How To Stay Active While Pregnant
Few natural life events are surrounded by more anxiety than conception, pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood.
Pregnancy is not a time of illness and staying active is highly recommended. What's important, is that you listen to your body and do what you feel is best for yourself and your baby.
Pregnancy is not a time of illness and staying active is highly recommended. What's important, is that you listen to your body and do what you feel is best for yourself and your baby.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 The answer to "would I be able to stay active and keep cycling through pregnancy"
00:04 has been a resounding yes.
00:06 However, every element of motherhood is really individual.
00:10 I'm keen to reassure the potential mums of the future
00:13 that my own experience was not nearly so filled with the trials and tribulations
00:17 that my social media feed implied it would be.
00:20 However, every single one of those posts would have been
00:23 someone else sharing their truth and their real experience
00:26 and that's absolutely not to be undermined.
00:28 The individual experience and individual nature of pregnancy
00:32 is probably the reason why so much of the advice feels a bit vague and a bit woolly.
00:36 There are very few studies because no researchers want to introduce
00:40 any undue risk to an unborn child
00:42 and you'd certainly be hard-pressed to find a mother that would be happy to do that as well.
00:46 Whilst early on in my pregnancy I found the advice that you listen to your body
00:50 and do as you feel right extremely confusing and not very helpful,
00:56 by the end I actually found it really quite liberating.
00:59 Firstly, there isn't a medical expert out there, certainly that I've found,
01:02 that will dispute the fact that in an uncomplicated pregnancy
01:06 exercise is a healthy thing and it's to be advised.
01:09 The UK Health Service, the NHS, advises that women continue activities that they already do
01:14 and if they're not active they actually suggest they take up activity.
01:18 Benefits of being active during pregnancy include a lower risk of gestational diabetes,
01:24 lesser chance of problems during labour,
01:26 lesser chance of gaining more weight than is perhaps necessary
01:30 and also just a better overall mental and physical well-being.
01:34 However, if you're already quite an active person,
01:36 certainly if you're training for competition or just training to hit goals,
01:40 some of the advice can seem really quite contradictory.
01:44 For example, continue doing the exercise you already do but don't become breathless.
01:49 There's advice such as you should be able to hold a conversation whilst exercising
01:52 and do not exhaust yourself which leads to the obvious question of,
01:56 well what do I consider exhausting and how long does that conversation need to be?
02:00 So here's my journey and the advice I picked up along the way
02:04 from the likes of pro rider from Trek Segafredo Lizzie Dignan on her second pregnancy
02:09 as well as consultant Dr Sarah Rollins who contributed to the guidelines that are used
02:13 by the Ministry of Defence.
02:14 The first trimester was the one where I struggled the most with what felt like an information void.
02:19 Thankfully I didn't need to worry.
02:21 I spoke to Dr Sarah Rollins, the exercise physiologist who worked with a team of experts
02:26 to write the guidelines used by trainers at the Ministry of Defence to advise military staff
02:31 on what they should be doing during pregnancy and also afterwards during recovery.
02:36 The most questions I found came up in the first trimester because
02:42 partly you've got no one to speak to.
02:45 I think that's probably the biggest thing is if you've not told anyone you're pregnant,
02:49 you can't ask someone how to do things when you're pregnant.
02:51 And the main thing that I worried about was heart rate.
02:55 Mainly because I think at about eight weeks I read a blog post by an athlete that had said
03:03 they've specifically been told you mustn't let your heart rate go over this set rate.
03:07 I would be really keen to understand from your point of view and your training and understanding
03:12 how do women regulate heart rate?
03:16 How important is it?
03:18 Why is it?
03:19 Do we need to worry as much?
03:22 From the evidence that we've gathered, I would suggest that
03:27 so the heart rate is useful to understanding what zone you might want to work in.
03:31 But from a danger point of view, the main dangers that are perceived and have been
03:39 demonstrated in animal studies is that you want to make sure you avoid hypothermia,
03:44 hyperthermia, so getting too hot, and dehydration.
03:48 And so the heart rate guidelines, which are going to be really variable in different women,
03:53 particularly as you get pregnant, as your vascular resistance goes down,
03:57 so all the blood moves from a kind of central location and starts moving into your periphery
04:02 instead, you're going to have different heart rate zones.
04:06 And so I think that the thing to focus on is not so much your heart rate,
04:13 but rather listening to your body about how hard you're working
04:17 and avoiding that kind of the generation of heat that would potentially be risky
04:23 around the time when the fetus is or the embryo is developing.
