High level athletes/ very fit mums to be, especially Crossfitters

[Olofsdotter]

Hi everyone,
I really struggle to find any information regarding training during pregnancy when you have been a high level athlete most of your life and are used to hard training. Most information seem to say you can continue doing what you’re used to BUT you should be able to hold a conversation. Well I’m used to hard training and I can’t hold a conversation during training, for me then it’s not training, it would be a very slow jog or a walk. I’m in week 13 and feel “ normal” I don’t feel the need to scale anything but I am taking it easier just because of what I’ve read; I’m not pushing to exhaustion and I’m not lifting max weights. So, anyone with experience who can help a girl out?! I’m worried I would hurt my baby even though my body doesn’t give me any signals of it?! Some people say you should listen to your body but I’m worried anyway I will deprive it of oxygen? I read somewhere the baby takes its oxygen first and second it’s you, is that true?!
I also read somewhere you should stay under 140bpm or under 90% of your maternal max heart rate, but since heart rate is much higher during pregnancy I wouldn’t work hard at all at 140bpm.
How would you know your “ maternal max heart rate”? I can’t push it to find out my max now.

I'm no athlete or fitness fan but I can tell you as your pregnancy progresses your body releases relaxin which softens your joints and putting strain on them can be painful particularly in the pelvis. I walk my dogs every day and feel like I might split up the middle.
Would you consider a lower impact sport like swimming?

Yeah I’m swimming as well but I’m thinking as long as I’m feeling good I should continue my normal exercise routine. So far I haven’t noticed any effects of relaxin but it may come. Sorry to hear you’re suffering from it 😔

Do you have any trainers/PTs where you train you can chat to? A lot will have some antenatal training and can help with all modifications. My DH is a PT and gym owner and he agrees that as long as your body is already used to certain exercise you can continue on with it but just take the intensity and weight down to around 70%, and don’t try anything new. There are also certain things you can do particularly with your core so it’s good to ask for advice on that too etc. Also just keep an eye on the effects of relaxin as mentioned above and just keep an eye on any pelvic pains later on too - if that happened you then just want to avoid things like lunges etc.
I feel like that’s all a bit waffly!! But essentially no reason you can’t continue just at a lower pace and do try and chat to someone with the antenatal experience too :)

Hi- I am a crossfitter and although I’m 10 weeks haven’t been able to train since 6 weeks because of sickness but I plan to return soon. I would recommend listening to Ben Bergeron podcast - crossfitting while pregnant. It recommends things to avoid - HSPU, T2B, box jumps etc but you can adapt WODs and continue to do strength training etc

Not CrossFit but I went spinning 4-5x with each pregnancy up to a few days before birth. I didn’t take it lightly or stay below 140bpm-a lot of advice online is outdated. I simply made sure I didn’t get crazy overheated, drank plenty and if my body was saying to cut back/take it easy for a set I did. I was still performing very similarly to pre pregnancy at 8/9 months.