pregnancy body, and foolishly passing up the chance to be a lazy slob.

Grrrrrrrrrr!!

The book advised that you do pelvic floor exercises by stop-starting every time you wee-- isn't that a good recipe for getting a urinary tract infection? Author also said that she caused partial placenta abruptures by continuing to do weight training during 2 of her own pregnancies. I thought it was pretty jolly obvious that one should avoid lots of heavy lifting in pregnancy. Needless to say, I didn't bother to continue browsing!

ive jus started an aqua-natal class its really fun and not too strenuous as the water supports my bump and its also a good way of meeting other expectant mums in your area

I get enough exercise simply carrying this big lump around and running around after DS1+2.

The thought of real exercise makes my blood run cold

I don't know that what I'm doing could really be termed 'real' exercise for a non-pregnant woman, anyway, it is so mild! and of course it is not about keeping my pre-pregnant shape!: just about being able to keep mobile and in (some) control of your body. But EmmaTMG, I think having older children and being pregnant probably counts as severe sport and I'm surprised there isn't some goofy pregnancy book that says it is a bad idea

(Yoghurtgirl, I'm not sure about my due date now. First they told me 31 December, while I had calculated 4 Jan; now they are saying 6 Jan. In any case I think it is going to be a quiet NY Eve.)

Thanks marsup, I feel like an olympic athlete after reading your post.

Now where are my running shoes and shorts?....... oh just remembered I haven't got any!