Does This New Book Take Exercise During Pregnancy TooFar?

Apr 8, 2014 11:28am

Apregnant woman flips a tire. (Brandi Dion/De Capo Lifelong Books)

Advice to pregnant women up until the 1960swas to put their feet up and take a load off untilthe baby was born. We now know that exerciseis one of the healthiest habits a mom-to-be canpractice for both herself and her preciousbundle. But can you take a good thing too far?

A new book, "The Pregnant Athlete," depicts awoman with a serious baby bump flipping trucktires, swinging large hammers and leaping overbarbells. One routine shows a very pregnantwoman doing deep squats with a barbell pressed overhead and another shows a woman who looks tobe near her due date lying on her back doing a series of stretches -- two positions that the AmericanCongress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, also known as ACOG, warns aren't generallyrecommended for women in late pregnancy.

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Brandi Dion, a certified CrossFit coach who, along with her exercise scientist husband Steven Dion,wrote the book, said the program isn't intended for exercise newbies.

"We wanted to show women who are already in great shape that they can maintain a high level offitness during pregnancy," Dion said. "I would not recommend doing any of this if you aren't alreadydoing it."

Though the authors promise the book will teach you "how to stay in your best shape ever before,during and after pregnancy" right on the cover, Dion insists the programs aren't meant to beprescriptive.

"We were not trying to design workouts for pregnant women. We were just documenting what I didduring my two pregnancies," she said.

Dr. Raul Artal, lead author of the ACOG guidelines for exercise and pregnancy for the past 20 years,said that the safety of any activity during pregnancy comes down to one simple question: "How muchrisk do you want to take?"

Lying on your back, for example, seems benign, and Artal said that most pregnant women can do sowithout ill effect even into their last month. However, for 10 to 15 percent of women it can compressthe blood vessels that serve the uterus, compromising blood flow to the baby and causing bloodpressure changes for the mom.

"If you feel sick or dizzy in that position you really shouldn't do it," he cautioned.

Ditto for deep squats, which Artral said are more likely to cause knee pain in pregnant womenbecause of hormonal changes that can soften and weaken the joints.

The Dions do recommend throughout the book to follow doctor's advice, listen to your body and skipany movement that doesn't feel right. But Dion said they couldn't put a warning next to everyexercise that might lead to problems because "then half the exercises in the book would havewarnings."

Artal stressed that pregnancy is a great time to start exercising or continue with an exerciseprogram but that it was important to do a risk-benefit analysis.

"Consider that activities with a high risk of injury in someone who isn't pregnant will have the riskamplified by some unknown factor for pregnant women," Artal said.

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