Exercising during early pregnancy

Hello Ellie, I want to say congratulations on your IVF treatment! May god bless you! This is my first pregnancy. I just found out on March 28 I am pregnant. Excited and nervous at the same time! I have my first doctors appointment on Thursday and I’m excited to just speak with someone. I’m have crazy morning and afternoon sickness. Ughhhh. I’m tired and my bathroom visits are frequent. I suspect I’m further then the 6-7 weeks. I started working out in the beginning of the quarantine, just watching you tube video. The week before I found out I was pregnant I found my self not being able to complete my work out! So exhausted. I found out that Saturday and said oh makes sense!!

Congrats on your pregnancy! I had IVF and was determined to exercise and stay active during my pregnancy. Worrying about impact of exercise and miscarriage is completely natural so I would say just do whatever makes you feel comfortable and obviously if you are going to exercise take it a bit easier than you normally would cause your body is genuinely already working really hard building a baby! To be honest my exercise attempts went out the window at 7 weeks cause I had such bad morning sickness and felt so tired all I time I just couldn’t be bothered. So much is happening in your body in the first trimester - for some people it’s quite tough so don’t be surprised if your good intentions go out the window and don’t beat yourself up about it. Good luck!

Exercise throughout pregnancy is associated with healthier baby development, shorter, less traumatic labor, as well a faster bounce back post partum (both mentally and physically!). Absolutely start! Aim for 20-30 min daily, even if it’s just a walk. Get your heart rate up a bit, but try to still be able to talk. It’s hard to maintain during the first trimester fatigue and it’s completely okay to take a break and start back up when the energy comes back. Honestly, the exercise helps the ease the fatigue a bit, so do make an effort- every little bit helps!

I stopped for IVF and was told to wait until 2nd trimester to start exercising, just walking in the meantime. I knew the doctor was being super cautious but I didn’t want to take any risks.

I was worried about losing so much fitness, then the nausea kicked in and there was no way I could exercise until week 14. I was really active before pregnancy and taking a bit longer off didn’t affect me getting back into it, after 2 sessions back with a pregnancy trained PT I felt confident and back on track. Now 20 weeks pregnant and exercising every day.

The first 12 weeks is an anxious time, your body is busy making a baby which will probably start making you feel like the last thing you want to do is a lunge 😂

Good luck! X

I had a miscarriage at 9 weeks (no heartbeat) but I didn’t actually miscarry until 10 weeks. The doctor told us that it’s usually chromosomes. My second pregnancy, I was terrified the whole time. I downloaded one app, I can’t remember the name, but it was in home exercises for pregnant women and did a few minutes on our elliptical here or there. But, mostly, I just walked. I had a healthy baby who is almost 10 months.

I don’t have any experience of IVF, but I worked out throughout most of the first trimester (eased off towards the end of first trimester as I was exhausted!) and my body always told me when I was doing too much! I’d get a bit of mild cramping here and there if I over did it, nothing major, but that was how I knew I should tone it down a bit. I’d say start very small and work up to try and ease your worries. Maybe a walk or a short yoga YouTube videos to start. I know there are some good YouTube pregnancy workouts too that you could try and work up to to begin with before going cycling etc