04:27 And so I suppose people might use heart rate as a kind of surrogate measure of how hard
04:33 you're working and therefore you would perhaps, they're suggesting that you steer clear of the
04:38 very high heart rate so that you don't get too hot.
04:41 But actually, if you are exercising in a dry environment and you are, you know,
04:48 not over straining and it's cool, then the risk to the embryo is going to be very low
04:56 because you're going to be able to, as any other human being,
04:58 you're going to be able to dissipate heat.
05:00 I think as well, a really nice mental tip I had was that, you know,
05:03 the reality is you're not going to be racing any time soon, you're going to have a baby.
05:08 And so if you're not going to be racing for at least a year, what are you training for?
05:13 You know, it makes more sense just to train to be healthy.
05:17 Yeah, exactly.
05:18 I read a lot around blood volume, which I think you've probably already touched on,
05:22 that it can increase by 50%, which sounds absolutely huge.
05:25 What effect does that have and is there anything you need to do to,
05:31 like drinking more to mitigate or not to mitigate it, to cater for it?
05:35 So your body will naturally decide how much fluid it needs and it's going to,
05:39 it's increased its plasma volume, so the extra, the water content of the blood essentially.
05:45 And that's why you get this relative apparent loss of red blood cells,
05:50 it's just they're just swimming around in a lot more water.
05:53 And yes, so your body will just, instead of you peeing the water out,
06:00 it will just keep the water that it needs and the hormones will adjust that accordingly.
06:05 But it will want you to maintain that level,
06:07 so obviously you then need to make sure that sweat loss is replaced essentially.
06:12 But yes, there's nothing you need to particularly worry about that,
06:17 your body will just do it naturally.
06:19 Certainly from a medical perspective, the recommendations are quite firmly
06:23 that we shouldn't be bumping the bump,
06:24 because that is dangerous to the unborn baby and potentially to the mother.
06:29 And so I guess different ladies will have different approaches to risk.
06:34 And so certainly while the womb is still within the pelvis,
06:39 it's going to be safe because it's still low enough that it's not going to be up in the abdomen
06:45 and then affected.
06:46 So in your first trimester up to about the week 12.
06:49 But then after that, as the womb starts to rise out of the pelvis,
06:54 that's going to be a time when you need to start thinking about,
06:57 I really shouldn't be falling off this bicycle.
07:00 We mustn't be frightened, we have to be very respectful of the fact that yes,
07:03 we're carrying a baby and we want to make sure that we protect that baby
07:11 and we don't want to bump the bump.
07:13 But at the same time, it's not a time of illness and we should be confident in our bodies too,
07:19 that we're going to know the times when you feel at risk.
07:24 And there are lots of things that you can do to stay active
07:28 because it's so important to be active during pregnancy
07:32 because it's good for you and it's good for the baby.
07:34 It's good for the mind and it will mean that you don't become deconditioned afterwards.
07:39 So it's about adjusting things.
07:43 So exercise during pregnancy is advised as long as we avoid getting too hot,
07:47 respect the fact that we are now carrying another very small human being
07:51 and also listen to our bodies.
07:54 However, what happens if the symptoms of pregnancy make exercise undesirable
07:59 or perhaps even impossible?
08:00 The first 12 weeks of pregnancy bring with them nausea,
08:04 bloating, tiredness and a myriad of other really bizarre symptoms.
08:08 Every single symptom that you google followed by 'and pregnancy'
08:12 returns pretty much the same response.
08:15 This symptom during pregnancy is caused by changing levels in hormones.
08:19 It's really quite incredible how quite so many seemingly unrelated symptoms
08:24 can be caused by hormones and it shows you quite how powerful they are.
08:28 To learn more about that, I spoke to Dr Georgie Brunvelds.
08:32 She's the lead scientist at Orico Health
08:34 and also co-founder of women's health tracking app, Fitter Woman.
08:38 I mean my sort of take on the first trimester now looking back in my third
08:43 was that it was effectively like a 12-week hangover.
08:46 That's pretty much how it felt.
08:48 It wasn't awful but suddenly every time that I felt really tired
08:52 and I didn't want to exercise, if I did it anyway
08:55 and you know with the kind of understanding of like
08:58 I can do the first 10 minutes and if I don't feel good I will get off.
09:01 Consistently it made me feel better.
09:04 Do we sort of understand why that might be?
