I am not a doctor; I have no medical training.  This article contains my personal experience and whenever in doubt you should just go ahead and Ask Your Doctor!

Time to Exercise

I gave up all thoughts of exercise when I started feeling pelvic girdle pain (PGP).  That and twinges of sciatic nerve ouchi-ness.  Walking around the block was out of the question so what chance does actual exercise have?  And I’m not into prenatal Yoga DVDs either; don’t ask why because I don’t really know.  Maybe it harkens me back to the day of my Richard Simmons Sweatin’ to the Oldies VHS tapes.  It probably makes me feel too ridiculous.  Nope, not for me.

Disk Golf

However, Frisbee Golf (a.k.a. Frolf) totally counts as exercise!  Right up my alley since the ‘holes’ aren’t far apart and I have to do a lot of sitting/resting while waiting for my fellow Frolfers to take their turns.  (It’s an extra added bonus that when it’s my turn again there are several people willing to help haul me back to my feet.)  And even then all I have to do is swing my arm, easy!  Even for a complete novice like me, and I had too much fun for it to be ‘exercise.’

I made nine ‘holes’ on a local course before I even started feeling the Pelvic Girdle Pain acting up.  Luckily I had my husband to lean against while hobbling back to the car.  We both had a lot of fun actually, for our second try at it, we’re even considering buying our own ‘Drivers’ though honestly you can do this with regular Frisbees if you want!

A side note, this is the kind of sport you can play from spring into winter.  Maybe it’s even better in winter because when our discs go way off course we won’t have to spend an extra 12 minutes beating around the undergrowth until we find them again!

Swimming

Now, I love love love to swim but lately this option has been making me grumpy.  People come up to me willy nilly and say things they can’t have possibly thought through like “…You should go swimming Leah, swimming is great for pregnant women!” and I’m forced to give them an ‘are-you-stupid?’ look.  Yeah right, like becoming pregnant grants you instant access to water.

I don’t have one family member with a pool in their yard and I don’t care for the lakeside right now.  Fighting massive amounts of sweaty beach goers was annoying when I wasn’t pregnant.  Not to mention the brain-thrashing stress of finding a parking space.  The harm might outweigh the benefits.

There is a YMCA fairly close to me, sure, but I’m in a lower tax bracket so I’ll be using that $60-70 dollars per month gym fee towards things like car seats.

Unfortunately for me, swimming is out.  But if you’re luckier than I am and have pool access, enjoy it for me!

Stretching

I love, absolutely loooooove the feeling I get when I stretch.  If only I remembered to do it more often.  Yes, yes, I realize that Yoga is stretching but… stretching without instruction feels better to me; more natural.  I do it (stretching) whenever I realize that I’ve been too sedentary for too long.  It feels much, much, better than sitting there being absolutely inactive.  Added bonus, there’s no wrong way to do it.  Anything goes!  So long as it doesn’t end up being painful of course.

And if you don’t feel like stretching (I’ve been there too!) remember that instant feel-better is only a couple of deeeeeeep breaths away!

Weight training

Personally I don’t care too much for weight training, ranks up there with Yoga.  But if it’s your cup of tea, pick up a couple of 5lb dumbbells.  Or, if you don’t have them or aren’t ready to lay out the money for it, just look to your pantry and pick up a couple of soup cans.  They feel too light initially, but they do get heavier with repetition.

I might try some resistance training however, they used to make us do isometrics way back in elementary school, remember?   Go to Youtube and look up Dave Hubbard’s 90-second isometric workout.  It’s short and you can feel your muscles working.  Best yet you don’t have to get out of your chair to do it!

Dancing

Oh Great Googly!  It can sure be fun to boogie down!  I don’t, however, boogie down much with my big belly.  Unless you count show tunes in the shower.  Research does show that it’s far better to move anything at all than be completely sedentary though so…  There’s nooo business like shoooow business like noooo business I knoooooooooow..!

Tennis

I don’t really play tennis; at least I haven’t since I was very little.  I don’t even know the rules completely.  What I do know is that I find it incredibly gratifying to be able to hit a ball with a racket when someone hits it towards (or at) me.  I don’t even need a partner though since the public court has a slab of wood to hit balls against if you’re solo.   Ooh!  I just remembered that the park a few blocks over has an old tennis court!  It’s old looking, lots of weeds growing in the cracks but it’s hardly ever occupied.  If I could just get a hold of some rackets and a ball (hello Goodwill!) and of course if I can just get Jason to try it out with me, I’d be gold!

What should you do?