Physical exercise: Pregnant women (III)

In this post I'm going to talk about cardiovascular prescription during pregnancy. First of all, it's important to know wich is the level of physical activity that the women performed before pregnancy.Thus, we have three levels; previously sedentary pregnant, previously active pregnant and previously athletic pregnant. Once we now that, we need the medical consent so we can perform physical activity. 

Right after, I'm going to show an action protocol of each case:

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recomend 30 minutes of moderate intensity; 5 days per week. It's important to know that, as we increase excercise's time and intensity the risk of having pregnancy complications. So, right after I'll show a guidline of work out:

Aerobic exercise	1º  Tri of pregnancy	2º Tri of pregnancy	3º Tri of pregnancy
Frequency	2-3 per week	2-4 per week (5 to active womens)	2-3 per week
Duration	10-20 min	20-30 min	30 min
Modality	Very low impact -> swim, walk, nordic walk.	Low impact -> fast walk, footing, cycling, swim.	Very low impact and with few postural changes. Avoid being long time in standing position -> cycling, swim.
Intensity	12-14 RPE (relative perceived exertion)  Borg (6-20)

Picture 2: Non athlet work out guidelines.

Picture 3: RPE Borg

Click to download PARmed-Xpreg


We will continue writing about this issue in the next posts.

For any question, don't hesitate asking us. We will be glad to help you out with any doubt you have.

Thanks for reading.

Barakat, R., Alonso, G., & Rojo, J. J. (2005). Ejercicio físico durante el embarazo y su relación con los tiempos de las etapas del parto. Progresos de Obstetricia y Ginecología, 48(2), 61-68.
Mata, F., Chulvi, I., & Roig, J. R. (2010). Prescripción del ejercicio físico durante el embarazo. Revista andaluza de medicina del deporte, (2), 68-79.