Exercise during pregnancy
Exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle and most pregnant women can and should exercise. You should always check with your healthcare provider during pregnancy before starting, continuing, or changing an exercise routine.
The benefits of exercise during pregnancy include
How much should you exercise while pregnant
It is recommended that Pregnant women who are not at risk of complications should exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days per week, or 150 minutes total each week. I would suggest that if you are used to working out and keeping fit and exercise regularly, try to keep your routine going throughout your pregnancy, tweaking and shaping your fitness plan to suit you and baby.
To get the most from your workout you should do a variety of exercises:
- Walking
- Low impact gentle cardio or aerobic workouts
- Gentle stretching
- Pelvic Floor Muscle training
- If you workout regularly, keep your routine going for as long as you can. When it feels to much, scale back to a more gentle pace. Always being mindful of how your body feels. Do what your body is used to doing, but be kind to you and baby, never train to exhaustion. The talk test is a good indication, if you can hold a conversation while you are training, then you are in the moderate zone
- Studies have shown that there are benefits in weight training while pregnant. Improvements in strength and flexibility. This in turn will help the body adapt to the physiological changes that occur during pregnancy. We can tolerate our heavier body weight and altered centre of gravity better with muscle strengthening that is gained from training, especially focusing on lower back strength. However, only if you are used to strength training. It is not advisable to take up resistance training after you have conceived.
Always warm up & cool down, try to keep the intensity in the zone where you can still hold a conversation and never exercise to exhaustion.
What to eat to support a healthy pregnancy
Healthy eating can help your baby’s healthy growth and development and you will get the vitamins, minerals and nutrients you and your developing baby need. It can also help you feel good, increase your energy and gain a healthy amount of weight.
Eat a variety of healthy foods each day to include vegetables and fruits, whole grain foods and protein foods. Try making half your plate vegetables and fruits at meals and snacks. Choose foods that have little to no added sodium, sugars or saturated fats.
Choose healthy snacks - Prepare snacks in advance to save time
- Chop some fruit
- Chop extra vegetables when cooking
- Lesley's Granola (yum yum) recipe on our App, and I'll share it next week with you on Insta & FB.
- Keep roasted chickpeas and nuts in your bag for when you get hungry on the go.
All our LWL Recipes on the App are perfect for pregnancy. They are delicious, nutritious and healthy and so simple to make and ideal for Mom and Baby! Every week we switch up the LWL recipes to ensure variety and choice.
The nutrients you need
The requirements for most nutrients increase during pregnancy – with folate, zinc, iron, iodine and vitamin B6 especially important. Vitamin B12 supplementation may be required for vegan or vegetarian mums to be.
