Exercise to Benefit Fertility, Pregnancy, Birth and Post-Pregnancy

Exercise can play a significant role in getting pregnant, and then in a smoother, healthier pregnancy and delivery.

Let’s look at some of the benefits you get by exercising while trying to get pregnant:

Hormonal balance – exercise helps the body regulate all the hormones, including things like the sex hormones and stress hormones. These are important to maintain in a healthy balance to maximise your health and fertility.

General health – being active helps to maintain a healthy weight and exercise is also a great stress relief, both contributing to better fertility.

Strength – by the third trimester babies start getting very heavy and it can take its toll on your back and legs. Building up a base of strength beforehand is a great way to ensure you can cope with carrying the extra weight around, and go at least some of the way to alleviating any back pain you might suffer during pregnancy.

Core strength – Improving your core strength will make the delivery easier, and the healing process after delivery quicker. The stomach and core muscles obviously take a lot of strain during pregnancy. Having conditioned muscles at the beginning will aid the recovery process.

Your health influences the baby’s health – a healthy mother makes for a healthy baby. Keeping fit and healthy before and during pregnancy gives the baby the absolute best chance of being healthy and fit too.

Genesis Fitness has Mums and Bubs classes; dads are welcome too! It’s a great way to get active and meet other new parents. But if it’s too hard to get out of the house with a new baby, then we have some home exercise ideas, in the video below, to work out with your baby.