The babies born to women who weight trained during their pregnancy are born with ideal birth weights. Prenatal weight training is the first step in ensuring that your child has a healthy start in life!

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Decreased Risks Associated with Prenatal Weight Training:

• Decreases in the severity and frequency of low back pain during pregnancy

• Decreased risk of gestational diabetes

• Decreased risk of delivering post term or through caesarean delivery

• Fewer complications during delivery; including fetal distress

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Pregnancy Precautions

Although not feeble, fragile, and frail, pregnant women should be aware of certain precautions that are unique to them and their bodies.

Be sure to consult your doctor before beginning an exercise program or continuing an exercise program after the first trimester. Your goal should be to simply maintain highest level of fitness while ensuring your safety and the safety of your baby.

Every muscle group should be targeted and the following should be emphasized: inner thigh, hamstrings, glutes, upper back, and shoulders.

Pregnant women should avoid lifting the amount of weight that they were capable of lifting pre-pregnancy. Be sure to use low resistance. StrollerFit classes utilize therabands and exertubes to provide the perfect balance of resistance and safety.

Use caution when stretching either before or after an exercise session. Joint laxity is increased during pregnancy due to the increased amounts of the hormones elastin and relaxin that are being produced. Joint laxity is the amount of movement the ligaments allow through the joint and during pregnancy the joints can be easily stressed or strained.

Movements to Avoid

• Avoid exercises that require bending from the hips

• Avoid exercises in the supine position after the first trimester due to increased pressure on the arteries surrounding the heart

• Avoid overhead lifting

• Avoid straining or holding the breath

Getting Started

Before beginning an exercise program or continuing an exercise program past the first trimester, be sure to consult your doctor. You may may want to join a group exercise program specializing in pre- and postnatal fitness such as StrollerFit or you may choose to exercise on your own. Many books are available to help guide you through exercise and pregnancy safely and effectively. A good place to start is 'Exercising Through Your Pregnancy" by James Clapp. Resistance bands and tubing can be purchased at your local sporting goods store or online at www.strollerfit.com.

Every woman hopes to have a healthy and safe pregnancy. Through prenatal weight training you can increase the chances that both you and your child remain healthy and safe though pregnancy, labor, and delivery!

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It is recommended that women with the following conditions DO NOT EXERCISE: Consult your doctor!

• Pregnancy induced high blood pressure

• Pre-term rupture of the membrane

• Pre-term labor during the prior or current pregnancy

• Incompetent cervix

• Persistent second to third trimester bleeding

• Intrauterine growth retardation

• Joint laxity due to increased amounts of elastin and relaxin

• Increased basal metabolic temperature

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References:

1. Brown LE. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 2003;24:53-54.

2. Clapp JF. Journal of Pediatrics. 1996;129(6):856-863.

3. Dumas GA, et al. Clinical Biomechanics. 1995;10(2):98-103.

4. Ezmerli NM. Prim Care Update Ob/Gyn. 2000;7: 260-265.

5. Howley ET, Franks BD. Health Fitness Instructors Handbook (3rd edition). Human Kinetics. Champaign, IL. 1997;358-360.

6. Kenney WL, et al. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription (5th edition). Williams and Wilkins. Media, PA. 1995; 235-239.

7. Mottola M, Wolfe L. Forty Ninth Annual Meeting of the ACSM, St. Louis, Missouri, May 2002.

8. Schoenfeld B. American Fitness. 2000;3:26-29.

9. Safran L. Pure Power. 2003;1:44-49,53-54.

Curt Conrad, CSCS, is Founder and President of StrollerFit Inc. an international product and franchise company that helps parents exercise with their babies. He is author of The StrollerFit ExerBook. His companies have helped thousands of clients enjoy better life through better fitness. http://www.strollerfit.com

Does Your Watch Keep Time with Fashion or Function?

M J Plaster

http://www.watches-4-u.net/brand-names.htm

If you haven't lived under a rock for the past few decades, then you surely know that Rolex stands for luxurious precision timekeeping, and you know that Timex is the premier name in inexpensive, reliable timekeeping. The vast area between the two, however, offers the widest selection of watches-in terms of function, fashion and price.

