How this Dubai-based Brit is keeping fit during pregnancy

Laura Morgan is about four months pregnant and still working out as she has made herself a promise to keep fit.

Dubai - With lots of prenatal exercise classes in Dubai now on offer, she said she is going to try out a few of them.

 Being pregnant doesn't mean your dedication to fitness has to come to a halt. In fact, it can help improve stamina and even shorten labour. And that's exactly why British expatriate Laura Morgan refused to put her feet up when she found out she was expecting her first child recently.
"I made a promise to myself when I fell pregnant to be as healthy as possible and remain active, and I chose to do this by going to the gym," she told Khaleej Times.
Although admittedly she said the first 12 weeks were a "huge struggle" battling tiredness and nausea, she's used the hype surrounding the Dubai Fitness Challenge to motivate her during her first few months of pregnancy.
"During the first trimester I gave the gym a rest, but since then I have fortunately been able to keep up what I was doing pre-pregnancy."
As someone who really enjoys weight training, initially Morgan thought she would have to put that on the back burner in exchange for less strenuous activities. But with a personal trainer on board, she's been able to keep her preferred approach to fitness up.
"My trainer Mike has been really good at motivating me and advising me on what I can and can't do. We are mostly sticking to the same sorts of exercises as before, but we're just altering the techniques a little."
Although some gym-goers tend to focus on beating personal bests, that's not where Morgan's priorities lie during pregnancy fitness journey.
"We are focusing on exercises which will help during pregnancy and hopefully birth. We monitor my heart rate in my sessions and make sure I feel comfortable in what I'm doing; I'm not trying to beat any personal bests."
Since the start of the Dubai Fitness Challenge, Morgan said it's brought to light an array of different fitness activities to suit the mother-to-be. And though she is not tracking the number of moves she does each day using the app, she is fulfilling the 30 minutes for 30 days promise.
"I have tried something different since it started too, Yoga being one of them, although I'm not particularly good at it and I don't find I get as much out of the hour as I do weight training in the gym."
But with lots of prenatal exercise classes in Dubai now on offer, she said she is going to try out a few of them.
"I think it's also a good way to meet other mothers-to-be," she said, adding that the introduction of the challenge has been two-fold for her in terms of keeping fit while pregnant and keeping social too.

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