It’s not uncommon to see pregnant women maintaining their exercise routines well into their pregnancies.
Exercising when pregnant keeps you energized, healthy and can help prepare you for labor.
However, before you start or continue training through your pregnancy here’s some things to know
Don’t Start a New Training Method
In general, it’s safe to continue exercising in a way you’re used to.
So, if you’re a runner, you can run throughout your pregnancy and if you do CrossFit, you can still do CrossFit style workouts when pregnant.
However, you shouldn’t start a type of exercise you’ve never done before, particularly if it’s strenuous. However, most moderate exercise is safe to begin with during pregnancy as long as you have approval from your doctor.
Do Check With Your Doctor
Every pregnancy is different and while some women can train as normal others need to modify their training accordingly.
To ensure you’re keeping yourself and your baby healthy, speak to your Doctor about your exercise routine.
Don’t Skip The Warm Up and Cool Down
Warming up prepares your muscles and joints for exercise and increases your heart rate gradually.
This becomes even more important during pregnancy when you want to make sure you ease into a workout and do a proper cooldown and stretches to limit post exercise muscle soreness
Consume Enough Calories
Make sure you are eating enough calories to sustain you through workouts. While it’s best to stick to healthy whole foods, pregnancy is not the time to be counting calories unless it ensuring you’re eating enough for both yourself and baby.
In addition, make sure you are drinking enough water.
Listen to Your Body
It’s important to listen to your body and adapt your exercise where you need it. If you feel exhausted, take it slow or take a day off from exercising.
Don’t push yourself to exhaustion.
Be kind to yourself and allow for gentle exercise and days off when you’re not feeling up to it.