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Jogging When Pregnant

If you’re a jogger or runner, the idea of taking nine months off while you’re pregnant might make you unhappy. While pregnancy isn’t the best time to start a new running or jogging program, especially if you normally live in couch-potato mode, continuing your normal exercise routine won’t harm you, in most cases. Talk to your doctor and ask if there are any contraindications for jogging your way through pregnancy.

  1. Benefits

    • Exercise – when you’re used to it – has positive benefits for most pregnant women. Regular exercise – at least 30 minutes per day three times a week – can help you keep your weight gain within normal limits. Regular exercise can also help shorten your labor and reduces the risk that you’ll have a very large baby. In a Spanish study published in the November 2012 issue of “The Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine," regular exercise reduced the rate of cesarean delivery from 23 percent to 15.9 percent.

    Risks

    • In 1994, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology rescinded its recommendation that pregnant women should keep their heart rate below 140 beats per minute during exercise. However, very strenuous exercise can have drawbacks. If you can’t carry on a conversation easily while jogging, you’re pushing it too hard, MayoClinic.com warns. The ACOG recommends that you discontinue activities that increase your risk of falls. If you're a clutzy jogger, who regularly hits the ground, you might want to switch to another form of exercise. Keep in mind your center of gravity has shifted, especially in the second half of your pregnancy, which makes you more likely to take a tumble.

    Contraindications

    • If you develop certain pregnancy complications or health risks, your doctor might recommend that you slow down to a walk or change your exercise regimen to something less strenuous than jogging or to stop exercising altogether. The ACOG’s absolute contraindications to exercise during pregnancy include unstable heart disease, restrictive lung disease, multiple pregnancy with risk of premature labor, placenta previa – where the placenta grows over the opening on the uterus – after 26 weeks and persistent second or third trimester bleeding. Pregnancy-induced hypertension, ruptured membranes and an incompetent cervix are also absolute contraindications to jogging or any other form of exercise. If you have poorly controlled diabetes, hypertension, seizure disorder or thyroid disease, it’s also better to sit it out during pregnancy.

    Limits

    • The ACOG recommends that women who exercise regularly keep their exercise to three to five sessions per week of moderate intensity. Low-impact activities or activities you've already been doing on a regular basis are generally fine. If you’re an elite athlete, you can push it to 70 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate during exercise, Dr. Shelby Scott states in the March-April issue of "ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal." If you're normally a couch potato, aim for 30 minutes three times per week of low-impact exercise. If you notice the baby moving less, develop vaginal bleeding or clear fluid leakage or fall, see your doctor immediately.

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