How much did you exercise while pregnant?

lealorali

Hello! I plan on TTC in the next few months while also training for a sprint-tri taking place in June (my first!) I am a well-seasoned runner with 20+ miles a week plus strength, spin and swimming and a few half-marathons under my belt. I love exercise and I want to exercise as much as physically possible when pregnant.
What has been your experience with being pregnant and maintaining a relatively intense workout schedule?

GiddyupTim

My wife ran and played tennis up until at least 6 months, maybe longer. It's been a while and my memory ain't what it used to be. But she definitely was out there chasing tennis balls when she was big as a house.

popshoveit

I didn't work out at all with my first, and gained (eeeek!) over fifty pounds!
Fortunately it all fell off easily after (I was lucky.. I think a lot of it was water/swelling)

With my second pregnancy I worked out until I couldn't at around six months because my pelvis seperated. It was so painful I couldn't walk sometimes (and I had a 1 year old to take care of too) it was difficult but i watched my diet and didn't gain as much. Only about 30 lbs.
The weird thing was that it was hard to lose the baby weight the second time. I did it, but it took effort.

I recommend prenatal yoga and Pilates - there are great DVDs. If you have the time and money there are probably prenatal exercise classes in your area, and just good old fashioned walking and swimming is great!

FromHereOnOut

Every pregnancy is different. You'll really have to see how it goes when you get there. Some people can keep doing what they were doing before, others can't, or worse have complications and end up on bed rest. Ability to be active can fluctuate day to day. (Even hour to hour, I found in my 2nd pregnancy, when I'd be walking all over town before lunch and then a sudden shift down there and I couldn't walk across the street because I felt like a baby foot was about to pop out.) Some days you have energy you've never had in your life--you could move mountains. Other days you find yourself napping in the back of your car on your lunch break (or under your desk--I did both!). lol. Forget planning and be flexible.

Good luck!

sammiesmama73

If you are TTC, be careful with vigorous exercise. I lost 100 lbs in 6 months by exercising 1 to 2 hours 6 days a week, and still eating very healthy, and I stopped ovulating. I lost the weight in hopes of having another baby, so I was very disappointed when that happened. I cut back on the exercising and gained a little weight back and after a couple months started ovulating again ( I was using test strips). Thankfully I just found out I am pregnant. So far I am still walking 4 to 5 times a week and have adjusted my goals to maintain my weight until the Doctor gives me more specific directions.

lealorali

Good to know! I am charting/ temping my ovulation pretty strictly so things look good. Or so it seems!

lealorali

and congrats on the pregnancy!!!

Lleldiranne

With my last pregnancy I walked daily and swam several times a week.

This time around, I plan on getting back to the gym for weight lifting as soon as the morning sickness passes. (I've already verified with my OB that this is safe).

According to my OB (and most sources), as long as you feel good and have no complicating factors, you can do whatever exercise while pregnant that you were doing before. Just listen to your body, take breaks when you need to, and don't plan on hitting any personal records while pregnant.

3dogsrunning

Every pregnancy is different. You'll really have to see how it goes when you get there. Some people can keep doing what they were doing before, others can't, or worse have complications and end up on bed rest. Ability to be active can fluctuate day to day. (Even hour to hour, I found in my 2nd pregnancy, when I'd be walking all over town before lunch and then a sudden shift down there and I couldn't walk across the street because I felt like a baby foot was about to pop out.) Some days you have energy you've never had in your life--you could move mountains. Other days you find yourself napping in the back of your car on your lunch break (or under your desk--I did both!). lol. Forget planning and be flexible.

Good luck!

So much of this.

I am similar to you, I do sprint distance triathlons (I signed up for a half Ironman and ended up pregnant the month after I signed up), run half marathons (I was actually like a week pregnant at my last HM), Crossfit.
A good friend of mine was pregnant last year, she ran a half marathon while 4 months pregnant and did the swim portion of a sprint tri when she was 6 months along.
My plan was to be as active as I could be. I had all these images in my head of being a fit, active pregnant woman. I knew I would slow down, and do less but I still had some high expectations of myself.
As I mentioned, I did get pregnant and spoke with my doctor regarding exercise. She told me I could continue to do anything I had done before, so I did. Except, it wasn't that easy. I'm still active, but I can't imagine how my friend made it through the half marathon (she was due last August, I am due this August, so the race fell around the same time in our pregnancies). It was just not feasible for me. I'm not exactly the just give up type but honestly, a 5k exhausts me now, and I am not talking about anywhere near racing it. 5 miles was the longest distance I managed after finding out I was pregnant and its been awhile since I've done more than 3.

I had a scare with some minor spotting. I hadn't exercised in a couple of days so it wasn't because of that but it still made me really nervous to exercise. It turned out to be nothing and my doctor assured me I can continue to exercise. My best friend had to give up running because she ended up with placenta previa.
I gave up Crossfit while pregnant, other women in my box continued right up to delivery practically.

