Pregnancy Exercise Safety Tips

There are certain pregnancy exercise safety tips, which you should follow to ensure that your exercise regimen does not cause you any pregnancy complications.

Safety Tips While Exercising During Pregnancy

Consult your doctor or a professional fitness trainer, who specializes in training for pregnant women, before starting an exercise regimen.

Your body is heavy with child. Avoid doing strenuous exercises. Also, do not over exert yourself. If you get exhausted, stop at once. Only do what you can do. Listen to your body.

Do pregnancy exercises that improve your blood circulation. After exercise, you should feel rejuvenated, not tired, and exhausted.

If you have not been exercising regularly before, start slow. Exercise for 5 minutes and slowly increase your exercise time to 30 minutes. If you were a fitness freak before pregnancy, slow down a bit. Do not do strenuous exercises.

Avoid contact sports during pregnancy. Skiing, wrestling, football, basketball, and horse riding are dangerous for you and your baby.

Aerobics increases your heat rate and leads to a better oxygen flow in your body. You can also do some low impact exercises, such as swimming, walking, water exercises, and stationery cycling.

Yoga is a great form of exercise for pregnant mothers. It stretches your body and tones your muscles. The breathing exercises relax your mind. It serves the twin purpose of rejuvenating mind and body.

Pilates are a combination of breathing techniques, postures, and muscle training. Many pregnant women have now started doing these exercises.

Benefits of Exercise during Pregnancy

Now, that you know what precautions to take while exercising during pregnancy, here are some benefits of exercise. Exercise during pregnancy takes away morning sickness, muscle stiffness, and fatigue. It reduces mood swings. It balances your hormones, relieves constipation, controls, prevents gestational diabetes, and makes labor easier.

The latter were the benefits of exercise, while the former were some safety tips during pregnancy exercise. Keep the safety tips in mind to ensure you get the best from your exercise regimen.

The Benefits Of Pregnancy Exercise

It is said that, pregnancy exercise helps in healthy development of the baby in the womb. It energizes the mother and relieves her of aches and pains. It also keeps the muscles of mother’s vagina and abdomen toned, thereby helping in easy childbirth. You tend to sleep and feel better, if you exercise during pregnancy. It helps in getting back into shape after pregnancy.

An Exercise Regimen That Is Not Too Strenuous

Therefore, there is much to be gained by pregnancy exercise. If you have been a fitness freak before you became pregnant, you can continue to exercise, but in moderation. Ask your doctor to plan out a good exercise regimen for you. A regimen that is not too strenuous. He will ask you to avoid games like basketball, football, or horse riding. These can be down right dangerous during pregnancy. It is better to take up milder forms of exercise, such as swimming or walking. Some low impact exercises will do fine. You can also do less strenuous forms of yoga and deep breathing exercises to relax your self.

Lesser Pregnancy Complications for Those Who Exercise During Pregnancy

If you exercise regularly during pregnancy, you will have lesser pregnancy complications. A good pregnancy diet, a proper pregnancy weight gain, and the right amount of exercise will benefit both you and the baby. However, do not diet or exercise to lose weight during pregnancy. While exercising, if you start bleeding from the vagina or get abdominal pains or feel dizzy and faint, stop immediately and call for a doctor.

A Relaxing Pregnancy Massage

It’s also a good time to get you a relaxing pregnancy massage. It will release the stress in your body and you may feel more relaxed, emotionally too.

Therefore, you must consider pregnancy exercise, even if you have not exercised before. Low impact exercise will not only help you stay healthy and rejuvenate you, but will also enable you to go through pregnancy with lesser side effects.

Prepare Wisely With A Pre Pregnancy Plan

It is wise to prepare for pregnancy with a pre pregnancy plan. A pre pregnancy plan should include a proper diet plan and a well designed exercise regimen.

A Good Diet Plan

A good diet plan consists of well-balanced meals, three times a day. Meals should consist of foods rich in complex carbohydrates, proteins, milk and milk products, iron, vitamin C, Folic acid, and other prenatal vitamins. Freshly cooked green leafy vegetables, pulses and legumes, fresh fruits, fresh fruit juices (especially citrus fruit juices) whole grains, milk, yoghurt and cheese cereals and nuts are some of the foods that make a healthy well balanced diet. Remember; always eat a variety of foods, so that your body gets nourishment of all kinds. Also, drink 6-8 glasses of water in a day, so that you stay hydrated and the water can flush out the toxins from your body.

