Exercise

wedbliss5

I know the typical response is "do what you've been doing, but doing increase or don't do anything new" regarding excercise as well as the "keep your heart rate below 140".  Am I wrong in assuming the heart rate is the more important factor and that if I want to increae my activity level, I should focus on that instead of the "don't do anything new"?  I JUST started going back to the gym and am trying to decipher what is appropriate.  Anyone have anything helpful in this aspect, as far as links I can check out or what not?

FWIW - I JUST got my BFP yesterday with an est due date of jan 8 and have no symptoms yet. 

waTracy

What I've noticed is that doing my normal activities from before BFP has my heart racing a lot quicker.  So I've realized that I can't keep up with the exercise I was doing before.  I mean I'm a teacher and sometimes I find myself out of breath teaching. It's crazy.  So you might find you want to increase your activity, but your heart and lungs don't want you to.  

The thing about maintaining your normal activity being OK is that over time, your body acclimates to activity and your heart and lungs don't need to work as hard.  Like when I starting running it was super hard and I had to take it slow and build my heart and lungs up to running.  So like 3 months into running, my heart wouldn't get as high as the first time I tried running, and I could run faster and for longer amounts of time.  And even with how active I was before BFP, I'm still struggling.

FutureMrsCaesar

Keeping your heart rate under 140 is old advice, now the recommendation is to keep your rate of perceived exertion between a 5-8.  You should still be able to talk while working out.  I know mine does get higher at times for short periods of time during my body sculpting classes, so I need to ask my midwife about that at my upcoming appointment.  I would def start exercising, just do what you can, anything is better than nothing.  I find that I can still do my weights pretty well but have had to scale back the intense cardio.

wedbliss5

THanks everyone, that was exactly the sort of info I was looking for.