09:08 Yeah, I mean I just love what you just said about how I'd do it,
09:12 I'd see how I was after 10 minutes and then I'd re-evaluate
09:15 and I think firstly you've hit the nail on the head of how
09:18 I believe and from the athletes I've worked with
09:20 exercise should be approached through pregnancy.
09:23 It's all on that how are you feeling and being okay to be flexible.
09:27 If one day actually you felt really nauseous all morning
09:30 and you're used to training in the morning,
09:32 well train later on in the day or think actually I'll just train tomorrow
09:35 or I'll pull back a bit.
09:36 Around this fatigue what I found really frustrating is
09:38 so I wear a Garmin watch and I can so I can monitor my sleep
09:42 and I mean I was falling asleep at 9pm every night
09:45 so I was getting lots of hours of sleep
09:47 but it was really it was consistently saying poor quality
09:50 and I can compare the difference because I was wearing it before.
09:54 Do we know why sleep is suddenly extremely poor?
09:58 Yeah, no that's a really good question and there's a few different reasons
10:01 and potential theories behind this.
10:03 So I guess first thing obviously your body is going through so many changes
10:06 and your body has to work hard to adapt to that
10:09 to adapt to that and deal with that
10:11 and there's also lots of potentially associated symptoms
10:14 as we've already spoken about whether it's nausea,
10:16 whether it's lower back pain,
10:19 whether it's mood changes, feeling more emotional
10:21 and all of those can obviously affect you at night as well
10:25 so that's important to consider.
10:27 We also know that you might need to go to the toilet more
10:30 which can disrupt your sleep resulting in less deep sleep,
10:34 getting up and down obviously isn't ideal.
10:37 We also know that restless leg syndrome is which I already mentioned
10:41 that can really affect people at night
10:43 and I think that is potentially one of the primary causes
10:48 why people just feel a little bit more uncomfortable
10:50 and again as we already said there are so many potential symptoms
10:54 because these hormones are systemic.
10:57 I find it really frustrating with wearables
10:59 and they need to factor in the fact that you might be pregnant
11:02 and actually there should be a feature
11:03 and I know that there are in some where you can say actually I'm pregnant
11:06 because otherwise you're just constantly getting frustrated
11:10 and feeling you know women typically harden themselves
11:14 and they think what's wrong with me
11:15 and actually often you know this is normal for being pregnant
11:19 but it's great that you're getting more sleep
11:21 and you're actually recognising it's likely the progesterone
11:24 that's saying to you I feel a bit more fatigued
11:26 I do need a bit more sleep to accommodate it.
11:29 There are a lot of physiological changes that happen early on in pregnancy
11:34 that can mean that you all of a sudden can't produce the same power that you could
11:37 which is kind of feels very strange
11:40 because at the time you don't look pregnant
11:42 everything about you feels well nothing about you feels normal
11:45 but you know suddenly there's this drop off in power
11:49 and your heart rate responds differently
11:52 why is that and how can you sort of adjust exercise
11:55 should you adjust exercise in line?
11:57 Yeah, no really good and important questions
12:00 and just so crucial to getting right throughout the whole pregnancy actually
12:05 so first thing to say is we know that resting heart rate slightly increases
12:09 and alongside that we know that heart rate variability slightly decreases
12:13 so if you're someone who is wearing your garment
12:16 and monitoring yourself overnight
12:17 or wearing a wearable and monitoring yourself overnight
12:19 and during exercise you will start to see that decrease in heart rate variability
12:24 and increase in resting heart rate
12:26 and during exercise you will see an increase in heart rate as well
12:29 totally normal, totally natural
12:32 again in response to these hormonal changes
12:35 so it's very normal and natural
12:37 but what I really would encourage people to do is to track these
12:40 and because they really are signs
12:42 so with your heart rate during exercise for example
12:45 we say up to 85% of your max is where you should kind of
12:50 Yay, that's where I did it!
