Staying physically fit during pregnancy might not just help keep you healthy—evidence now suggests it may lead your child to move more as an adult.
While scientists have made this observation before in people, they couldn’t tell if this effect was caused by a mother-to-be’s exercise habits or by how she influenced her child after he or she was born.
So a research team led by Baylor College of Medicine divided a group of female mice who enjoyed running into two groups: One was allowed access to exercise wheels before and during pregnancy while the other wasn’t.
Mice in the first group made good use of their opportunity, running an average of 10 kilometers—a little over six miles—a night during early pregnancy and running or walking about 3 kilometers a night at the beginning of their third trimesters.
Mice pups born to the more active mothers were about 50% more physically active than those born to the non-exercising mothers. What’s more, this extra activity persisted into the animals’ later years.
Results were published in The FASEB Journal.
