ONE FIT MOM

After the first trimester, it may become necessary to scale or modify certain movements during CrossFit workouts.  Scaling usually involves a reduction of weight; for example, using a resistance band to assist pull-ups and dips, or using lighter weights (even a training bar or dowel) for Olympic and power lifts.  With pregnancy, however, further modifications may be required in order to accommodate a growing belly, a shifting centre of gravity, an increase in body weight and slackening joints.  The following are some suggestions for modifications that address the specific needs of the pregnant body.  Videos and descriptions for many of these exercises can be found on the CrossFit.com website, and I will try to post some photos later this week.  The list is not exhaustive by any means, but will provide a good starting point for some of the most commonly-encountered movements.

Deadlifts
sumo (wide) stance with regular grip
“suitcase” deadlifts (weights on either side of the body, like picking up heavy suitcases)

Cleans and snatches
use dumbells or kettlebells to keep weight close to the body and eliminate awkward manoeuvring of a bar around the belly

Split jerks
push jerks (balance and ankle joint stability are less critical with this movement than with the split jerk)
push press (when ballistic movements become uncomfortable)

Front, back and overhead squats
reduce range of motion if knee/hip joints feel unstable
air squats (no weights)

Thrusters
push presses
air thrusters (no weights)

Sit-ups
knees to elbows
hanging knee raises when belly becomes to big for knees to elbows
front and side planks
hollow rocks

Push-ups
use yoga blocks, bumper plates or paralletes under hands to raise body higher and provide room for the belly
push-ups on a plyo box or bench
push-ups against the wall

Pull-ups
jumping pull-ups
ring rows (or TRX rows)
using a shoulder-height Olympic bar on a rack, “hang” from it with feet supported on the ground, and pull up

Ring or bar dips
triceps dips on a bench or box, with feet supported on the floor

Burpees
air squat plus box push-up

Handstand push-ups
seated dumbell shoulder press

Box jumps
step-up

GHD hip/back extensions
good mornings

Double-unders
single skips (3:1 ratio)

Wall-balls
reduce range of motion on the squat to accommodate belly

Running
rowing

17 Weeks -- and new maternity jeans!

Maternity fashion.

This must be one of the world’s great oxymorons.  I broke down earlier this week and went off in search of some maternity pants because it suddenly seems that none of my pants fit me anymore.  Well, except one pair of dress pants that pre-pregnancy was about two sizes too big for me and could be pulled down without undoing them.  And even those are too snug now if I have to sit down.  At the risk of spending the rest of my pregnancy in sweat pants and stretchy Lululemon, I figured it was time to bite the bullet.

Alas, I have discovered that unless you are willing to fork over $200+ for a pair of jeans that you’re only going to wear for six months (just for the record, I’m not the sort of person who EVER forks over $200+ for a pair of jeans), the pickings for maternity “fashion” are pretty slim.  And if you’re tall and thin, they’re even slimmer, because a pre-pregnancy size 6 equals a maternity size small, and we all know that nothing in size small is ever designed to fit a woman with a 34-inch inseam!

I managed to find one cute pair of jeans that fits me quite nicely… as long as I don’t move.  At all.  As soon as I walk, sit down or stand up, they slide down and I end up with a saggy butt.  It’s kind of annoying having to pull my pants up every five minutes. Maybe they’ll stay up a little better once my stomach gets bigger?

Other than that, I’m 17 weeks today and everything is great.  I’m now getting through most days without a nap, and I feel pretty good at the gym.  I may or may not have felt the baby move — I’m new at this and it’s really difficult to tell what’s what in there. I’m sort of showing — sometimes — depending on what I’m wearing and what I’ve eaten.  It’s definitely not obvious to anyone who doesn’t know me, but this week was the first time that somebody who knows me guessed that I’m pregnant, so that was pretty cool.

We have an exciting month coming up, with our first maternity ward tour next Friday, our four-month midwife appointment the following week, and the second trimester ultrasound two weeks after that.  Lots to look forward to!  :-)

Workouts:

THURSDAY (yesterday) – Rest day.

 
FRIDAY

1 mile run (on the treadmill) — 8 min 41 sec

3 rounds of:
50 med ball jumping squats (15 lb ball)
40 single-arm push-press (16 kg kettlebell)
30 sumo deadlift high pulls (16 kg kettlebell)
20 push-ups
10 pull-ups

28 min 56 sec

This one was a bugger — those jumping squats and single-arm push-presses were more difficult than I thought they would be. And not to brag or anything, but I did have the fastest time in the class, which means I even beat the guys

Doesn't that look much more satisfying than an apple fritter?