12:51 Yeah perfect and you shouldn't ideally go above that
12:54 and use that alongside your RPE
12:57 so monitoring your self-regulation of how am I feeling
13:02 am I feeling good today am I a bit tired does this feel like it's enough
13:05 I would also actually really highlight during exercise
13:08 making sure you've got fluids available
13:10 making sure you've got food available
13:12 and the recovery window is so important
13:15 because that's where your body needs to be nourished very quickly
13:19 and if we also think in your pre-exercise nutrition
13:23 making sure that you're going into exercise fully fueled
13:26 if you're someone who might please don't do this
13:29 but train on empty
13:30 you do not want to be doing this during pregnancy
13:34 because that can cause potential harm for the developing foetus
13:38 I was actually really lucky in terms of nausea
13:40 so to provide some balance on that we've spoken to Lizzie Dignan
13:44 as she really struggled with that a lot more in her second pregnancy
13:47 it is also really important to note that if you're actively throwing up
13:51 and it's happening often then you should speak to your doctor or midwife
13:55 I did have some ways of nausea but I generally found
13:58 if I ate some carbs it passed so basically toast was my friend
14:03 fatigue was definitely an issue for me
14:05 I fell asleep by 9pm on the sofa pretty much every night
14:09 and I struggled with my new 2pm slump whilst working
14:12 that probably wasn't helped by the advice that I dropped my caffeine intake
14:15 from about 3 before 11am to 1 all day
14:21 morning it is 4.30am
14:24 I've been lying in bed for about half an hour
14:26 deciding whether I should get up and just make a piece of toast
14:30 or try to go back to sleep
14:32 finally opted for get up and make some toast
14:35 which is what I've been doing
14:36 not every night, pretty often for quite a while
14:42 and just seemed to wake up in the middle of the night
14:44 wake up really early morning starving hungry
14:47 and can't go back to sleep until I get up and eat something
14:50 so that's a bit annoying
14:54 but I guess it's probably decent prep for when we've got a very small baby
14:58 that's also going to wake up easily at 4am
15:01 so there we go
15:03 the one person who is a big fan of the early morning wake-ups is Alvin
15:11 although he's a little confused as to whether it's breakfast time yet or not
15:16 the experience is different for everyone and can vary for different pregnancies as well
15:24 as I found out when I spoke to Lizzie
15:26 I can't tell you how reassuring it was to hear from her
15:29 both in terms of how quickly she returned to fitness
15:32 but also how balanced she was in her approach
15:34 so I'm here with Lizzie Dagenham
15:36 we were thrilled to hear that you're expecting your second child in September
15:41 how are you feeling for starters?
15:42 I can finally say I'm feeling good
15:45 but it's taken a little while to get here
15:47 I'm 19 weeks now but it's definitely been a much harder pregnancy than with my daughter
15:52 but I'm in the golden second trimester so I'm okay now
15:57 yeah I somewhat missed that slightly
15:59 the golden second trimester
16:01 yeah it absolutely is the case though
16:03 but I would love to hear about how you felt so far this time
16:07 and how that compares to the first time
16:09 so starting with the first trimester
16:11 what was like with your daughter and how was it compared this time?
16:15 so with my daughter I definitely had nausea for the first 12 weeks and some tiredness
16:22 but this time around I had nausea until last week so 18 weeks
16:28 and I was just completely floored by fatigue
16:30 I got much bigger much quicker more quickly
16:34 so I mean the size I am now is you know I'm pregnant
16:38 whereas with all the that you know people at 20 weeks didn't know I was pregnant still
16:42 so things like riding my bike have been much harder this time around
16:45 and did you have any kind of coping strategies with the nausea that helped?
16:51 eating crisps and chips and anything salty and fatty
16:55 I really that was my mum said eat what you can to survive
16:59 and I really just did that
17:01 I mean it wasn't a time to be sticking to any kind of nutritional plan or whatever
17:05 it was all about just being flexible and doing what I could to get through the day to be honest
17:09 and what's your what was your riding like last time?
17:12 did you ride predominantly indoors or you outdoors as well?
17:15 so in the beginning with all her I rode predominantly indoors
17:20 until my mental health needed to be outside
17:23 I'm really a person that needs fresh air
17:25 and I kind of made my own assessment my own risk assessments
17:28 and I did start to ride outside so low traffic times and quiet roads stuff like that
17:34 and I still do ride outside area
17:37 I mean have you had much advice?
17:39 the thing I struggled with a lot initially was
17:41 I didn't really know anything about sort of heart rate caps or like overheating things like that
17:46 and I probably found that out a bit later which was obviously quite stressful
17:50 because you think oh god what have I done?
17:51 did you get much guidance on that and did you find it useful?
17:56 have you decided to go with the heart rate cap or anything like that?
