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Surprising Benefits of Exercise During Pregnancy

Kayla Goldwag

Exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, and this is especially true during pregnancy. Regular exercise during pregnancy can provide numerous benefits for both the mother and the fetus. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of exercise during pregnancy and provide tips for exercising safely.

Benefits of Exercise During Pregnancy

  1. Improved overall health: Exercise can help to maintain a healthy weight, reduce the risk of gestational diabetes and hypertension, and improve cardiovascular health.
  2. Reduced risk of cesarean delivery: Women who exercise during pregnancy may be less likely to require a cesarean delivery.
  3. Reduced risk of preterm birth: Regular exercise during pregnancy has been associated with a lower risk of preterm birth.
  4. Reduced risk of pregnancy complications: Exercise can help to reduce the risk of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and preterm labor.
  5. Improved mood and reduced stress: Exercise has been shown to improve mood and reduce stress, promoting a healthier pregnancy and potentially easier labor and delivery.
  6. Reduced pregnancy-related discomfort: Exercise can help to alleviate common pregnancy-related discomforts such as back pain, constipation, and fatigue.
  7. Healthier fetal growth: Exercise during pregnancy has been associated with healthier fetal growth and development.

How to Exercise Safely During Pregnancy

Before starting or continuing an exercise program during pregnancy, it is important to consult with your healthcare provider. Your provider can help you determine which exercises are safe and appropriate for you based on your health status and the stage of your pregnancy. Here are some general guidelines for safe and effective exercise during pregnancy:

  1. Start slow and gradually increase the intensity of your workout: If you were not active before pregnancy, start with low-impact activities such as walking or swimming and gradually increase the duration and intensity of your workouts.
  2. Choose low-impact exercises: Low-impact exercises such as walking, swimming, cycling, or prenatal yoga are generally safe for most pregnant women.
  3. Stay hydrated and avoid getting overheated: Exercise in a cool, well-ventilated environment, and wear breathable clothing to avoid getting overheated. Drink plenty of water before, during, and after exercise to stay hydrated.
  4. Some doctors suggest avoiding exercises that require you to lie flat on your back after the first trimester, because it can compress the vena cava, cause nausea, dizziness and reduce blood flow to the fetus and the mother’s brain. Others say that for short periods of time its not an issue. So check with your doc.
  5. Listen to your body and adjust your exercise routine as needed: If you experience dizziness, shortness of breath, increased discharge or vaginal bleeding, stop exercising immediately and contact your healthcare provider.

Benefits to the Fetus

Regular exercise during pregnancy can promote healthier fetal growth and development. Studies have shown that exercise during pregnancy can lead to improved fetal oxygenation, increased placental weight, and reduced risk of fetal distress during labor. Additionally, babies born to mothers who exercised during pregnancy may have better cardiovascular health and improved cognitive function later in life.

In conclusion, regular exercise during pregnancy can bring numerous benefits for both the mother and the fetus. However, it’s essential to exercise safely and appropriately during this time to ensure the health and well-being of both. Talk to your healthcare provider about which exercises are safe for you, and listen to your body to make adjustments as needed. By staying active during pregnancy, you can help to promote a healthier pregnancy and potentially easier labor and delivery.

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Exercise, Fitness Goals, General Health, Motivation

Let’s Get Moving: 5 Tips for Getting Back into Fitness

Kayla Goldwag

Help, I’ve Fallen off the Exercise Wagon

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How to Ease Back Into Fitness

If you just spent the last month like I did: (a) With a piece of honey cake in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, (b) Doing an exercise routine exclusively made up of balancing hot dishes on one arm while walking laps in and out of the house, (c) where regeneration activity included multiple hours seated in meaningful contemplation or reading, or… (d) All of the above, plus sullen concerns about your lack of energy and expanding waistline…Then you will want to read on about how to bounce back into working out.

First: Let’s get real about expectations. You will want to pick up where you left off. This generally means you will want to return to the couch (Remember a body at rest tends to stay at rest from physics class in High School?!?) or, You will want to become the quintessential weekend warrior and jump headlong into intense cardio and double sessions in the gym. I want to take this moment to help you pause and do neither of those instinctive but completely unproductive impulses.

Instead, follow my

5 tips for getting back into exercise and fitness in a sustainable way:

1. Prepare for success. Lay your workout clothes and sneakers out before you go to bed. Schedule the workout in your planner and block out interruptions. Do that workout before you have time to think about it…because thinking during the next two weeks (your break back in period) will only get in your way. We want this on auto-pilot because deciding to work out and actually getting there is the hardest part. Short-circuiting the decision part is key. So stack that workout habit on top of some other firmly established habit (like waking up in the morning) and do it in a way that keeps it front of mind- i.e. having the sneakers in your visual space or the phone appointment alarm.

2. Begin the way you mean to go on. Plan on ONE thing you can stick with consistently FOREVER. Maybe that’s a 10 minute walk. Maybe that’s a 10 minute walk three times a week. Maybe that’s a 10 minute walk plus 20 situps and 10 modified pushups and a stretch. Pick that one thing you could reasonably, easily stick with for the rest of your life… and do it consistently for the next two weeks.

