I've been a competitive swimmer now for 18 years (makes me feel old just to say it) and I'm pregnant with my first child. I keep reading that you don't have to modify your swimming workouts when you're pregnant, but in those same websites, I see things like "Try doing *** stroke to eliminate the strain of torso rotation" so I know they haven't the slightest clue about competitive swimming or real training.
So my question is, does anyone have any good resource for how hard you can push yourself swimming while pregnant? And don't tell me to ask my doctor because I'm guessing she knows even less about swimming than "babycenter.com". My primary concern is with becoming slightly hypoxic while swimming (during flip turns and underwater pull outs). I often come up a little breathless, but am okay within a stroke or two. If I weren't pregnant, I wouldn't think anything about this, but it's hard to know if that's "bad" for the little one.
Any thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated.:drown:
Congrats! I too swam through 3 pregnancies (though I was doing quite a bit of cross-training as well). I never had problems with flip-turns or pull-outs. I didn't dive but I swam as hard as I felt like swimming. I never really reached a point where I had to cut back (swam right up to delivery date) but I tried to listen to my body. Think that's they key. I did quit running after about 3 months because I felt heavier and don't consider myself a great runner in the first place.
What's so nice about being able to keep up your activities is the recovery seems to be speedy and you're back doing your old things much faster (though you are sleep deprived and have to be more creative about finding time to exercise):)
I read a good book my first pregnancy that might be useful: Exercising Through Pregnancy
by James Clapp. Here's an Amazon link:
www.amazon.com/.../1886039593
Congrats! I too swam through 3 pregnancies (though I was doing quite a bit of cross-training as well). I never had problems with flip-turns or pull-outs. I didn't dive but I swam as hard as I felt like swimming. I never really reached a point where I had to cut back (swam right up to delivery date) but I tried to listen to my body. Think that's they key. I did quit running after about 3 months because I felt heavier and don't consider myself a great runner in the first place.
What's so nice about being able to keep up your activities is the recovery seems to be speedy and you're back doing your old things much faster (though you are sleep deprived and have to be more creative about finding time to exercise):)
I read a good book my first pregnancy that might be useful: Exercising Through Pregnancy
by James Clapp. Here's an Amazon link:
www.amazon.com/.../1886039593
