Top 5 Pregnancy Exercise Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

It’s amazing how being pregnant changes almost every aspect of your life—almost immediately. Where you’d once sit down to make detailed life plans for you and your partner, you now incorporate a little third person in the planning too. The news of your baby’s arrival impacts everything, from your thoughts to your actions. You religiously follow every tip your mom and doctor give you about your diet and lifestyle choices.

While you incorporate exercise as a part of your daily routine to enjoy a healthy pregnancy, if careless, you could be causing yourself (and your baby) more harm than good.

Here are the top five pregnancy exercise mistakes and ways to avoid them:

1.    Exercising Too Much – Though exercising is very beneficial both for you and the baby in your womb, you must avoid over exerting yourself with your workouts, especially if you weren’t physically active before pregnancy. You must pay heed to your body signals like aches, blurred vision, dizziness, swelling and palpitations that tell you to slow your pace or stop a workout that your body’s not comfortable with. According to The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a healthy pregnant woman should try to get 30 minutes of exercise daily unless advised otherwise by her doctor.

2.    Engaging In High-Risk Exercises – Pregnancy is not the right time to get overambitious and risky with your workouts! Exercises like cycling, diving, and horse riding can put you at an increased risk of falling and experiencing abdominal injury if you lose your balance. The high levels of the relaxin hormone during pregnancy loosen up all your joints, thereby increasing the danger of tripping and getting injured. You must also refrain from high-intensity exercises like running and CrossFit if you haven’t been active prior to your pregnancy. Stick to safer exercises like walking, swimming, dancing, yoga, Pilates and stationary cycling, instead.

3.    Getting Overheated – Another big exercise no-no for pregnant women is allowing their bodies to get overheated during the course of their workout. Your core body temperature should not rise above 102 degrees Fahrenheit for over 10 minutes. Overheating could lead to developmental issues like neural tube defects in the fetus, especially during your first trimester.  It could also cause dehydration in a slightly more developed fetus. If you experience problems such as nausea, heavy breathing and dizziness, stop your workout immediately and seek medical care.

4.    Standing In One Place For Too Long – While engaging in an exercise that requires standing in one place, such as weight training, it is imperative that you keep moving your limbs. Standing in a single position can hamper the flow of blood to your uterus and cause the blood to get clogged in your legs, thereby resulting in dizziness. Make sure you keep stretching in between to ensure a steady flow of blood.

5.    Lying On Your Back – Though many exercises require that you lie on your back, during pregnancy, you must avoid those. During your third trimester especially, lying on your back for long periods can put pressure on the vena cava vein that flows blood from your lower body to your heart. This can make you feel dizzy, breathless and nauseated. If you still want to continue an exercise in which you need to lie on your back, put a pillow beneath your right hip or buttock. Doing this will prevent you from putting pressure on the vena cava vein.

If you have decided to embrace a healthy lifestyle for yourself and your baby, stay committed to a good diet and exercise pattern with the guidance of your trainer and nutritionist. Along with keeping these tips in mind, do not forget to get your doctor’s approval before engaging in any exercise. Start your workout routine with a good warm-up and end it with cool down exercises. Doing this will prevent injury and soreness. Take care and enjoy a happy pregnancy!

This has been a Guest Post by Aradhana.

Aradhana is from India. She is a veteran writer on topics concerning parenting, child nutrition, wellness, health and lifestyle. As a regular contributor to popular sites like Huffington Post, Natural news, Elephant journal, Thehealthsite, Naturally Savvy, Curejoy and MomJunction.com, Aradhana writes to inspire and motivate people to adopt healthy habits and live a stress-free lifestyle.