Are you able to exercise?

What exercises are you doing?

How often are you able to exercise?

Do you find your body reacts differently to exercise now that you're pregnant? How so?

[fitnessgirl]

Yup- 5 or 6 days a week. I take spinning and Body Pump classes (strenuous biking and weight lifting). Only things I have changed is that I don't spin hard and fast enough to make myself feel ill anymore (I know...sounds weird, but I am a competitive athlete and this is what ya gotta do!). I still work out hard, just not to that point.

I bought a heart rate monitor and ignore the "stay below 140 bpm" doctors advice when cycling because I'd be SO out of shape by the time the baby is born if I did that. It does not make sense to me for doctors to ask people to become LESS FIT during pregnancy if they are already in excellent physical shape and train to a particualr level. (I DO NOT recommend this "ignoring the heart rate monitor" to anyone....I'm just doing what feels right for me and my body).

Only difference, I've found that weightlifting is more challenging with morning sickness and some days the weights feel very very heavy (they are...but they feel even heavier!)

[ProudMomof2Boys416]

No

I unfortunatly haven't been working out

[Ever84]

Yup- 5 or 6 days a week. I take spinning and Body Pump classes (strenuous biking and weight lifting). Only things I have changed is that I don't spin hard and fast enough to make myself feel ill anymore (I know...sounds weird, but I am a competitive athlete and this is what ya gotta do!). I still work out hard, just not to that point.

I bought a heart rate monitor and ignore the "stay below 140 bpm" doctors advice when cycling because I'd be SO out of shape by the time the baby is born if I did that. It does not make sense to me for doctors to ask people to become LESS FIT during pregnancy if they are already in excellent physical shape and train to a particualr level. (I DO NOT recommend this "ignoring the heart rate monitor" to anyone....I'm just doing what feels right for me and my body).

Only difference, I've found that weightlifting is more challenging with morning sickness and some days the weights feel very very heavy (they are...but they feel even heavier!)[/b]

I'm VERY into fitness too and just wanted to add although "I agree" with your statement.. anything over 140 BPM raises the babies heart rate and can be damaging to it's health.

[fitnessgirl]

Hi, I completely understand your concern! I am a researcher myself and get quite "nerdy" about recommendations and scientific evidence. The scant published research on heartrate, exercise, and pregnancy doesn't clearly translate to many recommendations, and in other countries (such as England) they recommend keeping heartrate below 160. I am using the perceived exertion/ strenousness scale which is a an alternative....again, it feels right to me and I don't recommend it to anyone else.

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I'm VERY into fitness too and just wanted to add although "I agree" with your statement.. anything over 140 BPM raises the babies heart rate and can be damaging to it's health.
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[Ellemphriem]

Ah well the pain of my life. I used to exercise 1 1/2 hours a day 7 days a week prior to pregnancy. After getting this way i found out that slowly my body is failing me. I continued only with brisk walking after because i was scared to death of seeing any blood anywhere. I mean those sites saying "Stop exercising if you see any kind of bleeding" quite honestly never made sense to me. What is the freaking point in stopping the exercise AFTER i see the blood?? Anyway so i brought it down to brisk walking and some very conservative "granma" exercises . My walking around the mountain which i used to run in under 18 minutes, came slowly up to 45 minutes and i find that i CANNOT walk faster for the life of me. The doc is adamant that i DON'T raise my pulse above 145 not because it is going to hurt me but because more blood on MY body and extremes (toes and hands and so on) means less blood to the little one. And also he does not want me to get my temperature high as it is considered dangerous. The best form of exercising is swimming as it lessens impacts, makes me feel confy since my belly is not small now at all and i cannot even get close to jumping around huffing and puffing and it keeps u cool Soooo i am not exercising even close to what i used to. It makes me feel miserable, but i am making a small sacrifice that lasts only 9 months....3 1/2 left for me now. So that is the only thing that keeps me from frowning every single time i feel soooooo out of shape

PS: I got quite a scare the other day where i tried to exercise more and the next day i lost some fluids (TMI). The doc freaked that it might be amniotic fluid. It wasn't but i was in 3 hospitals within the time frame of 4 hours doing every test possible. I won't be going through that again even though i doubt my slightly vigorous exercise was in fault. I prefer to wait it out 3 more months and then start again with me and my body alone without the guests in it

[Ever84]

Ah well the pain of my life. I used to exercise 1 1/2 hours a day 7 days a week prior to pregnancy. After getting this way i found out that slowly my body is failing me. I continued only with brisk walking after because i was scared to death of seeing any blood anywhere. I mean those sites saying "Stop exercising if you see any kind of bleeding" quite honestly never made sense to me. What is the freaking point in stopping the exercise AFTER i see the blood?? Anyway so i brought it down to brisk walking and some very conservative "granma" exercises . My walking around the mountain which i used to run in under 18 minutes, came slowly up to 45 minutes and i find that i CANNOT walk faster for the life of me. The doc is adamant that i DON'T raise my pulse above 145 not because it is going to hurt me but because more blood on MY body and extremes (toes and hands and so on) means less blood to the little one. And also he does not want me to get my temperature high as it is considered dangerous. The best form of exercising is swimming as it lessens impacts, makes me feel confy since my belly is not small now at all and i cannot even get close to jumping around huffing and puffing and it keeps u cool Soooo i am not exercising even close to what i used to. It makes me feel miserable, but i am making a small sacrifice that lasts only 9 months....3 1/2 left for me now. So that is the only thing that keeps me from frowning every single time i feel soooooo out of shape

PS: I got quite a scare the other day where i tried to exercise more and the next day i lost some fluids (TMI). The doc freaked that it might be amniotic fluid. It wasn't but i was in 3 hospitals within the time frame of 4 hours doing every test possible. I won't be going through that again even though i doubt my slightly vigorous exercise was in fault. I prefer to wait it out 3 more months and then start again with me and my body alone without the guests in it

[/b]

Its good that you can still take the brisk walks though. And when it comes down to it if your eating right you wont put on too much with pregnancy anyhow. Although it's nice to keep fit too. I hope everythings going to be okay with you. Like you said it's all about the baby and I promise you will get back into shape after the baby comes if you incorporate exercise again. Just do what you can and like the doc said listen to your body. It sure can be frustrating being pregnant! Like a lil alien takes over your body and now your limited to doing less. 9 months seems long but I promise you will get your body back! Wishing you Luck! Stay safe and take care*

[Ellemphriem]

Like a lil alien takes over your body and now your limited to doing less. 9 months seems long but I promise you will get your body back! Wishing you Luck! Stay safe and take care*[/b]

Ohhh lady you are the first one to EVER tell it as it FEELS exactly. From day 1 it felt like a little allien was inside of me and as the time passes and i see myself even more difficult to move with pains here and there little puffing and morrreeeee weight (since i stopped exercising as vigorously as before i gained some excess weight thank God i started only 125!!) i feel even worse. As you said i really cannot control my body. It seems to be working on it's own accord doing it's own staff and NOT to my well being but to the little alien's I am being patient and i know i have only 3 more months to go, but i REALLY cannot wait to have my body back. Don't misunderstand me i treasure this experience but i really cannot comprehend the women that say 'ohhhhhh i LOVEEEE being preggo'.....I don't I actually hate the fact that my body doesn't belong to me anymore, but i do LOVE the fact that i am playing host to another human being and i hope my body does a good job with that. I cannot WAIT to start dieting and exercising the moment i can! It is one of the things that brighten my day! I LOVE exercising and not being able to is making me sick

Thanks for the words of comfort! I am here to wait it out, but when i can i will also work it out to the FULLEST!