If you haven't lived under a rock for the past few decades, then you surely know that Rolex stands for luxurious precision timekeeping, and you know that Timex is the premier name in inexpensive, reliable timekeeping. The vast area between the two, however, offers the widest selection of watches-in terms of function, fashion and price.

We're all creatures of habit, and if one watch has served us well for years, it's natural that we gravitate toward the same brand and design each time we purchase a new watch. If you'd like to adorn your wrist with a different type of watch, perhaps a Swiss-quartz or high-fashion watch, we offer you a cheat sheet below, to help you get up to speed quickly with the many offerings available today.

If you've always thought of a watch as a functional necessity, you might add a few fashionable watches to your collection of watches and bracelets. If you've always worn high-fashion watches, consider adding an elegant watch to your collection, perhaps one with a golden mesh band. Whatever your requirements for timekeeping and your sense of fashion, you'll find a watch to suit your needs.

Impress Your Colleagues Watches

In the exclusive $5000-$2,000,000 range, you'll find a variety of luxury watches with names that escape the average man or woman on the street, and you won't find any of these online. Does Vacheron Constantin or Blancpain ring a bell?

Perception is everything, and a genuine Rolex brands you a person of discerning taste. If you live in New York City, you might be surprised to learn that you can buy a Rolex from a bona fide jeweler, most likely in the 10021 zip code. Forget all the hype about Rolex watches: people buy them for one reason. They are the most recognized status symbols in watches—everyone has heard of a Rolex, and a diamond and gold Rolex remains out of most everyone's price range.

Rolex watches are the most popular, and ownership is not a requirement for popularity. It might surprise you to learn that Rolex watches are not THE most accurate. It is unlikely that they take a year to make, and their resale value is of little importance to their buyers. Ah, Madison Avenue strikes again. Still, a Rolex watch is a fine watch and an investment in time. Give me status; give me a Rolex.

Other fine high-end watches include Cartier and Omega.

Affordable Treats

If you're a mere mortal with a penchant for arriving at your destination in style at the prescribed time (perhaps your job depends upon it), your idea of a good watch probably resides in the $100-500 range, and maybe even toward the lower end of that scale. You know the names Seiko, Swiss Army, Pulsar, and Citizen—just to name a few. The brands available in this price range offer a wide selection of choices ranging from simple and elegant leather bands, to mesh and link bands. You'll find analog and digital displays, timers, calendar displays, water-resistance, etc. in this price range. In fact, this price range offers the widest variety in terms of elegance, precision time keeping, and fashion choices. You can select from a number of watches using Swiss-quartz movements in this price range.

For the Fun of it

You'll find everything from designer-of-the-moment watches to household names such as Swatch and Fossil in the below-$100 range. The Fossil collections feature casual and dress watches in a dizzying array of choices, and provide dependable service as well. Fossil offers a lot of bang for the buck—fashion, dependability, variety.

Starting at $40, Swatch offers the most in up-to-the-minute throwaway watch fashion. The company began late in the 20th century as a consortium of Swiss watchmakers and worldwide graphical designers with one goal: to resurrect the analog watch. Swatch has come a long way since those days, and one of their newer creations, the Skin Diamond watch, can set you back a cool $2000. Of course, you won't run into yourself coming and going if you sport this new status symbol. The rest of us can settle with wearing our moods on our wrists.

And, last but certainly not least—depending on your current age—this category satisfies the Abercrombie-and-Fitch, Top 40 crowd with an assortment of watches from the king of the teen designers, Tommy Hilfiger himself.

Whatever your pleasure in marking time, find it, get it, own it, wear it. Mere mortals like us can browse and purchase the watches of our choice right here—onlin

M J Plaster is a successful author who provides information on shopping online for brand name watches and watches in general. M J Plaster has been a commercial freelance writer for almost two decades, most recently specializing in home and garden, the low-carb lifestyle, investing, and anything that defines la dolce vita.

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