During your pregnancy, you'll notice so many changes in your body, your mood
and your thoughts. One of those changes may be to your exercise routine. You become
tired and time consumed with all the details of the future birth and tired – just
physically tired – often too tired to get all of the exercise you're used to.
What can you do to consolidate your time, your energy and your space to get in
the fitness routine you know you should do without all the fuss? It's called "Room
to Room" fitness. This enables you to exercise throughout your day as you move
from room to room doing other things. All the little bits of exercise add up to
one great fitness routine that keeps you physically and mentally on top of your
daily schedule. Consult your doctor before beginning any exercise routine.
As you lie in bed contemplating getting up, begin with a deep breathing exercise.
Inhale slowly, hold and then exhale slowly. Do this deep breathing exercise three
to four times as you rest on your back in bed. Before placing your feet on the
floor, do two stretching exercises. First, flex your feet. You may flex both feet
at the same time or each foot separately. This flex is wonderful for the calf
cramps that are so common during pregnancy. As you do this flex, relax your knees,
allowing the ankles to comfortably flex the feet back. For the second stretch,
allow one hand to grasp the back of the other hand and press up toward the ceiling
with both arms gently rolling the shoulders up and down and both arms straight
up. Both these stretches should feel great and really get your day off to a wonderful
start.
As you move to the bathroom, use the vanity as a support for a few plies. Plies
are the knee bends ballet dancers do to get their legs in such great shape. Hold
on to the vanity to support yourself, and place your feet about shoulder-width
apart, toes pointed slightly outward. Slowly bend your knees, lowering your body
up and down. The toes pointed outward will allow your knees to bend without hitting
the sink in front of you. The vanity is a perfect height to allow you support
without forcing you to bend over at the waist. Your torso should be upright –
you can look yourself straight in the eye in the mirror during your bends. This position
is called a second position. Your feet should be slightly apart. With this position,
you may keep your feet flat on the ground while lowering to a comfortable bend
– no need to go down farther than the knees and bottom, forming a straight-across
line. You may want to start with only five plies and then move up to 10 or even
20. You will be working your thigh muscles and strengthening the area around your
knees.
Let's move to the kitchen for a hot cup of morning tea or an orange juice. While
waiting for the water to boil, hold on to the counter with both hands. Just as
in the bathroom, the counter height is perfect for support yet allows you to remain
upright with your posture. Beginning with the right leg, lift the leg to the side
10 times. The key to leg lifts is to remain erect with your posture and only lift
the leg as high as is comfortable without pushing or jerking. The lift should
be slow and steady, up and down. Now do 10 lifts to the side with your left leg.
This exercise is great for the upper leg and hip areas. Feel free to add more
lifts.
One area that seems to lose attention during pregnancy is the upper body – the
arms and chest area. Push-ups and pull-ups just don't make it on the list of great
pregnancy exercises. One way to tone the upper body is to keep a set of small
weights – 2 to 5 pounds each – near your laundry area. While you are waiting that
extra few minutes for your load to wash or dry, a few repetitions with these small
weights will work wonders for your arms and chest area.
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All the little bits of exercise add up to one great fitness routine.
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Try these two simple exercises with weights: Holding your weights on your chest,
press them upward to a position over the head yet slightly in front so you can
look up and see them without leaning the head back. The movement upward is circular
as if edging a large balloon. Do one set of eight lifts. When this becomes easy,
add another set of eight. Now try a tricep exercise to work the upper arms. Holding
one weight with both hands straight above your head – your elbows should be at
your ears – lower the weight slowly behind your head. Now lift it back into the
position above the head. Raise and lower the weight for a count of eight. Rest
and try another set of eight. Please be careful not to bop yourself on the head
with the weight! This exercise should feel very good for your upper arms and should
give your shoulders a great stretch.
Moving to the living room, you can sit in your comfy chair for a few arm exercises.
New babies require lots of lifting and holding, so it's a good idea to strengthen
those arm muscles during your pregnancy. Begin with simple arm circles. Stretch
your arms out to the side, palms flexed with fingers pointing upward. With straight
arms, circle the hands and arms forward. Begin with 10 then move to 20 or 30 circles.
Now circle the hands and arms backward. Again, begin with 10 then move to more
circles. If you are not used to working your arms, they will begin to feel tired
quickly. An easy way to do more circles is to distract yourself with a good TV
show or a favorite piece of music. You'll forget all about your tired arms!
A great stretch for your arms and shoulders after doing circles is to bring your
right arm across in front of your body (at shoulder height) and with the left
hand press the right arm into the body. Grasp the right arm underneath in the
upper arm area near the shoulder. This allows a more comfortable stretch. Now
do the same for the left arm.
During pregnancy you may find your feet and hands swell from retention of fluids.
It may even be difficult to wear jewelry or some of your favorite shoes. While
you are sitting at your desk in the office or at home, do some hand and finger
exercises. Begin by just wriggling your fingers. Now clench your fists and open
them, splaying your fingers. Clench and splay several times holding each position
for a count of five.
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Getting Fit While You Sit
To find more exercises you can do from room to room, check out the book Get Fit While You Sit: Easy Workouts from Your Chair (Hunter House Pub., 1999) by Charlene Torkelson. The exercises are easy and
comfortable with just the right support for pregnant women. They also are great
for after the birth when you may find a few time restrictions in your busy schedule.
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