17:59 I very much go day by day feeling by feeling
18:03 and I think every pregnancy is different I know that now every woman is different
18:07 I'm very fortunate that I really have always been a rider
18:11 even when I'm training professionally that I trust my body and the way it feels
18:16 and I'm very sensitive to how I feel so I trust my own instincts
18:19 so like with Aller I thought oh I'll try swimming I'll try a different sport
18:25 and I just didn't know myself as a swimmer
18:27 so I stopped swimming because I didn't know where my boundaries were
18:30 but because I cycle so much I feel that I really know my own limits and capabilities
18:35 and I'm actually someone who quite enjoys the process of detraining
18:41 and letting my body take over and the baby be in charge
18:45 I'm not someone who is desperately grabbing on to keeping as much fitness as I can
18:50 I kind of trust the process of letting it go
18:52 and I'd love to know how you felt after you had Aller
18:57 because there's a sudden drop-off when you just can't produce the power you used to produce
19:03 and you know once you'd had Aller did it that almost come back quite quickly
19:07 or was it a really long slow?
19:09 I had a full six weeks off after having Aller
19:13 I had a natural delivery with Aller and I was lucky no complications, healthy baby etc
19:20 but I still needed six weeks to adjust to becoming a new mum
19:23 to feeling comfortable on the saddle and things like that
19:25 and I had Aller on the 23rd of September and I didn't do any training as such until December
19:31 so I was just riding my bike but I was shocked how fast I got fit
19:36 really really shocked how quickly it all came back
19:38 considering I'd done as much as I could in pregnancy
19:42 but I'd still had that solid six weeks off
19:44 but yeah it really surprised me it really comes back quickly
19:48 yeah I mean I remember I spoke to you when you were pregnant with Aller
19:51 it was a long time ago now I suppose
19:53 and you'd spoken about you know previously you were doing about 20 hours a week
19:58 and at the time you're doing about 10
19:59 has this been kind of quite similar?
20:01 Probably less yeah 10 weeks would be a good week this time around
20:06 and I've just had to accept that it's just simply not been possible for me
20:10 and it's incredible to see how different it is for different women
20:14 there are women at 20 weeks can still do a 20 hour week you know
20:18 but absolutely no way perhaps it's because I also have to take care of Aller as well
20:22 or perhaps I'm just more comfortable taking a step back you know
20:27 it's I trust the process of regaining my fitness postpartum so
20:32 yeah I guess having done it once before you've seen what that was like and as a result
20:37 yeah absolutely
20:39 I'd love to hear just if you have five tips for women that are either thinking about getting
20:45 pregnant or currently pregnant about how to keep moving or to stay I guess physically and mentally
20:51 happy rather than pushing themselves to do more than maybe they want to but what would you say?
20:57 A massive thing that we all do anyway is comparison but I think particularly when
21:03 you're pregnant and it's your first time you're desperate to know how big your bump should be
21:08 how big the baby is or you know the fruit how big the baby is compared to fruit and all these
21:13 different things and the point is that every pregnancy in every woman is different and it's
21:18 just pointless comparing I mean like scientifically they say your first trimester you don't need to
21:24 put that much weight on whereas for me as a very lean athlete in my first 12 weeks I put on
21:30 most of the weight and I really slow down towards the end and if I read a book
21:36 and I you know I remember in my first pregnancy oh my goodness I'm like putting on 300% more than
21:41 they're telling me to what am I going to feel or look like by the end but it's just it's pointless
21:47 making comparisons I would also say it's really not a good idea to try and set goals because
21:53 you may feel great one week and completely flawed the next you just have to really be flexible
21:58 listen to your body take it day by day I think it's important to express your feelings to the
22:05 people around you because it's a very emotional and hormonal time and I find that just being able
22:12 to express myself talk to my husband about the way I feel helps me kind of rationalize my internal
22:17 thoughts a lot of the time and just try and enjoy the process I think it's hard for some people to
22:23 let go but it is a pretty magical thing that your body is doing powerful thing and it's it's okay
22:31 to not be in charge because your body will come back to you eventually but right now the most
22:36 important thing it's doing is being a safe healthy environment for your child so just go with the
22:42 flow the second trimester is often referred to as the golden trimester whilst it's not the case for
22:49 everybody a lot of women find that nausea and fatigue of the first trimester have begun to
22:54 subside but you're not quite so round of stomach that day-to-day activities are difficult I can't
23:00 say the entirety of the second trimester was entirely golden for me the first half was great
23:06 I could still run for 90 minutes and ride a bike for about three hours with some friends if I
23:10 wanted to I was slow but I was really enjoying being active all right so it is Thursday morning
