If you are reading this, clearly you understand the many benefits of exercising during pregnancy, regularly and most importantly safely. And if you are pregnant and have stopped exercising for reasons that are non-medical, then you got to understand what happens when you stop Pregnancy exercises? With muscles, you truly will lose it if you don’t use it.
Skipping workout once in a while is a normal thing. But to quit or take a ever-extending break may prove to be a bad decision. Exercise has plenty of incredible benefits but they’re not permanent. Yes, many of these hard-earned gains from exercising regularly will start to vanish in just a couple of weeks, if you stop your regimen.
Here is exactly what happens to your body when your take a break from exercising:
# Within 10 days: Your brain might begin to change
Several researchers have shown that regular physical activity or exercising regularly is good for your brain. Now, according to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, missing out on your workout even for a short duration might cause changes to the brain. Studies show a reduction in blood flow to the hippocampus, the part of the brain which is primarily associated with emotion and memory. Pregnancy Hormones are anyway playing a havoc on your emotions, why would you want it to aggravate further. Isn’t it easier and better to retain that happy mood you attained by exercising regularly?!
#Within 2 weeks: Your endurance will plunge
Stay away from exercise for more than 14 days and climbing stairs would seem like an uphill task to you. Skipping exercise causes a drop in the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use. Your speed or strength may not change drastically but you may experience a sharp rise in your blood pressure and blood glucose levels. Why induce the endurance drop now when you have been working hard to build up your endurance to bear the child-birth?!
#Within 4 weeks: Your strength will start declining
Some of you may notice decline after about 2 weeks of stopping exercise, while it may take about four weeks for others to experience a decline. Among the many changes in your pregnant body, this is one you can surely avoid.
Given that you acknowledge the importance of exercising regularly during pregnancy, it may not be a good idea to give up the many benefits you already garnered until now by taking that break, unless until your Doctor or medical advisor has suggested you against it.
So contact your prenatal expert and get back in the groove. Regain all that you had earned in the past several weeks and make way to enjoy the fruit of your labor when the baby arrives !