I am avid masters swimmer-training 10-12 hours per week total, with 4 two hour workouts in pool per week. 6,000 yds average I would say. My doc says I can swim during pregnancy-but he doesn't understand the concept of swim training vs. lap swimming. Anybody have any info? It would be greatly appreciated.
Hi. If you have already been swimming, then you can continue to do so with forthought in mind to listen to your body. No starts from the blocks , nobody hitting your new belly on backstroke & so on.Good luck.
I ran through 2 of my pregnancys and swam through 1. You need to keep your heart rate in check. Talk to your Dr. about heart rate limits.
I found that my tiredness (early stages), nausea (early stages), and sheer size (later stages) limited the intensity of my workouts.
I believe working out made labor, delivery, and recovery much easier. All 3 of my kids were over 9 lbs. with short labor, quick delivery, and no drugs.
Good luck and communicate with Dr. and make him/her understand what you want to do so he/she can advise you properly and keep things in check!
There is this woman who swims with us once in a while who beat her husband in the triathlon last summer while she was pregnant. Of course, she was a few months into the pregnancy when she did it.
There is this other woman who is probably due in a few months who is still swimming pretty hard. I think that she is still doing flipturns. She did it the last time she was pregnant at 8 months.
This stuff is pretty amazing to see and hear about. Especially a pregnant woman doing a triathlon and beating her husband.
I was fortunate to be able to exercise regularly through three pregnancies (right up to the morning of delivery). I found this book very helpful:
Amazon.com: Exercising Through Your Pregnancy: James F. Clapp III: Your Store
Congrats!
You can do almost everything you did before you got pregnant just listen to your body more. Ask your doctor about your heart rate limit. I think mine was 120-130. I modified things like no hypoxic and when we did vertical kicking I didn't lift my arms straight over my head (still had my hands out of the water, though) and near the end, I moved down a lane to go slower. If I felt my heart rate getting too high, I would stop or slow down. If I felt nauseous, I would do open turns and skipped the flip turns. I never had the issue of not being able to flip due to my size. I swam until 3 weeks before giving birth when I was told I had to go on rest time and no exercise. Good luck and enjoy.
