These are some of the things your spouse may need to remember if she is starting an exercise routine:

• All exercise programs should be begun gradually. Starting with about 15 minutes, three to four days a week is sufficient.

• She should resist the temptation to overdo it.

• She should avoid jogging, unless she used to jog regularly before her pregnancy.

• She should avoid doing sit-ups and other exercises, which involve lying on the back as they may decrease blood flow to the uterus.

• Exercises that involve standing in the same place for long periods can also decrease blood flow to the baby. It is better to keep moving or changing positions frequently.

• She should avoid strenuous forms of exercise, such as riding a bike.

• She should wear loose comfortable clothing and avoid overheating.

• She must drink adequate amounts of water to avoid dehydration.

• She should eat healthy foods to make up for calories lost during exercise.

• If, after exercise, she notices symptoms such as fatigue, pain, nausea, vaginal bleeding or discharge, or pelvic contractions, she should contact her doctor immediately.

Whether your spouse is pregnant or not, exercise is one of the best things she can do for her physical and emotional health. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that pregnant women without health problems or pregnancy complications exercise moderately for 30 minutes or more on most, if not all, days of the week.

Pregnant or not, exercise helps keep the heart, bones, and mind healthy. Staying active also seems to give some special added paybacks for pregnant women.

Here are some really good reasons for your spouse to get regular exercise during pregnancy:

• It can ease and prevent aches and pains of pregnancy including constipation, varicose veins, backaches, and exhaustion

• Active women seem to be better prepared for labor and delivery and recover more quickly

• Exercise may lower the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes during pregnancy

• Fit women have an easier time getting back to a healthy weight after delivery

• Regular exercise may improve sleep during pregnancy.

Staying active can protect your spouse’s emotional health. Pregnant women who exercise seem to have better self-esteem and a lower risk of depression and anxiety. Get more information for pregnancy exercise.

The big question is how soon can you start? It all depends on the type of delivery that you had, your present condition, and whether your body is capable of exercising or not. If you were active during your pregnancy period, exercise regularly and had a normal delivery, you may feel ready to start exercising in as little as two to four weeks after delivery. However, if you did not stick to your fitness routine, had a c-section delivery, you will take longer to build up your body and mind.

For weight loss, you should ease into an exercise routine, by taking 15-20 minute walks three days a week. You should slowly increase the duration of your routine. To start with, you can begin with walking and exercises for your abdomen, lower back and pelvic muscles. Do what you can manage, even if it is for just 10 minutes. As you get stronger, you can increase the time duration and with your doctor’s approval, you can move on to 50 to 60 minutes of exercise, for four to five days a week.

Some Basic Exercises After Pregnancy

Pelvic Floor Strengthener: this exercise improves your pelvic region circulation. It is a very simple exercise, in which you have to lie down on the ground, facing ceiling and bend your knees, resting your feet on the ground. Now tighten your vaginal muscles, as if you are trying to hold urinary flow. Hold for a few seconds and then release.
Head and Shoulder Raises: this work out is a perfect solution to shape up your abs and look good after pregnancy. Just lie down on the floor, keeping your knees bent and hands behind your head. Take a deep breath and when you exhale, tighten your abdominal muscles, lifting your head and shoulders off the floor. Now slowly come back to your original position.

Following are some weight loss tips for you:

Once you start exercise, weigh yourself only once a week, to keep the depression of slow weight loss at bay.
Praise yourself for small goals and achievements.
Do not go for crash diets or celebrity diets. If you are breastfeeding your baby, you will need to eat about 500 calories more everyday. If your diet is not adequate, you are more likely to experience fatigue and listlessness.
Enjoy the sex after pregnancy. It is a fun work out in disguise.
Before starting the abdominal or pelvic exercises, do consult your doctor.
Try to exercise early in the morning or late in the evening, when it is cooler. Wear light and comfortable clothing.
Drink plenty of water, both before and after you exercise, so that you do not get dehydrated.
Stop exercising and call your doctor, if you have severe pain, increased vaginal bleeding, faintness, nausea, breathlessness, and extreme fatigue and muscle weakness.

If you are able to focus on healthy diet and exercise after pregnancy, you may be able to enjoy the true joy of bringing up your child.

What should you consider during your pregnancy? What if any are the advantages when training during pregnancy?

How hard should I train? Is a question I get all the time as a personal trainer who specialises in pre and post natal exercise. Most people or your trusty next door neighbor will probably tell you to relax, put your feet up and have a cuppa, and your partner who are about to be dads can be very over protective when it comes to pregnancy and exercise. So what should you do?

The important point is you can train during pregnancy and achieve positive results. Research shows women who exercise regularly while pregnant have easier labours, deliveries and recoveries, you to be careful you don’t do too much. You should always be able to hold a conversation, if you can’t you need to slow down! (How often will you hear that from a personal trainer!) If at any point you discover bleeding, back or abdominal pain you should see you GP or midwife immediately. While pregnant you will be able to train most days of the week but at a moderate intensity and when lifting weights you should be lifting light to medium weights (40-60% of your one rep max). REMEMBER always consider your technique which should be smooth.

What are the advantages? There are a number of physical and psychological benefits from exercising while pregnant. It has been found that active women suffer from less amounts of insomnia, less bouts of stress, anxiety and depression as feel good endomorphins are released when exercising which promote the feeling of well being and help to reduce fat storage.

