Regular exercising during pregnancy can significantly reduce excess weight gain and improve overall health. Apart from its physical benefits, exercises can also offer immense mental and emotional benefits during pregnancy. It is recommended that pregnant women achieve a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic physical activity during pregnancy and after childbirth. You don’t have to spend long hours or minutes exercising. You can exercise for thirty minutes five times a week or 15 minutes times a week. If you are very active before pregnancy, you don’t have to stop on the account of pregnancy. In most cases, you can always continue your exercise routine through your pregnancy. However, you should check with your doctor to confirm that this is fine.
Suitable Exercises During Pregnancy
There is no denying the fact that exercising while pregnant can prevent a lot of complications and even give your child a healthier start in life. Let’s look at some excellent exercises that a pregnant woman can do as well as the benefits.
Brisk Walking
If you are not very much into exercise before getting pregnant, you can start with a quick stroll around your neighborhood. Brisk walking has numerous benefits, which include cardiovascular benefits with minimal impact on the ankles and the knees. It is also very easy to do as it doesn’t require any training or equipment. All you need is a comfortable outfit and a pair of comfortable footwear. You can start at home and you can walk anywhere. You can also get other walk buddies to join you along the way to make the exercise more fun. To stay safe, make sure you keep to smooth surfaces and avoid rocky areas.
Yoga
You can take yoga classes to help keep maintain your flexibility. Yoga has also been found to help with stress and pain management. Yoga offers numerous benefits, including strengthening your muscles, stimulating blood circulation, increasing flexibility, maintaining healthy blood pleasure, enhancing relaxation, and improving calm during delivery. Make sure you skip poses that involve lying on your abdomen and spending time on your back as your pregnancy advances. You should also avoid overstretching during exercise.
Swimming
Swimming and aqua aerobics are also excellent exercises that a pregnant woman can do. It helps you get active without necessarily putting pressure on your joints. When swimming during pregnancy, ensure you use comfortable strokes to avoid hurting or straining your back muscles, shoulders, or neck. You may want to opt for breaststrokes and use a kickboard for strength around the buttock and leg muscles. You should avoid steam rooms, saunas, warm pools, and steam rooms to prevent the risk of overheating.
Low Impact Aerobics
Low-impact aerobics can help to strengthen the lungs and heart, reduce joints stress, and maintain balance and muscle tone. There are low-impact aerobic classes designed specifically for pregnant women. You may want to consider signing up for these classes.
Stationary Cycling
You can cycle on a stationary bike. This is pretty safe for women during pregnancy. This exercise has lots of advantages. It helps to increase the heart rate while reducing stress on the pelvis and joints. Since the bike is stationary, it helps to support your body weight and the risk of falling is quite low.
Kegel Exercises
Many people may not consider this as much of an exercise but it can be of immense help during labor and delivery. Kegel exercises help to tone the pelvic muscle and this will help you push during delivery. It can also minimize the risk of urine leakage after delivery.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter whether or not you are a first-time mom. It also doesn’t matter whether or not you are used to exercising before getting pregnant. The exercises highlighted above can be highly beneficial during and after pregnancy. They are easy to do and you can start immediately.