23:18 um I was shooting video yesterday I got back quite late so I thought well I fell asleep on the sofa
23:24 really early which meant I woke up early um so I thought I'd have a go at morning run because I've
23:28 been doing most of my training in the evening um it was just really nice but it's definitely
23:33 starting to feel quite hard there's a couple of little hills that um feel a lot harder than they
23:38 used to um but it was so nice and there was some lads in the field that was uh really cute um
23:44 and uh yeah I'm now feeling pretty pumped for a day of work although last time I went for a
23:50 lunchtime swim I did then feel knackered all afternoon so um we'll see how productive I am
23:55 when I actually get to my desk wish me luck the second half was a bit more of a roller coaster
24:01 firstly I did a bit too much exercise in one week and gave myself quite a bit of pelvic pain which
24:06 was far from ideal and then I got COVID which again was quite suboptimal however I did decide
24:13 that it was better to have COVID at 26 weeks than 36 weeks on the pelvic pain front at around 22
24:20 weeks I was having a little bit of a meltdown and imagining that by week 30 I would be in a
24:25 wheelchair thankfully for me that wasn't the case once I removed a few exercises from my routine it
24:31 got an awful lot better however pelvic girdle pain is something that a lot of women do really
24:37 struggle with with during pregnancy and it can become quite severe I spoke to physiotherapist
24:43 Nick Roberts about this and all things pregnancy so thank you for making time to speak to me it's
24:49 um yeah really great we had a good chat at around 20 weeks um and uh there were a few things there
24:55 that I wanted to sort of recap and then some more things that have popped up since since then the
24:59 thing that we spoke about it was must have been I think I was about 22 weeks and I did have a bit
25:04 of a meltdown because I just did really too much exercise I think in one week um and really gave
25:12 myself a lot of pelvic pain so it was all kind of along here to the point that just walking upstairs
25:17 like closing the dishwasher with my foot you know as you do just like just anything that was really
25:21 really quite painful um and we spoke a lot about what the cause of that was um and you know how I
25:30 could avoid it because my fear was okay well it's 22 weeks I've got another 18 weeks to go is this
25:35 the beginning of the end um for me and my active lifestyle and thankfully that wasn't the case
25:42 so yeah what would be kind of good to understand I mean that pain is usually called pelvic girdle
25:48 pain what is that um and what are the kind of triggers okay so pelvic girdle pain and then
25:56 it's sort of a blanket term for any pain that you might get around the pelvis during pregnancy
26:01 and the reason this happens is because of well there's different thoughts on it actually but
26:08 one of the suggestions is because of the increase of hormone relaxin that is in your system to allow
26:16 movement of your pelvis to increase the space for the birth canal for the baby to come come out so
26:23 because of that there's more um changes happening through the pelvis and it also means that the
26:30 pelvis which is normally really solid and strong has the potential to shift slightly and so this
26:37 can cause pain pelvic girdle pain also covers exactly what you were describing so pain coming
26:42 in through the groin and it can also be pain around the back so here you've got your sacroiliac joint
26:50 so your sacrum and your iliums and you can have pain running through the back here so it can be
26:55 the hips it can be the back the lower back it can be the front and it can also be quite severe pain
27:02 right over the front of your pubic bone one of the first things i'd say if you start to notice it
27:07 would generally be to try and rest from whatever activity you've been doing so try and give your
27:13 body a chance to catch up some of these changes happen in different stages and at different speeds
27:19 so it's not that it happens very very gradually sometimes it can be a war you know it's changing
27:24 it over those two weeks you might have to really limit your activity and then you can build back
27:30 into it so a bit like like for yourself it was not that suddenly it changed and it stayed like that
27:36 for some people it is the pain comes and it doesn't go away so it's about balancing your
27:42 activity one thing that can help is to wear a support belt so a belt that goes around the
27:48 bottom of the pelvis and can also support the bump a little bit adds a bit of compression to
27:53 the pelvis and makes it feel a bit more comfortable to do day-to-day activities cycling is actually by
27:59 virtue of the fact you're on a saddle and it's fairly supported is normally pretty good the only
28:06 thing is with cycling is obviously as you get get bigger there's the the baby so you have to change
28:12 the bike fit a little bit to accommodate that which is where if you normally wear a road work
28:16 use a road bike it mean lifting the handlebars some people have even tried to you can turn the
28:23 handlebars around so rather than being on the drops you can turn them up so you can use them
28:27 in that direction and also using a mountain bike is good because you're in a more or a hybrid bike
