Prenatal Exercise: Fads and Facts

Staying active while pregnant is an amazing thing to do for yourself and for your little one. It helps keep stress at bay, alleviate anxiety, and avoid excessive weight gain. Plus, prenatal exercise helps your body be in its best shape for the rigors of birth and the weeks following delivery. While this is definitely a topic you should consult with your doctor about, think about the kinds of exercise you want to do now and bring specific questions so that you can feel confident and healthy as your pregnancy progresses.

We’ve all seen the gorgeous pregnant lady spinning away at Soul Cycle, sweating far less than us and looking ah-mazing in spandex, but is this healthy for all of us? For a general guide of which kinds of exercise routines are safe, and what popular programs are NOT, we break it down below.

Barre Class

These low-impact exercises are great, helping build and strengthen muscles in your core. Your center of gravity changes with pregnancy, so stick with a prenatal exercise that isn’t going to challenge your balance.

Swimming

It’s one of the best forms of prenatal exercise, because it relieves pressure on your joints and ligaments.

Yoga

Like Barre Class and swimming, yoga’s low-impact routines are a great way to strengthen the body. You just want to be extra cautious to prevent falls when going into poses that challenge your balance and you should consult your doctor before doing special kinds of yoga, such as Hot Yoga.

Spinning

This can be a great workout for its scalable levels of intensity. The danger here is becoming overheated and dehydrated: two harmful conditions, especially in the first trimester. The general rule of thumb is to not increase intensity/duration/difficulty when you become pregnant but keep it the same or less as it was before. So if you are a spinning guru then go ahead, but if you’ve never done it before, this might not be the best time to jump on a bike and pedal like crazy. Consider easing into any kind of new exercise. Use common sense and listen to your body. If you don’t feel good, don’t push yourself, and make sure to check with your doctor before booking your bike.

Pilates

Like Barre Class and yoga, Pilates offers a safe and controlled way to strengthen important muscle groups that you’ll use in labor and after pregnancy. You just want to make sure you avoid lying on your back after around week 16.

Cross Fit

High-intensity weight training is not recommended during pregnancy because blood flow gets diverted from your organs to the working muscles. It can deprive the uterus of oxygen and nutrients. If the type of exercise you do generally makes you feel like vomiting then avoid it while you are pregnant. Extended periods of elevated heart rate should be avoided also.

Hot Yoga

This sport, defined as yoga in a room heated to 100 degrees, should be completely avoided while pregnant. Extreme heat can be harmful to the fetus, causing birth defects or premature labor. Dehydration, which can easily happen working in a hot yoga studio, can also be harmful to the fetus.

As always, consult your doctor, listen to your body, look for pregnancy focused classes when possible (e.g. pre-natal yoga) and always let the class instructor know that you are pregnant. Believe it or not, it may not be obvious to them. And if you feel like giving exercise classes a break while you are pregnant, rest assured that you are in some very good company (ahem- our friend, the gorgeous Heidi Klum), but make sure that you still stay active.

Tags: barre, cross fit, pregnancy fitness, prenatal exercise, Soul Cycle, spinning, swimming, yoga