Thursday, January 31, 2008

How Often Should I Exercise?

In order to take advantage of all of the benefi ts that prenatal exercise can bestow, it is important to make exercise a regular part of your life. Aerobic activity should be performed three to six days per week, while strength training should be done two to three days per week.

However, remember that your rest days are just as important. You need to give yourself one day off each week from aerobic activity, no matter how great you are feeling. This will prevent fatigue. Also, you should perform your strength training exercises on non-consecutive days. For example, if you do a full body workout on Monday, you should not repeat these exercises until Wednesday. If you only do upper
body exercises on Monday, you can do lower body exercises on Tuesday.

Stretching can (and should)be done every day.

You will also want to practice the concept of “rest/activity cycling” when one hour of quiet time is set aside for every hour of exercise performed in one day. This also helps prevent fatigue.

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