Excercise during first trimester

[menpooja]

Hi Everyone!

I'm Pooja, just found out I'm 5 weeks pregnant . excited, nervous and much more 😊.

Told my yoga teacher I'm pregnant and she suggested that i should come to class after 12 weeks, which surprised me a bit.

I also train once a week, my yoga teacher's response worried me a bit. should i wait for 12 weeks to train as well.

[Shem008]

Are you sure she didn’t say don’t come after 12 weeks? That sounds strange to me otherwise. I did normal yoga practice up until 12 weeks then changed to pregnancy yoga. I started those classes at 14 weeks (I could’ve started at 12 weeks but I was very ill at the time with a bug). When you get to 12 weeks you need to do different positions due to the growth of your baby and the location of blood vessels in your back meaning you shouldn't do many poses on your stomach or back. It’s best to go to someone with training in teaching pregnancy yoga.

It’s actually better to do exercise of some description all the way through pregnancy although you should avoid plyometric exercises and intense things (unless you do them very regularly already and are used to them) - they can cause shortness of breath which isn’t good for getting oxygen to baby, can cause dizziness which can throw you off balance (you don’t want to fall in pregnancy) and too much twisting isn’t good for your uterus. If you were a runner before, you can carry on running in pregnancy until you start to feel uncomfortable. If you weren’t a runner it’s not advisable to start.

I had to switch to just yoga, walking and swimming early on as I would get too dizzy and get pains if I did much else. Still doing those at 24 weeks. Basically, exercise during pregnancy is good and is encouraged as its good to be in a fit state for labour but listen to your body, take it easy and don’t overdo it.

The NHS website is quite useful and has a section worth reading on exercise in pregnancy.

Hope that helps x