Resist the urge to give 110% these first two weeks. You want to work out to a point where you notice there was something happening but not so sore you can’t move (and sometimes you can’t tell because soreness doesn’t kick in until 24-48 hours after, so it’s ok to do a little less than you think you can that first time.) This is NOT the time to push your limits. You do not want to miss a workout these first two weeks. Consistency IS success. Soreness is not the indicator of success. I’m fairly certain you didn’t plan to go on needing to hold onto the walls easing yourself onto the toilet because …leg day.

3.Figure out your WHY and write that down. Why do you want to get fit? Want to not die so soon? Write it down. Want to look awesome for your niece’s wedding. Write it down. Need to get up the stairs without passing out? Whatever that “WHY” is, figure it out now, and write it down. Read what you wrote down often. Put it in your phone. Make a collage about it. When you have a meaningful reason, you can withstand the discomfort of making space in your life to commit to it.

4. Have Fun. The more fun you have while doing the workout the more you will stick with it. Maybe you fell off the wagon because you were bored. Then try something new- a new class, a new sport, something which used to make you smile but you gave up years ago like dancing in your bedroom like Madonna to show tunes.

5. Get support. Need a sports bra, get it. New sneakers? Need to dial a friend, a counselor, a coach, a trainer? You can’t do this alone. You need support so plan that out. Register for a class or take that walk Wednesday with a friend. Call a trainer or a sports med doc or a physical therapist if needed, so you can move better.

Periods of time off can break a plateau and even help reinvigorate your excitement and desire to exercise. Observing the Jewish holidays practically enforces a degree of moderation, and even regeneration (a key component of fitness), so don’t sweat it. It’s an overall sedentary lifestyle that becomes detrimental for our wellbeing but following these tips will allow you to ease back into sustainable exercise.

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Another version of this article appeared in LA Jewish Home October 20, 2022 (a newspaper serving the Greater Los Angeles Jewish Community)

Fitness Goals, Motivation

the War of Art

Kayla Goldwag
Book Review

I read an amazing book which I’m certain will help you overcome inner resistance- when it comes not only to your health and physique goals, but in nearly any endeavor that comes from our higher nature.

Activities which commonly elicit resistance include:

1. Creative endeavors and callings in the fine arts, writing, music

2. A program of spiritual advancement

3. Education of every kind

4. An act of political moral or ethical courage

5. Any activity whose aim is tighter abdominals, a diet or health regimen or a course or program designed to overcome an unwholesome habit or addiction.

In other words, any act that involves the delay of gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity is likely to be met with resistance.

According to Steven Pressfield, author of the book the War of Art, resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. “It will purjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully cajole.” However, the rule of thumb is the more important a call of action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will face pursuing it. Resistance aims to kill our genius; our unique and priceless gift we were put on the earth to give and when we fight it, we’re in a war.

Sometimes resistance takes the form of drugs, shopping, sex, tv, gossip, alcohol, or all products containing fat, sugar, salt or chocolate.

Fear and the degree of fear we have about an endeavor equates to the strength of resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no fear and no resistance. Yet its the fear that tells us this is what we have to do. This is where our growth is and our potential. Resistance feeds on fear. That is the battle.

Part of overcoming resistance it seems is to acknowledge that its there and prepare for the battle by going pro.. Enlisting help, and also by keeping on the daily task.

Sure we fear failure..but sometimes even more, we fear success. What will we lose on the way to success? It will change our identity. Perhaps success will change our friends. We may become estranged from all we know. Will we end up alone, unmoored? What happens actually is that we do change and we find friends in places we never knew to look, and we become more than we could have imagined.

My takeaway is that this book is about finding and becoming your true authentic self ..and in a city most known for celebrating what’s fake, its something ironically we probably crave the most.

If you are looking for help overcoming resistance and finally achieving the body of your dreams, learning a new fitness skill, or simply enjoying movement, contact me to book a session today.

Diet, Exercise, General Health, Motivation, Q&A

Q & A: Can people who exercise “get away” with poor food choices?

Kayla Goldwag

My short answer is Yes and No…

In a small study of  two groups of 7 participants, one group exercised for at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity or higher at least 3 times a week. The other group worked out less often and less intense than the first group. 

All 14 participants were fed the same high fat 960 calorie breakfast meal. (2220 mg sodium, 48 g of fat, including 16 g saturated fat and 4.5 g trans fat..280mg. cholesterol)

After the high fat meal, they measured obstruction of blood flow in the brachial artery (-the one just above your elbow crease on your arm)..The less active group showed a greater obstruction of blood flow through the artery- it was narrowed,  while the more active exercisers had no change.

Both groups experienced an increase in triglycerides (triglycerides are an ester of glycerol and 3 fatty acid groups. High levels of triglycerides indicate an increased risk of stroke.) The more highly active group’s triglycerides rose by 47% but the less active group increased triglycerides by a whopping 184%

While exercise is protective against disease, and people who exercise may be more able to get away with poor food choices, but not on a regular basis. 

Johnson, B.D. et al. “Vascular consequences of a High-Fat Meal in physically active and Inactive adults.’  Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism, 36, no3. (2011) 368-375