Prenatal Fitness: Second Trimester

I’ve been working out pretty consistently for about the last month now, and I would like to share some of the adjustments I’ve made to my workout routine to accommodate my growing belly! Some exercises I’ve had to cut out completely and some moves I’ve simply been able to alter. I talked to my Doctor. I talked to other friends and trainers who have worked out during their pregnancies and/or train pregnant clients. I did a lot of my own research on safety precautions to take for lifting and cardio during pregnancy. So here I will lay that all out for you, as well as explain how I’ve simply listened to my own body to figure out what works best for me. Now, that being said, my workouts may not work for everyone and as always, talk to your own doctor before beginning a workout regimen while pregnant.

For starters:

 I would like to point out that most advice given by doctors and medical professionals are for the general public… I, personally, do not consider my physical capabilities to be that of the average woman!!! Therefore, I took what my doctor told me and applied it to my own research and findings and have put together my own set of rules for my prenatal workouts. If a person is not extremely active and physically fit before pregnancy, by all means DON’T FOLLOW THE SAME RULES AS ME! My number one rule is LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! Don’t push yourself too much. This is not the time to be setting new personal records! This is a time to maintain your level of physical fitness and to keep your cardiovascular system in shape. This is especially important for a healthy and easy labor! Also, keeping your back strong will help with toting the extra weight later on in pregnancy.

My #1 rule:

 I’ve been doing is wearing my heart monitor during every workout to make sure my heart rate doesn’t get too high. Some doctors say not to let your heart rate get above 140 beats per minute during pregnancy. My doctor said this rule is a big over generalization, seeing as how everyone’s bodies are different, and they don’t have a set heart rate number for me to follow. So I did my own research and found that if your heart beat gets above 170 bpm, it can slow down the baby’s heart rate. 170 bpm just happens to be around 90% of my max heart rate so I try to keep my heart rate in the 80-85% range on the high end during activity, and during rest I let it drop down to the 60% range before starting activity again. (To find your max heart rate take the number 220 and subtract your age, so for me it would be 220-30= 190bpm, so that would be 100%, or the max that my heart should ever beat.) My heart rate monitor has 2 settings; one that shows the bpm and one that shows the % of your max hr so for my prenatal workouts, I keep it set on the % mhr setting.  

My remaining abs and baby bump at 12 weeks pregnant.
These are slowly fading now, however! Haha

Cardio:

Due to the fact that in the first 2 months of my pregnancy I lost almost 5 pounds due to muscle loss, I have not been doing very much cardio at all. Any chance I can make it into the gym, I’ve been doing solely weight training in an effort to prevent any future muscle loss and to get my strength back. However, in the last week or so, I’ve decided to add cardio in the form of a spin class once a week. I want my cardiovascular system to stay healthy and this intense form of cardio should do the trick! I believe that as I grow bigger, having a healthy cardiovascular system will make carrying the extra weight a little easier… especially since I’ll be big in the dead of summer… In Oklahoma… In the 100 degree  month of August. FML. So anything I can do now to make that journey a little bit easier, I’m all for! Also, I prefer this form of cardio versus running or something that would be more jarring to the baby. A spin class workout is very stable and causes little movement to the fetus, while still providing an excellent workout!

Strength Training:

Ah, my favorite past time J . My doctor recommends not lifting over 20 pounds and keeping my workouts light weight/ high volume… Well, that’s adorable, but even my light weight workouts require lifting over 20 pounds! As far as I have studied, as long as you did an activity before you got pregnant, it’s safe to continue it. This is where I say that the old “20 pound” rule is set for the general public… as most women aren’t going to the gym curling 25 lb dumbbells like I did before pregnancy. So for most women, lifting 20 pounds would require a little bit of work, and possibly strain the muscles. However, for an experienced lifter, this is not the case. Also, how many of you moms out there still picked up your other children, toddlers, and babies while pregnant…? I’m willing to bet all of you! It’s kind of tough to tell a crying toddler that “Sorry kid, I can’t pick you up and cuddle you, Doctor’s orders!” And my current toddler weighs 35 lbs… which would be double the weight that I’m recommended not to lift.

Now all that being said, for the most part I’ve kept my upper body routine pretty similar. But my

lower body workouts have changed quite a bit. Also, I can’t do any exercises that put me on my stomach or cause strain to my mid-section. I am taking longer rests in between my super sets in order to let my heart rate come down, and I don’t do anything dynamic, such as plyometric jumps or sprints. I also have to adjust the seats on some machines in order to allow for my belly to not be squished (for example, on some of the back/rowing machines).  For upper body (triceps, biceps, shoulders, back, etc) I am doing about 75-80% of the weight I did before pregnancy. For lower body and leg work, I am doing closer to 50-75% of the weight that I did before pregnancy. One of the reasons for this is that in general, your leg muscles are bigger than your upper body muscles (with the exception of your lats) and cause a higher spike in heart rate when working them. Therefore, I must keep the intensity of my leg workouts down.  Also, for heavy lower body work, your core is often engaged quite a bit for stability. I can only do as much weight as my legs alone can handle. Once I start using my abs and core, I’ll need to retract my weight.  So for

example in these pictures, I am squatting 105 lbs for 10 reps, and on the next set I went up to 125 lbs for 8 reps. My squat before was closer to 135 on a narrow stance and up to 175 on a wider stance (plié squat). I was able to do this 125 lb weight with zero pull on my lower abs or uterus. The ONLY reason I am still able to squat this amount is because of my conditioning BEFORE pregnancy. As I get further along in my pregnancy, I will have to lighten my squatting weight even more simply because a woman's hips and joints soften and loosen to allow for child birth, making for less stability during a squat. On the leg press, however, I regularly went up to 720 lbs, (and even up to 900 lbs once as a max!) but because this machine causes more of a strain on the core and requires you to do more weight, generally, I will have to greatly reduce my weight for this exercise, around 200-270 lbs, making that only around 30% of my pre-pregnancy lift. Again, regardless of the activity, I’m LISTENING TO MY BODY and seeing how different movements feel and what kind of soreness I’m left with afterwards.

 

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