First trimester – week
1 to week 13
From “morning
sickness” that can be any time of day to complete exhaustion, the first
trimester can be a challenging time for many women to stay active and maintain
a normal exercise routine. However, 30 minutes a day is still recommended by
obstetricians, and most women find that even some light walking and fresh air
do really help with the nausea and give you an added boost of energy during an
otherwise really exhausting time during your pregnancy.
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| From a 1999 Addidas campaign for running, this lady is totally my hero. She's probably in her second or early third trimester, but I like this photo so much and find it so inspiring that we're just going to have it on this blog post anyway! |
Guidelines for this
trimester:
1. 30 minutes of
moderate exercise daily; or continue your regular exercise routine but slow to
a moderate exertion and be adaptable to slowing down or stopping if you
experience warning signs
2. Hydrate!
3. Replenish calories.
(The days of putting yourself in calorie deficit are over, for now. Enjoy it.)
The Challenges:
1. NAUSEA
2. EXHAUSTION
3. WORRY/ANXIETY
What I learned this
trimester:
(I guess it comes as
no surprise to most of you that my husband and I are indeed expecting, hence my
research on this topic and this series of blogs!)
1. Be forgiving.
2. NAP.
3. A little exercise
goes a long way!
4. Moderate is
relative! (Listen to your body)
Every woman is
different, and every pregnancy is different, but by week 6, I had "morning"
sickness 24-7, and the ONLY time it went away was when I went for a run. The
other issue for me starting out the first trimester was that I wasn't sure how
much exercise I could do safely. I was so excited to be pregnant that I was
also afraid to train too hard for fear of miscarriage. I’m not sure if there is
any medical legitimacy to that, as most early miscarriages are due to
chromosomal defects and nothing a pregnant woman does or doesn’t do, but I was
worried about it. My first obstetrician said that I seemed like an active
person, so I could do 45 minutes a day instead of the recommended 30. Most of
what I’ve read since that first obstetric visit shows that you can basically
keep going at whatever your regular amount of activity is, within reason. In
a way, I wish I had realized this sooner in my pregnancy, but my work hours and
being so nauseated and exhausted were hard to tackle with my goals to stay fit,
so staying fit ended up being the bare minimum for the baby’s fitness/health, which
makes me happy at this point. I think with future pregnancies, I might feel more comfortable to do more.
So, maybe I didn't
need to slow down as quickly as I did during the first trimester, but I think
pushing your body when you're already exhausted and also when you're carrying
another person along with you isn't the best idea. Whatever your starting
point, as the pregnancy progresses, and as your body gets bigger, you are going
to slow down and you are going to cut mileage. That’s just the way it works. I
think it happened sooner for me because I was worried about it and because I
had already cut back from my regular amount of training just to get pregnant in
the first place. I will say, though, that even when I felt so super exhausted
and so nauseated, a short run was the only thing that cured me. I could feel
like I was going to vomit and after the first 5-10 minutes of running, I felt
amazing. Thank you, exercise endorphins.
The most important
thing that I have realized and started to learn how to do during my focus on
staying fit and healthy during my pregnancy is that you really have to listen
to your body. Listening to your body when you know you're really exhausted is
also a good idea. A short workout when really exhausted can give you an extra
pep in your step, and that definitely helped me. But long workouts (by the way,
during pregnancy, all my "long workouts" have been 75-80 minutes or
less, usually more like 60 minutes) are definitely for those days when you're feeling super well-rested and
feel good during the first part of your workout. If you think you're
well-rested and you set out for something long, but you don't feel well after
the first 10-15 minutes, then slow down or stop; no harm done. This is not the
time to be the die-hard athlete you normally are used to being…or at least
that’s what I told myself, and it’s helped me stay healthy, function at work
during pregnancy, and keep myself going these days.
I originally wanted to do a
70.3 (half-ironman) during my first trimester, and while this is totally
physically and medically possible, it just wasn’t worth it to me to race at 75%
of my effort, and keeping up with endurance during my first trimester
exhaustion wasn’t the easiest thing. As one of my old college buddies used to
say, “If it’s not necessary, you don’t need it,” and believe me, racing wasn’t
necessary, so I told myself I didn’t need it. By the way, cutting back to 75%
effort is what is recommended for racing triathlon during pregnancy. If you
have found other credited info out there, please post to this blog because I
would definitely be interested!
Stay tuned for:
-2nd
trimester guidelines/challenges/updates
-3rd
trimester guidelines/challenges/updates
-gait and running form
changes during pregnancy
-post-partum training
circa May 2014
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