Health Beauty & FitnessHealth, Beauty, Fitness Tips

Soon after the news of your conception reaches you, the superb delight you feel will be hampered by several conditions you thought don’t exist. Heartburn, morning sickness, fatigue… these are the usual early pregnancy symptoms. But back pain in early pregnancy is also one common symptom often met with considerable panic.

Back pain is a common complaint during early pregnancy. As your pregnancy advances, your uterus enlarges to accommodate the fetus. This stage is where you feel the most discomfort. But you don’t have to worry. If nothing a miss, your condition is perfectly normal. Buts it’s a good idea to read about back pain in early pregnancy, because you’ll probably have the need of the knowledge later.

Causes of Back Pain in Early Pregnancy

Your Baby

If you are pregnant, and have to care for your older child, as cute as it may sound, yes the 20-pound toddler could be the reason of your discomfort. Your center of gravity shifts forward and naturally you automatically adjust unconsciously. The effect would be as you notice; you will observe that you are actually standing with your upper body pulled slightly back. This unconscious action shifts the center of your gravity on the correct position, which is not your normal posture. This, in turn contributes to a strain to your back muscles.

Extra Weight

Its is recommended that you should gain weight during pregnancy as this would be beneficial to your baby. But the added protein, carbohydrates, calcium and vitamins could be bad for your back.

Progesterone

Progesterone is the hormone your body releases to relax smooth muscle tissues throughout your body. Unfortunately, it also includes your intestines. Now, here’s the funny part, as it slows your digestive processes, bacteria have more time to do their stuff that slowly wounds their way through your digestive tract. The chemical reaction creates plenty of trapped air which is ultimately released as flatus. Most pregnant women experience constipation, bloating (due to the build-up of air and waste matter), and gas.

Naturally, the most effective way to reduce constipation is cutting back on the foods that seem to cause it, and shift to high fiber foods. But if you eliminated everything that causes gas, you won’t be achieving the balanced diet that your baby requires.

Round Ligaments

These muscle groups support your uterus. As you begin the child bearing stage, they thicken and lengthen to accommodate the changes of the uterus. These changes can be experience as a dull ache that just stay over the fringes of your consciousness. But as you do sudden movement they create a brief, sharp, stabbing pain, especially if you shift position while sleeping or rise from a seated position. So, the best thing to do is to move slowly, as pain associated with round ligaments are usually attributed from sudden movement.

Usually back pain in early pregnancy should cause no alarm. Still, you have to look out for certain signs that could tell you that the back pain is nowhere ordinary. If that is the case, always seek professional help.

It is so easy during pregnancy to eat what we want, and as we get bigger our energy is slowly zapped by our growing baby, so it is no wonder that many of us look at our bodies after the baby comes and wonder “what happened?” If you want to avoid this during your pregnancy then you will need to stay active. Consider the following tips for pregnancy fitness, and try to keep them in mind as your belly grows bigger.

Stick with what you know, if you were a runner before you became pregnant, then with your doctor’s approval you can continue. You may have to reduce the intensity and distance of your runs, but you can keep going as long as you feel comfortable and your pregnancy is progressing normally.

Start slowly, for those who did not exercise regularly before, easing into an exercise routine is one of the most important pregnancy fitness tips to prevent muscle strain. Start with a 5-10 minute workout and then gradually increase the length of workouts by 5 minutes until you get up to 30 minutes.

Stay safe, avoid activities where you could fall, as it is easy to do as your joints loosen and your center of gravity changes. This means no skiing, bike riding (unless stationary) or even step aerobics. Ensure that you are not overexerting yourself, you should be able to carry on a normal conversation, if not you are working yourself too hard.

Hit the pool – one of the best pregnancy fitness exercises is to get wet with an aqua-aerobic program or just swimming some laps. While you may not like picturing yourself with a huge belly in a bathing suit, if you want to stay fit you may just have to grin and bear it. Swimming is easy on the pregnant body as you are more weightless in the water. Not only is it a great cardio workout but swimming also targets all the major muscle groups so you get an all over workout.