I Need Help With... Fitness and Exercise
Fitness, Exercise, Dieting, and Exercise During Pregnancy
Yes, you should be exercising regularly… pregnant or not. While you will experience weight gain during pregnancy, exercise during pregnancy is still important and valuable.
We’re often asked about the fastest way to build muscle and lose body fat. Some women look for medications or drugs they can take. Others scope out the latest fad diet. Still others look to surgical procedures to lose fat and lose body weight.
Weight Loss for Women
Hundreds of books have been written on this subject, so we couldn’t possibly do it justice here. In reality, the only way to build muscle is to exercise. Resistance training and interval training have proven to be the most effective methods to rapidly gain muscle mass and lose body fat. Sustained aerobic exercise, such as a fast walk, is great for your heart, but won’t help you lose weight as fast as interval training.
Interval training is essentially intermittently pushing yourself to your limit… running, swimming, biking, on the treadmill. You push for a couple of minutes, then back off for a couple of minutes. Do this several times (for about 20-30 minutes), but ONLY if you’ve first checked it out with us!
We want to make sure that you’re doing the RIGHT exercises for YOU. Please come see us before you start any new exercise routine, especially if you haven’t been exercising for some time.
As far as diets, we always recommend having a healthy diet with lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains. Junk food is out. Binge eating or dieting isn’t a good idea either. Before starting any new diet, please check with us to see if it’s the right diet for you.
Also, part of losing weight is psychological. It’s often a matter of habit, and if you’ve been in a habit of snacking or eating for emotional reasons, then we may recommend some additional help in changing your habits.
Pregnancy and Exercise – Exercise During Pregnancy
"You need to be physically active during pregnancy. It has terrific benefits that are associated with a better pregnancy outcome and even shorter labors. It's a win-win for baby and for mom," says high-risk pregnancy expert Laura Riley, MD, spokeswoman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and author of Pregnancy: You and Your Baby.
What about your heart rate? The truth is that measuring your heart rate is no longer considered the preferred method of determining how far you can go. Everyone is different, which is why they now recommend the RPE, or rate of perceived exertion. "This is a scale that determines how hard you are working based on how you feel when you are working," says Farel Hruska, certified fitness trainer and the national fitness director for Stroller Strides and their Fit To Deliver pregnancy workout program.
And what about those ab workouts we all love to hate? Because you should avoid any exercises that you have to do on your back after the first trimester, you can do some gentle standing pelvic tilts, seated belly breathing, or tightening your abs, holding, then releasing. These are all good ways to keep your ab muscles fit, even while your belly is expanding.
Would you like to lose weight, gain muscle, or stay in shape while pregnant?
Please give us a call. We’ll talk with you about your diet, exercise habits, and evaluate your entire physical health to determine the optimum exercises and diet for you.