Running while pregnant has been proven to be a good for both you and your baby’s health.  Whether or not you were an athlete before you got pregnant or havent worked out before, it is always the time to start an exercise routine.

I ran through 39 weeks of pregnancy, some days were easier than others, but with all the changes that my body went through, exercise was the one thing that helped me feel normal. Every month I ran slower than the month before. Every day I woke up exhausted from pregnancy insomnia, but I laced up my shoes and got moving first thing in the morning, no excuses.

Here are my 8 best tips for running throughout your pregnancy!

1. Start early

If you know you want to get pregnant in 3 – 6 months start your exercise routine NOW. I start working with women up to a year before they get pregnant so that they can build a base line fitness level to continue throughout their pregnancies.

If you are reading this already pregnant… start NOW. Don’t let yourself use the excuse “I’m not in good enough shape” or “I should have started 9 months ago”. Start with walking every day. Build 20 minutes a day up to 45+ minutes a day. If you want to try jogging, see how your body responds. Don’t be afraid to sweat, it’s good for your body!

2. Mentally commit to your health

Notice that I didn’t say – commit to your strength, or personal best, or weight management. I said your HEALTH… and your babies health! This is the hardest one and most important concept to grasp. In the last few months of your pregnancy you get tired and mentally exhausted from carrying around an extra bowling ball with you everywhere you go, but if you commit early on to moving every day and getting your heart pumping you and your baby will both benefit.

Don’t try to lose weight or beat your records in strength or running time, focus on moving and feeling good during your pregnancy.

3. Don’t stop moving

If you say “I’m going to stop working out at 37 weeks”, you will. Once you get lazy your body will stay lazy. If you take a week off from exercise, it will be harder to get back into a routine. Unless your doctor is telling to slow down, keep going. Listen to your body and don’t overdo it, but if you don’t have the energy to run, walk. If you don’t feel that your body can handle a strength routine, do yoga. But keep moving.

4. Listen to your body

Keep moving and commit to your health as I mentioned above, but always listen what your body is saying and talk to your doctor. If you don’t feel good about a certain exercise, stop doing it. For example, early in my pregnancy I felt weird about doing jumping jacks. It was a complete mental thing, for some reason i could run 3+ miles a day, but jumping jacks didn’t feel right. So I didn’t do them. Listen to what your body is telling you to do and not do.

5. Talk to your doctor

Ask your doctor questions and if they don’t have a good answer email me (or email me anyways!). If you have aches, pains or worries talk to them.  No question is a dumb questions and sometimes you just need reassurance to keep moving.

6. Get compression socks

Seriously these saved my ankles later in pregnancy. They are expensive, usually $50 per pair, but by 8 months my ankles were major swelling and compression socks did miracles. I put them on when I woke up in the morning before my run and if I was up on my feet a lot during the day, I would keep them on all day.

7. Stay hydrated

Don’t just grab a sip of water before you leave for a run, bring a full water bottle with you and drink another one when you are done. Especially in the heat, your pregnant body needs copious amounts of water during the day, and the last thing you want is for you to become dehydrated which is dangerous for you and babe.

8. Mix it up

Don’t run every day. Run one day, go on a long walk the next and spend the third day strength training. Don’t forget to stretch your muscles and work in a yoga routine or two during the week. Your body is going through a lot of changes and in order to strengthen it you need to give it a little bit of everything.

These are tips that helped me keep running through my pregnancy – what is your best suggestion to stay active for the 9 months?

Sometimes you just have to complain.  When my alarm goes off before 6 AM for an early  morning workout the first thought that goes through my head is “I don’t want to do this”… but I do it anyways, and so should you.  My clients complain during our workouts about being too tired… the exercises being too hard…being too sweaty… but they keep going.