It’s time to dispel this notion once and for all. Unfortunately, “eating for two” doesn’t give us a pass to enjoy all the ice cream and cookies we want. A pregnant woman’s actual increase in caloric needs is quite small — negligible, in fact, during the first trimester, and only about 300 calories per day in the second and third trimesters.

What does 300 calories entail? Well for starters, it’s really just an extra snack; not an entire meal. Here are a few examples of approximately 300 calorie Paleo (or Paleo plus dairy) snacks:

2 boiled eggs (150 cal)
1 oz almonds (160 cal)

1/2 cup plain Greek yoghurt (130 cal)
1 medium banana (100 cal)
2 tbsp chopped walnuts (90 cal)

3 oz leftover sirloin (160 cal)
1 yellow pepper, sliced (50 cal)
1/4 avocado, sliced (70 cal)

Alternatively, you could have two thirds of a chocolate chip muffin (290 cal), a medium hot chocolate from Starbucks (300 cal), or a Tim Horton’s caramel apple fritter doughnut (310 cal).

Not only do the first three choices have vastly greater nutritional value per calorie, they are also chock full of protein and healthy fats that will help to keep you sated for longer.

What is the Paleo diet?

In a nutshell, the Paleolithic diet, sometimes called the Caveman diet, is a style of eating that most closely mimics the ancient diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.  It consists solely of whole, unprocessed foods, such as meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.

Grains, legumes, dairy, salt, refined sugars and refined oils are generally eschewed, though some Paleo adherents will still consume small amounts of dairy (such as butter, cream or yoghurt) from grass-fed mammals.

The Paleo diet is based on the premise that human genetics have changed very little over the past 10,000 years; thus, we are much better adapted to eat the diet that our human ancestors ate for 2.5 million years than we are to the predominantly grain-based diet that has developed since the Agricultural Revolution.

Is the Paleo diet safe during pregnancy?

Not only is it completely safe, it may even help to prevent such pregnancy-related conditions as gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and excessive weight gain.  Paleo-compliant foods, such as meat, seafood and produce, are considerably more nutritionally dense than the grain and sugar-laden mainstays of the standard North American diet, meaning that calorie for calorie, a pregnant woman following the Paleo diet is much more likely to meet all of her nutritional needs without the requirement for supplementation.

Are there any modifications that should be made for pregnant women?

Possibly.  It all depends on how you were eating pre-pregnancy.

1. Protein.  Depending on how much protein you normally consume, you may need to reduce your protein intake.  Many Paleo adherents, especially those following a demanding athletic training regimen, consume between 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.  Professor Loren Cordain, one of the foremost experts on the Paleo diet, explains, “Because of metabolic changes that occur in the liver during pregnancy, women cannot tolerate as high protein levels as they normally could. This issue has been documented in both the anthropological and clinical literature. Hence fattier meats, higher fat vegetable foods and more carbs are required.”

I actually found that I instinctively reduced my high protein intake by about a third, even before I knew I was pregnant.  I simply was not as hungry for large servings of meat as I had previously been.  Pre-pregnancy, I was consuming about 150 grams of protein per day, whereas I would estimate my current protein consumption to be in the 100 gram range, or about 0.6 grams per pound of bodyweight.

2. Carbohydrate.  According to both Canadian and American pregnancy nutrition guidelines, pregnant women should increase their carbohydrate consumption to approximately 150 grams per day (this is only an average — it varies by size, body composition and energy expenditure).  The irony of this recommendation is that most women following a typical North American diet are actually consuming closer to 300 grams of carbohydrates per day, so what they should be doing during pregnancy is reducing, rather than increasing, their carbohydrate consumption.  But a woman following the Paleo diet and eating more vegetables than fruits may need to increase her carbohydrates by anywhere from 50 to 100 percent.

Since finding out that I was pregnant, I have increased my fruit consumption, and have added some higher-glycemic tropical fruits (such as bananas and oranges) to my diet, where I was previously only eating berries and apples.

3. Calcium.  The Paleo diet has received some criticism for its lack of calcium-containing dairy products, but because of the absence of gut-irritating grains, and the increased levels of dietary magnesium (from fish, vegetables and nuts), calcium absorption is greatly improved; thus, intake requirements are reduced.  During pregnancy, however, a woman’s calcium requirements are considerably higher, and as such, it might be prudent to add a calcium supplement and/or a small amount of organic, grass-fed dairy in order to meet these increased needs.

I have made the decision to add small amounts of dairy to my diet, including plain Greek yoghurt, heavy cream and goat cheese.  I have never really been able to tolerate milk, but the above products don’t seem to be causing any problems for me, at least with the quantity and frequency I am consuming right now.  The yoghurt also has the added benefit of containing probiotics, which help to prevent two of pregnancy’s most common afflictions: gas and yeast infections.

