TRAINING DURING PREGNANCY: PRACTICAL APPLICATION

In the previous post we could see the benefits of physical exercise in pregnant women, and how wrong was the old belief that pregnant women should not make any effort.

In this post, we will look at the recommendations and latest trends in physical exercise that researchers have developed for this type of population.

Pregnant woman exercise by StockSnap Pixabay License

First, let's remember the types of exercise most recommended for pregnant women:

• Aerobic exercise.
• Strength training.
• Kegel exercises (pelvic floor)
• Relaxation and balance activities (yoga, tai-chi, ...)
• Exercise in the water.

Next, we have a proposal for aerobic training for the non-athlete pregnant woman (Mata, Chulvi, Roig, Heredia, & Isidro, 2010):

	FIRST TRIMESTER	SECOND TRIMESTER	THIRD TRIMESTER
FREQUENCY	2-3 times / week	2-4 times / week	2-3 times / week
TIME	10-20’	20-30’	30’
TYPE	Very low impact level.	Low impact level.	Very low impact level. Few postural changes. Avoid long standing times.
INTENSITY		12-14 of the RPE of the Borg scale

As far as strength training is concerned, we can follow the following guidelines to prescribe a training in which strength is worked on:

• Type of exercises: We can use a wide variety of materials (machines, free weights, elastic bands, ...).  It is preferable to use the form of circuit for the development of the session, especially when starting to exercise. It is also important to involve the main muscle groups. We can prescribe isometric exercises, but we must control that the pregnant woman does not do the Valsalva maneuver.
• Intensity: these should be sessions with a medium-low intensity (up to 60% of 1 maximum repetition). It is important not to reach muscle failure or perform the Valsalva maneuver.
• Repeats, series and rests: carry out sessions consisting of between 6 and 10 exercises. We can start with 1 series, with about 15 repetitions, and progress to 3 series. The rests will be approximately 1 minute between exercises.
• Frequency and duration: it will be enough to carry out sessions of about 30-40 minutes, and 2-3 sessions per week.

In addition, a series of considerations must be taken into account when carrying out the sessions, in addition to those already mentioned, such as avoiding high-intensity isometric exercises (due to the tendency to do Valsalva), strengthening the muscles of the back and lower limbs, avoiding exercises performed in the supine position, controlling the intensity through effort scales.

Below we show you two examples of sessions to be carried out according to the time of pregnancy, although we remind you that the ideal is for the sessions to be individualised and adapted to the conditions of each woman.

Although this post has focused on aerobic exercise and strength training, we think that it would be best or ideal to combine the different types of recommended exercises, either by distributing them throughout the week or even creating sessions in which we combine them, such as introducing Kegel exercises in a strength session, or performing a session that has an aerobic part and a strength part.

See you in the next post. 

May the force be with you!

REFERENCES

Mata, F., Chulvi, I., Roig, J., Heredia, J. R., & Isidro, F. (2010). Prescripción del ejercicio físico durante el embarazo, 3(2), 68–79.

Pujol, T. J., Barnes, J. T., & Elder, C. L. (2007). Resistance Training During Pregnancy, 29(2), 44–46.

Schoenfeld, B. (2011). Resistance Training During Pregnancy : Safe and Effective Program Design, 67–75.