Working out while pregnant is tough, but the benefits of keeping up a regular—but reduced—regimen are worth it. .
Pregnancy will hit you on the head. I know it did for me: nausea, fatigue, headaches, extreme hunger and extra blood flow made everything hard. I went in for a workout I normally do and it took me twice as long, and was twice as hard at only about four weeks pregnant.
And I’ll be honest: It was hard to keep it up. So, sometimes I didn’t, and that’s okay. What I tried to do was maintain some regular exercise during the week. However, my definition of a “good workout” changed. Dramatically.
Permission to back off or back up.
Before I get into why it’s good to stay active during pregnancy, let me just say this: Listen to your doctor, first and foremost. If you’re told to not be active, or even to be on bed rest or anything similar, do that.
Secondly, if you have no energy or are feeling sick, it’s okay to not exercise. You aren’t going to get or stay fit while pregnant. You won’t lose or even maintain weight. You’ll gain weight, including more fat. You’ll lose muscle. You’ll have a hard time getting around.
The body needs different things right now, and so much energy will be put into creating an entirely new human being inside of you. You might not have much, if any, energy left over to exercise.
If you’re like me, this was a hard realization to come to. I love exercise. I build a lot around it. It serves as my meditation (in conjunction with regular meditation), my emotional release, my productivity and my anti-depressant.
But you won’t be pregnant forever. There are times to be productive, and times to rest.
Working out while pregnant will, however, make things better, healthier and more comfortable in the short and long term.
The benefits of working out while pregnant are too good to pass up.
I started this post when I was still pregnant, and am finishing it now that I’ve gone through labor (induced) and delivery (vaginal). I’ve only had one child, and my experience is by no means true for everyone, but holy crap I had no idea what a boon exercise was for my pregnancy and delivery.
So here’s a good list of the benefits you get from working out while pregnant:
- It can ease nausea. On a personal note, when the nausea first hit me I didn’t know what to do, but I did stop exercising in any way. Then I read that exercise might help, begrudgingly laced up my shoes and went down to the local park. I felt better than I had in days.
- Better mood and less depression. Hormones will wreak havoc on your emotions, not to mention that it’s a period of serious adjustment and it might make you feel a sense of loss.
- Less likely to get constipated. Constipation gets the better of most of us, especially during pregnancy.
- Baby is less likely to have weight problems as a child.
- Less swelling. Exercise promotes better blood flow.
- Your child may be more athletic later in life.
- You are more likely to be fit later in life.
- Your child’s heart may be healthier.
- Better sleep. Trust me, you’ll need it.
- Your child may have better memory.
- Your immune system will be stronger.
- Better weight management.
- Shorter labor. For me personally, this was the case. Labor I couldn’t help, since it was induced, but the delivery was 20 minutes!
- Less risk of gestational diabetes.
- Lower risk of preeclampsia.
- Better body image. It can be tough (and yes, beautiful) to see your body change so much. Moving it helps. A lot.
- Less back pain.
- Faster postpartum healing. Also, I can lend my personal experience here. While I had a vaginal delivery, I did tear, and all was clear at only four weeks postpartum.
The downsides of working out while pregnant:
None.
(I mean, provided you aren’t going against doctor’s orders and you aren’t trying to win a triathlon.)
Actually, I personally had one: My heart rate was so low from all the metabolic training I’ve done (before and during pregnancy) that my nurses and doctors put me on an EKG to make sure I was all right.
Spoiler: I was. I just had a wicked healthy heart. Granted, that was from about a decade of metabolic resistance training, and not just exercise during pregnancy.
My heart rate was in the 40s, dipping even into the 30s when asleep. Kinda scary, but that’s what happens when you work your heart—it does more with less effort.
An opportunity to explore new forms of activity.
You don’t need to do metabolic workouts, however, or even anything that’s remotely intense. Just find a way to move.
This is a wonderful opportunity to try new things. Perhaps try a new low-impact exercise, like walking, hiking or the stationary bike. Practices such as yoga and pilates will strengthen the mind-body connection and give you, mama, some much-needed self-care (just make sure you stay away from abdominal work, especially with pilates, as your pregnancy goes on). Get a massage, or even self-massage to ease tired muscles and aching joints.
No matter what, pay attention to your body and listen to it. Don’t argue with it. If it says, “Nah, I want to stop,” then maybe you should stop, even if normally you could go a little longer.
Bottom line? Being kind to yourself first is of the utmost importance.
But I want to exercise.
If you want to exercise, great! Even if your mind wants to but your body is a little hesitant—also great!
Remember that the purpose of exercise and activity will be different now than it was before, or will be after. For now, the most important thing is the overall health and development of your baby and yourself.
You will gain weight, probably lose muscle and also a lot of stamina. All of these are supposed to happen. If you break out the kettlebells and wonder why that workout that was easy before is hard now, it’s because your body is doing a lot more work. You have about one and a half times the amount of blood splashing through your body, which means your heart rate might be higher, or at least feel higher. Plus, you’ll be out of breath a lot faster.
Is “working out” different than “exercise?”
For me, yes. But this is just my personal distinction, so let me explain.
Normally, I think of “exercise” as broader than “working out.” Exercise would be any form of activity that breaks a little sweat or gets your heart beating faster. This includes not only typical cardiovascular exercise (hiking uphill, jogging, dancing, elliptical, etc.) but also more passive forms of activity (walking, gardening) and more intense activities (weightlifting, rock climbing, HIIT, etc).
Working out includes some of the above, but not all. I think of it as any activity that’s somewhat of a challenge, and something that you’re working to progress in. Weightlifting, HIIT, training for a race all fit under this category. Getting on the elliptical machine can be either, depending on effort.
Again, this is my distinction, not an official one.
For pregnancy, it’s all a workout. I’ll be using the terms “exercise” and “working out” interchangeably.
To lift or not?
The data and advice out there on lifting for pregnant women, however, is varied. There is the old advice that pregnant women shouldn’t lift anything heavy at all, but that’s been questioned several times. Many doctors will tell you not to lift heavy weights, but that’s both in an effort to give safe, universal advice, and under the assumption that women don’t lift. But we do.
And if you did before, you should be able to continue through your pregnancy, as long as the pregnancy is normal, you’re being smart and listening to your body.
Bottom line.
As long as you have a normal pregnancy and your doctor doesn’t say otherwise, you should make it a priority to get out and move during pregnancy. Don’t do more than you did pre-pregnancy, and give yourself a break.