Hi Denise! Congratulations on your pregnancy. What a special time in you life.
Sheila Watkins is our pregnancy/prenatal/postpartum exercise expert on this forum. What I have done to help you is take pieces of her responses that she has answered others with to bring you up to date on what the new guidelines are. Lots of luck to you.
Sheila writes........
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.
It is very important that you stay hydrated and listen to your body for ANY discomfort while exercising during both cardiovascular and strength training. You said that you stop when you are “gasping” while working with weights. You should not even get to that point while working out. You may need to drop the poundage or sets a bit to keep that from happening.
With these tips in mind, you can safely continue to work out. Give yourself permission to slow down if you need to. Remember, this is only a “season in your life.”
Now as far as strength training is concerned, if you are going to be strength training, here are some things to keep in mind (I have copied and pasted this from another post)......
Cathe (me) writes:
"At this early stage in your pregnacy, your strength training workouts are fine to do as usual. My only suggestion is that you go for strength maintenance and NOT try to lift heavier than usual weight at this time. The main two reasons for this are 1) You don't want to work in a very high heart rate zone, which can happen when lifting heavy weight. 2) You want to be be careful to not over stress your joints and ligaments since they gradually become softer and softer as your pregnancy progresses(due to relaxin hormone). By the way, this softening process is very normal and is the body's way of naturally preparing for childbirth. As a matter of fact, toward the end of your pregnancy you may find yourself having to lift even lighter weight since your balance and joint stability will have altered quite a bit.
I would also strongly recommend that you begin to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles by doing kegel(internal contraction) exercises throughout your pregnancy(even forever after is great). This will not only help to keep you from leaking urine when you sneeze, cough, or jump (since the baby puts more pressure on your bladder as he/she grows), but will keep your pelvic floor stronger overall(a big plus) since it will become stressed from holding the weight of the baby.
As you get into your fourth month of pregnany, it is no longer recommended that you work flat on your back. For this reason all flat bench work (ex. bench presses) should be done in an incline position and abdominal work is recommended in an all fours position. I'll provide you with ab examples if you need them.
As you end your second trimester and enter your third, you may find your center of gravity shifting, causing you to be a bit off balance at times. During these times, you may have to be more creative finding more comfortable positions to do certain exercises(or eliminating them altogether, if no safe modification is available, until after the baby comes). This is the time to especially take advantage of that spotter if you have one available.
You can continue to exercise right to the end of your pregnancy(of course, modifying more and more as you get closer to the end)as long as you are having no complications."
Good Luck and happy hugs to you Denise! If you have any further questions, just let us know!
