Hi there! How are you on this last Thursday of the year? I am doing pretty well. I am about to start Christmas part 2 as Brian’s family is coming into town today so we get to celebrate Christmas all over again!
Today is my last day of teaching fitness classes at the YMCA until after the baby is born and I have fully recovered. To be honest, I’m not too sad about it! As my size has increased over the past 33 weeks it has gotten increasingly more difficult to teach classes. Since the second trimester I haven’t been able to do much core work when I taught group strength and sitting on the cycling bike has gotten REALLY uncomfortable! There have even when a few times when I’ve gotten dizzy while teaching which is always a little scary. I also have been feeling pretty exhausted after teaching. It’s a little more demanding then when you are just working out on your own, both mentally and physically. However, I feel really good about the fact that I have been able to teach up to 33 weeks and plan on continuing to exercise until I go into labor or until I physically can’t. I do plan on making some changes to my routine for the rest of my pregnancy. I’ll get back to those in bit.
A few weeks ago Heather wrote about some of the reactions she has received exercising while pregnant as well as debunking some myths about pregnancy and exercise. I have received nothing but positive responses to exercising while pregnant. People even go out of their way to to tell me how awesome it is that I am exercising telling me how good it is for me in regards to labor, delivery and recovery. One guy even said I was his inspiration because twice in one day he saw me at the Y (once lifting weights and once at yoga). I honestly feel like I am anomaly and I don’t really get why. I mean, I too don’t see other pregnant women working out at the Y. I don’t know if there just aren’t that many pregnant women out there or if pregnant women just don’t work out. I don’t understand why either. I mean everything I’ve read recommends that women exercise while pregnant and I know I certainly I feel better after I’ve gotten some exercise. I knew, even before I got pregnant, that I wanted to continue to exercise. In fact I had hoped to continue running and doing Zumba but learned pretty quickly to listen to my body and know when to cut back. This has probably been the most important thing I’ve learned while exercising. Learning how strong my body is but also learning to listen to my body.
As for the next six weeks of my pregnancy I still plan to exercise but to lessen the intensity of my workouts. Here is my plan for now
Monday:Yoga
Tuesday: Swim
Wednesday Yoga
Thursday: Strength train and/or light cardio (either walking or elliptical)
Friday: Swim
Saturday: Strength train and/or light cardio or rest
Sunday: Rest, maybe yoga
Of course this will change based on how I am feeling on any given day.
So how about you? Did you exercise while pregnant? If you’ve never been pregnant do you ever see pregnant women exercising? What do you think about exercising while pregnant?
