I am currently 9 weeks pregnant and would like some workout advice. Prior to my pregnancy, I was quite active with exercise. Typically, I take aerobics classes at my gym @ 4 days/week. I would like to continue to do so, but would like to know if there are any good books, magazines, websites, etc. that will provide modified exercises for when I get past my 1st trimester and can no longer do exercises on my back. I will talk with my aerobics instructors, but I would like to do some research of my own too.
Try reading the bood My Pregnancy Week by Week. They cover a lot on pregnancy and excersize. One part I do remember is to cut down your excersize to 80% of what you did prepreg. I also learned that you should not elevate your core temperature over 102F. Aerobic excersize will do that and it is not safe for your child.
I hope the book will help out, if not contact you OB/Gyn for further recommendations.
Congrats A.,
I just had a baby three weeks ago and did strength training, spinning, and yoga until the day before I delivered. I borrowed some books from the library, read fit pregnancy magazine, and joined babyfit.com (free and has many articles and you can join a group from your due month that will help you stay motivated-this was by far my favorite resource). The only real difference that I noticed (and from talking with my doctors) is that if you are doing anything on your back such as strength training make sure you are on an incline. I did abdominal work on my back until about 7 months and then after that still did abdominal work but doing table top, pelvic tilts, etc (babyfit has good resources for this).
The only other thing I only did as much as I felt comfortable. Some days I felt really strong and other days I didn't and I just did as much as I could and didn't push myself. Surprisingly I did not really alter my workout that much. The hardest part for me was probably the first trimester.
Kind regards,
V.
A.,
I own Big Belly Fitness, a fitness company catering towards prenatal and postpartum fitness. Prenatal fitness really should be geared towards the individual based on their particular pregnancy, fitness level, etc. I have lots of people who we set up on their fitness program to modify the current workouts that they are doing. We also offer customized training in-home or in our studio. Feel free to contact me if you're interested in finding out more. We also offer a free consultation.
You do need to do what you feel comfortable with. I was pretty active, but around 7.5 months, my belly was so big, I was very uncomfortable standing & walking for long periods of time. I signed up for a aqua aerobics class and it was great. There was no impact to my belly/baby and I got a great workout.
Good luck!
With both pregnancies, I walked a lot and did yoga (regular & prenatal) til about 7.5 mo. Now, I'm 33 weeks and I'm back teaching high school art til my leave so that's my exercise.
I give yoga credit for getting me through early labor without drugs...the breathing and relaxation was more beneficial than childbirth classes!
Good luck!
