A selective review of prenatal exercise guidelines since the 1950s until present: Written for women, health care professionals, and female athletes

Abstract

Background Traditional society values have long-held the notion that the pregnant woman is construed as a risk to her growing fetus and is solely responsible for controlling this risk to ensure a healthy pregnancy. It is hard to ignore the participation of pregnant women in sport and exercise today, especially in high-level sports and popular fitness programs such as CrossFit™. This challenges both traditional and modern prenatal exercise guidelines from health care professionals and governing health agencies. The guidelines and perceived limitations of prenatal exercise have drastically evolved since the 1950’s. Aim The goal of this paper is to bring awareness to the idea that much of the information regarding exercise safety during pregnancy is hypersensitive and dated, and the earlier guidelines had no scientific rigor. Research is needed on the upper limits of exercise intensity and exercise frequency, as well as their potential risks (if any) on the woman or fetus. Discussion Pregnant women are physically capable of much more than what was once thought. There is still disagreement about the types of exercise deemed appropriate, the stage at which exercise should begin and cease, the frequency of exercise sessions, as well as the optimal level of intensity during prenatal exercise. Conclusion Research is needed to determine the upper limits of exercise frequency and intensity for pregnant women who are already trained. Healthy women and female athletes can usually maintain their regular training regime once they become pregnant.

Association of objectively measured physical fitness during pregnancy with maternal and neonatal outcomes. The GESTAFIT Project

“…Thus, women were allocated either to an exercise or a control group depending on their personal preference and convenience to attend the intervention sessions and the wave they had been recruited for. In this way, high dropout rates were avoided, which is one of the most frequent methodological barriers in antenatal exercise research, as previously argued [24]. Briefly, the intervention group underwent a supervised aerobic and strength training intervention from the 17 th gestational week until delivery.…”

Association of self‐reported physical fitness with pain during pregnancy: The GESTAFIT Project

“…Due to some difficulties related to the recruitment of overweight‐obese pregnant women, which are usually observed in studies performed in pregnant women, slightly modifications in the inclusion/exclusion criteria were performed …”

Influence of a Concurrent Exercise Training Program During Pregnancy on Colostrum and Mature Human Milk Inflammatory Markers: Findings From the GESTAFIT Project

“…Consequently, we had to perform pseudorandomization, whereby we allocated 29 women to the intervention group and 26 to the control group. Then, we ran a second wave of recruitment to increase the control group sample size (because difficulty maintaining pregnant participants in control groups had been reported; Kehler & Heinrich, 2015). In this second wave, a total of 30 pregnant women showed interest in participating.…”

“…had been reported; Kehler & Heinrich, 2015). In this second wave, a total of 30 pregnant women showed interest in participating.…”