How to Exercise While Pregnant
Being pregnant is a tough time for women.
It gives you cravings like you would never imagine.
This of course results in major weight gain.
Although it is recommended to have a hearty but healthy diet, exercising is crucial if you want to retain the figure you had before the baby bump; being pregnant does not mean you should stay fat forever.
There are actually quite a few exercises that have been developed especially for expectant mothers.
These exercises give you enough of a challenge without straining you or the baby.
Let's go through a few that you could do on your own.
Start with a few stretching exercises to warm up those muscles! This can help you during the duration of your pregnancy and when you give birth.
By getting used to stretching you are allowing yourself to become limber.
Start with some neck rotations and then follow this up with shoulder rotations.
Before you start your exercise routine, make sure to work your arms, thighs and ankles.
These last three stretching exercises are just your standard warm up routine with about half the reps cut off.
Now, one of the most undersold exercises is Kegels.
These exercises aim to develop the muscles surrounding your uterus and bladder.
By developing these muscles, you will be able to hold your bladder for a much longer period of time.
These greatly help in preparing you during both the labor and postpartum period.
Just imagine yourself in a situation where you will need to control your urine, and with enough repetitions over time, you will get quite used to it.
Attempt to avoid using your other muscles like your abdominal muscles, leg muscles and buttock muscles.
You may also choose to do arm stretches to avoid having that hanging fat beneath your arm, commonly called, 'wings'.
To do this simply raise your hands above your head bring your palms together, keep them facing each other with your elbows straight and hold this position for twenty seconds.
Now lower them while keeping your back straight and bring the backs of your palms together as far behind you as possible while stretching.
These are very basic exercises that can be done whenever you feel like them.
You can ask your doctor for more exercises that you can do while waiting for your baby to arrive.
It gives you cravings like you would never imagine.
This of course results in major weight gain.
Although it is recommended to have a hearty but healthy diet, exercising is crucial if you want to retain the figure you had before the baby bump; being pregnant does not mean you should stay fat forever.
There are actually quite a few exercises that have been developed especially for expectant mothers.
These exercises give you enough of a challenge without straining you or the baby.
Let's go through a few that you could do on your own.
Start with a few stretching exercises to warm up those muscles! This can help you during the duration of your pregnancy and when you give birth.
By getting used to stretching you are allowing yourself to become limber.
Start with some neck rotations and then follow this up with shoulder rotations.
Before you start your exercise routine, make sure to work your arms, thighs and ankles.
These last three stretching exercises are just your standard warm up routine with about half the reps cut off.
Now, one of the most undersold exercises is Kegels.
These exercises aim to develop the muscles surrounding your uterus and bladder.
By developing these muscles, you will be able to hold your bladder for a much longer period of time.
These greatly help in preparing you during both the labor and postpartum period.
Just imagine yourself in a situation where you will need to control your urine, and with enough repetitions over time, you will get quite used to it.
Attempt to avoid using your other muscles like your abdominal muscles, leg muscles and buttock muscles.
You may also choose to do arm stretches to avoid having that hanging fat beneath your arm, commonly called, 'wings'.
To do this simply raise your hands above your head bring your palms together, keep them facing each other with your elbows straight and hold this position for twenty seconds.
Now lower them while keeping your back straight and bring the backs of your palms together as far behind you as possible while stretching.
These are very basic exercises that can be done whenever you feel like them.
You can ask your doctor for more exercises that you can do while waiting for your baby to arrive.
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