Wellness Wednesday - Exercise and pregnancy - Week 1

I can imagine a lot of you are looking at the title and thinking, "Yeah right, exercise and pregnancy can't go together!" That's where you're wrong. In fact, there couldn't be a more important time to exercise. The idea that pregnancy is akin to an illness and needs to be treated as such is not only outdated, but also poses a danger to yours, and your baby's, health.

Being pregnant should be one of them most beautiful times of a woman's life. To create life is nothing short of a miracle and, the fact that women have the power to do this is incredible. For some women, however, it ends up being the worst time of their lives and triggers a downward spiral, healthwise, that they are unable to bounce back from.

Women have been giving birth to babies for thousands and thousands of years with great success. The idea that pregnancy, and the actual birth itself, need to be treated almost like an illness, is a crazy one. Yes, there are extreme circumstances. A much older woman, or a woman who has had many miscarriages and is high risk should be cautious. But a healthy woman under the age of 40 shouldn't see pregnancy as a reason to get off her feet and limit her activity.

If you have gymmed in the past, and you fall pregnant, there's no reason to stop exercising at all. If your past fitness regime was three times a week and included resistance and cardiovascular training, then carry on with that training. What you SHOULD avoid is stepping it up a notch. Your body is fully accustomed to those three times a week and it can handle it. I can assure that it will STILL handle it while you're pregnant. The best thing you can do is stick to that regime. If you stop, you will be doing yourself a huge disservice.

If have not exercised before, clear it with your doctor first. Your trainer will insist on that and rightly so. You need to know if there is ANY health risk attached to exercising. However, unless you are an unhealthy person, with existing health issues, there is no reason why the doctor won't give the go ahead.

I wouldn't recommend simply going to the gym and starting to exercise, if you aren't with a trainer. And I'd also recommend a trainer who is qualified to train pregnant, or post natal, women. Even qualified personal trainers need to go for a specialised course to learn how to train them properly. I have shadowed many personal trainers who have no idea what is important about training pre and post natal women.

One thing that EVERY trainer will tell you is that the most important thing is to keep the heart rate below 140 BPM (beats per minute) It is NOT, however, the most important thing when it comes to training pregnant women. Firstly, it's not a true indicator of how a woman is actually FEELING during exercise. Secondly, saying that a heart rate should be 140 BPM for all pregnant women is insinuating that all women are created equal. They're not. We're all different and unique.

;)

If you are an elite athlete, having your heart rate go over 140 BPM is not going to stress your body out much. You'll have a much faster recovery rate and your body will be able to deal with it. An athlete can go up to 155 BPM and still be fine. If you have lived a sedentary lifestyle then I'd more inclined to keep an eye on the heart rate. Recovery rate will be slow and could put strain on the foetus.

If you want to be more accurate with each client, the best indicator of how a pregnant women's body is responding to exercise is a scale called Borg's Scale of RPE (rate of perceived exertion) The scale has numbers that correspond with how your body is reacting to the exercise you are doing. 0 means you aren't taking any strain, and 10 means you are exercising at a very high intensity:

0: Nothing at all
0.5: Very, very weak (just noticeable)
1: Very weak
2: Weak (light)
3: Moderate
4: Somewhat strong
5: Strong (heavy)
7: Very Strong
10: Maximal

The optimum place to be if you are pregnant is between 3 and 4. This is why it's very important to be in tune with your body while exercising. However, if you are with a trainer, they should be able to work out where you are on the scale from your body's reactions. They should be asking you at various intervals, how you are feeling. If you are breathing heavily, sweating and battling to talk, chances are good you are working a bit too hard and need to tone it down a bit.

You can see how this would be a better indicator then heart rate because it is specific to the woman exercising.

The woman on the left would have no problem exercising at higher intensity but the woman on the right would have a problem recovering if her heart rate went above 140 BPM.

This may sound a bit daunting but it doesn't have to be. If you are a regular exerciser then you are probably very in tune with your body. Listen to it and you will be fine. If you haven't exercised much in the past, I would recommend gymming with a personal trainer who is qualified to train pregnant women. There are several other factors to take into account when you are exercising and I will go into more of those next week as well as WHY exercising while pregnant is so vital to your health and your baby's health.

Until next week:)