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Pregnancy is one of the greatest gifts in life. The experience should be cherished and enjoyed by the mother, the baby and the whole family. Traditionally, it was thought that during pregnancy, the mother-to-be should treat her pregnancy as a form of ailment. She should become sedentary and stop performing daily activities as soon as possible, in order to encourage a “smooth pregnancy”. This could not be further from the truth.

 

Let’s talk about running a marathon. One of your friends has just completed a marathon and you decide that you want to give it a go. You sign up for the next event, which coincidentally happens to be 9 months away. You have never ran more than 5km before, but you decide that you’re going to relax for next 9 months. Race day arrives and guess what happens? Thanks to the zero prep you have put in, your body falls to bits only an hour in to the race, and you continue to suffer in pain for hours on end until you reach the finish line. (Trust me, I tried this, I know how bad it gets).

 

Now let’s flip the situation on it’s head. Rather than being a couch potato building up to the event, you train sensiblly with a coach and a specialist programme. Race day comes and guess what? You are prepared. Not only physically, but mentally as well. Your body is now conditioned for the big day. Not only do you run a great race, but because you have put in the training, you were calm and confident going into the event.

 

Your pregnancy is no different. From as early as the first trimester, we need to start preparing your body for the big day. From preparing and training your pelvic floor and core, to your aerobic system. The contractions of labor can even fall into the category of interval work. Not only do we have the actual birth to consider, but also postpartum. New mums will still have to carry out their activities of daily life, so we need to ensure that their recovery can be as quick and as effective as possible. Lifting their newborn baby, carrying the car seat, getting up off the floor and reaching into the crib are just a few to consider. A trained body will recover much faster than an untrained one.

 

Pregnancy is amazing, I was privileged enough to not only be there throughout my wife’s pregnancy and the birth of our baby boy, but also to be able to train her effectively up to the big day and postpartum.

 

As long as you train correctly and seek out the advice of professionals, training throughout your pregnancy is not only safe, but increases the chance of a smooth pregnancy and recovery.

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, check out my next post “Catching The Bounce“.