As your belly grows during pregnancy there are many things that will change. One of the things that may change is your ability to exercise.
Exercise is very important for pregnant women and it does not increase the risk of a miscarriage. In fact, it actually provides many benefits to the mother and the growing baby.
While you should be able to continue an exercise program that you were doing before pregnancy towards the beginning of pregnancy, it will get more difficult over time because of the changes that your body will go through.
For example, your respiratory rate will naturally increase as the baby develops. You are going to need to provide oxygen not only for yourself, but for the baby as well.
This will reduce the extra oxygen that your body can use when you exercise. The lack of oxygen may decrease your endurance and increase how quickly you reach a state of breathlessness.
Do not overdo it when you get breathless. Be sure to sit down and catch your breath whenever you get breathless.
You do not want to deprive the baby of oxygen and you do not want to faint, fall and accidentally injure yourself or the baby. If the baby is deprived of oxygen it could result in a variety of birth defects or even miscarriage.
Another change that you will experience during pregnancy is your sense of balance. With your belly becoming larger and larger, your back will naturally develop a larger curve to balance the weight.
As a result, your center of gravity will change and you will have to get used to it quickly or you may find yourself easily falling over when simple things happen. You will need to be mindful of this to prevent injury from occurring.
You will also have to be mindful of your joints as they change throughout pregnancy as well. Later, in the third trimester, your body will release a chemical called relaxin.
The relaxin causes your joints to loosen so that your body will be ready to deliver the baby. This particularly affects your hip joints, so you will need to be careful of them.
It is much easier to sprain your muscles and joints while you are pregnant, especially because the extra weight will make a normal sprain even worse. A sprain would stop you from exercising for good until it healed or until after you gave birth.
As you exercise, you also need to be conscious of how much you eat. Your metabolism is going to change as your body meets the various needs of your growing baby.
For example, your body will use carbohydrates quicker. When you exercise, you also use a lot of carbohydrates.
This means that you will have two things eating away at your blood sugar. You will need to be mindful of this and make sure that you eat enough to meet the needs of your body and keep your blood sugar up.
Eating more is completely normal during pregnancy and it is something that you should do, but make sure you do not eat too much of the wrong or unhealthy things. Your body needs healthy food that will provide the baby with nutrients.
Another thing that will change during pregnancy is your cardiovascular abilities. During pregnancy, your blood volume will increase by 40 percent.
Likewise, your heart rate will increase by 15 beats a minute. The increase in blood volume and in your heart rate makes it easier on your body to provide nutrients and oxygen to your baby.
However, as your stomach grows, you may still feel like you have a lack of blood delivering oxygen to your extremities. While there is enough blood, your body is running for two and lack of oxygen or lightheadedness can take place as a result.
Be sure to sit down, rest, and recover when you feel lightheaded. One of the most common problems related to pregnancy is lack of oxygen.
It is a good idea to work out on an elliptical or similar machine as you can monitor your heart rate on it. You will want to check your heart rate while you are working out on the elliptical or other machine to make sure that it is not about 140bpm or your heart is working too hard to provide oxygen to your body.
The elliptical is also a good machine because it will not jolt your baby or hips like running on a treadmill will. It also tends to provide a good workout without raising your heart rate too high.
Author Resource:-
Ronald Pedactor is a personal trainer and has authored hundreds of articles relating to physical training and elliptical machines. He has been a health expert and physical trainer for over 15 years.
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