What should I avoid doing when I am pregnant?
There are some key things you want to be aware of throughout your pregnancy if you are staying active.
- Overstretching: Due to the pregnancy hormone relaxin which relaxes the ligaments and tendons to allow for childbirth it is very easy to overstretch and cause damage at this stage. Therefore developmental stretches are not advisable in pregnancy.
- High impact: Now, there is different advice for this out there but due to the women we see and the work we do, we advise against high impact work in pregnancy. Not because of cardio or you can’t do it perspective but the effect it can have on your insides and pelvic floor due to the weight of the baby.
- Abdominal work: Lying on your back is a no-no anyway but definitely, no sit-ups, planks or twists as this all not only puts more pressure where you don’t want it to be, it can exacerbate abdominal separation, leaving you with more problems postnatal.
- Heart rate: You want to be working in a maximum of 60% of your maximum heart rate. To work out your maximum heart rate, you subtract your age from 220. 60% of that number is how hard you should be working at most. For example, you are 28 years old, 220-28 = 192. 60% of 192 is 115.
- Ensure you are rolling onto your side to get up from any inclined lying position to reduce the strain on already stretched abdominals.
