Merced Chiropractor

You’re pregnant, and are worried about how to exercise safely during pregnancy; you want to stay fit, but you don’t want to risk hurting the baby. What you don’t know is that there are lots of ways that you can stay fit and healthy while keeping your baby safe. Isn’t regular exercise good for you – and isn’t what’s good for you also good for your baby? So therefore, it’s good for both you and your baby for you to exercise during pregnancy. With one caveat – you need to make sure that you’re doing it safely.
Most women don’t realize this, and in fact think that they have to avoid it, but the truth is that you can do crunches and other abdominal exercises throughout your pregnancy. After all, crunches help to strengthn the muscles in the core, and that is the part of your body that is under the most stress through pregnancy. Strong abdominal muscles can also make labor, delivery, and the recovery afterwards much easier on you.

Crunches can be performed normally up until your 20th week of pregnancy. After the 20th week, you must modify the crunches so that you are either seated or lying on your side. Because of your rapidly changing body, you will need to modify the way you exercise during pregnancy; listen to what your body is trying to tell you.
In fact, after the 20th week, all exercises during pregnancy that were once done on the back must know be done on the side. Once you reach that stage, if you lie flat on your back, the weight of the baby and placenta can cut off the blood flow to your lower body. By this stage in your pregnancy, doctors will tell you that you have to sleep on your side, as well.

You can also still lift weights as a form of exercise during pregnancy, but you will have to start lifting lighter weights and reduce the amount of weight significantly and increase the repetitions. By lifting lighter weights, you can strengthen your muscles and ligaments without overstraining them. You have to be careful that you don’t overdo it when you exercise during pregnancy. The relaxin your body secretes while pregnant will make you more susceptible to muscle strains.

Exercise during pregnancy is important to both you and your baby. It can help you stay strong, and avoid many of pregnancy’s discomforts and aches and pains. You just need to remember that you need to stay flexible about how you work out; you may not be able to do as much exercise during pregnancy, or even exercise in the same way.

To learn more about Exercise During Pregnancy at Pregnancy Fitness dot ORG!