A Healthy Exercise Regimen

Exercise during pregnancy has many benefits. You may want to find yourself a fitness trainer in advance, in the pre pregnancy planning stage itself. This is a wise thing to do. He will design an exercise regimen, especially suited to your needs. A good exercise regimen helps in many ways. It makes labor much easier. It reduces the symptoms of morning sickness and fatigue to a great extent. Mood swings also decreases with regular exercise. You get relief from constipation; it controls and prevents gestational diabetes, balances your hormones, makes you sleep better and allows you to feel better on the whole. In fact, you will feel more rejuvenated, energetic, and happy, as opposed to depressed or unhappy, if you follow a good exercise regimen during pregnancy.

Do not Smoke, Drink or Do Drugs

Please ensure that, if you have been smoking, drinking, or doing drugs, now is the time to stop. Yes, please stop in the pre pregnancy planning stage itself. These three evils can cause untold harm to the unborn infant in the mother’s womb. There are risks of smaller babies being born, premature childbirth and even mental retardation, in some cases.

Those were the things you should keep in mind whilst pre pregnancy planning. We wish you a joyful and happy pregnancy.

The Importance Of A Well Balanced Post Pregnancy Diet

The post pregnancy diet should contain enough nutrients, because now you have to start breast-feeding your baby. Breast-feeding itself-takes up 1500 to 2000 calories a day, so do not hurry about going on that weight reducing spree. Also, don’t try to reduce immediately after pregnancy, as your body needs time to recover.

Pregnancy Diet in the First Trimester

The first trimester diet during pregnancy was special. Your meals were probably small meals, three to four times a day. They would have been light meals, with preferably no oily greasy foods. Green leafy vegetables, whole grains, foods rich in complex carbohydrates and proteins, iron, folic acid, calcium and vitamin C would have made up your meals. These were required to ensure that you have a safe and healthy pregnancy.

Pregnancy Diet in the Second Trimester

In the second trimester diet during pregnancy, you ate fresh fruits, milk and milk products, vegetables, whole grains and cereals. By then, your morning sickness had disappeared.

Pregnancy Diet In the Third trimester

In the third trimester, you may have had a problem of constipation, which required eating a well balanced diet with foods rich in fiber content.

An Ideal Post pregnancy Diet

A well balanced diet of three to four light meals is good for post pregnancy diet. Remember, you have just undergone pregnancy and your body needs calories to maintain the energy levels and to feed your baby. You may start on a low impact exercise regimen to loose weight. Also, take advice form your doctor about a healthy post pregnancy diet and a good exercise regimen.

You should read up good books and surf the net about tips on a healthy post pregnancy diet. Reading and staying well informed about the subject means that you would be more at ease post pregnancy.

First Trimester- A Delicate Period Of Pregnancy

The first trimester is a delicate period of pregnancy. This is the time when most miscarriages happen. Therefore, it is better to be careful during this time. You have just become a pregnant mother and your baby inside is beginning to form. It should not be harmed in any way. Some mothers think that if they exercise, they will cause harm to the growing fetus. Others, who have been fitness freaks before pregnancy, may want to continue vigorous forms of exercise. However, it is best to get a fitness trainer, who specializes in training pregnant women, to plan out an exercise program for you. He will be able to design a regimen suited specifically to your needs. Also, talk to your doctor before starting an exercise routine so as to avoid any complications that may occur during this period.

Exercise Done the Right Way Is Beneficial

The right exercise program during your first trimester can be very beneficial. It will ensure you are healthy, not only of physically but also mentally.

How Exercise Affects Your Baby

Any stress during first trimester pregnancy affects your baby too.

However, with exercise, you will be peaceful and your baby in the womb will not suffer any kind of stress. In fact, exercise during pregnancy ensures that your baby will show neurobehavioral maturity and will be better tolerant to stress.

How Exercise Helps

In the first trimester, you suffer from terrible mood swings. It is the hormones in your body at work. The first trimester also brings on nausea and morning sickness. A proper exercise program can contain both these symptoms of early pregnancy. However, regular exercise relieves you of many problems like constipation. Exercise also keeps your body and muscle flexible, toned, helps to make labor much easier, and ensures a speedy recovery after pregnancy.

Exercises and Sports to avoid

The most important thing that you must keep in mind during pregnancy is to avoid contact sports or sports that can hurt your abdomen. Soccer, football, basketball, horse riding, scuba diving, and skiing should be avoided. The ideal exercises during pregnancy are walking, swimming, and yoga.

As I said earlier, the first trimester is a delicate period for you. You should exercise in moderation and as advised by your doctor and trainer. Read more about this in good health manuals, books, and magazines or you can visit pregnancy period.