If you have been a regular at the gym, then you are no stranger to weight training. While you may have been lifting weights to tone your muscles all these years, halting it while pregnant might make you feel weird. However, if you have never been the active sort or have no formal experience in training with weights, then it’s best to leave this particular form of exercise from your fitness regimen.
During pregnancy, your body is undergoing a lot of changes. Your uterus is widening, your tummy is growing, your baby is constantly shifting, your joints are loosening, and so on. So, how safe is it to put added stress on your evolving body? Well, before we come to a decision, let’s see the benefits and risks of weight training during pregnancy.
Benefits of Weight Training While Pregnant
- In the early stages of pregnancy, it can help prepare your body for all the transformations to come. It also helps lower the risk of preterm labour complications and even helps reduce labour pains during delivery.
- Regular weight training under the supervision of a prenatal trainer can help prevent back and joint pains from weight gain and bad posture during pregnancy.
- Any form of mild physical activity during this time is a great way to relieve stress. Lifting weights can help you relax, feel confident, and enhance your mood.
- It helps you prepare for labour, both physically and mentally. Your muscle mobility is improved, your abs are strengthened, and your mind and body are better aligned.
Risks of Weight Training While Pregnant
- There is a heightened risk of sprains, strains, and injury associated with weight training during pregnancy. Since your muscles, joints, and ligaments are weaker and lax at this time due to hormonal changes, you should avoid lifting heavy weights. The chances of straining your lower back are also more if you do it the wrong way or lift more than you are supposed to.
- As your belly grows, your body’s centre of gravity also shifts. This makes you prone to losing balance and falling while bending forward. If you have a fall during the later stages of pregnancy, it can cause complications or even be fatal for the baby.
- If you repeatedly lift heavy weights, your body’s blood flow gets redirected to the skeletal muscles from the uterus. Since the blood carries oxygen and nutrients to your fetus, its lack can trigger preterm labour or other severe complications.
- You can get breathless pretty quickly while exercising with weights. It can reduce the oxygen flow to your baby and even make you dizzy.
However, this doesn’t mean that you have to give up on lifting weights altogether. Here are a few tips you can follow to make sure that you and the baby are safe:
- Use lighter weights or your own body weight while exercising.
- Instead of lifting heavier weights, try to do more sets with lighter ones.
- Switch exercises that involve lying down on your stomach or back to ones are done in a sitting or standing position.
- Take plenty of breaks between sets to recover and catch your breath.
- Make sure to have a qualified prenatal trainer present when you are working with weights.
- Don’t overdo it. Stop the workout immediately if your body experiences pain or fatigue.
- Take the support of a bench or chair when doing bending exercises.
- Use a dumbbell instead of a barbell.
- Consult your doctor before starting weight training to assess your risk level.
Overall, listen to your body and do weight training keeping safety in mind.
Reference Links:
parenting.firstcry[dot]com/articles/weight-lifting-while-being-pregnant
aaptiv[dot]com/magazine/safe-lift-weights-when-pregnant