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:
Parents
Former Member
Congrats to all of you!
You already know how to do the best sport for pregnant women!
I am happy to say that the pregnancy phase of my life is over (I threw up EVERY DAY and thru delivery for BOTH pregnancies!), but I will say that swimming was the best thing when I was pregnant. I had clearance from my doctor/midwife, and swam 5-6 times weekly (except for a few weeks when I was high risk with the second). As another poster said, it really helped my nausea- I would get up, throw up, swim, then I could eat a little. It also seemed to set my body clock. The babies would sleep while I swam, slowly and steadily (which, luckily, is how I swim anyway), then wake up while I was in the shower like clockwork!
I did Boston Light swim at a few weeks (did not know yet) and did 1650 at NE SCY meet right before I delivered my son- I rather enjoyed the look of surprise (horror?) on the faces of the college-age lifeguards, and my kids get a kick out of the story!
Congrats to all of you!
You already know how to do the best sport for pregnant women!
I am happy to say that the pregnancy phase of my life is over (I threw up EVERY DAY and thru delivery for BOTH pregnancies!), but I will say that swimming was the best thing when I was pregnant. I had clearance from my doctor/midwife, and swam 5-6 times weekly (except for a few weeks when I was high risk with the second). As another poster said, it really helped my nausea- I would get up, throw up, swim, then I could eat a little. It also seemed to set my body clock. The babies would sleep while I swam, slowly and steadily (which, luckily, is how I swim anyway), then wake up while I was in the shower like clockwork!
I did Boston Light swim at a few weeks (did not know yet) and did 1650 at NE SCY meet right before I delivered my son- I rather enjoyed the look of surprise (horror?) on the faces of the college-age lifeguards, and my kids get a kick out of the story!
