The Top 5 Pregnancy Exercises to Maintain a Healthy Weight

A healthy amount of weight gain is helpful during pregnancy, as it supports your baby’s growth, but too much weight gain can lead to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Maintaining a healthy weight during pregnancy is as important as making healthy food choices. Your diet and exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight through exercise and thus reduce the risks associated with unhealthy weight gain during pregnancy.
To help you identify the exercises that are considered safe for maintaining a healthy weight, this article will take a look at the top 5 pregnancy exercises:
1. Brisk Walking
Brisk walking is considered among the ideal pregnancy exercises that helps you maintain your weight during pregnancy. It not only improves your mood but also tones your muscles. Moreover, brisk walking is also a form of exercise that you can continue to do throughout your pregnancy. To get into the habit of brisk walking during your pregnancy, you can start with walking on alternate days before making it a daily routine.
2. Swimming
Swimming is one of the greatest forms of exercise that not only imparts strength to your body but also helps you maintain normal body weight. You can continue to derive these benefits from swimming even when you are pregnant, as it is not only good for you but also for your unborn baby. Apart from the weight maintenance benefits in pregnancy, the right moves can also help ease discomfort, like sleep troubles and back pain. It is also relieves swollen ankles and is gentle on the joints.
3. Indoor Cycling
Indoor cycling is also considered safe during pregnancy as it raises your heart rate without placing stress on your joints. For making it more comfortable as your pregnancy advances, you can raise the handlebars for additional comfort. Therefore, indoor cycling is also among the pregnancy exercises that allow you to maintain your weight along with delivering other health benefits.
4. Yoga
Yoga during pregnancy helps you maintain your weight in many ways. Apart from the physical benefits it delivers, it also helps you relax mentally, therefore it can also prevent emotional eating in pregnancy. As for other benefits of yoga, it can help make labor not only shorter but also more comfortable for you. However, a few yoga postures like lying on your back are not advisable after the first trimester. You have to exercise a degree of caution about the yoga postures as your pregnancy advances.
5. Low-Impact Aerobic Exercises
Low-impact aerobic exercises are also considered ideal pregnancy exercises. These ensure your body continues to derive the benefits of aerobic exercises, like strengthening your lungs and heart, toning up your body and boosting endorphin levels. Experts suggest that though you may continue to derive benefits from low-impact aerobic exercises, you should refrain from high-impact aerobic exercises during pregnancy.
These are the top 5 pregnancy exercises that help you stay healthy and maintain your weight during pregnancy.