Nine months of being pregnant is certainly not a reason to quit exercising. If you did not pay attention to your body before pregnancy, then its onset is a reason to start exercising. Especially since it is necessary for both of them at once – for you and the baby growing inside. So, can pregnant women do sports and how to do it correctly?

Benefits of fitness for pregnant women

Is it possible for pregnant women to exercise and go to the fitness room? Here are the evidence-based medical arguments “for.” Moderate physical activity during pregnancy:

• Accelerate blood flow, increase tissue respiration, and activate metabolism;
• prevent fetal hypoxia;
• Reduce the concentration of meconium in amniotic fluid, reducing the risk of abnormal cardiovascular and nervous system of the unborn child;
• boost a woman’s immune system, making it easier to “barrier-proof” against infections;
• gently and gradually strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor, abdomen and back;
• support the functional state of ligaments and joints of the expectant mother;
• Prevent excessive weight gain in both;
• improve well-being;
• contribute to the facilitation of childbirth, as well as a quick recovery after them.

If you exercise, your baby will probably get his first life grade (Apgar score) after birth, much higher than those whose moms treated themselves like a crystal vessel. In the future, he will be more active, but he will react more calmly and calm down more quickly after exposure to stimuli. It will be easier for him to master motor skills, and by the age of 5 years, as proven by studies, will pass intelligence tests better than others.

Contraindications to fitness during pregnancy

Fitness and pregnancy is an absolutely unacceptable combination only in the following cases:

• Diseases that even before conception were a barrier to exercise;
• Isthmic-cesmic insufficiency;
• Fetal membrane rupture and even minimal water leakage (regardless of the trimester);
• Persistently high or fluctuating pregnancy-induced blood pressure;
• Grade III toxicosis;
• placenta previa;
• polyhydramnios;
• Recurrent bloody discharge;
• Multiple pregnancy in the third trimester.

Those too thin or too fat, those with minor cardiac arrhythmias, or those with minor bleeding in the first trimester may exercise, but only after receiving detailed instructions from the trainer working with pregnant women.

Optimal types of fitness during pregnancy

Let us immediately clarify – power fitness is not indicated to pregnant women. From it will have to gradually abandon previously engaged in them, gradually moving to other areas. However, in the development of gestational diabetes, to train with dumbbells and load the leg and gluteal muscles must be mandatory. Such exercises and regular cardio are an important condition for lowering blood sugar. A diet alone is not enough here, and blood glucose-lowering drugs are forbidden for pregnant women.

Cardio Exercise During Pregnancy

Pregnant women need to walk 2 times a day for 1 hour. To make sure that walking is not “trivial” for you, replace one of them with a trendy fitness trend – Nordic walking. Special sticks, on the one hand, increase and redistribute the load on all the muscles of the body. In this case, the beneficial effect and energy expenditure of walking at a slow pace increases to those that you would get when you run or ride a bicycle, which is undesirable for pregnant women. On the other hand, they help keep your balance and not fall if you get dizzy or accidentally trip.

There’s a pool nearby, do you have any skin problems? Swimming, 2-3 times a week for 40 minutes, is the best kind of exercise for your heart and lungs when your limb joints are active and your spine and legs are semi-weight-bearing. Training in the I and II trimesters will allow you to prepare and practice without problems in the III trimester, when swimming will be especially urgent due to increased weight and high load on the back muscles, intervertebral joints and leg veins.

You can work out on cardio machines until 19-20 weeks of pregnancy. Giving up the treadmill. Choose a stationary bicycle of the horizontal type, a stepper – exclusively with handrails and without a swivel mechanism, and an ellipsoid (elliptical track) – with a central location of the flywheel, which allows the pedals to stand not too wide, but as during normal walking on skis. Remember that such exercises do not exempt you from being outdoors on training days, and from walking on the other days of the week.

Dance routines for pregnant women

Among the dance varieties of fitness virtually all fall under the ban. The only thing that can be recommended in this case is to ask the nearest fitness club about the availability of special programs for pregnant women – Fitness Mommy. Groups are formed taking into account the term of pregnancy. Workouts are not similar to one another, and include exercises allowed during pregnancy of all kinds of fitness, where light dance and plastic “sketches” and improvisation are not excluded.

Pay attention to aqua aerobics for pregnant women. The part of the class where you do gymnastic exercises with music will help you satisfy the need of your body and soul in dance movements. Also, the training includes special exercises to hold your breath, short dives, exhalations into the water, breaths on the way out of it. Therefore, aqua aerobics will prepare you and the future baby for intermittent breathing during pushing during childbirth.

Body&Mind systems for pregnant women

You can’t keep working out or sign up for a “regular” fitness yoga, Pilates, or fitball class for the first time. You need a special group for these types of fitness for pregnant women. Perfect if the fitness club has several of them, and you can work out in the one where the pregnancy term of the expectant mothers coincides approximately with yours.