The P.W.O.D. Diaries
“Pregnancy Workout of the Day”
Part 2
Today I am officially 39 weeks pregnant! I shared some of my experiences at week 19 in my previous blog post and here we are with 1-2 weeks left in this pregnancy! My goal is to share more of my experiences as a pregnant CrossFitter.
I’ve coached over twelve women in the past six years who have gone from day one of pregnancy to the day of labor as members at CrossFit Torque. I knew what to say to them, how to encourage them, what movements they should try to avoid and the ones to modify. I admitted months ago that when it came to myself I was having a hard time accepting some of the new realities!
Breathing: it didn’t get any better as pregnancy went on! Breathing is SO different when you’re growing something inside of you. Setting up equipment for my modified workouts meant taking a break after to catch my breath! The entire time watching my heart rate on my apple watch to ensure I was in a safe range. Some doctors say heart rate no higher than 160bpm, some say no higher than 145bpm, but I was way more comfortable keeping mine no higher than 135. Everyone is different and I do believe it depends on how you worked out and trained prior to getting pregnant. Rule of thumb: can you carry a conversation mid-workout? If Coach were to ask a question while you were squatting, could you answer without having to stop to catch your breath. If you can, you’re good; but if not, slow yourself down. I kept myself in check the entire time.
Lifting continued to change for me. I simply stayed at barbell or bar plus ten’s during my ‘strength’s and lifts. Worked on some volume and technique and didn’t worry about what the final weight was on the bar. I would find myself subbing the barbell out and using dumbbells for ease of bar path (the larger than life belly can get in the way!) Coming up with alternative exercises and creative ways to accomplish the same stimulus has been challenging but fun!
Eye on the prize. Keeping my baby and me healthy.
Being pregnant and having the ability to continue to CrossFit has been a blessing. My entire pregnancy I have felt great in terms of symptoms. I have kept up with 5 or 6 workouts a week, getting them done by 7am in order to feel great the rest of the day. I try to take what the rest of the class is doing and modify to something as similar as possible. Sometimes their rounds for time became an AMRAP for me; or their AMRAP became a three round for time for me. It all depended on how I felt that particular day.
It’s incredibly important for me to continue to stay healthy, for myself post pregnancy, but more importantly for the health of my baby. It’s a lot easier to just sit on the couch every day and let the baby do it’s thing, but man it feels great to get a sweat on and keep my body healthy! My goal was to not put on more than twenty-five pounds and I have succeeded! The combination of working out 5+ times a week, and watching how much I indulge (because everyone tells you to!) with food, enabled me to keep my weight gain and blood pressure in check during these ten months!
Am I looking forward to getting back to working out like I used to?
Hell yeah!
Could I do without running and the full burpee (mine has been a modified version using a barbell for a dynamic push-up motion!)??
Hell yeah!
In all honesty, the past ten months has been nothing but amazing. The entire TorqueNation community has been supportive and encouraging each and every day they see me!
Now off to coach the 4pm class for the last time before our little nugget blesses us and starts working on their burpees!
Here are a few excerpts from current and past pregnant athletes!
Lindsey B (little baby is now 5 months old!):
“1) I’m no Doctor, but its not a coincidence I’ve felt great this entire pregnancy and kept working out.
2) After running with a 25 pound weighted vest and then running at (almost) 39 weeks pregnant, I can confidently say running pregnant is easier!
3) Squats get easier the deeper you are into your pregnancy. Your belly effortlessly pushes your knee out.
4) Now you can say, “I’ve done all these workouts weighted!””
Christine J (her son is now 24 months):
“Doing CrossFit during my 3rd pregnancy made a world of difference. I had worked out with both of my other pregnancies, but on my own, and nothing compared to what I did with CrossFit . In my experience, during the first trimester, when you don’t really “feel” pregnant (other than extreme fatigue and a touch of nausea) I noticed that I was able to perform most movements RX, I didn’t really need to scale much until I started showing (beginning of second trimester.) That’s when I noticed it was a bit more difficult to catch my breath during metabolic stuff, and that the belly started getting in the way a bit for things like burpees, cleans, and snatches. I still did most everything, and just modified weight and sometimes scaled back intensity. I honestly feel that it helped me feel better and recover faster both during and after the pregnancy too. I was able to sustain working out up until 3 weeks before delivery. I could have gone until the end, but being this was my 3rd child and I was scheduled for my 3rd c-section, I didn’t want to end up in spontaneous labor for any reason! I would definitely recommend listening to your body, because every pregnancy and every woman’s experiences are different. But as long as your Doctor is okay with it, keep on going with it!
