Running in the Second Half of the Cycle and During Pregnancy

Why is running not good in the second half of the cycle?

A: Generally speaking, you don’t want to be running in the second half because you don’t want to be overexerting yourself. That’s the main thing, although let’s say this: if you are a runner and have been a runner for years, it doesn’t really matter too much. You can basically still run up to say a positive pregnancy test.

I wouldn’t be recommending running after you’re got a positive pregnancy test, even if you’ve been a runner for years because the pelvic floor starts to become impacted. The pelvic floor really takes a beating in pregnancy, that’s why many women become incontinent often after pregnancy because their pelvic floors are no longer strong enough.

When you’re running, even in the early stages of gestation, 6 weeks’ onwards, you really are stressing that pelvic floor even more. It’s not an ideal thing. For some women, it can also be that exacerbation of energy expenditure can actually increase the risk of miscarriage as well. That’s one of the reasons why rest is actually quite important when we’re pregnant particularly early on in pregnancy. There have been studies that show that women who don’t get to rest enough have higher increased risk of miscarriage.

There is a reason the body naturally already does this. When you’re in early stages of pregnancy, I remember having to literally drag myself to do anything. I could do my day’s work and that was practically it, I would come home and I would just do nothing more because I was so exhausted. It nature’s way of protecting us from over doing it at this delicate stage of new life.

Listen to your body, is a key thing.

As a note, the optimum recommendation in regards to exercise for peak health and fertility is 60- 90 minutes of moderate exercise 5-7 days per week, where moderate, essentially signifies 65-85% intensity of exertion. For more information about all the physical requirements of boosting your fertility, I recommend joining the #FertilityChallenge.