30 Reasons that I don’t want to workout today

1. I’m busy, and exercising takes up too much time

2. I don’t want to sweat

3. I couldn’t sit down on the toilet seat because of the 100+ squats I did

4. I’ve been exercising 4+ times a week, eating healthy and I still haven’t lost 1 pound this month

5. I hate burpees

6. Running is one of the most boring exercises on the planet

7. My body hurts all over

8. It’s winter and I don’t want to get out of bed

9. It’s summer and it’s too hot outside

10. All of my workout clothes are dirty

11. It’s Friday

12. The gym is too busy after work

13. The gym is too busy before work

14. The treadmill hurts my knees

15. I have friends in town visiting

16. I want to make it to happy hour

17. I ate a big lunch

18. I forgot my tennis shoes at home

19. I worked out yesterday

20. I don’t want to shower again today

21. The newest episode of Game of Thrones is on tonight

22. I’ll workout tomorrow

23. I don’t know what to do once I get to the gym.

24. I never see my family if I workout

25.  The weightroom smells bad

26. It’s rainy

27. It’s sunny

28. I think I’m getting sick

29. My cell phone doesn’t get great service at the gym

30. My headphones broke and I can’t workout without music

I could go on. There is always going to be an excuse to NOT workout. Go ahead and complain about all of the reasons why you shouldn’t workout … and then get your butt to the gym and get your workout in despite all of these reasons!

When people find out I am a personal trainer, I’m always shocked at what comes out of their mouth next, especially when I am out in social situations.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered that people feel that they can open up to me, and I truly do love what I do and could talk fitness and nutrition all day long. But, I’m not a health robot who is programmed to eat perfect all of the time, I don’t workout during every spare moment, and I do eat pizza and drink beer every so often.

Here are 7 suggestions on what NOT to say to a personal trainer when you meet them at a party.

1. “Are you going to eat that brat?”

Yes, would you like to watch?

I swear I feel like a circus performer sometimes. Everyone watch as the Personal Trainer will now eat the Oreo! The crowd gets silent as they all wonder will she really do it…!

One brat at a party isn’t unhealthy, it’s usually the chips, dips, cookies and coke that comes along with the brat at the cookout. Also, one brat won’t derail anyone’s diet, 5 brats will.

If I am at your party don’t be shocked when I eat the burger you cook on the grill and please don’t apologize for having ‘unhealthy’ foods at your party. I am not judging you – I will probably eat a little bit of everything there, so don’t judge me back.

2. “Do you let your husband eat whatever he wants?”

I don’t control my husband. He is a big boy and can eat whatever he wants.

Living with me, he knows what is healthy and he can make his own choices. He knows I’m not going to join him when he has doughnuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch and chinese take out for dinner, but I also won’t stop him.

3. “I’m going to start _____ diet next month.”

My response is always the same. STOP DIETING. Eating healthy and exercise shouldnt be a diet, you need to make it a lifestyle. Dieting is unsustainable and will most likely drive you to be hungrier and eat unhealthier than you would have if you just ‘ate normal’.

Most of the diets people mention are crazy ideas such as taking out all of the carbohydrates in your life, or eating only meat and vegetables for a year. Like I said, almost anything inserted in that blank is crazy and unsustainable. I can very easily get into a long discussion with you on why that ‘diet’ isn’t healthy for your body, but not during my social hour.

My suggestion? Stop eating processed foods. Eat real foods.

4. “I hate exercising.”

That’s fine, there are plenty of things I hate doing too.

But, if you want to build muscle, you have to work them. If you want to get a stronger heart you have to get it pumping. If you hate running, don’t run. If you don’t like to lift weights in the gym, there are plenty of ways you can lose weight, tone and tighten your muscles that don’t involve forms of exercise you hate.

I talk a lot about sustainability and making it a lifestyle. Take the time to find a form of exercise you enjoy such as playing basketball, join a kickball team, group classes, yoga – I don’t care what it is. But making a blanket statement saying you hate all forms of exercise is a waste of my time.

5. “How do I stretch my ….”

This is one of my favorites, and you would be surprised how often someone asks me this. There is always someone at the party that has a tight shoulder, hamstring, hip etc. It’s never an easy muscle to stretch, like your calf, it’s always an obscure muscle that is ailing them and the only way for me to explain how to stretch it is to physically get down on the floor and contort myself into a weird-looking position.

Not doing it at a party.

6. “I’ve tried the exercise and eating healthy thing and it doesn’t work.”

My guess is you’ve tried it for all of 2 weeks. Or maybe you really gave it a go and made it a few months.

Trying the eating and exercising thing takes a lifetime. It never is easy to turn down a milkshake or french fries, but your resilience gets stronger and your taste buds change – so it does get easier.

