During pregnancy, a woman might find herself wanting to use the elliptical for exercise but feeling unsure about the safety of her baby.
You can exercise safely during pregnancy to continue improving your cardiovascular endurance, prepare the body for labor, and prevent excessive weight gain; however, you should seek advice from your doctor before engaging in any exercise program while pregnant. The elliptical is among the most ideal options for pregnant women as it gives them the ability to control the length, resistance and speed of their workout.
Beneficial Features for Pregnant Women
The elliptical is designed to aid in cardiovascular exercise and offers a very low-impact aerobic workout to the user. Low-impact exercises, for example elliptical workouts, tend to be very beneficial to pregnant women since they don’t contain any jarring or bouncing movement that can be a threat during pregnancy.
When using an elliptical, you stand straight with your feet on pedals and hold onto handle bars. Depending on the model of elliptical, the handle bars may or may not move together with your feet. This can aid in toning your arms while toning your legs as well and enhance your cardiovascular endurance.
Health Benefits
Using an elliptical during pregnancy can not only help to improve your fitness, it also benefits your pregnancy and your baby. Exercising during pregnancy can benefit in alleviating back pain, increase your energy levels, increase stamina in readiness for labor, prevent excessive weight gain, and reduce your risk of health problems commonly related with pregnancy.
Precautions
Get the approval of your doctor before starting an exercise program while pregnant. Your doctor will give you clear warnings and guidelines as to how exercise will impact your body and affect the baby. The doctor is also going to tell you about key concerns he has specifically for you, after going through your health history.
Guidelines
It is important that you start using the elliptical slowly, whether or not you exercised before your pregnancy. Your body is carrying additional weight and has also new demands. Perform a 5-minute warm-up and cool down each time you are using an elliptical trainer.
Use the time to relax your body, to move slowly as well as to stretch your muscles. Start with no more than 5 to 10 minutes per session and slowly build your time until you reach thirty minutes.
The American Pregnancy Association recommends taking frequent breaks and drinking fluids throughout your exercise session.
Watch out for Danger Signs
When using an elliptical during pregnancy, you’ll want to keep track of your internal temperature and your heart rate. Even if you are not feeling overexerted or sweating, your temperature could increase during exercise and be dangerous for your baby.
Pregnancy.org recommends that you stop exercising if your heart rate goes over 140 beats per minute or if your temperature is above 100 degrees F. Some pregnancy health experts advise that pregnant women should regularly use a rectal thermometer to monitor their internal temperature every twenty minutes when they are exercising.
