Help! I’m pregnant. Can I still exercise?

Help! I’m pregnant. Can I still exercise? What exercise should I do?

So you’ve just found out you’re pregnant. And up until this point you’ve been a committed gym goer. But what now? 

A whole host of questions are spiraling inside your head. Is it safe now to exercise? Is weight training still ok? Is it worth exercising if I’m no longer looking to keep my figure or lose weight?

Firstly, women who are having an uncomplicated pregnancy should be encouraged to exercise regularly. 

Your health is important, and even more so now that you are pregnant. 

It’s sometimes hard to think of exercise other than that necessary evil to combat weight gain, but exercise improves your health, totally. 

If you could put the effects of exercise into a pill and give it to patients, it would single handedly be the best health promoting drug on the planet, bar none. 

Why would you suddenly stop taking this elixir now that you are pregnant. It’s now that you need it most. A healthy mother, a healthy baby. 

Plus, all pregnancies have the D-day. Childbirth is one of the most physically demanding events of a woman’s life. I’ll repeat that: physically demanding. Childbirth takes all of a woman’s health, fitness, physical strength and endurance to get through. Take a look at that list and it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to understand that already being physically fit, strong and healthy better prepares you for childbirth. 

Even training at vigorous levels into the third trimester has been shown to not only not have a detrimental effect on pregnancy, but reduces the likelihood of premature births. 

That’s not to say I’d recommend for you to train hard and tough through your pregnancy, although if that was your choice to I’d be happy to support you. 

Exercise should be continued but scaled back. Usual weights should be reduced, while emphasis should be made on slow controlled movements, and reducing of explosive movements, twisting movements, and exercises done lying down. 

While pregnant, there is an array of hormonal changes that you will go through. Related to exercise, the hormone relaxin softens the body’s muscles, tendons and ligaments, particularly around the pelvic area and hips. 

This can make those areas feel achy, and can make your usual training program feel a lot harder. So reduce the weight, take longer rests, expect it to be harder, but keep going. 

One huge concern for pregnant women, is the effect pregnancy will have on their bodies. How much weight will you gain during, and how will you get rid of it. 

Exercising while pregnant reduces your overall weight (not the weight of your baby). It does this in the same way that exercise does when you’re not pregnant. 

Training provides the body with an outlet for excess energy consumption other than fat storage. 

Also, studies show that a physically stronger and fitter mother will be naturally better at losing weight postpartum. The energy pathways, metabolic fitness, and cardio-respiratory fitness that you’ve held throughout your pregnancy, all make it significantly easier to lose weight after you’ve had your baby. 

So you’re pregnant. Doesn’t that mean that your life stops? Does it mean that you can’t train anymore? No. And a big no too. In fact if you already have a good level of physical fitness, then carry on. If you’ve never exercised or lifted weights, now’s perhaps not the time to start, but significant health benefits can be made by keeping active and completing gentle bodyweight exercises. 

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