Need help interpreting ob/gyn's exercise advise

[Golfingirl]

Hi! I am in the "trying to conceive" stage, in fact today I just had my official preconception ob/gyn visit. My doctor mentioned that during the week or so before my scheduled period, when a fertilized egg would be potentially implanting, that I should ease off exercise a bit... not do any heavy lifting or strenuous aerobics. She hadn't really asked me what exercise I currently do; she was just making a general statement. But you are all more familiar with Cathe workouts than my doctor would be anyway, so I thought I'd come here and ask what these kind of modifications might mean for a Cathe rotation. Currently I rotate through all of Cathe's various weight training series and tapes, doing three days weight training per week alternating with three days of various types of cardio (Cathe and also machines at the gym). So for example, I might do simply the three workouts in S&H or PS alternating with cardio, or I might do MIS, Bodymax, and Power Hour in one week again with cardio in between. What should I do on "possible implantation week"?

Thanks!

 

[shopaholic]

Hi,
Good luck conceiving. Your doctor's advise doesn't make much sense and I have never heard anythink like it before. My advice would be make sure you have enough body fat to ovulate. I was lifting weights using cathe tapes and doing high impact aerobics prior to concepcion and continued weights and low impact while pregnant. I now have a 3 week old infant. It took me 8 months to conceive but that was due to miscalculating ovulation dates. Within 2 months of charting my temperature i was pregnant. The book taking charge of your fertility was recommended to me and it was a great help in answering my questions.

 

[amynicole]

Hmm, never heard that one before. I am pregnant with my 4th baby and all 4 pregnancies were concieved the first month we tried. All 4 I was working out very hard even when we were trying to concieve and only slowed down and started being more careful once I had a confirmed pregnancy. If you are unclear what she meant, maybe call her or the nurse in the office so that you are more comfortable about what is safe??

Hopefully shiela, this board moderator will see this thread and can respond to it.

good luck, I'm sending fertility vibes your way

 

[Tammyspq]

Hey there! I'm a Healthy Moms Certified instructor and I'm still going to defer to Sheila on this one because I've also never heard of this particular precaution. I'm not saying it's invalid, but I'd like to get more of the "why" behind this and a little more information.

Jeni

 

[Sheila Watkins]

Hello there,

I can tell you that I have never heard any justification for these general guidelines. Now, if you were seeing an infertility specialist after trying for some time to get pregnant, then maybe I could possibly see some logic in the statement. Seems to me that this is just perpetuating the "myth of the delicate" condition before mom is even pregnant. Many women do not even know exactly when they are ovulating and carry on with their normal exercise programs while they are "trying."

Keep us posted and good luck!

Sheila

Sheila S. Watkins, MLSci.
Founder and National Program Director
Healthy Moms(R) Fitness
www.healthymomsfitness.com

 

[Golfingirl]

Thanks so much for the responses. A physician (internist) friend of mine also said that as long as I am used to exercising regularly, then continuing to do so would not affect implantation. I agree with all of you, and I suspect that this ob/gyn (who was a new one for me) is not the best. I had some other misgivings about her... it was definitely the conveyor belt style managed care practice. Maybe I'll go back to my old one. He's a lot farther away (which is why I switched, thinking I'd want to be closer for prenatal visits and so forth), but I'm willing to sacrifice convenience for good quality care.

Shopaholic, I have that book (Taking Charge of Your Fertility) too and just started charting at the end of last cycle. Hopefully it will work as well for me as it did for you!

Thanks again everyone!

 

[shopaholic]

Good luck, keep charting but look for the other signs, since usually by the time the temperature rises, you've already ovulated. For me it helped since I ovulated very late in my cycle around day 30, if I hadn't been charting I would have been think ovulation passed and my late period showed I was already pregnant, which of course I wasn't at that point. Keep us posted.