Can pregnant women do that?

pregnant silhouette (c) mahalie
CC Attribution 2.0 License

When I found out I was pregnant the first time I mourned the loss of my then-erratic jogging routine. That is, until I dove into the internet to see what other moms, physicians, and experts had to say. I was surprised to find that most women can continue at the same level of physical activity, usually decreasing intensity in the later months. In fact, a lot of Olympic athletes continue the same level of activity through their whole pregnancy. I hardly felt pregnant at all until my eighth month when I couldn't breath well in certain positions and had to wake up to flip over in the middle of the night. I was actually in the best shape of my life. Every week I alternated strength training and cardio (running) on week days, resting on weekends. I aced my personal fitness class--which went right through my due date!

So yes, pregnant women can strength train. And run. Having discovered pole fitness and started flexibility training I had to wonder if I could still do those now. After all, I am three years older than last time and I was horribly sick for two months. I remembered last time all sources warned against lunges and squats--would that mean my more intense stretching had to stop? Would pole climbs be too intense? I met with my doctor with dire expectations and it
turns out I was wrong again. In a nut shell, she said "listen to your body." Seriously, I expected a laundry list of rules. Pregnant women need only to be aware that tissues loosen during pregnancy, causing problems whenever jarring movements are involved--hence the issues with lunges and squats. Lying on our backs is also an issue because the uterus will put pressure on the inferior vena cava, reducing blood flow to mom. Last ultrasound--20 weeks!--I had the unpleasant discovery of how awful that is. After a few minutes of laying on the exam bed the room went dark with funny spots.

As for stretching, pregnant women can and should work on flexibility--just not lying down. Stretching has been the best solution I have ever found for low back pain. And trust me, if you're pregnant you will deal with a fair amount of it. Plus, there is not a lot of room for taking medicine when you're pregnant and I err on the side of less is way more. Even better, we have a little advantage: pregnancy loosens tissue like ligaments. For some types of strength training this is an issue but for splits it's like a nice little cheat. Well, at least that's what I'm keep telling myself to motivate my box splits stretching.

Granted, you will not see me posting handstand attempts or daredevil pole moves. In the first weeks of my pregnancy I saw a picture of a woman nine months along doing an inverted trick. I respect her decision to do this; my own decision is to avoid inverts. My philosophy is that I will do whatever is worth my perception of the risk. Working on inverts, especially at my level, is just too risky. I will still be getting my foot to my head every Tuesday and Thursday during stretching days and staying in my splits as long as I can tolerate it. I'll also still work on upright pole moves to build my strength. Being a fit mom has been found to have a good impact on delivery and the baby's lifetime health. I love what I'm doing and being pregnant doesn't mean I have to stop living that part of me.