Exercise During Pregnancy May Improve Perimenopausal Fitness
Weight-bearing exercise during pregnancy helps women maintain overall fitness and better cardiovascular health during the perimenopausal period, according to the results of a follow-up observational study reported in the November issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
“Although continuing regular weight-bearing exercise throughout pregnancy and adulthood maintains fitness and/or lowers cardiovascular risk, the specific long-term effects of continuing regular weight-bearing exercise during pregnancy are unknown,” writes James F. Clapp III, MD, from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. “The purpose of the current study was to examine this question in a longitudinal study of a cohort of women initially studied serially before, during, and for 1 year after pregnancy 18-20 years ago.”
This follow-up study conducted at the General Clinical Research Center at the University of Vermont looked at the fitness and cardiovascular risk profile of 39 women initially studied before, during, and after pregnancy. Paired student t test, analysis of variance, and linear regression were used to analyze data.
Compared with women who stop exercising during pregnancy, those who voluntarily maintain their exercise regimen during pregnancy continue to exercise at a higher level as time progresses. With time, they gain less weight (3.4 vs 9.9 kg), deposit less fat (2.2 vs 6.7 kg), have increased fitness, and have lower cardiovascular risk.
Limitations of this study include large differences in current training regimens between the individuals in both the exercise group and the no-exercise group, preventing separating the long-term effects of exercise during pregnancy from those of exercise after pregnancy. Another limitation was the small but significant between-group difference in prepregnancy maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max) values.
“Women who continue weight-bearing exercise during pregnancy maintain their long-term fitness and have a low cardiovascular risk profile in the perimenopausal period,” Dr. Clapp writes. “The relationship between current exercise volume and many indices of cardiovascular risk was nonlinear, emphasizing that multiple factors other than exercise influence these indices. The same was true for metabolic risk as assessed using multiple indices of insulin sensitivity.”
Clinical Context
Regular weight-bearing exercise during pregnancy and throughout adulthood is known to maintain fitness and to reduce cardiovascular risk. However, previous research has not addressed specific long-term effects of continuing regular weight-bearing exercise during pregnancy.
The current study tested the null hypothesis that continuing a vigorous weight-bearing exercise regimen during pregnancy had no apparent long-term effect on fitness and/or cardiovascular risk during perimenopause. The study also evaluated musculoskeletal, genitourinary, psychosocial, and other long-term outcomes, which the study authors will report separately.