Are you looking to adjust your exercise routine if you’re pregnant? Are you quickly realizing that your body isn’t the same as it once was? No kidding! Growing a human is tough on your body. Here I will talk about my experience with exercise before and during my pregnancy. I have noticed that my attitude and perspective on exercise have really changed for me during pregnancy. The workout grind occupied a lot of my time so I would be “healthy” and I realize that my definition of “healthy” stems too much from images I see in the media and not from my values. I dive into how my pregnancy had changed my exercise goals and focus.
Exercise Before Pregnancy
Before pregnancy, I was doing mostly strength training. See this post for my previous exercise routine. Strength training is something I enjoy because I notice I do feel so much stronger when I am consistent with it. I also had a focus on trying to grow my glutes and shape them better with the book shown above. Spin classes were my go-to for getting my cardio in. I loved the atmosphere and how empowered I felt at the local spin studio. My body seems to really love cardio, or I really love the way cardio makes me feel.
New Focus for my Health and Exercise
I now have a different focus for my health which I feel comes from a better place.
Focusing on health as a feeling and not so much as a look is important to me. I can feel when I am giving my body nutritious foods, I can feel when I move my body that I sleep better and appreciate my body more. I can feel when my gut microbiome is happy. Having lean muscle and strength that gets me through house renovations feels great.
I want to focus on being gentle and compassionate with myself. Pregnancy has impacted my immune system and I have had more flus and colds in my first 20 weeks of pregnancy than I have in the last 3 years. This has impacted my energy level and consistency in moving my body. I will do great for 3 weeks then get a cold and stop for a week and a half. This is life, and letting go of the expectation to exercise every single day will help me be more at peace with this. In this way, I think life is preparing me to be a flexible mother.
Exercise in my Current Pregnancy
I found that my high-intensity workouts were not something I wanted to continue doing in my first trimester. In my first trimester, I completely stopped my exercise routine. Being nauseated, tired, and not having enough energy to exercise forced me to relax. I was going to bed at 6 pm and waking up at 7 am! this was my first mom guilt feeling because as a maternity nurse, I know how important movement is for my health and my growing baby’s. I also know how important it is to listen to your body when it is telling you something.
Now I have more energy in my second trimester and I’m ready to get back into moving my body. High-intensity exercise is still something I would like to do but less frequently than before. I have changed the focus of my exercise to be more gentle on my body but still leaving me feeling like I got a good workout in. The winded, flushed “that was great” feeling is something I truly miss!
I have continued to do strength training but have not been adding weight, only adding reps. There are also exercises not recommended in pregnancy, like crunches, so I stopped doing those. I replaced Ab exercises with pregnancy-friendly ones. Spin classes were also my favorite cardio activity and I plan on getting back to spinning once I fight off this cold! Low-impact activities are my favorite thing right now, running or doing HITT isn’t in the cards for me. I have access to a free gym at my work and I have been getting my heart rate up by walking on the treadmill at an incline. I have also been enjoying yoga and stretching, especially at night before bed.
Now that the weather is warming up and it’s safer with little snow and ice, I have been going out for walks frequently. That 10,000-step goal is real right now! Thank you, Fitbit. I have been very thankful for how pregnancy has changed my exercise goals and focus
I spent a lot of time researching potential exercise programs for myself and came across a few I think would also be great to try:
