Exercise during pregnancy improves your physical and mental wellbeing. Maintaining a healthy weight during pregnancy helps in returning to your pre-baby weight more quickly and also reduces the risk of developing gestational diabetes, which is more common in mothers who are overweight.
All women who are pregnant without complications should be encouraged to participate in aerobic and strength-conditioning exercises as part of a healthy lifestyle during their pregnancy. A reasonable goal should be to maintain a good fitness level throughout pregnancy without trying to reach peak fitness.
It is important to stay well hydrated, wear comfortable and non-restrictive clothing (such as a correctly fitted bra and appropriate footwear) and where possible, avoid excessive over-heating.
How to exercise during pregnancy?
Types of exercise to do during pregnancy include aerobic conditioning and strength training of all the major muscle groups and your pelvic floor.
- Aerobic exercise can include:
- Walking
- Jogging
- Swimming
- Cycling (on a stationary bike)
- Low-impact aerobic exercise classes
- Exercise in water (aquarobics)
- Yoga or pilates – tell your instructor that you are pregnant before the class
- Weight training with low weights and medium to high repetitions
Pelvic floor exercises:
- Sit and lean slightly forward with a straight back.
- Squeeze and lift the muscles as if you are trying to stop a wee.
- Hold the squeeze for up to five seconds and then relax for up to 10 seconds.
- Repeat up to 10 times, three to four times per day.
- Keep breathing through the exercise.
What to be careful of?
There are currently no known adverse risks to a pregnant woman that are linked with meeting the recommended guidelines of at least 150 minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity per week.
While most forms of exercise are safe, there are some exercises that involve positions and movements that may be uncomfortable or harmful for pregnant women.
Be guided by your doctor or physiotherapist, but general cautions include:
- Avoid raising your body temperature too high – for example, don’t soak in hot spas or exercise to the point of heavy sweating. Reduce your level of exercise on hot or humid days.
- Don’t exercise to the point of exhaustion.
- If weight training, choose low weights and medium to high repetitions – avoid lifting heavy weights altogether.
- Avoid exercise if you are ill or feverish.
- If you don’t feel like exercising on a particular day, don’t! It is important to listen to your body to avoid unnecessarily depleting your energy reserves.
- Don’t increase the intensity of your sporting program while you are pregnant, and always work at less than 75 per cent of your maximum heart rate
- In addition, if you develop an illness or a complication of pregnancy, talk with your doctor or midwife before continuing or restarting your exercise program.
As your pregnancy progresses, the body goes through significant changes, such as increased laxity (looseness) of joints, changes in centre of gravity and an increased resting heart rate. Therefore, modifications to your program may need to be considered, restricting activities that require a high degree of balance or rapid changes in direction, your gym instructor can assist you with a suitable new program to what you are currently doing.
Be guided by your doctor who may recommend that you see a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist for a program that can be developed for you.
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