Club Blog

Everyone knows that exercise is very good for your health. During pregnancy, exercise can have many other benefits as well. Normally, exercise should be light, especially during your first few weeks of pregnancy while your body adjusts to the changes.

Any type of heavy exercise can divert the blood flow from crucial areas, and most women that exercise on a regular basis should tone down their workout regimen during pregnancy.

Swimming, walking, and yoga are two very popular exercise activities that are suitable for pregnant women. There are other forms of exercise such as weight lifting that are acceptable as long as it isn’t too strenuous. Most specialists recommend exercise 3 – 4 times a week, unless you have a medical condition that prevents it. If you are ever in doubt, you should consult a physician first.

Below, you’ll find some of the best reasons as to why you should exercise during pregnancy.

1. Exercise can help to reduce the length of labor and recovery time. The right exercise routines will also increase stamina that is needed for delivery.

 2. Improved mental health. Exercise can lower stress and improve your emotional health, making it easier for you to get through the new experience of becoming a mother.

3. Exercise can also help with weight management after the child has been born. A common concern with most mothers is the weight they lose after pregnancy. During pregnancy, exercise can make postpartum weight loss easier.

4. Exercise is very good for your unborn baby. By keeping your body healthy, you are also looking out for your baby as well.

 5. Exercise can help reduce the side effects of pregnancy. Symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, swelling, and constipation are all common with pregnant women. Studies have shown exercise to reduce the occurrence of these symptoms.

 6. Exercise can also decrease the risk of premature birth. Exercise has been proven to decrease the risk of premature birth by at least 50%.

Here are seven tips to beat back exercise burnout:

1. Vary your routine. Choose working out on the stretching machines one day and then pick weights the next. Skip one day of aerobic exercise for a weightlifting session. Varying your routine staves off boredom, while also exercising different muscle groups. Make a weekly list of varying exercise routines.

2. Vary exercise times. Exercising at the same time of day can lead to boredom. The same exercise routine can also backfire if competing obligations take over that time frame. You can be flexible about when you exercise and even how long you spend exercising. Break up your practice of a 30-minute morning workout into two smaller workouts, one in the morning and one toward the end of the day.

3. Take an exercise class. Take an exercise class to vary your exercise routine. Gyms and local community centers offer classes. Choose the one that fits your budget, because you don’t want money to become a reason to avoid exercise. Exercise videos also can be a lively way to change your routine

4. Exercise with a friend. Mingling with others and chatting while you exercise with other exercisers at the gym or when you go on walks keeps you interested. Feel free to share your ideas for changing the routine and you can get creative about changing your schedule if other obligations arise.

5. Don’t skip a good night’s sleep. A lack of adequate sleep can play a strong role in exercise burnout, because exhaustion creates stress, fatigue and a lack of focus. A lack of focus can also lead to exercise injuries. Ease into a good night’s sleep by avoiding exercise late at night.

6. Stretch. Stretching exercises before, during or after your exercise routine will keep you limber and less likely to experience minor exercise injuries. If you find yourself working late, take a standing or stretching break to do a few exercises in your office before you get back to work.

7. Take an exercise break. A break from exercise will help you steer clear of exercise burnout. Take a day or two off, and call it an exercise vacation. You’ll return to your routine stress-free, rested and re-focused, and if you return to your regular regime, your fitness won’t suffer.

Although some programs insist that the order of abdominal exercise is the key to getting results, there is no research that backs this up. In fact, research shows that the opposite may be true. The Principal of adaptation explains how our body constantly adapts to new training routines. Over time and with practice we become very efficient and master these techniques. If you continue to do the same exercise, in the same order in a few weeks or months the routine becomes ineffective and we hit a plateau. To break this cycle, modify your routines every 1-3 months. To modify your exercise routine, change one of more of the following:

1) The Specific Exercises Performed
2) The Number of Repetitions or Sets Performed
3) The Order of the Exercises
4) The Number of Exercises Done Each Session
5) The Amount of Weight or Resistance Used
6) The Speed, or Tempo of the Exercises

Unfortunately, no. Simply doing lots of crunches won’t reduce belly fat. The belief that you can lose body fat in a specific area by exercising the muscles just beneath that fat is called “spot reduction.” Spot reduction is a myth that has been disproved time and time again.

In 1984, researchers at the University of Massachusetts concluded that abdominal exercises do not decrease the amount or size of belly fat. In this study men did the equivalent of 5,000 sit-ups for 27 days. The researchers measured body fat in the abdomen, buttocks and upper back during the study. If spot reduction worked, the men should have lost fat only in the abdominal area because the buttocks and upper back are not worked during sit-ups. However there was no change in the thickness of abdominal fat or waist size. Biopsies showed there was no significant change in the diameter of abdominal fat cells either.

What ab exercises can do is tone and firm the muscles, but to reduce abdominal fat takes more than just ab exercise. You need a balanced fitness routine that includes cardiovascular exercise, resistance training, and a sensible diet.

Question: What Is the Best Abdominal Exercise?

Answer: One study that looked at the best and worst ab exercises concluded that:

1) The Bicycle Crunch Exercise was the best for strengthening the rectus abdominis
2) The Captains Chair Exercise is the best for strengthening the internal obliques and the external obliques

However, it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single abdominal exercise that challenges all the abdominal muscles in the most effective way, and the best way to work the abs is with a variety of abdominal exercises.

Although it may feel as though you can “isolate” the upper and lower abs (the rectus abdominis), you actually can’t contract one section independent of the other. Research that looked at the muscle activation while performing a basic crunch exercise found that you may feel more contraction in the upper abdomen because the muscle fibers in the upper part of the rectus abdominis shorten more than in the lower part of the muscle, but the entire muscle is, in fact, activated during the movement.

When you perform a reverse crunch (lifting the hips), the opposite happens; you feel more contraction in the lower part of the rectus abdominis even though the muscle fibers in the upper rectus abdominis are also contracting.

Additionally, when you stabilize the hips and only lift the torso during the crunch, there is greater muscle involvement in the upper rectus abdominis as well as the internal obliques. When you perform reverse crunches, there is more activation in the lower part of the rectus abdominis and more involvement of the external obliques.