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Can I do hot yoga/ Bikram Yoga while I am pregnant?
By Christina | August 31, 2008
As a Personal Trainer and thrice pregnant exercise enthusiast, it is sometimes frustrating that there is not specific information on what we can and cannot do during pregnancy with regards to fitness. The standard, “do what you normally do,” coupled with “watch the heart rate, type of activity and body temperature,” make for a scary cocktail of advise. With Bikram or heated yoga, the concern is the heat of the room and how that may affect your unborn baby. Pregnancy increases core body temperature, and so does exercising. Add the additional varible of a heated room and you have a bit more to think about.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) puts forth the guidelines on exercising during the pregnant and postpartum period. As with any field, things change, research uncovers new truths and the rules are modified. One such change relates to heart rate and exercise during pregnancy.
ACOG originally recommended the mother-to-be’s heart rate remain under 140 beats per minute during workouts. The reason for this is that an increase in heart rate results in blood being sent away from the torso and sent to the working muscles. This, they feared, would reduce the blood supply to the uterus to an undesirable stressful level. After researching, they found this was not the case, and they modified that in their 1985 committee opinion, suggesting moderate exercise intensity.
What is truly amazing is that the change was discovered over 20 years ago and I am still reading about the 140 bpm today. Increasing your body temperature past 102 degrees is also considered dangerous and so if you consider the Bikram studio is 102 and your own body temperature is elevated from the pregnancy and you are exercising so more increase is expected, it may seem like you need to really consider how much you want to do heated yoga.
The best advise with the heated yoga and fitness in general is to ask you physician. He or she knows you and your body best and can guide you safely.
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Topics: General, Yoga, que-ans |