Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Ab Exercises During Pregnancy

If you are expecting then you should be thinking about doing ab exercises during pregnancy because these exercises will help you tone up your abs while strengthening your back. The strengthening of the back is very important because as the fetus grows in the uterus, it exerts more strain and pressure on the back.

Doing ab exercises during pregnancy will also prevent the diastasis recti effect which occurs in most women during delivery. Diastasis recti is the separation of abdominal muscles and this is something you can avoid by doing regular ab exercise during your pregnancy.

Another benefit of during ab exercises during pregnancy is that they will help you with your labor and delivery. Ab exercises are especially important during the third trimester because that is the time when the fetus increases the most in size and weight and you need to be fit enough to carry that weight along with yours.

One of simplest ab exercise during pregnancy that is recommended is pulling your belly button towards your spine. As you do it, you should breathe out the air. Hold your breath for a few seconds and then relax your body. It is recommended that you do 8 to 10 reps a day. The other ab exercise during pregnancy is lying down on the floor and exhaling. While you exhale, you should lower your back vertebra by vertebra. This exercise you should do this 5 to 6 times in one go. However, you should note that around the 4th month of your pregnancy, you should avoid doing ab exercises that involve lying on your back as the weight of the baby might end up compressing the main artery in your body leading to falling of blood pressure.

For more information visit
http://www.pregnancy-guidelines.com

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