The exercise and health thing isn’t something that clicks in and works, and then you are good to go for the year. It is a choice you make every day you wake up. Every time you put your tennis shoes on and go to the gym or opt to cook at home vs. order a pizza for delivery.

That’s what’s not working for you, you want it to be easy. If it was easier than everyone would get it.

7. “I weigh ____. What should I weigh?”

We are at a party people. You aren’t my client. I don’t know your body or health history. So, asking me to throw out a random number and determine what your weight should be, is about as accurate as me predicting the weather.

Don’t avoid me at a party – but do leave work at home and let’s enjoy ourselves!

Next time you take your little one to the park, don’t just get a 30 minute walk in. Use this stroller workout to get your heart rate pumping and muscles burning all during your babe’s nap time.

In between each exercise, fast walk for 5 minutes. If you have a jogging stroller, feel free to jog the 5 minute intervals. A fast walk is not leisurly, you should be sweating by the end of the 5 minutes.

See the full workout below

Warm up with a brisk 5 minute walk around the park.

Next, do 80 jumping jacks

Fast walk for another 5 minutes and then complete 30 alternating lunges.

5 More minutes of walking, and end with 15 pushups and a 1 minute plank.

Repeat.

Here’s the workout – now get your stroller out of the back of your garage and start moving!

Email me if you have any questions! Lets put our strollers to work!

Try early morning workouts

This is coming from someone who is NOT a morning person. I despise getting up early, but I love having my workout done with in the AM and I love the energy and endorphins I get from an early morning exercise session.

This doesn’t mean that I workout every morning (even though I would love to). I’m still awful at getting up in the AM, so I usually schedule an early morning run and if I’m weight training, I will do that in the afternoon. This way I am able to concentrate more on my workout.

You will love getting your workout done early to improve your mood during the day and free up your evenings to spend time wtih family or do other hobbies you enjoy.

Make it routine

You most likely won’t love exercise during the first month… or even second. You need to commit to exercising and give your body a chance to catch up. Try out different workouts and see what works best for your schedule. They say it takes about 6 weeks to create a habit – so don’t give up if you aren’t in love with exercising after a few days.

Find a routine that works for you and stick to it. Maybe you find working out during lunch is your best chance to workout, or you bring your workout clothes to the office and go straight to the office after work (or else you won’t make it out again). Go into work 30 min early, so you can leave 30 min early. Use these first few weeks to figure out what your routine is and then don’t let yourself skip a workout!

Make it fun

Working out shouldn’t be a chore. If you hate running – try cycling. If you don’t like working out in a group – don’t sign up for a group class, or vice versa if you can’t motivate yourself to workout – find a buddy that will ensure you make it to the gym. Sign up for a sports team, join a local club or hire a trainer that will vary your workouts, but whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it.

Once exercise becomes work, you’ll start skipping workouts and dreading the 60 min you have to

Hire a trainer

Ok, I’m biased, but I’ve worked with clients and seen first hand how they have started out unmotivated and a few months in, refuse to skip a workout. A trainer will make sure your workouts are interesting and continually progressing so you see results. They give you someone to talk to during your workout if you hate working out alone and they make sure you don’t skip a workout because you always have a set appointment with them. They will make suggestions about upcoming community runs to get involved in – and might even run a fun run with you! Find a trainer that wants to keep you engaged in your health and fitness and isn’t just there putting in the time!

Don’t Overdo it

The easiest way to kill a good habit is by overdoing it. Listen to your body and give yourself a break. In order for this to become sustainable in your lifestyle you have to make sure you are taking care of your body through good nutrition, stretching and proper rest. Without working in stretching and rest days in to your exercise routine you are more prone to injury which is another great way to lose your love of exercise.

If you go into an exercise plan with a crazy weight loss goal, or unattainable fitness goal you will quickly get overwhelmed. When you are starting out, simply exercise to get your heart pumping and endorphins racing. Exercise to exercise, not to win the next body competition – those goals can come later.

Make it your ‘ME time’

At work you are surrounded by your boss and co workers, at home you are taking care of your family, my best tip to fall in love with exercise is to make your workouts your ME time. Get a good playlist on your i pod and zone out for an hour. Exercise is my stress release after a bad day. It let’s me clear my head and take a step away from everything and just be in my thoughts. I have gotten some of my best thinking done during my workouts. Sometimes I will even bring a notepad and paper with me to jot down the ideas that come to me during my workouts.

