Hi everyone! I have a question for all of you fit moms. I know the ACOG recommends not exceeding a heart rate of 140 during pregnancy, but I have heard that many fit women do so anyway, safely. 140 is low for me and I was wondering what your experiences were, whether you trained comfortably at a higher range, etc. Any suggestions would be welcome! Thanks!
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HR and ACOG
- Thread starter NancyM
- Start date
New ACOG recommendations
My understanding is that ACOG came out with new recommendations a couple of years ago. They no longer set 140 as a maximum heart rate. Instead, they recommend the "talk test"--pregnant women should work out at a low enough intensity that they can still talk during the workout.
I started checking my heart rate early on, but after reading about the new recommendations I stopped. 140 was really low for me as well.
I did talk to my doctor about it, and he said that as long as I could talk and as long as I wasn't working out in a rubber suit in a heated room, I was fine and could do basically what I wanted to do. He said the most important thing was staying hydrated.
-- Gayla
My understanding is that ACOG came out with new recommendations a couple of years ago. They no longer set 140 as a maximum heart rate. Instead, they recommend the "talk test"--pregnant women should work out at a low enough intensity that they can still talk during the workout.
I started checking my heart rate early on, but after reading about the new recommendations I stopped. 140 was really low for me as well.
I did talk to my doctor about it, and he said that as long as I could talk and as long as I wasn't working out in a rubber suit in a heated room, I was fine and could do basically what I wanted to do. He said the most important thing was staying hydrated.
-- Gayla
Re: Heart rate and ACOG
Hi Nancy,
ACOG actually changed the 140 heart rate guideline in 1994, but unfortunately this mis-information is still out there. "Perceived exertion" (on a scale of 0-10, you want to work out at ~ 5-6 which translates to "fairly light to somewhat hard") and the "talk test" (you should be able to say 2-5 word sentences while working out)are the preferred methods of measuring exercise intensity in pregnant women.
Hope this helps.
Sheila Watkins
Hi Nancy,
ACOG actually changed the 140 heart rate guideline in 1994, but unfortunately this mis-information is still out there. "Perceived exertion" (on a scale of 0-10, you want to work out at ~ 5-6 which translates to "fairly light to somewhat hard") and the "talk test" (you should be able to say 2-5 word sentences while working out)are the preferred methods of measuring exercise intensity in pregnant women.
Hope this helps.
Sheila Watkins