I still run, well, jog at a very slow pace with a lot of walking and not nearly the distance I used to go along with swimmming and walking. I plan on getting back to the gym with a modified lifting schedule this week. I also signed up for pre-natal yoga. My days of 2 a day are behind me as well as 5-6 days of tough workouts.

I'll be honest, I struggled for a bit with not being able to do what I used to and with those high expectations I had of myself. I had built a lot of my self worth around my fitness, if that makes sense. Sometimes comments people made made me upset. Like I volunteered to help time a 10k run because I wouldn't be running it this year, 10k is just too far for me now. Someone said "oh so and so ran until 3 days before she gave birth". :grumble:
I've gotten to the point now where I am ok with it.

Like the person above said, forget the planning, be flexible. Do what you can and have fun.

ETA - oh and good luck!

RunnerElizabeth

I walked, hiked and did yoga when i was pregnant. I gave up on hiking at about 7 months though because I couldn't see my feet so hiking on uneven terrain didn't seem like a good idea. I went on a 6 mile walk 4 days before my due date. Before pregnancy i was taking 3 boxing classes a week. I gave this up (never even asked my doctor about it) because I really didn't have the energy.

nje444

5 or 6 days a week until the end. It really depends on you, your doctor, and what you were up to prior to getting pregnant. As long as you listen to your body - you will be fine.

I was also back to working out 10 days later (slow but steady) and I owe that to remaining active during my pregnancy and an "easy" delivery.

mbennett024

I highly recommend swimming. Idk about rigorous exercise during pregnancy, definitley talk to your ob or midwife about that when the time comes.

scraver2003

Soooo hard. Exercising got so hard SO quickly. I had visions of running through my entire second pregnancy.

I ran a HM in September 2012. My goal was to do it in under 3 hours (and I had done the same one the year before that in 3:00:53). I just couldn't do it. I could NOT make myself go fast enough and I had really been doing great in my training. The next day, I tested positive! It got hard THAT quickly. (for me anyway) Each day, exercise got harder and harder. I bought one of those belly support things (that was very helpful) and I did a 5k at 7 months. My goal was to do it in under an hour and my time was 54 mins and change. That was the last time I exercised pregnant!! Lol!

The only worry I would have about doing a sprint tri while PG is the biking - if you fall off or crash, that could be disasterous.

katebrog

I'll be 6.5 months next week and I'm still keeping up with my exercise routine to the best of my ability. My doctor told me that if my body was used to my exercise routine before I got pregnant, that I could still keep it up while pregnant. Currently, I'm running roughly 4 or 5 times a week, each run no longer than 7 miles. I feel like 7 miles is about as far as I can comfortably go, especially now that my hips are starting to hurt and tendons in my legs are aching. I've dropped down really to maxing out around 6.2 or 5. I ran a HM at around 16 weeks with a time of 2:50 and felt great, I was actually supposed to run the Full, but decided I would have more fun and not worry as much if I dropped down to the Half. However, now that I'm nearing my third Trimester, it's been tough to keep the runs long. The days I don't run, I either do a cycle class at the gym or elliptical with a little upper body weight training. I've been dedicated on trying really hard to continue working out throughout my entire pregnancy, but it's getting harder for sure...especially running now that there's a lot of pressure on my bladder. Just do what you can do comfortably, and don't push it. Listen to your body and your doctor! Good luck!

12by311

I was running and being a practice dummy (light stuff, not going live) for my basketball team with my first until I went to my first checkup and was told I was high risk. I was so naïve before going to that appointment.

So then I only walked and did stuff with like 8 lb dumbbells, prenatal yoga, and swam very leisurely.

The second baby (and already having a two year old), I was EXHAUSTED 24/7. I couldn't sleep so that didn't help my energy level. I walked a little but he was positioned in a way that made it very difficult from pretty early one. So with the second, hardly any exercise.

papagal212

Pregnant with my 3rd kid now. First kid I did zero exercise lol. 2nd kid I exercised religiously until I gave birth, I did exercise dvds, running, walks, elliptical, treadmill, stationary bike, whatever. Pregnancy was completely healthy and I still gained 33-34lbs. Currently 7 wks pregnant and I just finished a 10k last weekend in 58mins, I have a 5k coming up in july and doing another 10k sometime in August. Im still running often (did 8miles yesterday) and hope to continue as long as I can. I have been also gaining ridiculouly. I also plan to incorporate prenatal dvds starting n3xt week

ponycyndi

The only exercise I ever did while pg was to heave myself onto the couch, and push my luck. I gained less than 30 lbs each time because of my strict diet to control my blood glucose. My weight gain came after I stopped breastfeeding, about 10-12 lbs x 3 pregnancies.