How Indispensable Exercise Is During Pregnancy?
Undoubtedly, exercise is the most effective way to significantly ameliorate your mental and physical health in regular days. But do you think of exercise during pregnancy? Isn’t it interesting? Yes, exercise during pregnancy can give a wide range of benefits to mother and baby as well during and after pregnancy both.
Exercise enhances your body capacity, revamps heart health and stamina, boost up your mood and energy level, decrease fatigue and constipation, improves your muscles strength and enhance your sleep. Pregnancy is the most critical time in a woman’s life and it can improve with the help of exercise. A right exercise during pregnancy may give a newborn to a healthier start. A well-chosen exercise program has been linked with a wide range of health benefits pre and post-delivery, including:
1. Reduces stress and anxiety
2. Reduce fatigue
3. Eliminate the risk of hemorrhoids and constipation
4. Easier in delivery
5. Revamp mood
6. Ameliorate sleep
7. Reduce morning sickness
8. Reduce laziness
9. Improve ability to maintain weight during and after pregnancy
10. Most importantly, it reduces the risk of caesarian delivery
12. Prepare your body to birth
13. Make you feel better
14. Maintain body shape
15. Reduce the risk of disease that might happen during pregnancy
While suggesting exercise during pregnancy it is also recommended to take advice to your doctor whether you should do it or not, if yes then what type of exercise you should go with. It is indispensable to know what type of exercise is beneficial during your pregnancy days because you are not supposed to do any sort of mistake. A best suitable exercise will lead to a healthy pregnancy, baby and fit body as well.
Some special exercise that you can practice
1. Swimming
Swimming is the most effective exercise during regular and pregnancy days as well. It gives a better range of motion without putting pressure on joints. It improves blood circulation and makes your body fit. Water activities like swimming, walking in water and aqua aerobics offer a healthy lifestyle throughout the pregnancy and after delivery as well.
Safety tips:
a) Avoid diving and jumping
b) Avoid warm pools, hot tubs, steam rooms, and saunas
c) Use railing while entering into the water to balance your body and avoid slipping.
2. Yoga
Yoga classes during pregnancy keep the joints limber and help in maintaining flexibility. Yoga will strengthen your muscles, stimulates blood circulation, keeps you relax, and maintain your weight. This will also contribute to healthy blood pressure during pregnancy. Alongside, yoga will keep you calm and give your strength to control labor pain.
Safety tips:
a) Avoid positions that may misbalanced your body
b) Poses that involve lying on the abdomen or flat on the back should be avoided.
c) Avoid over-stretching your body, it could lead to injury
d) Avoid lying on the back that can cause the weight of the fetus and the uterus to put pressure on major veins and arteries and decrease the blood flow of the heart.
3. Cycling
Cycling is the most amazing exercise for anybody. It is safe and secure if you are practicing for the first time. It helps to improve the heart rate without putting too much stress on joints. It would be better if the cycle is stationary. Stationary cycling also reduces the risk of falling.
4. Walking
Walk during pregnancy is a good an idea to keep you healthy. A quick stroll around your neighborhood will keep you stress-free and active throughout the day. It will render a cardiovascular workout too much impact on the knees and ankles. It can be done anywhere and anytime during your pregnancy time.
Safety tips:
a) Always choose a smooth surface for walking and avoid rocky and the surface that is occupied with other obstacles.
b) Wear comfortable and platform footwear
5. Aerobics
Aerobics strengthens the heart and lungs and also helps to maintain muscle tone. Low- impact aerobics help to maintain balance the body, reduce the risk of weakening the pelvic floor muscles, etc. Some aerobic classes are mainly designed for pregnant women and this is the best way to meet other pregnant women to which you can learn something new.
Safety tips:
a) While opting for aerobics avoid aerobics like jumping, fast-running, or high kicks.
b) Before joining aerobics classes, remember to inform your instructor that you are pregnant.
6. Squatting and pelvic tilts
There are some exercises specially designed for practicing in pregnancy as they prepare the body for labor and smooth delivery. It mainly includes squatting that may help to open the pelvis.
How to do-
a) Stand on the floor with flat feet, shoulder-width apart and straighten your back.
b) Lower yourself slowly and keep the feet flat and your knees no further forward than your feet.
c) Hold this position to 10-30 seconds then slowly push up.
How to do pelvic tilts:
a) Set down on your hands or knees
b) Now, tilt the hips forward, pull the abdomen in, and arching the back.
c) Hold this position for a few seconds.
d) Next, release your current position and come back to your previous position.
e) Repeat this process up to 10 times.
Pregnancy is the time in which you need to focus on some specific things and exercise should aim to:
a) It keeps the body flexible and robust.
b) It prepares the muscles for labor and birth
c) It supports and controls healthy weight gain
d) It increases the heart rate steadily and improves circulation.
Doing such exercises can be beneficial after pregnancy. When the uterus starts to shrink back, the pelvic floor and core muscles realign themselves. With these exercises, you can experience faster recovery. You can aid your body further with an after-pregnancy belly and pelvis wrap. This can help take advantage of the 8-week window when your body undergoes spontaneous healing after you give birth.
Tips for exercise during pregnancy to avoid risks
a) Women who used to exercise before pregnancy or who are healthy during pregnancy should continue it as before, with slight changes depending on the trimester.
b) Women who have not been exercised before pregnancy will start with the low-intensity program and slowly move to a higher activity level.
Tips for safe exercise
a) Begin with warming and stretching for 5 minutes.
b) Finish with 5-10 minutes slower exercise ends with gentle stretching.
c) Wear loose-fitting and comfortable clothes with a supported bra.
d) Always choose supportively and gripped shoes.
e) Choose a flat surface area for exercise.
f) Drink plenty of water during exercise.
g) Avoid exercise for one hour after your meal.
But the thing to remember is if a pregnant woman is suffering from a medical problem such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease then the exercise is not advisable. Exercise should avoid in pregnancy-related cases also as- weak cervix, bleeding or spotting, low placenta, previous premature births or history of early labor, threatened or recurrent miscarriage.
