Exercising & Sculpting your body while pregnant?

[d_b]

Last time I kept up with cardio kickboxing til about week 16 and did some weight lifting, just 10-20lbs and squats/lunges until 21 weeks or so I was put on bedrest so I didn't do much else til 36/37 weeks.

This time I am too tired for exercise.. I really should do something. Well I carry my toddler around a lot! Prenatal swimming class is a great idea, I might do that over the summer.

 

[runnergrl]

Steph-Im curious- how on earth did you get stress fractures in your feet while on the elliptical? there is absolutely zero impact while on this machine, so that completely baffles me

In my experience as a personal trainer and having trained quite a few pregnant women, I fully ENCOURAGE them to keep up their cardio as is a beneficial, rather than harmful throughout pregnancy. If you are overweight to begin with, its perfectly safe to continue to lose weight during pregnancy as long as the baby is growing. It is fat you are losing, and the baby isnt harmed as all if you are losing fat.

It is equally as important to continue with the resistance training (if you were lifting weights before) probably not a good idea to start doing heavy squats, pull ups, or bench press while pregnant but there is NO REASON to stop lifting weights while pregnant.

My best advice though, regarding exercise while pregnant; listen to your body. It will let you know if you need to back off a bit or if you can keep on going. In my case, I always feel so much BETTER during and after working out.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[77Tulips]

In my last few pregnancies I did swimming, pilates & yoga, all pregnancy classes so designed for pregnant women. There was some resistance work and it was really good. I am severely anaemic, carrying twins and at risk of PTL so no exercise this time. My pilates/yoga teacher is a trained physio with a speciality in pregnancy fitness and post pregnancy. She said strength training is excellent (and good for carrying baby after) you don't want to focus on losing weight but if you are eating well and keeping your heartrate and fitness regime within good limits and your body is able to cope with it then go for it. She also said dropping cardio completely isn't a good idea. You need to keep up your fitness not let it drop off, even if it's just regular walking. Not aiming to lose weight but just staying fit. I miss it. I do have 3 boys to chase so I'm not stationary but once these twins are out and I'm cleared by the Dr I am going back to class.