Evidence suggests that carrying out weight bearing exercises reduces the length of labour and limits complications during delivery. Not exercising during pregnancy leads to the waste of muscle and strength loss, decrease in CV fitness and weight gain which can increase the chances of diabetes.

One of the obvious problems that can occur during pregnancy is lower back pain due to the load that you are or will be carrying. Strengthening the back can have a number of advantages during pregnancy such as making mobility and day to day movements a lot easier.

Babies born to fit mothers are likely to be fitter, leaner and healthier. Babies born to fit mothers are also likely to be sportier later on in life, therefore leading healthier styles. It is true what people say, children are likely to pick up habits off their parents and take after their parents genetically.

What can’t you do? During pregnancy I advise you do not stretch for longer than 5 -10 seconds, as your body prepares the body will produce and promote a hormone called relaxin. This hormone can increase flexibility at a joint and increase the damage to ligaments, tendons and cartilage around the joint. With this in mind dynamic exercise and movements should be avoided as due to the increase in flexibility you are at greater risks of falls that can cause serious injury. So I recommend that you avoid contact sports at all costs.

Firstly, you need to understand your body type. There are four basic body types and designing a suitable exercise program requires an understanding of your body structure. What may be appropriate for one person may not be appropriate for another. Proper body diagnosis is essential to understand and consider when designing a pregnancy fitness program.

Pregnant or not, exercise helps keep the heart, bones, and mind healthy. Staying active also seems to give some special added paybacks for pregnant women.

Here are some exercises that you can do during pregnancy?

Do some light sit ups. Nothing too strenuous here, but perhaps rest your legs on a chair and try bringing your head up off the floor a few inches.

Yoga is a fantastic form of exercise that is very low impact and helps in stretching muscles.

Another good exercise is swimming. The water gives you the ability to move around and work nearly all of your muscle groups, while at the same time it helps in keeping you balanced.

Walking is another good pregnancy exercise for more than one reason. Sure, it gives you some much needed exercise, but it also gets you out of the house and clears your head so to speak.

Do consider your diet during pregnancy. It is important to eat enough of the right foods, however it is all to easy to over-eat!

Lastly, you need to know which specific core exercises to make your labour easier and proven ways to prevent sagging breasts. Take a preventative attitude will not only make you look and feel better it will also help you avoid the common pitfalls that befall most women during pregnancy.

Pregnant women who exercise seem to have better self-esteem and a lower risk of depression and anxiety.

You were able to maintain your fitness, your health and (most of all) your figure without piling on unnecessary pounds and losing your motivation to peel yourself off of the sofa? During pregnancy your body experiences dramatic physiological changes that require a carefully designed exercise program. But why should you exercise during pregnancy?

Reason 1: Women who exercise have shorter and easier births at the ?pushing stage?

There is some research that shows that women who exercise have a shorter second stage of labour (pushing stage). However labour is very individual and can last for 1hour up to 2 days. Fitter women cope better with the labour they are given.

Reason 2: Women who exercise reportedly feel more positive and have more energy after the birth. Are you ready to have the healthiest pregnancy possible?

Women who have exercised with us tell us constantly that their labours were so manageable thanks to our Pregnancy Exercise Plan. We love to hear this but also know that it their ability to cope that is improved by exercise so that even a hard labour feels easier when you are fit and strong. Women who exercise do have healthier pregnancies- they gain less weight, suffer less back and pelvic pain, sleep better and eat better. They are happier, less likely to suffer depression and all round healthier.

Reason 3: A strong pelvic floor can assist your birth

If the muscle tone is strong and like a piece of new elastic they will have the ability to stretch to allow a baby to pass through during childbirth and return to normal afterwards. If they are not exercised they may become over stretched and weak; and their ability to contract strongly and quickly reduced or lost. During pregnancy the relaxin hormone will affect the pelvic floor to enable it to stretch adequately during childbirth. After childbirth the pelvic floor muscles are stretched, weakened and bruised, so pelvic floor exercise are important to help tone the muscles to prevent greater damage.

Reason 4: You can benefit from exercising even if you are new to starting a exercise program or if you have exercised very little prior to becoming pregnant.

Provided there are no medical reasons non exercisers may begin our program during pregnancy. The majority of women who exercise in pregnancy are doing so for the first time because they make the decision to begin a healthier life habit now that they are pregnant. Always exercise with a program that is run by correctly qualified trainers who know how to ease you into a new program.

Reason 5: After birth, the babies of women who exercised were slightly leaner than those who did not

A lot of hype in the media has made claims that women who exercise have smaller babies. Is a bigger baby better if it only has more fat? In addition babies born of women who exercise do not differ in their organ size or bone lengths. Studies of the babies (born to women who exercised during their pregnancies) at 1 and five years of age showed at one year of age exercisers babies scored higher on standardised intelligence tests than children of mothers who did not exercise. Their mental and physical performance scored higher as well. At age five children of exercises were less fat and scored much higher on tests of general intelligence and oral language skills than the children born to non-exercisers. Further studies have shown that children born to exercising mothers are less likely to be obese.

What better reason to start exercising than for a better start to life for your child and yourself.