Can I exercise while pregnant?

For most pregnant women, exercising is safe and healthy for you and your baby. *This article will focus on exercise for a healthy, low-risk pregnancy.

How much exercise do you need while pregnant?

• 2½ hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week

  • brisk walking is an example of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise

  • you do not have to do the 2½ hours of exercise all in one day - splitting it up throughout the week works just fine!

Why is physical activity during pregnancy good for you?

• Keep your mind and body healthy. Physical activity can help you feel good and give you extra energy.

• Help you gain the right amount of weight during pregnancy

• Ease some common discomforts of pregnancy, such as constipation, back pain and swelling in your legs, ankles and feet

• Help you manage stress and sleep better

• Help reduce your risk of pregnancy complications, like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia

• Help reduce your risk of having a Cesarean birth (also called c-section)

• Prepare your body for labor and birth. Activities such as prenatal yoga and Pilates can help you practice breathing, meditation and other calming methods that may help you manage labor pain. Regular exercise can help give you energy and strength to get through labor

What kinds of activities are safe during pregnancy?

• Walking

• Swimming and water workouts

• Riding a stationary bike

• Yoga and pilates

• Low-impact aerobics classes

• Strength training

For some women, exercise is not safe during pregnancy. Your provider can help you understand if exercise is safe for you. The following conditions may make it unsafe to exercise during pregnancy.

What kinds of activities aren’t safe during pregnancy?

• Any activity that has a lot of jerky, bouncing movements that may cause you to fall

  • horseback riding, downhill skiing, off-road cycling, gymnastics or skating

• Any sport in which you can get hit in the belly

  • ice hockey, boxing, soccer or basketball.

• Any exercise that makes you lie flat on your back (after the third month of pregnancy)

  • sit-ups

• Activities that can cause you to hit water with great force

  • water skiing, surfing or diving

• Skydiving or scuba diving

  • Scuba diving can lead to decompression sickness. This is when dangerous gas bubbles form in your baby's body

• Exercising at high altitude (more than 6,000 feet)

• Activities that may make your body temperature too high

  • like Bikram yoga (also called hot yoga) or exercising outside on hot, humid days

When should you stop exercising? What are the warning signs you should watch for when exercising?

• Bleeding from the vagina or fluid leaking from the vagina

• Chest pain, fast heartbeat or trouble breathing

• Feeling dizzy or faint

• Headache

• Muscle weakness, trouble walking or pain or swelling in your lower legs.

  • Pain or swelling in your lower legs may be signs of deep vein thrombosis (also called DVT). DVT happens when a blood clot forms in a vein deep in the body, usually in the lower leg or thigh. If untreated, it can cause serious health problems and even death.

• Regular, painful contractions.

  • A contraction is when the muscles of your uterus get tight and then relax. Contractions help push your baby out of your uterus.

• Your baby stops moving.

  • This may be a symptom of stillbirth (when a baby dies in the womb after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Read full article here:

https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/pregnancy/exercise-during-pregnancy