Regular exercise during your pregnancy can also improve heart health and stamina, as well as overall health.
Maintaining a healthy body and healthy weight gain can help reduce common pregnancy complaints and discomforts like lower back pain, fatigue and constipation and may even help make labor a little easier by improving endurance.
The best type of exercise during pregnancy, Moderate exercise during pregnancy "may give your baby a healthier start"!!
- Increases your heart rate steadily and improves your heart circulation
- Keeps you flexible and limber
- Supports healthy weight gain and prevents excess weight gain by burning calories
- Prepares your muscles for labor and birth
- Will not cause you to push your body too hard.
- Have a lower risk of gestational diabetes and hypertension
- Have less risk of preterm labor and birth
- Have a shorter labor process
- Be more likely to have a natural birth
- Be less likely to need pain relief
- Recover from childbirth faster.
Experts recommend that you exercise for 30 minutes a day, on most days. Most exercises are safe to perform during pregnancy, as long as you exercise with caution and do not overdo it.
Your pregnancy exercise regimen should strengthen and condition your muscles. Always begin by warming up for 5 minutes and stretching for 5 minutes. Following your choice of exercise, finish your regimen with 5-10 minutes of gradually slower exercise that ends with gentle stretching.
Use common sense:
- Avoid exercise that involves lying on your stomach or flat on your back after the first trimester of pregnancy
- Stay well hydrated and drink plenty of fluids before, during and after you exercise
- Avoid overheating and humidity, especially during the first trimester when the fetus is undergoing its most important growth and development
- Stop exercising if you feel fatigued, develop persistent pain or experience any vaginal bleeding; check with your health care provider if regular contractions occur more than 30 minutes after exercise (possibly a sign of pre-term labor)
- Avoid heavy weightlifting and any activities that require straining
- Avoid exposure to extremes of air pressure, as in high altitude exercise (unless you are accustomed to it) or scuba diving
- Do not increase the intensity of your workout beyond pre-pregnancy intensity level
- Eat small, frequent meals throughout the day. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a pregnant woman of normal weight who gets less than 30 minutes of exercise a week should strive for a caloric intake of 1,800 during the first trimester, 2,200 during the second trimester and 2,400 during the third trimester.
These activities carry little risk of injury, benefit your entire body, and can be continued until the birth of your baby. Other activities such as jogging can be done in moderation. You might want to choose exercises or activities that do not require great balance or coordination, especially later in your pregnancy.
Basic exercise guidelines:
- Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes, as well as a good support bra
- Choose supportive shoes designed specifically for the exercise in which you are engaged; this will help protect against injury
- Exercise on a flat, level surface to avoid injury
- Finish eating at least one hour before exercising
- Get up slowly and gradually to prevent dizziness
- Never exercise to the point of exhaustion. If you cannot talk normally while exercising, you are probably over exerting yourself, and you should slow down your activity.