I have found during this pregnancy I lose so much strength during those initial 14-15 weeks as I only really walked due to fatigue and morning sickness. I found that doing anything other than walking would just make my sickness, hunger and fatigue worse. I found this really difficult as I have always been a lover of weight training. For me personally, I don’t hold much muscle so I feel when I am consistent with strength training I always feel and look great. From a weight management perspective, it is a fabulous mode of exercise as the more muscle you have the faster your metabolism is. From a functional perspective strength training works wonders for injury prevention. However, is this still the case during pregnancy?
There is no hiding that modifications do need to be made throughout pregnancy. Not only is your body changing physically changing your center of gravity and disturbing your balance but you have so many more hormones and physiological changes occurring see below for what is actually happening to your body.
These mean that you may fall risk to ♥ Dizziness ♥ Shortness of breath ♥ Heart burn ♥ Loss of balance ♥ Nausea
So while these may be common undesirable effects they can mostly be managed. However, it is really important to bring them up with your Obstetrician to ensure you are doing what is best for you and your baby.
Here are my tips: ♥ Avoid heavy weights and stick to light or bodyweight with high repetition ♥ Avoid lifting over your head, especially if neutral spine doesn’t mean anything to you or you’re unsure if you are maintaining it ♥ You also want to ensure you have good pelvic floor activation ♥ The key is exhale on exertion/the hard part of the exercise ♥ Don’t hold your breath ♥ Reduce your range of motion ♥ Eat prior to exercise ♥ Always do a good warm up and cool down ♥ Drink plenty of water! ♥ Speak to a Women’s Health Physio
It is also worth noting that you don’t need to be lifting weights to be weight or resistance training. Working against your body weight or a light theraband is also classed as weight training. Sometimes doing body weight training is actually more difficult than lifting physical weights, take push ups for example. Working against your body weight opposed to a couple of 2-3kg dumbbells is obviously a lot harder so as a general rule I always use light weights for upper body and body weight for lower body. This is something to consider for your postnatal exercise as well. Want more information on exercising during pregnancy? Head to our home page to download our FREE E-BOOKS on pre and postnatal exercise. https://www.kidsheartpilates.com.au
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