For those of you who need a little extra motivation or encouragement to exercise while pregnant, here is a list of 10 great reasons to exercise during your pregnancy. Keep in mind that pregnancy is not a time to make significant gains in your training performance or to lose weight but that it is simply a time to maintain or gain a base level of fitness and ensure that you provide a healthy beginning for your baby and a speedy labor and recovery for you!!

Top 10 “Bennies”

1. Exercise helps reduce many of the common pre-natal discomforts such as nausea, fatigue, constipation, swollen extremities, leg cramps, insomnia, back pain and other orthopedic conditions. During the first three months of my pregnancy, the only time I didn’t feel nauseous was during and right after exercise. Too bad I couldn’t exercise the entire day 

2. Exercise can assist in controlling gestational diabetes, pregnancy induced hypertension, diastasis recti (extreme separation of the abdominal muscles) and urinary incontinence (work on those kegals ladies).

3. Women who exercise are more likely to stay within the recommended weight gain range. This means less fat to lose after the baby is born and a better chance that your body will look similar to how it did before Junior reeked havoc on it.

4. Exercise helps to stabilize mood during pregnancy which is helpful when you have all those raging hormones running through your body (stop crying over those silly commercials and every time you walk into the baby’s room – well okay maybe you can cry then). Women who exercise during pregnancy have increased confidence in their changing body image and decreased feelings of apprehension about labor and delivery.

5. Improved posture and joint stability. Don’t let those heavy boobs turn you into the hunch back of Notre Dame. Also, pregnant women experience a decrease in their ability to balance and therefore are more at risk of tripping, falling and getting injured. Improved joint stability can help minimize or prevent these incidences.

6. Muscle and joint flexibility to allow your body to adjust more easily to the changes that occur during pregnancy and labor.

7. Building a strong heart and lungs for your baby 

8. Labor benefits: Some studies have shown that women who exercised during pregnancy experienced a 75% decrease in the need for forceps or a cesarean section, a 75% decrease in maternal exhaustion, a 50% decrease in the need for induced labor, and a 30% shorter active labor. Non-exercising women were 4 1/2 times more likely to need a c-section than exercising women. Women who stopped exercising mid-way through pregnancy did not experience the same level of benefits as women who exercised throughout their entire pregnancy.

9. Recovery Benefits: Women who exercise during pregnancy recover 40% faster than those who do not and experience fewer incidences of postpartum depression.

10. You’ll have the strength to carry your new baby, the car seat, stroller and diaper bag along with the endurance to run around non-stop catering to your baby’s every need for the first ……??? 18 years!

Hope these little sparks light the fire under your rear and get you out and moving!

Love your baby and love yourself. Have Fun!