When it comes to exercise and pregnancy, it is all down to personal preference. There are no right or wrong answers and it is entirely down to your body and how you feel.
For most people, there is no biological reason why you 'need' to stop your fitness routine when becoming pregnant and you should try to continue your fitness activities for as long as you feel comfortable to. Whether you enjoy yoga, swimming or walking, these activities are all perfectly safe for your baby and can even help ease your pregnancy.
In fact, the more you exercise during your pregnancy, the easier your body will be able to adapt to your changing shape and new weight gain. By also continuing your exercise habits further into your pregnancy, this will also help you to get back into routine once you do give birth, helping you get back into shape quicker.
What your lifestyle was like before you became pregnant?
People who have exercised for their entire lives will typically find it easier to keep training during their pregnancy, British olympian Paula Radcliffe for example was even still running 10km events 7 months into her pregnancy!...but we aren’t all Paula Radcliffe.
If you weren't particularly active before you got pregnant, now is not the time to suddenly take up extremely strenuous exercise, instead a better approach would be to take a gentle ease into training. This could include aerobic exercises and strength training exercises under the supervision of a professional.
At The DVCC for example, our trainers are all expertly trained in rehabilitation and so are able to adapt any exercise to suit your needs. We always facilitate for any clients who are pregnant and have a great deal of experience in dealing with it. We do this by helping promote muscle growth in areas which will be under the most stress during pregnancy such as your pelvic floor and work with you to help create a personalised exercise plan for you!
Remember that exercise doesn't have to be extreme to be beneficial.
So yes, you CAN still train when you are pregnant, but listen to your body and always work within what you feel comfortable with. All throughout your pregnancy, you should try to keep your Active Daily Living (ADL) as high as you can, just half an hour of walking each day could be enough, any amount of activity is better than nothing at all!
