Pregnancy and exercise: is it safe?
It's deadly! Don't do it!!! No, wait, that's me.
As for you, well, the answer depends on how much you exercised before getting pregnant.
If you were a die hard gym bunny then you're fine to keep working out. The only worry is that you'll be all large and in charge, lose your balance and wipe out on an elliptical trainer. Your body also produces a hormone called relaxin which loosens your joints (so your body can unhinge like a snake's jaw when you're ready to give birth) and some say this leaves you more vulnerable to injuries. Many of these sites make it sound like you're walking around like a drunken marionette so I'd take that one with a grain of salt.
If you have never worked out before, this isn't really the time to introduce your body to new stuff – it's kind of busy making a person – so you may want to wait to do the hard core bootycamp stuff until after the baby gets here. Why you would want to do this is beyond me anyway as I used both my pregnancies as an excuse to reach George Foreman's fighting weight but you may be more sensitive to packing on the luscious.
Generally speaking, any kind of exercise is fine including sit-ups. Some women develop something called diastasis recti – typically in their third trimester or after they've given birth – which is when your "six pack" ab muscles separate and it is advised the you avoid crunches because it can exacerbate the problem. Even then, you can do planks (God, I hate planks) and I only mention it because it gets tossed around as a reason to avoid any ab work when you're pregnant. However, it's painless and correctable and shouldn't deter you from working out.
As long as you aren't overheating, becoming dehydrated or over exerting yourself, exercising is fine, but frankly, that kind of common sense should apply to everyone. "Gee, I should stop running if I start to vomit and feel faint? Thanks for the tip!" I don't know why some people feel it necessary to restate these things to pregnant women but some people seem to think your brain drops out of your ass once you conceive. Just nod politely as you blow by them in the marathon.
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Reader Comments (17)
But wait, won't my super toned arms and shapely calves make my delivery a breeze?
I'm going to print this out and take it to my Zumba instructor. She seems to think I'm going to shake the baby out in the middle of class! Craziness!! Who wouldn't want to see a 5-month pregnant belly shaking in time with a Latin beat? I'm going to keep on shaking my luscious pregnant body till I can't do it no more!
My doctor just told me today at my 10 week checkup that since I've been working out hardcore for the past 6 months, then I should continue to do so. Nothing is going to happen to the baby. He even said that my paranoid Yoga instructors are giving me bad advice telling me to avoid backbends, inversions and balancing poses. He said I am free to do whatever I want until my baby bump no longer allows me to. As far as my High Intensity Step-Aerobics, Kickboxing, Bootcamp, Running, Spinning and Zumba classes go-I can continue to do those as well as long as my heart rate doesn't go above 150. 24 Hour Fitness, here I come!!! I just wish I hadn't have taken 2 weeks off for fear I'd miscarry! Now I'm all sore from getting outta shape the past 2 weeks. Oh well. Nothing has made me happier this pregnancy (except for initially finding out i'm pregnant & the baby's doing great) than hearing I am free to go work my ass off at the gym for as long as I possibly can!!!
P.S. You should do a blog on Yoga. I have 6 yoga teachers at my gym and they all have freaking meltdowns when I go into my Wheel (backbend) pose, and I'm only 10 weeks. Lord help me when I'm 6 months...IF I'm even still able to do that pose at that point. Which is my doctor's point. My body will tell me when it's time to stop doing certain poses-it just won't LET me do them anymore. It seems simple enough to me! My doc said THEY should be instructed on how to NOT freak out their poor pregnant students.
P.P.S. My nipples were pierced with my 1st pregnancy, and I've taken them out for my 2nd, but the holes are still open. I took them out to breastfeed with my 1st baby and the milk shot out 3 holes, it was hillarious, but it didn't impede my breastfeeding. My laziness impeded it though. I can't wait to read your blog on Nipple Rings!!!
Yeah, when my mother-in-law found out I was doing things that required me to lift my hands over my head, she just knew the baby was going to come out with the cord around her neck! HAHA Where do people get such crazy notions??
Interesting (and depressing) note - the Wikipedia page on miscarriage lists exercise (and caffeine) as one of the most common causes of miscarriage. They do cite some Danish study, but I can't believe that this is true. I feel sad for all the women out there missing out on coffee and yoga because of Wikipedia! They should turn to this blog instead...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscarriage
I am 36 wks and just started a "chair" yoga class (weekly). I had been doing some yoga at home so I didn't feel this would be a "bad" thing. My instructor welcomed me w/open arms and gushed over "the belly" the whole time - made me feel special. After the class I felt GREAT and my back felt awesome. I'm going back each week until I deliver (Feb 14).
I just noticed when a woman is fond of going to gym who later become pregnant, the weight is ever-increasing. The sad thing is, it's indeed hard to become fit again.
wikipedia isn't a reliable source. It can be written by any one who comes along and says hey let's scare the crap out of pregnant women!!
