Many mothers wonder about exercising during pregnancy and after childbirth. What exercises should be avoided? Can exercise be harmful? And how soon after giving birth can I start working out? Personal trainer and prenatal exercise expert Mira Piirainen explains the benefits of staying active during pregnancy and offers tips for staying active both during and after pregnancy.
Exercise During Pregnancy
What are the benefits of staying active during pregnancy?
Staying active during pregnancy is especially important for both your mental well-being and your physical health. Good physical fitness helps you cope with the physical demands of pregnancy and speeds up your recovery after childbirth. Exercise also helps relieve potential joint pain, maintains and improves cardiovascular health, reduces the risk of gestational diabetes, prevents constipation common during pregnancy, and increases levels of feel-good hormones.
During pregnancy, expectant mothers are encouraged to continue exercising for as long as possible as their pregnancy progresses. Most women can continue their previous activities as usual, such as jogging, attending group exercise classes, or working out at the gym, as appropriate. Even if you haven’t exercised regularly before, you can still start exercising during pregnancy, and it’s beneficial for both the expectant mother and the baby growing in her womb.
Is exercise during pregnancy harmful?
Being active isn't harmful to a baby—quite the opposite. When a mother is healthy, her baby is healthy, too.
What movements should you especially avoid while you're pregnant?
Generally speaking, you can do what you did before you became pregnant, as long as you listen to your body and tone down any movements that put heavy pressure on your abdominal area or cause jolts or sudden changes in direction. As for the core, the abdominal muscles undergo the most significant changes during pregnancy, so core exercises that are too strenuous can interfere with the functioning and recovery of the abdominal muscles.
During pregnancy, it is advisable to avoid activities that involve, for example, the risk of blows to the abdominal area, the risk of falling, quick turns, or the risk of collision. Scuba diving, horseback riding, combat sports, and artistic gymnastics are examples of activities that are no longer recommended once pregnancy is confirmed. You should also avoid lying on your back for long periods if it causes discomfort or a feeling of tightness in the chest (supine syndrome). If you don’t experience these symptoms, it’s perfectly fine to lie on your back.
Exercise After Childbirth
How soon after giving birth can you start exercising?
Childbirth takes a huge toll on your body, so you need to give yourself enough time to recover from it. There’s no set timeframe—you can start exercising gently once you feel you’ve recovered enough from childbirth. Be gentle with yourself and your body.
It’s always best to start slowly—first, improve your basic fitness with light exercise and gradually increase the duration. So start with walks and gradually add variety to your workouts. If you’re breastfeeding, you should also take that into account, as hormonal changes in breastfeeding mothers cause the joints and connective tissues to loosen, and this effect can last for months even after you stop breastfeeding.
What should you focus on when exercising after giving birth?
After childbirth, the primary focus should be on exercising the pelvic floor muscles and improving overall fitness, as well as—and this is absolutely essential—on your own general well-being. Physical and mental well-being go hand in hand, and the importance of sleep quality cannot be overstated.
You should continue to avoid exercises that put strain on the pelvic floor for a little while longer. Strenuous activities include jogging and running, as well as heavy weight training. There is no specific time frame for this break; rather, it depends on the overall situation (the nature of the delivery, how the mother is feeling, how much sleep she’s getting, and breastfeeding).
Planks, swings, exercises for the rectus abdominis, push-ups, pull-ups, exercises performed with heavy weights, core exercises with a wide range of motion (e.g., on an exercise ball), sports involving jumps, jarring movements, or quick changes of direction, and long-duration workouts (e.g., long runs) should still be put on the back burner for now. Their time will come, and it will require a little patience to wait.
And how might exercise help speed up recovery after childbirth?
Regular exercise speeds up physical recovery after childbirth. The better your physical condition, the faster your recovery will be. Exercise also affects the quality of your sleep and your mood.
Greetings to all mothers and those who will soon become mothers:
Remember, you’re not alone! Find out who the prenatal exercise professionals are at your center, and don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment. Talking face-to-face with a professional can ease your worries and often gives you permission to be kinder to your body than you could be on your own. You and your body are important—take care of them!