How to maintain moderate exercise during pregnancy

Many pregnant mothers ask us about yoga practice for pregnant women. The more concentrated questions are how to ensure safety and how to maintain moderate exercise. Pregnant women yoga instructors emphasize safety issues the most to expectant mothers, but yoga instructors are often vague on how to exercise moderately. We believe that to achieve moderate exercise, we must determine quantitative standards for moderate exercise. So how to determine the standard for moderate exercise? We have a simple test method: follow the fitt principle, which is the number, intensity, duration and type of exercise.

Number of workouts

New research shows that in addition to suffering from diseases, most pregnant women should exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. If you haven't exercised often before, do you want to run a few kilometers or play tennis every day on a whim? Gradually increase the amount of activity while exercising. If you have started exercising regularly before pregnancy, stick to it as long as you don't feel uncomfortable, but adjust the amount of activity. Making a good plan is a good start for exercise. Exercise should be done 3 times a week. If it is less than 3 times a week, it will not improve your heart and lung health. Then gradually increase the number of activities. If your body feels too tired, you should appropriately reduce the amount of activity.

exercise intensity

Throughout pregnancy, moderate intensity of exercise is key-too little intensity will not work, and too much intensity will be too tiring and even dangerous. Exercise intensity must be carefully planned, so don't be too demanding on yourself. Because the heart rate of pregnant women is already 15-20 beats per minute faster than that of normal people, they can't work anymore. Measuring heart rate is an effective method to determine whether exercise intensity is too high or insufficient. The corresponding relationship between heart rate and age is as follows. You can use a heart rate meter to measure it. You can also use pulse measurement to place the index finger and middle finger of one hand on the inner side of the wrist of the other hand, that is, below the thumb, and feel the pulse. If you can't play and cannot feel it, you can feel a strong pulse in the neck, that is, place the index finger and middle finger on the side of the neck and about three fingers under the chin. Measure the heartbeat for ten seconds and multiply it by six to get your heart rate.

Another simple method is the "speech test". When you are exercising, you can talk continuously without stopping and gasping, which means that your heart rate is within the normal range and the exercise intensity is appropriate. If you are wheezing and have difficulty speaking, you need to reduce the amount of activity until you feel comfortable. The heart rate at this time may be below the normal range, but that is the heart rate at normal exercise intensity.

exercise time

Start with a short exercise time. Too long can cause muscle pain and fatigue. In the first few weeks, with 15 minutes of activity per session and heart rate within the normal range, a good start for a proper exercise team. At this heart rate level, you feel comfortable coping with it, and then increase it for 2 minutes at a time until you reach 30 minutes per activity. Experienced and regular exercise will keep your heart rate within the normal range for 30 minutes of continuous activity.

However, even if you have started exercising before pregnancy, do not increase your activity until the 14th week of pregnancy. However, increase the amount of activity during the 4-6 months of pregnancy, when pregnant women are full of energy. You will feel tired during the seventh to ninth months, and you should reduce your activity at this time.

If you feel tired, reduce the number of activities. The purpose of exercise is to strengthen your muscles. Don't forget to start with a warm up and end with a comfortable relaxation.

action type

Yoga for pregnant women has become a popular prenatal exercise around the world, but some yoga movements are difficult and pregnant women should not do it. Therefore, you should follow the coach's advice or choose movements that are suitable for pregnant women and focus on strengthening the abdominal, back and pelvic floor muscles and breathing, such as breathing, yoga relaxation, meditation, squatting, heroic pose, bicycle pose, leg rotation pose, butterfly pose, levator anal fit, etc. Through these exercises that strengthen yoga meditation and strengthen waist and abdominal strength and breathing force, pregnant women can breathe deeply and slowly, maintain mental stability, strengthen abdominal pressure, enhance waist strength, and have a good midwifery effect.

The final point to emphasize is to follow the correct practice steps: breathing exercises, warm-up, yoga poses (sitting, standing, squatting and other movements suitable for pregnant women), relaxation. Make sufficient warm-up preparations before exercising. At the end, gently stretch and breathe to return your body to normal. Diana Yoga quantifies the standard of moderate exercise into the exercise plan, and formulates exercise plans for different times, different exercise amounts, and different movement arrangements based on different stages of pregnancy, students 'practice levels, and personal physiques. Judging from the students 'practice results, achieving the expected goal can indeed make pregnant women full of self-confidence and harmonious physically and mentally, which has a great impact on their health and attitude towards life. (Internship Editor: Wu Jinyu)