Quite simply, when a pregnant woman exercises, she improves her brain, her body, and her life. The benefits of exercising during pregnancy for pregnant mom-to-be are plentiful with rewards that range from activating glee to promoting poop!
Exercising while pregnant is one of the single most important things you can do for your in utero baby, and the benefits don’t stop there, they extend to you – you are doing the work after all! How does pregnant mom-to-be benefit from exercising during pregnancy? Below is a list of exceptional rewards for you.
Benefits of exercise for Pregnant Mom-to-be:
1. Exercise Calibrates Your Brain
Exercise changes your brain’s structure and improves its ability to function as it provides oxygen, releases brain-sharpening chemicals, destroys brain-gagging toxins, and speeds up the development of new neurons.
2. Exercise Activates Glee
Be your most sparkling self – exercise is a hack for happiness.
You know intuitively your mood is hurt by inertia and loafing feels lousy. You also know vigor and liveliness make you sparkle, and they are the product of movement.
You exercise, you feel happy. Instant gratification! The importance of happiness cannot be overstated because happiness impacts all aspects of your life. Your relationships, self-image, and sense of purpose improve when you are happy.
3. Exercise Boosts Energy
Pregnancy is tiring. Your body is building a complete human being plus a new organ, the placenta, and it requires a whoppingly herculean supply of your energy.
You are producing the most highly specialized product on the planet: a brand new human being. Miraculous? Yes! Exhausting? Definitely!
Although exercise expends energy, it also creates it by increasing your heart rate, which circulates more oxygen for the body to use. Exercise improves stamina, which you will need! It also releases endorphins that make you feel perky and chipper.
4. Exercise Promotes Poop
Hey, you’re bulging enough. Digestion is slowed during pregnancy because higher progesterone levels cause the bowels to relax. This is likely by design as it allows the intestines to slurp up as many nutrients as possible to benefit both mom and baby. Unfortunately, this slowing often results in constipation.
To unspool the stool, exercise. Walking is one of the best movements to get movement. You’ll be pooping in no time.
For fans of rap music: You down with P.O.O.P.? Yeah, you know me! More Number Two by Nature than Naughty by Nature, but you get my meaning. Exercise powers the passing of the P to the O to the O to the P!
5. Exercise Firms Body Parts and Strengthens the Pelvic Floor
Exercise builds muscle, making the body noticeably firmer. Love that. Building muscle can also protect you from injury and prepare your body for labor and delivery.
Want to prevent involuntarily peeing while sneezing, coughing, laughing, running, and jumping? Who wouldn’t?
Exercise will strengthen the pelvic floor muscles!
The pelvic floor is a complex series of muscle layers. They extend from the pubic bone to the tailbone to the sit bones. These muscles support the pelvic organs (uterus, bladder, and colon), cradle your baby during pregnancy, and assist in the birthing process. You also use your pelvic floor muscles to control the bladder and bowel.
There are numerous pelvic floor-strengthening videos on YouTube, from basic Kegels to Prenatal Yoga. Why not sample a few?
6. Exercise Eases Aches
Exercising during pregnancy can soothe many discomforts, and even help you avoid some pregnancy pains. And ouch, there are pains: sharp pains, dull pains, swelling pains, rib pains, groin pains, cramping pains, stabbing pains, vein pains, ligament pains, breast pains, back pains, and various other pains.
Exercise that targets the core muscles can significantly relieve lower back pain. The core muscles are a group of muscles that surround your torso and include the abdominal muscles, oblique muscles, back muscles, and pelvic floor muscles. Pilates for pregnancy targets your core.
I did Pilates specifically designed for pregnancy throughout my third pregnancy. It felt as though my core muscles formed a snug corset around my baby. My back did not suffer from baby bump strain, and my core muscles rebounded more quickly than they had after my first two pregnancies. Love me some Joseph friggin’ Pilates!
Blood volume increases and vein walls relax with pregnancy, and for some women, this causes aching varicose veins. Exercise provides relief by circulating the blood that wants to painfully pool in the legs. I walked at a variety of paces over the nine months and was rewarded with relief of pain.
Plain old distraction helps when you’re addled by aches, too. Being in pain is no joke. It can impede every facet of your life. Focusing on your exercise of choice is a perfect diversion. You’ll feel unfettered… for a bit, anyway.
7. Exercise Helps You to Radiate Beauty
You know how some days you look your best, and others . . . you don’t? It is my contention that the dreadful days are due to inflammation. It ain’t pretty. Exercise reduces inflammation and lets your pretty shine though. Exercise also improves circulation so toxins can be removed, cells can enjoy fresh oxygen, and you can radiate beauty.
8. Exercise Improves Sleep
Pregnant women who exercise sleep better and wake up feeling more rested. Important work happens while you slumber. Your brain gets washed, for one. The flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically, whisking away harmful waste. Your immune function is strengthened by sleep. Your body rejuvenates as tissue repair takes place. Muscles relax and release tension so that you awaken refreshed. Value sleep. Enjoy it. Embrace it. Make sleep a priority like you make clean eating and exercising a priority, and bask in the benefits of snoozing soundly, thanks to exercise.
Oh, and sleep on your left side, please, to prevent compressing the blood vessel called the vena cava that runs up your right side. It returns blood from your legs to your heart and then on to your lungs for oxygen. The freshly oxygenated blood, along with nutrients, is sent to your baby and baby’s brain, as well as your body and your brain. Experiment with multiple pillows or a body pillow. I found sleeping on my left side with a straight left leg and bent right leg comfy. In fact, this is still my go-to position for falling asleep each night.
9. Exercise Relieves Stress
Exercise relieves stress; it has a knack for producing a feeling of calm. Funny thing is, exercise is a type of stress, physical stress. Yet this physical stress eases emotional stress. Exercise reduces stress hormones and increases endorphins
10. Exercise Shortens Labor
Women who exercise have shorter labors and fewer complications. Heck yeah!
11. Exercise Speeds Up Postpartum Recovery
Making a comeback – heal, renew, and revive!
Amazing. Right?! Exercise is everything.
Benefits abound for both pregnant you and developing baby. While the benefits for your in utero baby are certainly motivating, knowing that exercise provides you with a better brain, a better body, and a better life is highly motivating too.
If exercise is already part of your life – outstanding.
If you do not currently exercise, consider joining a gym, a hiking club, or a yoga class. If you’d prefer to work out on your own, search YouTube – there are numerous options that will help you to get started. And be safe by consulting with your practitioner.
Exercise throughout your pregnancy (if your practitioner approves). And keep this list of goodies top of mind, you deserve to be rewarded abundantly for your momma-to-be exercise efforts.