9 wks - first preg - please help!

A

achapman

New Member
Hi,
I am 35 years old and 9 weeks pregnant. I've worked out consistently for the last decade or so - with the last three years concentrating on Cathe tapes - an average of 5-7 days per week.

My doctor told me that it was fine to work out at the level of intensity that I have in the past (I wear a heart rate monitor and target between 130-170 for 30-50 minutes per workout).

Here are the things I would love to have your advise on:

1. I find that I am really out of breath - yet my heartrate is not as high? - I'm confused - I thought that if my breath was short that my heart rate would elevate more quickly and at higher levels.

2. I was about 20 minutes into PowerMax today - and all of a sudden I felt weak and shaky. I stopped and started to feel better, but not 100%.

I did not have any m/s until I started taking prenatal vitamins 3 days ago - now I have to eat every three hours or I am pretty nauseous. Perhaps the incident in number 2 is related to that?

Any light that you could shed would really be appreciated!

Thank you!!
 
Get use to being breathless I found out. Your body is doing so much right now and keeping oxygen to the baby is one of them. Soon you are going to have to keep your heartrate below 140 per ACOG recommendations. You will still get benefits from working out but it won't be dangerous like running out of breath or overheating your body. Your body is in a marathon right now.
I used Cathe through about 5 months but had to modify. Listen to your body, if it says stop it means it. I really had to cut back but didn't have to stop till near the end when I had other complications.
Morning sickness probably doesn't relate to the vitamins but feel free to call the doctor and get a different one, it took about 4 different varieties before I found one that didn't cause me any problems.
Traci'
 
Hi! I am in my 11th week and I experienced the same things you did in regards to exercising. I could not keep up with my usual workouts and was often short of breath or my heartrate would get high during the warmup! This is normal and there are physiological reasons why this happens...I eventually learned the
importance and value of modifying and lowering intensity AND to listen to my body! I switched to mostly walking and some low impact and some light strength training.

Now that I am in my 11th week, I have been able to do much more with my workouts and am not experiencing the shortness of breath. I have been able to do videos such as Cardiokicks (with modifications) and MIS (using lighter weights). I can honestly say that I feel so much better now than I did just 2 weeks ago.

I have not had any problems with the prenatal vitamins though I don't always take them on an empty stomach--I usually take them with a light snack.

Good luck and hang in there! Listen to your body and modify your routines. It took me awhile to get the hang of modifying and lowering the intensity, but now I really believe in it and find it to be fun and challenging to modify!
 
If the prenatal vitamins are making you sick, try taking them in the evening with your dinner. The only time I got sick after taking my vitamin was when I forgot to take it with dinner and took it later in the evening.

Hope this helps!

Christina
 
Hello and congratulations on your first pregnancy. What you are experiencing is very normal. It is normal to feel breathless in early pregnancy. In fact, that can be one of the first symptoms of pregnancy. Without getting too technical, the progesterone in your system actually has an effect on the respiratory centers in the brain. It's actually a protective mechanism.

Now as for your heartrate................ In 1994 the American College of Obstretrics and Gynecology (ACOG) changed their guidelines regarding measuring exercise intensity during pregnancy. THEY ELIMINATED THE ORIGINAL 140 MAXIMUM HEARTRATE GUIDELINE ISSUED IN 1985!!!!!!!! (ACOG Bulletin #189, Feb 4, 1994). Human research had proven that taking one's heartrate was not a valid indicator of intensity during pregnancy due to the dramatic physiological changes in both the cardiovascular and respiratory system during this time. Two very valid ways of measuring exercise intensity during pregnancy are"Perceived Exertion" (i.e. on a scale of 1-10 if 1 is lying in bed and 10 is running up the Washington Monument with twins on your back) you want to be working at a 5-6 which correlated to "fairly light to somewhat hard." Research on very fit pregnant moms has shown that they can take it up "one more notch" to "hard." This as long as you listen to your body and make sure that you are drinking a lot while working out.) and the "Talk Test," which I like the best. If you can say sentences that are 2-5 words in length while working out, you are okay and the baby is getting adequate oxygen.

So, give the heartrate monitor a rest for the remainder of your pregnancy!

Hope this helps.

Sheila Watkins
 
Thanks so much for your responses!

As I'm sure some of you have felt - I am so used to pushing myself to work harder in my workouts that low intensity and taking a day or two off instill so much guilt!!


Thanks again!
Angela
 
Angela,
I feel your pain there. Taking a day off is still hard for me, too--I took Thursday off this past week and felt like a complete slug... At this point I'm basically forcing myself to take one day off per week, because I know I need to rest more for the baby's sake--but I still don't like it one bit!
Just my 2 cents about the prenatal vitamins--I also found that taking them at night rather than in the morning eased my nausea. I'm not sure it's the same for everyone but it might be worth a shot.
Hope things continue to go well for you....I plan on taking my "rest day" this Wednesday and I'll let you know if I make it :)
Keep us posted on your progress!
--Christine
 
I'm 8 wks (m)

35, and on my second viable pregnancy. I'm amazed and impressed you are even working out. I am so nauseous and fatigued, it's all I can do to keep up with my 2 year old and my job!
>

Try stopping those prenates for a few days and see if your nausea goes away.

Listening to your body is a good idea (stopping exercise when weak and shakey). I'll leave the experts to answer the rest!

Hang in there!

Leela
 
Hi Angela! A big congratualtions to you. You are pregnant at the same age I was.

I was getting ready to post the revisions of ACOG guidelines for you but I see that our Fit Moms expert Sheila has already done that for you.

I, too, think that all of your experiences sound very typical of a pregnant woman in her 9th week.

I had nausea with my pre-natal vitimins too. I found that if I took them with a snack before bed that I was fine. I also found that the Stewart(sp?) Prenatal over the counter vitamins did not bother my system at all where as the Stewart prescription strength did.

Just some food for thought.

Keep us posted and enjoy the next nine(ish)exciting months......and thereafter too for that matter.
 
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