4. Timing.  Many followers of the Paleo diet eat only two large meals per day, as the higher levels of dietary protein and fat lead to increased satiety, while the low glycemic load of vegetable and fruit-based carbohydrates mediates the hormonal fluctuations that cause hunger.  Conventional pregnancy nutrition recommendations suggest that women should eat immediately upon waking, then every two to three hours thereafter, in order to prevent nausea/crankiness/fatigue/etc. (insert favourite pregnancy symptom here), and in order to ensure a steady supply of nutrients to the placenta.

If a woman is eating in accordance with the Paleo diet, chances are that the hormonal fluctuations that cause nausea/crankiness/fatigue/etc. will be greatly reduced, so the woman will not have to eat every two to three hours to feel good. Certainly that has been my experience, as I often don’t eat my first meal of the day until close to noon and then don’t eat another major meal until late in the evening (I will generally have a snack somewhere in there).  I’ve had no problems whatsoever with this arrangement.  I am starting to find, however, that as my stomach gets crowded out by my growing uterus, I can’t quite eat as much in one sitting as I’m accustomed to, so I will probably shift to a schedule of smaller and more frequent meals/snacks as it becomes necessary.

One thing I need to make absolutely clear is that within normal parameters (i.e. not being in a famine situation), there is no correlation whatsoever between frequency of meals and the amount of nutrients being supplied to the growing fetus.  The human body is amazingly well-adapted to prioritize the baby’s needs, so as long as you are eating when you’re hungry, and eating nutritionally-dense Paleo foods, it is perfectly safe to go without food for as many hours as it takes before you become hungry again.

Workouts:

TUESDAY (yesterday) - 5 rounds of:

2 Turkish get-ups (16 kg kettlebell)
5 deadlifts (185 lbs)
10 box jumps (20″)

7 min 43 sec

WEDNESDAY – Rest day.

This particular myth seems to stem from the recommendation that pregnant women should not lie on their backs for extended periods of time after the first trimester.

In an earlier post, I explained that around the 12-16 week mark (though it can be much later for some), a woman’s uterus becomes large enough that when she lies flat on her back, it may exert pressure on the vena cava — the vein responsible for returning blood from the lower body to the heart.  This is believed to interfere with the flow of blood and nutrients to the placenta, with the implication being that it could be harmful to the developing fetus.

According to obstetrician Dr. Michael S. Broder, author of The Panic-Free Pregnancy, this reduction in blood flow to the placenta is “a laboratory finding only,” and has never been medically correlated with any increased risk to the fetus.  In fact, even the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists only cautions against extended periods of supine lying.  So while sleeping on your back for an entire night might not be advisable, a few minutes here and there is not likely to be harmful.

That said, some pregnant women report orthostatic hypotension (a “head rush”) upon rising from a supine position, and in that case, it is most certainly better to err on the side of caution and avoid it altogether.  The key with all things pregnancy-related is to listen to the body.  If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it!

So where does this leave us with sit-ups?  Well, unless you are Superwoman, chances are that you don’t do sit-ups for more than a couple of minutes at a time before your abs are screaming for a break.  As long as you take care to rest between sets in any position other than flat on your back, short sets of sit-ups are absolutely not going to harm your baby.

As well, once your abdominal area begins to enlarge, the compression action of sit-ups will become increasingly uncomfortable, probably to the point where you will no longer want to perform them.  I certainly noticed last week that V-sit-ups were difficult and uncomfortable, and I had to modify them by bending my legs at the knees.  I am pretty sure that within the next few weeks, I will find that even regular sit-ups will start to become uncomfortable.

At that point, I will switch to alternative abdominal exercises such as knees-to-elbows (for as long as I can safely and comfortably do them), L-sits, front and side planks, and overhead squats (which are fantastic for working stabilizer muscles).

I think my midwife said it best when she said, “If you feel comfortable doing sit-ups, do them.  Your body will tell you when it’s time to stop.”

Workout:

MONDAY

Rounds in 20 min:
5 chest-to-bar pull-ups (had to use the 1/2 inch band for these)
7 burpees
9 seconds of L-sit (I did a modified bent-knee version)
Total: 7 rounds + 3 pull-ups

Chest-to-bar pull-ups are certainly difficult with even just a few extra pounds on me!  I did the first couple with no band, but then realized I just wasn’t going to be able to get any significant numbers without some assistance.  Same goes for the L-sits — I just didn’t seem to have the abdominal strength to hold them with straight legs.  Ah well…

16 Weeks

Sixteen weeks today.  Still not really showing; I just look a little thicker around the middle than I usually do.  I’m up to 159 pounds, which is neither here nor there, since my normal weight fluctuates within a five pound range, depending on how much water I’m retaining.