Thanks for being sane. I'm a weight lifter (the strong subtle kind, not the bulging-muscles body lifter kind), and my pregnancy books all say things like "don't lift weights heavier than 10 lbs, you'll hurt yourself". I've bench pressed my body weight, so I don't know how they think more than 10 lbs is going to hurt me. It's nice to see word is getting around that normal exercise while pregnant is just fine. And yes, your body will tell you when it's time to slow down or cut back, you'll know.
Being on my 4th pregnancy- I can say that I worked out for all of my pregnancies just as I did before I got pregnant. Ran for a while, then continued to do weights and classes as I got bigger and bigger. With this last pregnancy (I am 8 months along) I had been doing Crossfit for months beforehand, and continued to do it until I was 6.5 months pregnant. Crossfit kicks your ass- weight-lifting, bench-pressing, pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, you name it. My body was able to do it pre-baby, I was feeling good, I was feeling fit. And then...I got a freakin hernia. My body freakin gave up on me. If you don't know what a hernia is, don't go looking up pictures of it, it's not pretty. It's pretty much your insides wanting to be on the OUTSIDE, and trying to squeeze out of your body through one of your muscles. It requires SURGERY, which you can't do till after you have the baby. Oh, and also...it's PAINFUL AS HELL!!! And with 3 other kids to take care of/pick up (or not pick up, as you're told to do when you have a hernia) I kinda wish I'd heard about this pre-pregnancy so I could have scaled back the deadlifting/weightlifting/sprinting altogether when I got pregnant with this one. So pregnant work-out women of the world beware- it could happen to you too- and it is way worth it to skip those particular exercises and not get a hernia than to be in constant pain until you deliver!!
So I have been a bit panic stricken for weeks now. I work outside basically hiking in various parks between 3 to 8 miles a day. I was hiking a mountain at 6 weeks pregnant that was unfamiliar in terrain. One mile of switchbacks on an exposed hillside later I was breathless and sweating profusely. My overly athletic co-worker works in medicine and I ignorantly counted on her for support but she is in far better shape then me and seems to have this "everyone miscarries once" attitude (I know right?!). So I get home and discover all this information saying that I microwaved my baby and now he/she has spina bifida. Can you overexert yourself once and cause problems? Mainly I'm wondering how long does it take to develop the spinal cord? Are we talking weeks or just one spontaneous moment?
I 'm 9 weeks now and things seem fine. I have a midwife that said something like "well you can't go back in time" wtf! Gah! I still have 3 weeks till my first ultrasound.
Jenny, right off the top, don't worry.
There are a gabillion women around the world working their ass off right now and are gestating perfectly fine children with spinal chords.
Anything I read on overexerting yourself while you were pregnant led to problems for you and not your baby – you know like fainting or wiping out down a hill or something and nothing about overheating and harming your child.
That little weeble is pack in there nice and good so whether you're on a hike or kickin' it on the couch, it's going to do its thing regardless.
Hope that helps.
It does immensely. Thank you!
Moonlady, you probably got that hernia because Crossfit exercises uses absolutely terrible form that will cause a lot of injuries because of the motions. Go the traditional route of weight lifting instead and you probably won't have any issues. Just look at the differences between traditional, controlled pullups and the fish flopping crossfit version and you'll know why it's a bad idea.
I love this post! I'm a certified trainer (ACE, USA Weightlifting, CrossFit, kettlebells) and I've continued to workout my entire pregnancy. I was due yesterday, so I can honestly say my entire pregnancy. :)
My midwife encouraged me to stay active and keep doing what I was doing before, so long as my body didn't tell me otherwise. I only gave up a few things -- olympic lifts, burpees, high box jumps and running -- and I didn't give up ANY of those until I was 6.5 months. Hell, I ran a 10k at 6 months! I did 100 weighted squats & 100 shoulder presses with 25# dumbbells yesterday morning. The trick has been to listen to my body & take things slower than I normally would.
Working out has helped me maintain my energy throughout my pregnancy and has helped me keep feeling like me. I'm grateful that my midwife encouraged me to keep on keepin' on.
Side note to K: A good CrossFit trainer will always encourage you to go slow & use good form. Don't let a few bad trainers make you think we're all idiots.
Jenny- you are an idiot, and have probably never done crossfit in your life. I got a hernia mostly from picking up my 3 kids under 5, at the time. Every day, dozens and dozens of times a day, in and out of a car/carseat/bed/table. Our Crossfit focuses mainly on form, and THEN speed. Have you ever even been to a class??? If you have, or at least, if you'd been to a good one, you would not have a negative opinion. Maybe you just wish you could do it. Kinda of annoying to read your post. And the fish-flopping pull-ups...have you ever tried them? Super fluid, and easy to do.