The Importance Of Exercise
When It comes to pregnancy, exercise is one of the most important things that a woman can do to help to keep her body healthy and strong. Exercise is good for relieving stress, and staying in shape, and can even help you to have an easier labor. So, what exercises are good for pregnancy, and which should be avoided? Read on to find out more.
Exercises You Should AVOID During Early Pregnancy
While most doctors and experts agree that exercise is great during pregnancy, there are sometimes things that you should not be doing while pregnant, and things that should wait until you have your baby to resume.
Don’t Scuba Dive While Pregnant
Scuba Diving is one of those exercises, and it is not recommended for women during any stage of their pregnancy. Hot yoga is also a bad choice for pregnant women, although traditional yoga is fine. High-impact aerobic exercises, like gymnastics or basketball, are often not recommended for women in early pregnancy.
Jogging While Pregnant
Jogging, however, is an exception to this rule as most doctors have no problem with their patients continuing to jog at their own pace during pregnancy, as long as there are no complications. Obviously, contact sports that could cause trauma to the abdomen, such as football, soccer, and hockey are not recommended during any stage of pregnancy either.
Which Exercises are Safest During Pregnancy?
While there are a few exercises that you should not take part in during your pregnancy, there are also many exercises that are considered safe for pregnant women. Low-impact aerobics is a good choice. Walking and swimming are two favorites, along with yoga, pilates, and stationary biking.
All of these are great exercises for pregnant women. As mentioned before, as long as you have no complications, your doctor will probably not object to continuing a jogging program either during your pregnancy. Believe it or not, many women even do weight training exercises during their pregnancies. Lifting weights can even provide benefits during pregnancy, labor and post-partum.
What You Should Remember
Remember that the most important thing is listening to your body with any workout, but even more so with pregnancy workouts. If you ever start to feel “off” or that something just isn’t right, discontinue your workout until you talk with your doctor.
Some of the symptoms that you should be on the lookout for are faintness, dizziness, nausea, blurry vision, heart palpitations, chest pain, vaginal bleeding, new contractions, back, abdominal or pelvic pain, or an unusual lack of fetal movement. If you experience any of these unsettling symptoms during your workout, stop your workout immediately and contact your doctor.