Mindset With Pregnancy Exercise
You don’t have to give up everything you love exercise wise!
A shift in mindset early on could see you achieve greater success in continuing to move throughout your pregnancy!
If you are someone who likes to set and achieve more athletic goals, you may find pregnancy tricky on your mindset.
You will want to keep going, keep pushing for that sense of buzz of achievement - I get it! And it's not to say you can’t achieve things in pregnancy. But perhaps shifting this mindset of what goals can look like early on, you will experience greater success in continuing to move rather than disappointment or view it as ‘giving up’ what you love.
You don’t have to give up everything you love exercise wise - just finding adaptations as you progress in pregnancy. Love to lift weights? Keep going! It might be that as you move through trimesters, you adapt a different stance, different breathing strategy and lessen the weight lifted. Love to run? Cool! Making adaptations in gait pattern, including strength training, including more ‘core’ work (breathe work!) and lessening the distance and speed as you progress in trimesters may be needed.
A tip is to shift or reframe those goals onto more self care things for the parent.
Some suggestions maybe:
- Managing to get to bed earlier to promote a longer sleep pattern.
- Keeping up with high fibre intake from foods.
- Decreasing back pain
- Getting more daily activity (other than scheduled exercise) such as walking to work.
- Maintaining water intake in the day
- Including diaphragmatic breathing to relax and connect to the core
They may not seem as fulfilling or celebratory as that buzz from lifting x kilograms or running x km’s but they can help with that mindset and boost up wellbeing during this period of change.
Think about it like maintaining, not gaining.
I’m not talking about body weight, but gains in achievements on the gym floor etc.
- Maintain the muscle strength.
- Maintain the muscle endurance.
- Maintain the cardio levels.
And sure, things may naturally decrease too! But for now, the focus isn't on smashing personal bests. It’s growing a small human and having a happy, healthy parent.
It can be mentally challenging, having athlete mindset in pregnancy.
But know thatscaling back or adjusting movements and exercise routine in pregnancy is not a sign of weakness. Or laziness. Or less strong or fit! Coming from a place of experience and education, you are listening to your body and making the temporary necessary adjustments.
Because the ultimate goal is to have a happy healthy parent in pregnancy and postpartum and if the fitness (or even aesthetic) goals are getting in the way of this, how is it beneficial for anyone?
It can be a humbling experience, this exercise pregnancy journey but one that you can feel success in, if you know where and how to find it. So check the ego at the door. Be ready to pick it back up, along with the nappy bags, post baby (in a timely manner of course!).
Starting your Pregnancy Exercise Journey?
If you are starting out on your pregnancy exercise journey and would like the support from DediKate's wonderful expert Jess Baker, then you can sign up for a two week FREE trial to DediKate and join DediKate Baby.
