Exercise is a very important activity to participate in throughout your pregnancy as it will provide benefits to you and to your unborn child. Two of the major benefits that you will receive as you work out while pregnant is that you will be able to feel more energetic and it will help you sleep better at night.
As you progress throughout your pregnancy, it will be important to take it slow and easy. It is still critical that you warm up, so you should not skip this important step.
As you warm up, you should monitor how you feel. If you are short of breath or in pain, you should stop and recover before you continue exercising.
Continue to monitor how you feel when you begin again, if the pain starts again, you should stop what you are doing and consult with your doctor about the pain. You do not want to put your baby at risk, even though the exercise would be helpful to you.
It is also a good idea to talk to your doctor before you begin exercising if you have not exercised recently or in the previous trimester. The main question when you are pregnant is usually how hard you should exercise.
It is generally best to exercise on a machine or with a device that can tell you what your heart rate is. You should keep your heart rate at least 40 percent below your maximum heart rate.
For most healthy pregnant women, this means that you should keep your heart rate below 140 beats per minutes. When your heart rate moves above this point, it is working too hard to provide enough oxygen to you and the baby.
You do not want to deprive your baby of oxygen as this could result in birth defects and brain damage. In addition to monitoring your heart rate, you should also carefully monitor your body temperature and hydration level.
You do not want to get dehydrated or overheated as these things could also harm your baby. Even though there are many benefits that you can receive from exercising, do not feel bad if your doctor has advised you against it.
Exercising when pregnant is mostly a way to maintain the physical shape you had before rather than becoming more fit. However, if you cannot exercise, it does not mean you will not have a healthy baby.
In fact, if you have placenta previa, toxemiz, preeclampsia, or intrauterine growth retardation you should definitely not exercise. In addition, if you have had spontaneous abortions or an insufficient cervix in your history, you should also not exercise.
It is much more important to protect your baby rather than risk a miscarriage by exercising lightly. When you enter the second trimester, your body will begin to have balance changes as your stomach grows larger and larger.
You do not want to overdo it and harm your baby. For most women, aerobic activities like running and swimming as well as relaxation activities and strength training are still safe.
At least, they are safe as long as you keep your heart rate and temperature limits in mind. In the fourth month, it is best to do weight training while sitting as when you stand up the blood may go to your legs, leaving your light headed and dizzy.
At this point, you can keep jogging and running, but you should take it easy. By the fifth month, you should limit your jogging and running to walking.
One of the best ways to walk when you are five months pregnant is on an elliptical. The elliptical removes any impact that you may experience while running normally.
This makes walking much easier on your joints as your extra stomach weight is not pounding down on your joints and feet as you walk. The elliptical also provides handles for you to hold onto so that if you do feel unbalanced at some point, you will not fall over.
In addition, the elliptical often comes with a built in heart-rate monitor so that you can monitor your progress and not exceed 140 bpm. Another benefit of the elliptical is that the pedals move with your feet, so you will be less likely to misstep.
This is important as you will have a much harder time compensating for missteps as your belly grows larger. The elliptical is quite convenient as well as you will be able to stop and lay down if you do not feel well.
Author Resource:-
Ignacio Lopez is a personal trainer and has authored hundreds of articles relating to physical training and elliptical. He has been a health expert and physical trainer for over 15 years.
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