Pregnancy

Bicycling during Pregnancy

Exercising during pregnancy is something that you will not have to miss. Bicycling is a low-impact aerobic exercise widely recommended for pregnant women, supporting cardiovascular benefits and helping you to stay in shape.

Remember that pregnancy requires an additional 300 calories every day, and bicycling is effective to burn extra calories. However, you need to take care with bicycling adding around 500 extra calories to your diet. It is also necessary watch your balance.

Once pregnant, your center of gravity will begin to shift after the first trimester, causing balance problems, including klutziness and forgetfulness. Riding this way you need to avoid sharp turns and tricky drafting.

You should be also careful riding off road or when the pavement is wet. All these situations can drastically increase your chances of having an accident, although your baby is well protected by the amniotic fluid.

If you have a crash, the developing baby will not be hurt unless you suffer a severe injury. If you are concerned about how bicycling may impact your baby, check for any decreases in fetal movement, uterine contractions, painful or tender uterus, fluid leaking, and or bleeding from the vagina. If in doubt, call or visit your practitioner or midwife.

Another consideration to keep in mind is eating well. Also, avoid bicycling as a quick way to lose weight if you are over eating. You must forget about losing weigh during pregnancy and if you want to stay in shape cycling, take up something less stressful, like walking, jogging or swimming.

If you still want to try, ride on smoothly paved roads, instead of rough terrains. If you are an athlete who used to spend your days off-road, during pregnancy that routine will not be possible and neither will be mountain biking.

Riding stationary bicycles are safer and increases your heart rate, while you exercise comfortably at home or going to a gym. Bicycling can be uncomfortable during the last trimester of your pregnancy, because it would be really challenging to handle the bicycle bars while your aerobic capacity diminishes.

Outdoors or indoors, stay hydrated, drinking plenty of water as gestation requires water to make amniotic fluid for your baby, and your body will take it from you normally. With bicycling your body is going to get hotter sooner that with any other pregnancy exercise, making you sweat more than usual during and after ride.

Stay hydrated to avoid oxytocin getting too high, causing contractions. Wearing a heart rate monitor while bicycling would be ideal to check your pulse and do not let it exceed 140 beats per minute. When riding, avoid hills, slow down if you are feeling tired or you experience shortness of breath, and always follow your doctor's advice.