28:32 or in a more upright position so there's more there's more space and during pregnancy you read
28:37 a lot about pelvic floor exercises and how often you should be doing them i mean my first question
28:43 we'll talk about postpartum as well but my first question is um how how often someone that's quite
28:50 athletic should be doing them um or are there i mean the standard kind of kegel exercise that
28:56 most people you know find anywhere um is that is that the best thing to do or are there kind of
29:03 other exercises that perhaps we're already doing that we're not aware of exercising the pelvic
29:08 floor um i think it is important to do pelvic floor exercises through pregnancy and um yeah
29:15 the the general sort of thing i would advise is uh you know the basic kegels which is like
29:22 you know feeling like you're holding on to a tampon or if you're sitting on a chair feeling
29:25 like you're lifting up away from the chair it's important that it's to remind yourself it's a
29:30 gentle exercise it's not squeezing the buttocks it's not using your abdominals it's a very gentle
29:36 lift and then relax um the best way to know that you're doing it correctly would be to see a
29:42 women's health physio i think during pregnancy particularly if you're quite athletic and
29:48 exercising a lot um it's important to not overdo it so not get hooked on it to not do many of them
29:55 throughout the day because we don't want to increase make it too hypertonic so important
30:00 to do them but don't get over overly uh hooked on them would be my advice and i have noticed in
30:05 later stages so really more of a third trimester thing that in some exercises i do get what i think
30:10 is called sort of doming you know when this um center of your stomach suddenly becomes domed
30:16 which is very weird to look at um but i mean that would to me suggest that maybe there's just that
30:22 bit too much stress going through the abdomen and maybe those exercises are not the best thing
30:27 yeah and i think you know as i was saying that the your normal six pack has changed you know
30:33 most of us have to imagine they're always there they're just slightly slightly hidden um so your
30:40 six pack has changed it's given space for the baby so when we think when exercises are designed
30:47 they're designed to work along muscle fibers and work along the activity of that muscle that's why
30:53 we do them so um the rectus abdominis works in this position to create a curl but because the
31:01 rectus abdominis has now changed it's more in that position if you're doing a curl or a sit-up or
31:06 using your abdomen it's working in a different way so it's not really you're not really doing
31:11 the exercise it's designed for and i suggest if you're getting that doming that you're just putting
31:14 too much load through and the muscles aren't able to to cope with that things did get harder as the
31:21 bump grows your organs are effectively forced to relocate slightly and that can result in
31:26 breathlessness which is something that i noticed both on the bike and just also going about daily
31:31 activities like walking up the stairs so just coming down after one of the baby on board workouts
31:38 that one is called a gentle reminder and it is actually the last in the series i do wonder if
31:43 it's meant to be the hardest name kind of implies it um it's definitely uh feeling quite hard yeah
31:50 it's a really great session and what i quite like is that towards the end of each sort of six minute
31:55 interval i'm definitely just nudging the heart rate threshold that i've set myself um so it shows
32:00 that they're really well thought out because to be getting pretty much exactly there means i'm
32:06 pushing myself a lot overly hard um pretty hot um obviously got the fan on full blast all the windows
32:13 open um but yeah looking forward to a nice chilled out cool down and getting on with my day however
32:20 during the second trimester i did find that i had a lot more energy so as well as the Zwift baby on
32:26 board sessions which are designed specifically for pregnancy and are highly recommended and really
32:31 helped me out a lot during the first trimester i also started doing more of the wahoo system
32:36 sufferfest sessions i just reduced my bias to 80 to 85 percent and i found i could complete those
32:42 sessions without going over the heart rate threshold that i'd set myself in the gym i did
32:48 find that anything lying on my back for some time was becoming a little bit uncomfortable
32:52 so i just switched those exercises up for example using incline benches and i also cut out a lot of
32:57 the single leg exercises that i would usually do and swap those for double leg versions of the same
33:03 just to avoid flaring up that pelvic pain i was actually pretty amazed at how consistent i was
33:08 able to be with exercise yes the volume was lower and intensity was definitely lower but i could
33:14 still continue to do about an hour a day without really any problems during the second trimester
33:19 i started to find that my road bike wasn't really all that comfortable and i made changes at about
33:24 week 20 that just meant simply flipping the stem which brought up the front end of the bike
33:29 most of my bikes are aggressive road racing frames and generally i have cut the steerer and slammed
33:35 the stem so i've made it really quite difficult for myself by week 27 i found that i was actually
