I can say with complete truthfulness that exercising is hard! There is however no denying how beneficial exercise is to one’s health. This is even more true for pregnant women as exercise not only benefits the pregnant woman but her baby as well. Yet the difficulty remains. Exercise seems to be an ever present cloud because is something that needs to be done nearly every single day. Symptoms of pregnancy does not make conquering the mountain that is exercise any easier, yet perhaps the knowledge that the baby is reaping incalculable benefits might be a better source of motivation.
When it comes to exercise, especially while pregnant, the hardest part is getting started. First there is the need to find some sort of exercise to do: will you walk or jog, do mat work of sorts, stick with instructor led cardio, join a gym and hire a trainer …? The options are numerous and depending on your own level of fitness, the average prenatal dvd is just not challenging enough (that’s where I found myself anyway). Then I discovered prenatal pilates that incorporates standing work and mat work and stretching all in one fifty minute workout. After finding a workout that was more my pace, the next difficulty presented itself: getting up and turning on the dvd. Once I got to the point that the prenatal workout was playing, I could easily follow along. Of course there are those days when I have to literally force myself to turn on the dvd and on those days I would try to find myself a friend to exercise with me. Most often this “friend” was one of my sisters but just having another person doing the workout with me made a big difference in my motivation and overall concentration. Most recently my exercise friend was my thirty three week pregnant sister!
Exercising during pregnancy is one of the best things you can do for your baby and yourself. So find a friend and get to working out!