Instead of stress-eating or stress-drinking … I always suggest to exercise after a long day and release the tension that has worked up! After your workout, you will be better able to take care of your family and deal with the stress at work because you made time for yourself.

What would you add to my list? How did you fall in love with exercise?

In order to get the most out of your personal training sessions here are my suggestions on how to NOT show up for your next personal training session.

How NOT to show up for a personal training session:

1. Sick

Noone wants to be around you if you are sick. Additionally, if you aren’t feeling well, your workout will suffer. Typically if it’s above the neck, getting a cardio session in can be good for you to work out the sickness, if the congestion is in your chest, that’s a good signal to take a day off. Either way, talk to your trainer, most likely they won’t want you coming in to waste a session if you aren’t feeling your best, they may recommend getting in some moderate cardio to keep you moving but not to over-exert.

2. Dehydrated

Working out dehydrated is counterproductive. You won’t have any energy to get through the workout and you’re doing your body a disservice by dehydrating it further. Make sure the day of your workout you drink enough water throughout the day to best prepare.

3. Haven’t eaten all day

Similarly to coming in dehydrated, you won’t have any energy to get through the workout and you most likely will feel nauseous from lack of nutrition! If you don’t eat, or don’t eat nutritious food, your workout will be worthless. You will most likely need to take numerous breaks and get light-headed quickly. Pay attention to what your pre and post workout eats are on days you workout with a personal trainer so you won’t be slacking during the workout!

4. Hungover

Ok, so if you’re hungover, working out probably is a good thing to get the toxins out and your blood pumping, but don’t complain when 15 minute in you feel like you are going to vomit. Get yourself to the bathroom, take care of business and let’s get back out  to lifting! If you do show up hungover, expect to be hurting during the workout. This one is usually easily avoided. Don’t schedule early weekend workouts if you know you enjoy going out late and having 1 too many drinks on Friday night.

It’s OK to show up:

1. In a bad mood

As a trainer I love when my clients come to their session in a bad mood. They are able to take that angry energy and channel it into an intense workout!

2. Stressed

Similar to being in a bad mood, coming to a workout stressed is a great way to relive your stress. You will walk out of the workout feeling as if you have a huge weight off your shoulders. You most likely won’t want to workout walking into the session due to whatever is stressing you out, but make yourself show up and let the endorphins released during your workout take over!

3. Not wanting to workout

Lets be serious, 85% of the time we don’t WANT to workout – we do it because we’ve committed to our health, we know it’s good for us and it has become routine. Don’t let yourself get lazy and skip a workout because you simply don’t want to workout. It’s OK to complain during the workout and not want to be there, as long as you show up!

You know your body best, listen to it –  and don’t let your mind make excuses and talk you out of a good workout.

Don’t have time to get your workout in?

Here is a quick 15 minute office workout you can do while you are at your desk. Do some kickbacks while you are talking on the phone, or add some chair squats into your day while you are waiting for an email from your boss, either way you are moving and walking more than you would simply sitting at your desk all day!

15 Minute Office Workout

Chair Squats

Start by standing and squat down so that your bum touches the chair and drive your legs back to a standing position. If you have a tall chair and want to get in a deeper squat push the chair back and do a full squat – make sure you aren’t wearing  too tight of pants – go to deep and they may rip 🙂

Desk Pushups

*make sure you have a sturdy desk before attempting this.

With your hands firmly on the edge of your desk, and your body at an angle, lower your chest towards your desk and push back up into your starting position.

Chair Tricep Dips

Start with the heels of your hand on a sturdy chair and your butt just off the chair. Keeping your hips as close to the chair as possible, bend your elbows and lower yourself towards the floor. Push back up so that your arms are straight. Repeat 8 – 12 times.

Desk Kickbacks

From a standing position, brace yourself with your desk and kick your right leg back, squeezing your right glute muscle. Continue to lift it upwards for a set of 12. Repeat with left leg. In addition to kickbacks you can raise your leg in the air and draw small circles with your foot while keeping the glute muscle engaged.

During each exercise, always remember to keep your belly button pulled in towards your spine to keep your abs engaged, and never forget to breathe!

Stop sitting around so much in your office and start moving! What are other exercises you do while you are at work?