by Stephanie Vuolo, CrossFit Certified Trainer, October 2010
There is a lot of advice from myriad sources about exercise and pregnancy. The best rules of thumb that I found during my pregnancy was: 1) to listen to my own body and 2) to attempt to keep doing what I was doing (i.e not to try new things or to lift heavier weight). I’ve known a few women who were able to maintain their workouts until the day they delivered, and I had expected my body to be able to do the same. However, my body had a different idea of how exercise was going to go! It was incredibly frustrating at times that my body couldn’t do what my mind was intent on doing. I have always been able to push through: a difficult WOD broken down into manageable pieces, or a steep hill taken one step at a time. This was the first time in my life I felt the lack of control I had over my body. The mind said, “you can do it!” and the body said, “I don’t think so”. I had to realize that even though I couldn’t see it, my body was busy 24 hours a day making a human from scratch. My body was working harder than it ever had ever been asked to before. Part of my challenge throughout the last 9 months has been accepting where I am and letting go of where I want to be.
At the beginning of my pregnancy I felt like I had the flu. My limbs were heavy and I was constantly out of breath during workouts. I also was hit with all day nausea that handicapped me to the point of spending whatever hours I wasn’t coaching laying on the couch watching hours and hours of tv, bored out of my mind and too ill for anything else. I was so sick, I couldn’t even read. I tried to walk my dogs to keep moving and about once a week I was able to do a WOD at a snail’s pace. My 500m row took about 3:30 to complete and I think it took me about 30 minutes to do 4 rounds of (5) 45# Thrusters and (5) assisted Pullups. I took a lot of rest in between rounds. At about 5 months pregnant the nausea subsided and I had more energy for WOD’s. I was able to squat and press at my pre-pregnancy weights (again taking more time in between sets than I had needed before), but my deadlift weight went down. During this time, I was also able to move through WODs at a greater intensity. I even did Fight Gone Bad with a score of 234 at 7.5 months pregnant.
When I was 8 months pregnant things changed again. I was carrying about 22 pounds more than normal and my joints were feeling the pressure from the extra weight. My legs and knees hurt when standing for short periods of time and I knew it was time to slow down. There is still a battle between my brain and my body. My spirit wants to join in on the WOD and is a little jealous of the athletes in class, while on the other hand my body strives for me to sit whenever possible and asks if it is necessary to do the most basic of tasks like to walk into the kitchen to refill my water glass.
I have about 3 weeks to go until my baby is due to arrive. During that time, I am trying to honor and nurture my body for all it has done for me and all it is going to do in order to give birth to a healthy baby. If you are pregnant and concerned about working out, trust your body and listen to what it is telling you. Rest when you need it and above all keep moving in whatever form feels manageable .
