Corinne is a passionate Women’s Health Physiotherapist with over 10 years of experience. She is the director and lead clinical physiotherapist for her business Wholesome Phsiotherapy which specialises in musculoskeletal, women’s health and post-partum services. Corinne has some has some great advice about exercise during pregnancy.
Read her article below, but first:
Corinne’s favourite picture book from childhood? – The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base
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Congratulations you’re pregnant!
Exercise during pregnancy is very important as it can help to reduce a number of health issues and support a healthy pregnancy. If you and your baby are healthy and you were active prior to pregnancy you can continue to exercise throughout your pregnancy. If you were inactive before pregnancy then start slowly and gradually increase your level of exercise over time. Please prior to commencing any new form of exercise or for more specific advice consult your health professional or birth provider.
As a general rule please see the guidelines below about how active you can be throughout pregnancy:
- Be active on most if not all days of the week
- do moderate intensity activities for 2½ to 5 hours each week; or vigorous intensity activities for 1¼ to 2½ hours each week this means do 30 to 60 minutes of moderate intensity activity or do 15 to 30 minutes of vigorous intensity activity most days
- do muscle strengthening activities at least 2 days each week
- break up long periods of sitting and standing still
- do pelvic floor exercises.
First Trimester:
At this stage plenty of changes are starting to occur. Hormonally progesterone levels are starting to drop which can cause a number of changes including constipation. Gentle movement can help ease these symptoms along with making sure you have adequate amounts of water.
Generally during this time you can experience periods of significant fatigue so if this is the case you may want to complete more gentler forms of exercise such as walking, swimming, yoga and Pilates and give your body extra rest time. Also just remember any form of physical activity is better than none and it may be helpful to break down your activity into smaller segments throughout the day.
Warning signs to stop physical activity:
- chest pain
- persistent shortness of breath that does not get better with rest
- severe headache
- persistent dizziness/feeling faint that does not get better with rest
- regular painful uterine contractions
- vaginal bleeding
- persistent loss of fluid from the vagina – indicating possible ruptured membranes.
Second Trimester:
At this stage usually you will start to notice some of the more physical changes as bub continues to grow. This is also where some of those pesky issues such as pelvic girdle pain, round ligament pain, lower back pain and lightening crotch can start to appear. Regular movement has been found to be helpful for all of these pregnancy issues but the most important part is to listen to your body. If anything feels painful take a step back and try to modify the exercise. For example, it might not be comfortable to complete a squat at full depth could you reduce the depth and complete box squats instead. Or, it may no longer be comfortable to complete high intensity activities such as running and jumping could you swap the activity for walking, swimming or completing lower intensity cardio on a rower or stationary bike.
There are plenty of ways to modify exercise throughout the pregnancy if you are unsure about specific modifications speaking with a Women’s Health Physiotherapist can be hugely beneficial.
As a general rule activities which include the movements listed below should be avoided:
- risk of contact/collision
- risk of falling (i.e. activities that require high levels of balance, coordination and agility)
- significant changes in pressure (e.g. sky diving, scuba diving)
- heavy lifting
Third Trimester
As you enter your third trimester the physical and hormonal changes continue.
The biggest change at this point in time is you must now not exercise on your back. After 28 weeks you should not do exercises lying flat on your back. Instead, tilt your upper body to a 45-degree angle or do the exercises lying on your side. You can continue with whatever movements feel comfortable and unless you have been advised otherwise by your health care professional keep moving all the way up until you give birth!
Information in this article uses excerpts from the Australian Government Department of Health: Guidelines for physical activity during pregnancy.
Get in touch
To get in touch with Corinne from Wholesome Physiotherapy you can find her via her website Wholesome Physiotherapy where you can also book her services online!
Keep up to date on her social media by following her on Instagram and Facebook where she regularly posts helpful content for women at all stages of life, particularly during pregnancy and postpartum.
