Crossfit in pregnancy

[louloubear]

I'm a keen crossfitter and have continued to do it - albeit at a lighter level due to feeling yuck so far, am nearly 10 weeks (2nd child). Does anyone else currently crossfit during pregnancy or throughout a previous one? I've told my coaches and am listening to my body and hope to continue as long as I can. Hoping not to start a discussion about it being unsafe but get some support from anyone In a similar situation. Thanks in advance .

[Swan8]

I'm not a cross-fitter but pre-pregnancy did a lot of very high intensity exercise and weights of a similar nature. I'm going private so have a consultant. The NHS midwife I saw initially (before deciding to go private) told me I needed to cut it out - just to do gentle exercise. My consultant said there are no studies showing intense exercise is bad for you - basically they don't have a clue and to listen to my body and so do what I was comfortable with. But not to push myself the way I would pre-pregnancy - not to push through pain or exhaustion and not to over exert myself and to watch out as my ligaments became more lax. Basically he said never do a workout that leaves you shattered the way you would pre-pregnancy. I am 27 weeks now, have had to stop running and a lot of high intensity aerobic stuff in the last couple of weeks as it has become uncomfortable (feels like a bowling ball bouncing on my bladder!). I'm still lifting weights albeit lighter ones and watching technique much more closely. I have found that listening to my body means as I've gone along with the pregnancy I have naturally and gradually been taking it more and more easy because I feel so puffed and exhausted. So I think my consultant's advice was pretty good - if you listen to your body you will naturally do what is right for you. But be careful about asking people generally for their views - my experience is you will get a lot of people who aren't that in to exercise trying to tell you that you have to cut it out or that it is dangerous etc. It probably is if you didn't do anything pre-pregnancy but otherwise a lot of that is nonsense. There are a couple of good books out there - the Pregnant Athlete and others - which give you pregnancy modifications to exercises as you go along (as you need to watch out for ab exercises which are a no no past a certain point).

[Girlwiththearabstrap]

Not a cross fitter but I do metafit, boot camp and running. My midwife said it was fine to keep doing exercises that you're used to.

My instructors have been great too, but put the emphasis on trying to maintain rather than push myself to what I would have done before. 1st trimester I carried on as normal, and it's only as I get past the halfway point that I've started modifying things a bit. Listen to your body and don't be afraid to take it down a notch if you need to.

[mindutopia]

I've never done crossfit, but I think if you are lowering your intensity and listening to your body, you should be fine. I do a lot of spinning (indoor cycling), which is pretty high intensity usually. I carried on doing that and lifting weights until I was 14 weeks with this baby (am now 30 weeks). The only reason I stopped when I did was because I got too busy and was traveling a bit for work so I missed about 2 straight weeks of it, so I decided I didn't want to start back up after having a 2 week break as I felt a bit out of shape by that point.

[hungryradish]

I think as long as you listen to your body, it's fine. Don't push yourself too hard, if you feel like you can't do it or don't want to, don't! That's it really.

[Owl1011]

I crossfit 🙋🏻‍♀️ currently 33 weeks and only managing once or twice a week now as have replaced it with a few miles walking each day mainly due to tiredness and my inability to get up to go to 6am class! I scale massively though and avoid certain movements, haven’t done a great deal of barbell work unless it’s light and avoid anything jumping/upside down. If your used to it then as long as you’re careful and listen to your body that’s the most important thing

[Usernamegone]

I don’t do CrossFit but did lots of outdoors boot camp, running, gym, circuits. I was told it was fine to carry on as long as I felt ok as I had done it for years therefore my body was used to it. You need to be careful about being on your back for too long after 16 weeks and I don’t think they advise sit ups after the first trimester. The only other thing I had to be careful about is jumping/plyometric stuff as your body produces relaxin so your joints may start to feel wobbly after a while. I think I stopped box jumps by 20 weeks as I could feel my knees wobbling.

[allthecheese]

I'm still crossfitting at 34 weeks pregnant 3x a week. I don't do double unders (change to air squats), box jumps (now box step ups), anything ab related (so no sit ups or toes to bar), or pull ups (now ring rows). I change a lot of the barbell stuff that could hit my bump to either dumbbell or kettlebell (dumbbell cleans for example) and switch running to watt bike. I've also been working at conversational pace, so never too out of breath.

The great thing about cf is that it is all scalable so can totally fit in with pregnancy.