Featuring Tamarah Calyniuk, MPT, CAFC

Video Title: Pregnancy Physiotherapy - Dynamic Warmup Duration: 2 minutes, 6 seconds

Dynamic warmup and cool down is really important while you're pregnant.

Probably best to engage in an activity for five to ten minutes previous your exercise program, such as stationary bike or walking on the treadmill lightly and then you can follow through into some dynamic stretching exercises.

When you're doing dynamic stretching exercises, these are exercises that generally relate to what you're going to be doing in your full exercise program. So it may be marching on the spot, swinging your legs, mini lunges, side stepping.

You want to move from smaller muscle groups and smaller movements to larger muscle groups and larger movements. And this should take you around five to ten minutes as well. At the end of your full exercise program you want to make sure that you do a proper cool down because the body needs to cool down appropriately during pregnancy.

Ensuring that you're keeping a good body temperature and not getting too hot is very important, hence the cool down becomes important. So again, on the elliptical or just stationary bike or walking on the treadmill is a good idea for a cool down. And then, of course, you want to finish with your static stretching.

Temperature regulation in pregnancy is really important. You want to make sure that you're not overheating. So this is keeping a good eye on how you're feeling, if you're feeling dizzy or dehydrated, make sure you stop and rest, and even potentially terminate your exercise program that day.

Or if you're feeling too fatigued, that can hike up your body temperature as well, so therefore, make sure you do a proper cool down and a static stretch at the end.

Of course, before any exercise program you want to make sure that you are consulting your physician and you're okay to exercise. With a dynamic warmup and cool down, it may be best to visit with a personal trainer who specializes in pre and postnatal who can assis you in building the appropriate program.

Presenter: Tamarah Nerreter, Physiotherapist, Surrey, BC

Local Practitioners: Physiotherapist