Starting an exercise routine in pregnancy

[AshleyB]

Hello,
I ordered the body blast series and starting easing my way into the tapes five minutes at a time for about two weeks before I learned I was pregnant. I never got up to doing a full tape in that time. I started feeling bad with morning sickness, so I stopped exercising. I am now 18 weeks, and feeling like I am ready to start exercising lightly again. My fitness level was not that high before I became pregnant, and I am about forty pounds overweight. Can someone advise me as to how I can ease back into exercise with gentle things like walking and yoga? I would really like to be doing some form of exercise a day, besides chasing my toddler, so that I can be ready to start up the Cathe videos at 6 weeks post partum. I have a pregnancy yoga tape and a 2 mile Walk away the pounds tape btw. Thanks for your help.

Ashley

 

[christy g]

Hi Ashley!
Congratulations on your pregnancy and welcome!

I'm no expert on this but, my advice is to try it and to listen to your body. I would think that walking would be a great place to start -- it's low impact and not an over intense cardio workout. Plus, I keep reading how good it is while pregnant because it helps to get the blood circulating to your legs and arms.

If I were you I would start off with a 1 mile walk. If you are struggling for breath, slow down. If you feel great, well, the next time go for a 1 1/2 mile walk or more. Doctor's usually recommend doing 3-4 workouts per week for 30 minutes. If you want to do more, try it...Just be sure to listen to your bodies warning signals that you are doing too much. Also doing the "talk test" may help -- if you can talk while working out, you are probably doing just fine and not pushing too far.

As far as getting ready for a Cathe workout - something that helped me was getting my endurance up for longer workouts and more intense ones. Regularly doing longer workouts is key... also adding variety into workouts such as different types of exercise (aerobics, sports, walking) will help break plateaus and boredom as well.

Edited to add a link to a post Cathe just left for someone asking a similar question...
http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=2&topic_id=35266&mesg_id=35266&page=

Good luck!