I suppose, since I am an exercise physiologist by profession, I should write a blog post about my experience with exercise while I have been pregnant. I'll be honest, it's been a very different experience than I expected. I always thought I would just keep on running up until the day my baby was born. I mean, I've run for years...why would pregnancy keep me from it? Ha. Was I wrong...for a number of reasons. Let's start with the initial reason I stopped running- morning (noon and night) sickness. I was just too nauseated to run much. I really tried to keep running most days until about week 15, then I just gave it up. But, when I started to feel better at week 18 I thought I'd try again. I was successful for a few weeks but developed tremendous pelvic pain that was worsened by running. So, I decided it was time to hang it up and start a new exercise routine that was more conducive to pregnancy. At first I did a lot of inclined walking on the treadmill (sometimes with jogging intervals if I felt ok that day). Or, I would do a workout on the elliptical. My favorite days of exercise were the days I would come home from work and Chris and I would go for a long walk/jog. I look forward to doing lots more of this after the baby is born with our wonderful new stroller!
I continue to exercise 5-6 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour. Aside from my cardio workouts, I have tried to continue doing strength exercises, particularly lots of squats and lunge.
I am so thankful that I have been able to exercise throughout my pregnancy. I really believe that it was helped me in so many ways- I have been able to gain a healthy amount of weight, I have not experienced any swelling, and I still feel extremely comfortable. I really am not tired of being pregnant yet, mostly I think because I am still able to be really active. I am hoping that my exercise will all pay off when it's time to welcome my precious son into the world with a quick and easy labor!
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