Your Baby Today

OB/GYN: Roy Pitkin, M.D.

Is it safe for me to continue biking throughout my pregnancy?

By Roy Pitkin, M.D.

If your pregnancy is normal, you can probably continue biking throughout the first two trimesters. However, it's very important that you not exert yourself too strenuously. This causes you to divert blood flow from the uterus to your skeletal muscles. A reasonable guide is to make sure your pulse rate does not exceed 100 beats per minute. Secondly, you should avoid biking altogether during the last third or so of pregnancy because any spills in late pregnancy could cause damage to the baby or to the enlarging uterus; a stationary exercise bicycle would be much safer.

Roy Pitkin, M.D.

OB/GYN

Roy Pitkin, M.D., is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and is the former chair of the ob/gyn department at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. He is a frequent advisor to national health agencies on women's health issues and has received numerous international honors for this work.

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The content on these pages is provided as general information only and should not be substituted for the advice of your physician.