Exercising during pregnancy is a good thing as is yoga for pregnant women. It’s very important that you are either established in your exercise regimen, or start off very slowly when starting a new one.
Always do exercising under the supervision of your healthcare provider.
Some of the best exercises during pregnancy are simple stretching and walking. Because pregnancy makes your joints looser toward the end, you would benefit from a little stretching of your legs, arms and torso. Ask your healthcare provider about safe exercises.
Kegel exercises (pelvic floor exercises) are one of the best exercises you can do during pregnancy. Kegels are done by tensing the muscles in your pelvic floor, the same muscles that stops urination. You do these in sequence, by holding for a couple of seconds aboutten times. Increase as you go along. If you keep this up, by the time you are to give birth, you should be able to hold a kegel for 30 seconds, several times a day. Kegels help to prevent incontinence (the inability to stop urination), and helps to possibly prevent an episiotomy. It’s a good exercise to prepare for birth. Continue with kegels after birth to help tone up the vagina.
Walking and swimming are also excellent pregnant exercises.
Yoga has been around for centuries and in some cultures, it is considered the only option for pregnant women.
Yoga is a practice of learned relaxation, breathing and exercise to help people to center, relax and strengthen as well as develop their body, mind, and spirit. It is a great stress reliever and muscle stretcher, helping to prepare the body for birth.
Yoga prepares the muscles to do their best job during labor and delivery. And the benefits learned will help you to relax after the baby is born as well. Many women who take up yoga during pregnancy will continue to practice it throughout the rest of their lives.
Because yoga is so gentle, it is considered one of the safest prenatal exercise programs. However, whatever prenatal exercise program you choose to do, a pregnant women should exercise, but with caution during pregnancy due to a hormone called relaxin. This pregnancy hormone makes a pregnant women’s muscles and ligaments very supple and elastic in preparation for delivery. If you follow the yoga prenatal exercise program, easing into each set of exercises the benefits far outweigh any risks (if any) posed from prenatal exercise. Aside from the benefits of helping with labor and delivery, yoga helps to ease many of pregnancy’s discomforts. Sciatic pain, round ligament pain and even morning sickness can be relieved through the relaxation and stretching exercises.