This is my last post for a while. I’m having my baby any day and I’m spending a bit of time relaxing and chilling out before I do so I officially stopped working on December 4th.
What a strange year it’s been! Full of ups and downs and surprises, heart ache, pain, grief and loss. It’s also been a year where we’ve slowed down, reflected and appreciated the important things in life. As we are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine on the horizon it does feel as though 2021 will be a more positive year for many of us.
It’s been a challenging year for me as I’ve worked to get my new business off the ground under very difficult circumstances. I’ve gained a huge amount but also found it very difficult at times. See my previous post on what we’ve gained in 2020 here.
In amongst it all I’ve experienced a miraculous pregnancy, which I never thought would ever happen, and we are now preparing for the arrival of our little baby. This is my last blog post for a while as I take some time off for maternity leave but I’ll be back sometime in 2021 with more learnings on how to feel your best self.
Staying active in pregnancy
As my final piece for 2020 I thought I’d reflect on how staying active in pregnancy is so important. It’s also helped me so much with my physical and mental health. I’ve been studying for my pre and post-natal exercise and nutrition specialism qualification and have therefore learnt a great deal about why exercise and nutrition is vital during pregnancy and in the post-natal period.
It’s completely safe and advisable to stay active in pregnancy
There are lots of myths surrounding exercise and pregnancy with many still believing that women should put their feet up and rest for the entire 9 months.
What’s best for you and your baby is actually the opposite. Unless you are experiencing any complications with your pregnancy then it is absolutely safe and advisable to continue to exercise throughout pregnancy. Particularly if you were active pre-pregnancy. For women who didn’t do any regular exercise before becoming pregnant it is still safe to start moving now if precautions are followed.
Benefits to staying active during pregnancy
There are so many benefits to staying active during pregnancy including:
- Helping to reduce maternal weight gain
- Maintaining general fitness
- Reducing the risk of high blood pressure
- Improving sleep and mood
- Improving posture and reducing back pain
- Easing of constipation
- Reducing the risk of gestational diabetes, preeclampsia and the need to have a caesarean section
- Helping to maintain and increase body awareness and improved self-image.
In her book Roar: how to match your food and fitness to your female physiology for optimum performance, great health, and a strong, lean body for life Dr Stacey T. Sims includes a chapter on exercise and pregnancy. She talks about how exercise is good for the pregnant mother and baby on so many levels. She even refers to a study showing how keeping active in pregnancy actually improved fitness levels and performance significantly post-natally.
Guidelines state that pregnant women should aim for 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week.
Exercise is good for the growing fetus
Sims notes that exercise is good for the baby in terms of:
- Reducing future risk of developing cardiovascular disease
- Improving metabolism later in the life: the child is less likely to suffer from childhood obestity and develop diabetes
- Being more likely to lead to a healthier birth weight.
She says
“Exercising in early pregnancy has a profoundly positive effect on your developing baby, as it stimulates placenta growth and function as well as the organs and systems of the baby. Staying active through the later stages of pregnancy keeps your baby’s growth and development on track. All this good stuff happens with just 30 to 45 minutes of exercise a day.”
Stacey T. Sims Roar: how to match your food and fitness to your female physiology for optimum performance, great health, and a strong, lean body for life
Exercise is essential in the post-natal phase
Exercise in the post natal period (once signed off from the doctor) also has lots of benefits including:
- Aiding faster post-natal recovery
- Helping to reduce the risk of developing post-natal depression
- Aids the return to pre-pregnancy weight
- Relieves stress
- Improves sleep and energy levels
- Strengthens and builds muscles. Particularly the abdominals (the rectus abdominis) which are weakened during pregnancy
- Helps build bone growth important if women are breastfeeding
- Provides functional fitness for a new life as a parent
Adaptations needed in pregnancy
Adaptations will need to be made for each trimester and it’s advisable for pre and post-natal women to work with a specialist personal trainer to start with to ensure adaptations are correct and safe.
In fact, most exercises are actually safe to continue throughout pregnancy as long as you feel comfortable. The main adaptations needed are:
- Working out at a moderate intensity and avoiding interval training or HIIT sessions which may lead to overheating or breathlessness
- Avoiding lying on the back in the supine position, and on the front in the prone position, in the second and third trimesters
- Being careful to avoid exercises which put strain on the abdominal muscles (the rectus abdominis) such as crunches, planks and press ups. However it is important to continue to work other parts of the deep core (for example, transversus abdominus and the obliques)
- Pelvic floor exercises are very important during the pre and post-natal phases and should be incorporated into any training programme
- Avoiding high impact workouts in second and third trimesters
- Staying away from contact sports or activities where there could be a risk of falling
- Adapting stretches so they are less intense than usual
- Being aware of exercises which require balance
There are lots of other things to think about here which is why working with a specialist trainer during pregnancy is always a good idea (I’m soon to be qualified!).
Pregnancy is not a time to increase fitness levels or attempt any personal challenges. It’s all about staying active and maintaining fitness levels where possible.
I had to make adjustments to my own training
People who know me know I’m always running, swimming, cycling, doing yoga and pushing my body in my training sessions. I’m usually training for some sort of endurance event.
When I found out I was pregnant I had to really adapt my thinking around my training and make sure I was really listening to my body and taking the pace down considerably. I’ve managed to keep active throughout the entire pregnancy but I had to stop running at around 18 weeks as it didn’t feel comfortable anymore.
Swimming on the other hand, has been possible throughout and I kept it up as much as I could around the swimming pool closures in lockdown. There’s nothing nicer than floating in the water when you have a heavy bump to carry. I couldn’t do breaststroke as I suffered pelvic pain but front crawl has been fine and I was still able to do over 50 lengths after 38 weeks which I was very happy about.
I avoided my usual intervals and didn’t pushing myself to go fast. I allowed my heart rate to come up a bit and enjoyed the feeling of relaxing in to the swim.
My sister Ali had her beautiful baby Ada in October and managed 46 lengths in the pool the day before she gave birth! We were both swimming outside in the summer too at our local reservoir which was great. Here we are with our bumps after a lovely outdoor swim.
Pre natal yoga has also been amazing and I’ve been doing classes at my local studio East of Eden and through a trainer based in York. I’ve also been following some specialist online yoga and found some strength workouts suitable in pregnancy which have been really great.
My plans for 2021
Who knows what 2021 holds for us all! It’s all a big uncertain adventure at the moment. What i’m hoping is that i’ll be able to get my fitness classes back up and running sometime in March/April and also add in some specialist pre and post natal sessions. I will keep you all posted and encourage you to sign up to my emails so you get the latest updates on when I’m back.
Until then I’ll sign off and say goodbye for now!
Louisa xx
