The legs are right!
The safest in terms of exercise during pregnancy is walking. Even if for health reasons doctors have forbidden you all other kinds of sports loads, this kind will not be canceled by anybody. Walking helps maintain physical fitness and does not allow muscle to become atrophic. But you need to walk during pregnancy correctly.
A few tips on how to walk correctly while pregnant:
1. During walking, you should always monitor the position of the back - do not bend back strongly, and distribute the load on the muscles of the back and abdomen evenly. Helps in this matter a special belt for pregnant women.
2. When walking, it is better to look a few steps ahead, but not at all under your feet, since the last variant strongly overstrains the muscles of the shoulder girdle and neck.
3. Walk several times, but for short distances, as long walks adversely affect the joints of the hips and pelvis. At pregnancy in an organism there is a development of a hormone of a relaxin, weakening joints and muscles.
Exercises for stretching before and after walking
It is extremely important to do stretching exercises before and after the walk. But you should be careful not to pull the ligaments. After all, during pregnancy they are much more vulnerable to this. So, here are these exercises:
1. Raise your arms above your head and stretch, then lower your arms and connect them behind your back (you can then slap). Repeat 5 times. Hands and back should try to keep straight.
2. Put your feet shoulder width apart and bend slightly at the knees. While maintaining balance, tilt the torso and head forward until it becomes visible under the feet of the floor, and slowly return to its original position. Repeat 5 times.
3. Both hands to the right, head to the left, stay in this position for 30 seconds. Do the same in the other direction.
4. Exercise for the shoulders. Lower and raise the shoulders up and down, and then make circular motions 5 times in each direction.
5. Exercises for the neck. Rotate the head, tilt it toward the right or left shoulder 5 times for each of the types of movement.
Physical activity 4 days a week
This plan is suitable for use on any four days of the week. However, it is best to separate the days of physical activity from one another in order to allow the body to recover.
Monday: Walk at a slow pace for 5-10 minutes as a warm-up, then you need to stretch out a bit and walk for another 15 minutes at your normal speed. After 15 minutes, slow down and slowly walk for another 10 minutes.
Wednesday: repeat everything exactly as you did on Monday. If you normally feel yourself, then you can add another climb up the ladder at a slow pace.
Friday: everything is the same as on Monday.
Saturday: you can walk in your own pleasure, without forcing yourself to move at a certain speed the planned time interval. After the walk, do not forget to perform stretching exercises.
Loads for each of the trimesters
With each trimester, your body undergoes changes, to which you also need to adapt your physical activities.
First trimester: you may be surprised that you have not lost energy, but rather increased. The reason for this is an increase in the volume of blood that saturates your body with additional doses of oxygen. But this does not mean that you need to work more than before. Your goal is to support yourself in normal physical condition, pregnancy does not accept physical feats. To the total time of ordinary walks without a warm-up (about 20 minutes) you can add an additional 5 minutes, but not more. It is dangerous to overwork during this period.
Second trimester: you are gaining weight intensively, which is a normal process. At this stage, the intensity of walking should be reduced, i.e. walk slower, but in time as much as in the first trimester.
Third trimester: slow down walking as much as possible. You can stick to that plan for 4 days a week, but walking is not on time, but according to your feelings. It is important to avoid walking under the scorching sun, various uneven places with terraces and stairs. Your shifted center of gravity increases the risk of falls.
The main thing is to listen to your body, enjoy the entire period of pregnancy. Pregnancy load does not exclude, but adjusts depending on your condition. That's why it's so important to read the signals of your body and listen to them in time. Be healthy and active!