Anticipating the nauseous stage

[tangdalun]

Some background: I strength train 5 days a week and do yoga (usually yin yoga) 6-7 days a week.
Now I’m 5 weeks 2 days along, and am quite winded from simple workouts and have scaled back.
However for some reason I am anticipating on being pretty sick for the rest of the 1st trimester. I don’t know why but I just have a feeling I will be. I’m not afraid of having to rest but I really want to remain active.

Were there any workouts you felt good about while being in the nauseous stage?

 

[sashakasha]

@tangdalun Not everyone gets sick during pregnancy, I wasn’t at all. Just my 2 cents.

 

[candycrush1005]

@sashakasha It can vary between people and also between pregnancies! Two male babies, barely any nausea. This female pregnancy, nausea so bad I had to sit backward at the beach because the waves made me . Have to say though, the nausea doesn’t affect my workout motivation at all compared to the FATIGUE.

 

[sashakasha]

@candycrush1005 That’s what I was thinking as well, I had no desire to exercise because I was so tired and slept a lot. Even when not sleeping, I was always laying down due to zero energy.

 

[kjcolt]

@tangdalun I felt sick but was never so nauseous that I couldn’t get my butt out the door at all. Typically I’d tell myself “just get out there and see how it goes, you can come home if it’s too much”. Once I was moving, my nausea almost always went away. YMMV of course but with this approach I was able to run, spin, and lift the entire first trimester (and have continued into my 2nd).

 

[robertvox]

@tangdalun I was doing DownDog prenatal yoga, and they introduced me to a modification that made yoga immensely more tolerable when I wasn't feeling great. Instead of going from, say, forward fold to mountain or vice versa, they had me do a brief pause with my hands on my thighs in between. I was getting really woozy with the swift head motions, and this pause made those transitions so much easier.

 

[tangdalun]

@robertvox Noted! That same transition had my head buzzing before I was even pregnant too

 

[emmacaroline]

@tangdalun I actually found that my nausea nearly disappeared while I was exercising! Granted, I didn’t have severe nausea and I never threw up. But if you do start feeling sick, it might be worth trying to work out and seeing if it makes you feel better or worse.

 

[bdmulneaux]

@tangdalun I found that the time of day and movements I chose made the difference. I was my sickest in the evening so I chose morning workouts- and avoided anything that made blood rush to/from my head (mostly burpees lol).

 

[ula]

@tangdalun Not everyone has a long nauseous stage - mine literally lasted the 2 days until I realized I was pregnant.

In the event you do have a bunch of nausea I’d focus more on figuring out creative ways to squeeze in workouts (or light activity) when you’re feeling up to it rather than trying to plan for workouts that you are trying to power through with horrible nausea.

 

[tangdalun]

@ula Y’all are giving me hope!
I’ve been nauseous for a total of one day so far and it only lasted a few hours and it was before I even knew.

 

[adit]

@tangdalun Weeks 6-11 were the worst for me. I lost 5lbs the first trimester because I had zero appetite and was sickened by meat and eggs (which my husband typically cooks). Mostly I wanted carbs and fresh fruits and veggies so that’s what I ate. I also drank a LOT of water. I was making it to the gym maybe once a week at this point. Sometimes I’d walk the dog or do yoga and that was all I could do for those 5 weeks because I wasn’t eating hardly anything so had no energy. I will say, if you do get nauseous, try eating any amount of protein in the morning that you can and go for a walk outside even if it’s just 5-10 minutes. Also don’t be afraid to tell your husband to stop cooking eggs every morning!

 

[tangdalun]

@adit I am so curious what my aversions will be. Eggs have always turned me off a bit

 

[emmacaroline]

@tangdalun Mine were so random, and unfortunately things that I normally ate really frequently! My biggest aversions were tomato sauce and broccoli. But most vegetables were unappealing, unfortunately

 

[adit]

@tangdalun Oh and I only threw up food once, every other time it was just stomach bile from my stomach being empty, that’s when I’d get really nauseous. Pretty much all day but especially when my stomach was empty.

 

[taejon]

@tangdalun I was one of the lucky ones who didn’t experience any nausea and was able to continue working out all first trimester. I did have to fight some fatigue, but working out really helped with that too so it was good motivation to exercise!

 

[tangdalun]

@taejon I was feeling v fatigued and almost didn’t go yesterday but told myself just get there and do a little something and see how you feel and I ended up completing the entire workout albeit at a slower pace but hey it was something. I felt like it helped too

 

[jamie777]

@tangdalun I had very little nausea with my first two pregnancies - nothing significant enough that it prevented exercise. It was the fatigue that really got me! I felt like I needed so much more sleep. Fatigue and nausea both usually improve in the second trimester.

It seems you're really health conscious, so I thought I'd mention ways to prevent nausea. (1) Take a high quality liposomal vitamin B supplement, like Quicksilver Scientific; (2) Eat plenty of protein (like 75-100g per day). Good luck!

 

[cz1611]

@tangdalun Ask your mother how her pregnancy was. It's partly genetic what kind of symptoms you get. In my case I didn't get nausea but I did get super sensitive to smells like rotten food, bins, strong food smells. My mother was the same.
Not a guarantee of course but could be an indicator of what to expect.

Also re: nausea - many books say that náusea is a good sign of a healthy pregnancy. Not having it is not a bad sign though - lots of people don't get any or have it mild.

I had (have) plenty of pregnancy symptoms but people really freaked me out about the nausea and I expected it too - It just didn't happen for me unless someone opened a bin near me or lit a cigarette.

Saying that, I was absolutely floored by fatigue so that killed my exercise worse than anything else. Literally lie down all day dead tired.

 

[tangdalun]

@cz1611 My mom was quite sick with me. People are freaking me out about it too. I’ve already invested in ginger chews, sprite, and placed saltine crackers by the bed.

I’m already super fatigued, getting out of bed is a workout in itself. I got tuckered out doing a few loads of laundry and had to take a sit.