Supertraining

The below may be of interest:

Exercise During Pregnancy Leads To A Healthier Heart In Moms- And
Babies-To-Be

http://www.the-aps.org/press/journal/08/9.htm

New study shows exercise-exposed fetuses have improved cardiovascular
activity throughout development

SAN DIEGO, CA – Studies have shown that exercise has a positive
effect on mothers-to-be, and no detrimental impact on their
developing offspring. A new study further extends the knowledge of
research in this area and has found that not only do women benefit
from exercise in pregnancy, but their fetuses do too.

These findings are contained in a new study entitled, Effects of
Maternal Exercise on the Fetal Heart. It was conducted by Linda E.
May of the Department of Anatomy, Kansas City University of Medicine
and Biosciences (KCUMB), Kansas City, MO; Kathleen F. Gustafson, Anda
Popescu and Mihai Popescu of the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, KUMC,
Kansas City, KS; and William B. Drake, Department of Pediatric
Cardiology, Children's Mercy Hospital/UMKC School of Medicine, Kansas
City, MO. Dr. May will present her team's findings at the 121st
annual meeting of the American Physiological Society (APS; www.the-
APS.org/press), part of the Experimental Biology 2008 scientific
conference. Research support was provided by HBIC pilot Funds and
KCUMB intramural grants.

The Study

The researchers hypothesized that maternal exercise during pregnancy
can have a beneficial effect on fetal cardiac programming by reducing
fetal heart rate and increasing heart rate variability. As a result,
a key component of the research involved magnetocardiography (MCG),
the magnetic correlate of an electrocardiogram (ECG). MCG is a safe,
non-invasive method to record the magnetic field surrounding the
electrical currents generated by the fetal heart and nervous system.
In addition to measures of heart rate and variability, the MCG allows
for the study of the cardiac waveforms to measure of cardiac time
intervals.

For the study, fetal recordings were obtained from 24 weeks to term.
Maternal and fetal events were recorded in real time. Fetal movements
such as breathing, body and mouth movements were recorded using the
MCG in order to determine fetal state and to track heart rate
accelerations.   The recordings were done at four-week intervals. The
data were derived from fetal MCG conducted in the second and third
trimesters of pregnancy and in the postnatal period. The data
captured was used to measure fetal heart rate (HR) as derived from
the fetal MCG recordings.

Ten women participated in the study. Each was classified as either an
exerciser (n=5) or control (n=5). The women were grouped according to
the frequency, intensity, and length of physical activity they
engaged in (i.e., moderate-to-heavy intensity aerobic activity for 30
minutes per session three times per week or the metabolic
equivalent).

Findings

The researchers found:

      there were significantly lower heart rates among fetuses that
had been exposed to maternal exercise. The heart rates among non-
exposed fetuses were higher, regardless of the fetal activity or the
gestational age.

      at each stage of gestation the differences between the fetal
heart rates of the two groups were statistically significant (p<0.05
using a t-test with equal variances).

      the analysis of short- and long-term heart variability at 28,
32 and 36 weeks of gestation in exercise-exposed vs. non-exercise-
exposed fetuses were statistically different at 32 wks.  This trend
is still seen at 36 wks, however it is not significant.

Conclusions

According to Dr. May, "This study suggests that a mother who
exercises may not only be imparting health benefits to her own heart,
but to her developing baby's heart as well. As a result of this pilot
study, we plan to continue the study to include more pregnant
women."

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Jamie Carruthers
Wakefield, UK