When did you start restricting/modifying exercise?

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lovekohl
lovekohl Posts: 111 Member
Did your doctor give you a recommendation? Did you "feel like" you were doing too much so you stopped or scaled back? I'll talk to my doctor once the opportunity presents itself, but I'm looking for your experience with exercising while pregnant.

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  • chickybuns
    chickybuns Posts: 1,037 Member
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    I am kind of wondering the same thing. I am 24 weeks and the only thing i do differently is only do low-impact exercise and monitor my HR. I'm sure at some point I'm going to have to cut down on the aerobic stuff and just stick to walking or the elliptical.
  • PanteraGirl
    PanteraGirl Posts: 566 Member
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    I"ve just been doing tons of walking with my dogs. I have to walk up and down the stairs A LOT at work....waiting to meet with my midwife next week and will ask. I'm hearing so many different things about what you should and shouldn't do. I was told by someone not to reach high with my arms cuz it could cause issues with the umbilical cord..

    Don't know what to think anymore! LOL I'm 25 weeks btw.
  • bluegirl10
    bluegirl10 Posts: 695 Member
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    I've had to scale back due to getting pains while doing aerobics... So now I am sticking to walking. My doctor said to try different exercises, but obviously if the pain continues then stop whatever I am doing. Luckily my job involves being on my feet at least half the day, so it helps me to stay active.
  • jls8209
    jls8209 Posts: 450 Member
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    I slowed down quite a bit during my first trimester, but it was due to a lack of energy more than anything. My doctor's advice in the beginning was that if I was unable to keep up a conversation, I was working to hard. Now at 26w I feel my uterus become tight now and then, especially when walking (eliptical/biking seems to be okay, though). I mentioned it to my doctor this morning, she said it's my body's way of telling me to slow down. I do slow down and drink water when I feel my uterus become tight, but it's so annoying to be walking on the treadmill and only going 3.0mph! Pre-pregnancy I walked 4.0-4.2mph with incline intervals up to 5%.
  • Mewlingstork
    Mewlingstork Posts: 266 Member
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    I'm about 29/30 weeks along and my doctor has only said I HAD to exercise at least 30 minutes a day. He tells all his patients this. He didn't give me any restrictions besides no pain. So, if it hurts me, I don't do it. Biggest thing that has bothered me is ligament pain.

    I tend to stay away from flat on my back exercises, but I still do crunches and things - either in the pool, or upright on a bosu ball. Since 20 weeks, I walk my dog everyday, ride my bike to work most days, water aerobics (deep and shallow), yoga, and circuit training with no impact. Beginning of the pregnancy I played ice hockey until 12 weeks, but then stopped basically everything else. I was bartending until 15 weeks, but now I have a desk job.

    I've heard mixed things about keeping heart rate under certain numbers, usually 140bpm. I haven't had any easy time getting my heart rate that high, so haven't worried about that. I've also heard be careful of joints that are relaxing and spreading; its very easy to hurt one's joints now.
  • mpederson
    mpederson Posts: 123 Member
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    I was told by my doctor to continue whatever exercises I was doing and if I felt uncomfortable then to pull back or stop that exercise. She didn't mention anything about max heart rate just to only do 85% of what I was doing before in terms of effort. As well......she told me to cut out the contact sports which was fine by me. Basically she said if it feels good, keep at it, if it doesn't then slow down or stop but keep active as it helps with water retention, easier labour, controls weight gain etc.

    So i played basketball up until 16 weeks but I was glad the season was done as I was starting to feel sluggish when running and I wasn't into it (also your joints get all loosy goosy so the sudden changes in movement can cause injury). I have been swimming the entire time and have not slowed down with that sport. It's great, I feel weightless which is NOT the case now when I walk. I did stop doing flip turns in the second tri because it gave me heart burn and made me more out of breath, then I stopped doing butterfly because I didn't have the wind or the abs for it and within the last month I stopped doing back stroke because I couldn't keep my belly up enough to keep my head out of the water!

    I think the advice to listen to your body is great, do what you can when you can.

    So at 35 weeks I walk for 45 minutes every morning (while my legs are fresh! after work i am done!) and I swim 3 hours a week.

    about the arms over the head....I saw that on a list of old wives' tales! That particular website explained they used to tell women that so they wouldn't over exert themselves. I think that was the advice back in the day.....no exercise...just knit bonnets. :)
  • Nataliaho
    Nataliaho Posts: 878 Member
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    I had a funny comversation with my doctor about this at my first appointment. It went like this:
    ME: "I train alot, will I need to stop or change anything?"
    DOC: "No, you can continue to train at the same level for now and scale back later on"
    ME: "What about weight lifting?"
    DOC: "No you should definately be fine."
    ME: "I lift pretty heavy."
    DOC: "How heavy?"
    ME: "HEAVY"
    DOC: "How heavy?"
    ME: "I squat like 100kg." (at this point I felt like total show-off idiot)
    DOC (looking at me with her mouth open): "Yeah you can't do that any more. Let me rephrase, that is not what a normal women does, you can continue training like a normal person... maybe scale back to half."

    I'm not a doctor, but I just didn't think that squatting 200lb+ seemed like something you should do pregnant...
  • wicklc
    wicklc Posts: 70 Member
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    My doctor told me to keep doing what I was doing- as long as I am not in any pain I should be fine.
  • Pepper2185
    Pepper2185 Posts: 994 Member
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    First and second trimester I was able to keep up my routine - spinning, zumba, hiking.

    Third trimester - I am too uncomfortable and tire too easily to continue with my previous routine. I get BH contractions when I exercise which increases the discomfort. Now (at 31 weeks) all I do is swimming, water aerobics, walking, and yoga.

    Keep it up while you still can, your body will slow you down soon enough :)
  • lexgem
    lexgem Posts: 163
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    I stopped everything at 5 weeks except walking and swimming because I have a history of recurrent miscarriage (I was doing spinning, rock climbing, weight lifting and running on a regular basis). I quit swimming at 6 weeks because the chlorene made me nauseous.
    I am just now getting back into swimming. I kept up walking for most of my pregnancy (nearly every day).