33:42 just much more comfortable on a mountain bike finally on to the third trimester or the home
33:47 stretch this section is going to be a little bit shorter because i found not really an awful lot
33:53 changed physically yes the bump grew bigger and also kicks became a lot more frequent and a little
33:59 bit painful from time to time but in terms of being able to be physically active not a lot
34:05 changed i found that the pelvic pain from the second trimester really subsided and dramatically
34:10 improved and the amount of time i could sleep for increased as well albeit still rated poor quality
34:17 thanks to garmin this really surprised me because i'd always seen the third trimester as a time that
34:23 it would sort of be all right to just give up but the fact is i wasn't inclined to and i didn't want
34:28 to stop being active so we're now week 31 um well into the first trimester had a week off work which
34:35 has been pretty nice and actually got a fair amount of riding in so a good sort of 10 hours
34:40 uh worth of um well good 10 hours worth of exercise this week which has been quite nice to see that i
34:46 can still do that um because um i suppose i haven't up until now but actually largely because
34:52 work's getting in the way as opposed to necessarily um physical capacity and so a good you know some
34:58 three-hour mountain bike rides definitely felt like i had to keep fueling during that um definitely
35:03 need more food um but overall it's been actually really quite easy no hard rides they've all been
35:10 pretty pretty chill um but a couple of little efforts you know there's always efforts required
35:15 in a natural terrain it's all been on the mountain bike and actually the mountain bike has been
35:20 worth its weight in gold um which is actually not that much weight but just that position is so much
35:24 easier to adopt i think like the road bike it really starts to kind of hurt around my stomach
35:28 um my lower back as well after a couple of hours whereas on the mountain bike it's just easy as
35:34 well i think the gearing helps a lot because um certainly on a road bike uh as soon as there's a
35:39 little hill i'm kind of leg pressing which kind of feels like i don't know maybe that'll have some
35:43 sort of helpful um payoff in the legs one day i don't know probably not because i'm sort of
35:50 a much lower capacity but on the mountain bike i can just spin it feels natural it's just nice
35:54 to get out so it's certainly not about fitness or about training or anything like that it's just
35:59 nice to get outside and enjoy the things that i usually enjoy and it's nice that i can still do
36:05 that because i never anticipated that would be the case so so far so good i did have some fun
36:12 with braxton hicks contractions basically practice contractions and life got pretty busy with midwife
36:18 appointments every two weeks antenatal appointments every week viewing nurseries preparing our nursery
36:24 at home it was a lot to have going on all at once but not enough to stop me riding my bike
36:29 well for now that's all that i can share i hope that you found this video reassuring if you're
36:35 looking to cycle and stay active during pregnancy however it's important to remember that every
36:41 pregnancy is unique speak to your health care professional before deciding what exercise to
36:47 undertake and of course listen to your own body after all you know it best so we nine weeks
36:54 postpartum our baby is nine weeks in just two days and we are settling into life as a family
37:01 so it's been a gradual return back to exercise i started off with a couple of the baby on board
37:05 sessions i don't still have a baby on board but i certainly have a baby very prevalent in my life
37:12 and they just helped me to ease back in and then i started on the sufferfest sessions starting
37:18 initially with the 4dp set to kind of 80 then 85 and i did do a session with a few intervals at 100
37:25 yesterday and i certainly would have done a whole session at 100 and i've been able to get outside
37:31 on the bike as well and on the days that i'm not outside on the bike we've been doing an awful lot
37:37 of sling walks for years in my 20s i knew that i wanted to have children at some point but i was
37:42 very nervous about the implication that would have and of course i've got a long way to go and a lot
37:49 to learn and find out but for me pregnancy and those early weeks were not what i expected and
37:56 yes of course there were stressful moments there were hard moments so i wouldn't sugarcoat that
38:00 but equally there have been so many beautiful moments that have far far outweighed the
38:05 difficulty and that is something that i just wanted to share and i guess make an audience
38:11 aware of because for me it looked like there was far greater amounts of anxiety and negativity
38:19 but that's just not been my experience hey babe and we have had a wonderful time so much joy and
38:29 so much happiness and that's really where i wanted to end we've got many future adventures ahead we
38:35 are looking at some of those kind of top two baby seats so i hope you've enjoyed this video i hope
38:40 that's shown that whilst pregnancy can be very difficult there can be instances where you won't
38:45 be able to exercise it's certainly not always the case and you can have an active pregnancy
38:52 and enjoy being active as your baby grows older so i think that's it over and out and on to the future