Why Your Warm-ups Matter More in Pregnancy

Why do your warm-ups matter in pregnancy? Well, for the same reasons they matter when you’re not pregnant, just to an amplified degree! Let’s take a look at a few physiological changes that happen in the pregnant body and how they might impact your workouts.

Synovial fluid

Synovial fluid is a lubricant for joint surfaces where two bones meet and move against each other. It also contributes to joint stability by forming a seal between the two neighboring bones. During pregnancy, the production of synovial fluid decreases, which causes bones to sit more closely together at their joints while also lacking the supporting provided by the normal seal created by synovial fluid. Performing a proper warm-up before each workout may help to prevent joint related injuries by preparing these closely-seated joints to become temporarily better lubricated.

Relaxin

The hormone Relaxin is produced in higher amounts during pregnancy, and remains elevated until the placenta is delivered at birth. The effects it has on your joints and ligaments can remain in the body for months postpartum, until new tissues are formed in the absence of high Relaxin levels. The main role of the prenatal increase in Relaxin is to loosen pelvic ligaments and connective tissue to facilitate birth, but there is evidence of its affects in other nearby joints, like the hips and knees. This has proven to be correlated to an increase in musculoskeletal injuries. Inlcuding a warm-up period before any activity can greatly reduce the chance of injury due to Relaxin’s effects on the pelvic, hip, and knee joints by preparing your muscles to perform well and support the otherwise loosened joints.

Blood volume

Another effect of the production of Relaxin is that the blood vessels throughout the body relax and expand in preparation for increasing blood volume needed to sustain mom and baby throughout pregnancy. During the first trimester, the size of the blood vessels often increases faster than the amount of blood volume. This causes mom to be in a state of ‘underfill’, which is essentially a sustained state of low blood pressure. This can cause dizziness and lightheadedness, and can even contribute to nausea. Ensuring a warm-up period before each workout helps alleviate these symptoms by giving mom’s heart a chance to get more blood pumping before it gets redirected to the muscles during exercise.

While there is no definitive amount of warm-up time proven to be most effective, it is generally agreed upon that anywhere from a few minutes to 10 minutes is an adequate amount of movement to counteract these three issues that pregnant women face during exercise. It is of greatest importance if you are an early bird and get your workouts started right after rolling out of bed. For others, who have already had a significant amount of daily activity, it is more acceptable to err on the shorter side of the suggested warm up time frame with little/no increased risk.

I hope this was informative and as always I’d love if you share this resource with someone else who you think could benefit from it!

Get movin’, Momma!