Training Whilst Pregnant
by Helen Hyder
A Few hard and fast rules
My first piece of advice would be to invest in a heart rate monitor if you don't already have one and if you do sit down and work out your target heart for exercise whilst pregnant which should be between 60-80% of your maximum.
Target heart rate
From:
220 - your age x 0.6 = suggested heart rate (60% of max heart rate)
To:
220 - your age x 0.8 = suggested heart rate (80% of max heart rate)
Exercising at your target heart rate allows your body to exercise aerobically, fuelling the muscles with oxygen, thus avoiding the anaerobic exercise.
I stuck to this while running during the first and second trimester of my pregnancy and found it felt very slow at first, but as the weeks progressed as did my waistline I found this was a very maintainable heart rate to work at. I gave up running at 5 months, in the second trimester as I found the bouncing of my baby bump uncomfortable, but many people do continue right up until they are full term, as with most things during pregnancy it is down to the individual. I continued to walk my run routes and tried to fit a walk in my working day, especially once the weather got cold. This kept some miles in my legs and also meant that if I was tired once I got home from a day at work I didn't need to go back out and exercise as I'd walked from the pool to work or from the tram stop home.
I can highly recommend swimming from day one to about day 270. Back stroke goes out of the window eventually but the bigger you get the better the feeling is in the water. I stuck to my usual swim lane at club sessions until I was lagging behind then moved down a lane, where I stayed until about year after giving birth. Front crawl is the most comfortable stroke to do, as breast stroke can cause too much downward pressure on your pelvis and as the hormones really kick in and your ligaments become more and more flexible there is an increase risk of injury.
Cycling and turboing I found quite difficult from about 15 weeks as positioning on the bike and a baby bump didn't work well together, but I know other women who have cycled right up until the third trimester. I found it difficult to sit comfortably on the bike and reach the handlebars without the sensation of compacting my baby bump. Turboing is great way of exercising and maintaining some bike fitness if you don't want to cycle on the road and risk coming of your bike.
Aqua aerobics can be good fun whilst pregnant as can ante-natal yoga, especially in the third trimester with an ever expanding bump, too early on in pregnancy these classes can seem a little sedate especially if are used to exercising regularly.