Crossfit and pregnancy

[charleybelle]

I wondered if anyone has any advice for me about exercising in the first trimester of pregnancy (well, and the other two as well!) I am very active and exercise daily at the gym or out running and I usually do one or two crossfit sessions a week and olympic lifting on another day. This is all high intensity interval training usually and I wondered if anyone knew if this was ok to carry on doing or if i should modify what I'm doing? Should I lift lighter weights? or not push myself as hard? I haven't told my crossfit trainer yet that I'm pregnant because we wanted to wait until after our 8 week scan, but should I tell him? Appreciate any thoughts!

I would say lower the intensity substantially. General rule in pregnancy is not to exercise beyond the point at which you can maintain a conversation. I would tell your trainer, but be prepared for him to stop letting you train.

Also, if you have any bleeding at any point stop. I had bleeding at 5/6 weeks and was advised to stop anything beyond swimming/walking.

Having said that, as you are so active, you should definitely keep some exercise up, just moderate it. You may also find that you are soon too exhausted. I used to run/spin a lot and was a bit fed up to be told to stop. But soon realised I couldn't have managed it anyway!

I'm carrying on with a couple of Olympic weightlifting classes and some high intensity circuits, am about 10 weeks at the moment. Up until last week was doing stuff as normal, but told the gym this week and we're modifying things now.

Main stuff so far has been taking the weights down (no PB attempts!) but doing more reps, swapping some exercises (lots of squats, no dead lifting I think) or modifying (box steps rather than jumps). And lots of concentrating on getting the breathing right, and making sure there's recovery time.

My gym have been great, so I'm hoping to carry on for a fair while.

General rule is, as said, not to push for a PB, but ok to continue what you are used to. If you google, there are plenty of women who have continued with crossfit during pregnancy.

Continue what your body is used to but just dial it back a bit. Don't redline your heart rate. Don't do endurance training to exhaustion. Be aware that your ligaments will change with hormones so you may be more prone to injury when lifting or twisting. Keep hydrated. Don't EVER overheat.

Crossfit can be pretty intense so depending on what you're doing and what level I'd be inclined to see a pro (physio with pregnancy experience? ) to check out any movements that are very high impact/ high torsion.

I found up to 12 weeks I just couldn't face it, then I trained up 'til about 26 weeks, with my CF trainer 1:1. He re-assessed my heart rate and I had to wear a monitor at all times and most importantly taught me to 'Listen to my body'

Increased Relaxin in your body can make you over stretch so be very careful of suddenly being able to lunge or squat deeper than before! Also avoid anything too vigorous that can cause 'blood shunting' which can lead to birth defects. Speak to your instructor and see what she/he thinks!

I found it was hard enough being pregnant and not drinking or eating the same, so If you'd taken away my exercise I'd have given up entirely!

there's some good evidence-based general exercise advice here
www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/pregnant-athletes-is-it-safe-to-exercise-when-youre-pregnant-545#

oh and the "don't let your heart rate go above 140" that you hear all the time is actually not based on anything than a guess, and most experts nowadays do not set this as a limit. The guy who originally suggested it, agrees:

In 1985, Artal said, he and other doctors suggested guidelines to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to have pregnant women keep their heart rate below 140 beats per minute during exercise.
Artal said that, in 1985, he and another doctor used intuition and calculation to determine the 140 beats rule. Six months later, when actual testing of women in a lab proved them wrong, Artal said he asked for the 140 beats notation to be stricken from the guidelines.
"For some reason, people caught onto that and they never let go," he said. "Each time I get asked about it, I said forget about it. I think it should be ignored."

My friend owns a crossfit 'box' in NZ and continued to work out through two pregnancies, just modified it. You need to tell your trainer as soon as possible really.

Thanks ladies. I have spoken to my trainer and he is modifying the sessions for me, no PB attempts for me for a while, but he has said I can carry on just listen to my body! Phew! Not sure what I would do if I couldn't exercise!!