Pregnancy and Exercise

When I told some people that I fully intend on continuing my regular exercise routine while pregnant (with the blessing of my caregiver of course), they gave me a look of disbelief. I haven't stopped exercising since I had gotten pregnant, and since I didn't even find out that I was pregnant until I was pretty much in my eighth week, I had been exercising for at least half my first trimester.

I'm still doing step class and cardio machines. I'm still doing strength training with machine and free weights. My trainer even has me working out on a Bosu to help me with my balance. I still do core exercises, sit ups, and even Pilate's.

However, the intensity has been brought down quite a bit. For instance, I used to do step class with one riser level under the step. This has been removed because I want to keep my heart rate down. I've also lowered the intensity while I do step. Many of the moves I do in Pilate's have been modified, or eliminated entirely. I'm not trying to increase my strength with the weight training so much so as to just keep what I have now, especially since I've been told I'd need that strength to push the baby out and when I have to lug around a 10lb kid for half the day. And as some have pointed out, the continual exercise is to help me maintain my health and not let it deteriorate. It's not the time for me right now to lose the weight, just to stay healthy.

This article also outlines some benefits and exercising mummy has for the baby. Research has shown that for the babies of moderately exercising mothers:

• Infants are less cranky and less likely to have colic.
• Infants have less body fat at birth. Some early research suggests that the benefits of lower body fat may translate into a reduction in the incidence of heart disease and diabetes in adulthood.
• Children have greater neurodevelopment scores in oral language and motor areas when tested at age five.

Believe it or not, I found exercising helped stave off the nausea, even if was only for an hour or so. I still feel like a lump of lard if I don't regularly exercise. And besides the health benefits to myself and for the baby, I still covet and strive for the bikini body. Hopefully by this time next year....

Exercise with the Wii

If you didn't believe me before that one of the benefits of owning a Wii is actually losing weight, here's proof. This guy did an experiment where by he played Wii Sports for 30 minutes a day for six weeks, did nothing else outside of his regular routine, and lost 9 pounds! And to boot, he did this over the Christmas holidays. He even admitted to eating and drinking more than normal, cause well, that's what you do over Christmas. I'm actually quite impress that he tried to as scientific as possible to prove a point.

Now as impressive as this is, the real point here is that you must exercise to maintain a healthy weight. This man was by no means fat, and I wouldn't even have called him overweight in his "before" pictures. Also, to help lose weight, you need to start on a program and keep on it. We live in an instant gratification world, but losing weight takes time and dedication.

Your core

I have been spouting the wonders of Pilates to people for year, but with no avail. The worse is when I try to convince a guy to try it out. Most guys would just laugh at me and call them "girly" exercises. (My rant about this I will save for another day. Thank goodness my hubby has somewhat of an opened mind and I had actually convinced to try it out. He now goes with me once a week to my Pilates class).

If you read any article as to why you should be strengthening your core muscles, they will tell you the same thing:

• Weak core muscles contribute to lower back pain
• Injuries can be prevented with stronger core muscles
• Stronger core muscles will help greatly improve your sports performance.
• Just because you exercise doesn't mean you're necessarily strengthening your core muscles (or strengthening them properly)
  

People, one thing that money won't buy for you is good health; once you lose it, it's lost forever. However, that also means that you should start taking measures to prevent (as much as possible) from bad health from starting. Your body will thank you for it.

Some articles you can read here, here, and here. But really, there are a ton of articles all over the Internet telling you the same thing, they are not hard to find if you just simply look.

Top 10 Fitness Lies and Myths

Little Dumb Man had posted this article today about the top 10 fitness lies and myths. If you click on each point, it will bring you to the actual article on the eDiets.com site. Whether or not you believe in his statements, it's certainly something to think about...

(And a little side note for the people who run the eDiets.com website, the QuitAssist advert on the right column is really annoying me. I don't like video/audio playing automatically, I'd rather control this thing myself.)