I have just realized that my job for the next six months — nay, make that twenty-two years — is to act as a host organism to a developing parasite.  For the next 24 weeks, this life form will grow and pulsate inside of me, sucking nourishment from my body, only to emerge, screaming, in an Alien-like drama of blood, slime and body fluids.  Is that beautiful or what?

After that, it will slowly take over the apartment, and will need to be fed, clothed and educated to the tune of an average quarter million dollars from birth to age 18. (By the way, did you know that one Vancouver area pre-school program for one-year-olds — yes, one-year-olds — costs almost $18,000 per year in tuition?!)

Then hopefully, by the year 2033, with degree in hand, it will break free of its hosts and finally make its own way in the world.

2033?  What have I gotten myself into?

And with that, we’re off to go sailing for the weekend, so no more posts until Monday.  It’s never too early for the little sprout to start getting his or her sea legs.

Workouts:

THURSDAY (Yesterday)

5 rounds of: 20 kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls (16 kg), 10 burpees, 20 V-sit-ups (which I modified by bending my legs, as V-ups don’t seem to be the most comfortable exercise right now) — 13 min 47 sec

FRIDAY

Rest day.

Still lifting heavy stuff at nearly 16 weeks

Pretty much all of the pregnancy exercise guidelines I’ve read very explicitly state that a woman should not engage in heavy weight lifting during pregnancy.  I’ve seen some amazingly arbitrary numbers tossed out there, such as one well-known website that suggests pregnant women not bench press more than 40 pounds.  What?!  Oh, of course: obviously, all pregnant women have the same level of strength; therefore a one-size-fits-all recommendation is completely appropriate.  Sigh.

Personally, I believe that weight training during pregnancy is of critical importance for the maintenance of core strength, bone density and joint integrity, and for the prevention of muscle atrophy (shrinkage).  Doesn’t it make intuitive sense that a program of moderately heavy deadlifting might actually help develop the lower back strength necessary to support a growing baby, or that a squatting program will greatly assist a woman to more comfortably labour in the squatting position?  And after the birth — lifting baby, putting baby down, carrying baby for long periods of time, lifting strollers in and out of the car, bending over to pick up toys — the applications are endless.

If you’ve been following my blog thus far, you will know that early into the second trimester, I am still lifting relatively heavy weights — in some cases (depending on the lift and on how I’m feeling that day) as much as 95 percent of my pre-pregnancy one rep max.  I intend to continue to lift throughout my pregnancy, making ongoing modifications as my body changes.

Now, this is not to say that there aren’t some fundamental considerations for weight lifting during pregnancy, but I think it’s important to remember that an experienced lifter (e.g. someone who has been doing CrossFit for a couple of years) is going to have much different limitations than the “biceps curls with pink rubber weights” set, which is why a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t work.

Below, I will outline some of the factors to take into consideration when pursuing a lifting program during pregnancy.  I do not believe in setting absolute limits; rather, I support the idea of using common sense and self-awareness to determine one’s own individual limitations on any given day.  In other words, use these guidelines to know what to be aware of, but use your intuition to tell you when to pull back or stop.

1. Lying on your back. Somewhere between the twelfth week and the start of the third trimester (most sources say around 12-16 weeks), the uterus becomes large enough that when you lie flat on your back, it can exert pressure on the vena cava — the vein that returns blood from your lower body to your heart — which reduces blood flow and may cause acute hypotension (lowering of blood pressure).  Lying on your back for too long is believed to interfere with the flow of blood and nutrients to the placenta, with the implication that this could be harmful to the developing fetus (note that there is no clinical proof whatsoever of this being dangerous, and that even the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists only cautions against extended periods of supine lying).  If you feel good and your stomach is not yet very large, bench presses may still be an appropriate exercise for you after the first trimester, as long as you keep your sets relatively short and make sure to sit upright or stand in between sets.  Push-ups make a great pregnancy alternative to the bench press.  If your belly gets in the way, dumbells or yoga blocks placed under your hands can help to raise you up a few inches.  Weighted push-ups using a  weight vest or some bumper plates placed on your mid back can provide an extra challenge that approximates heavy bench presses.

2. Valsalva manoeuvre. A valsalva manoeuvre is a forced exhalation against a closed airway.  It is useful in equalizing pressure in the ears, and in the achievement of heavy one rep maximum lifts   It also causes a sudden spike in blood pressure, and may result in dizziness.  Valsalva manoeuvres are not recommended during pregnancy.  Instead of holding your breath during lifts, try using a regular pattern of exhaling during the concentric (resistance) phase and inhaling during the eccentric (negative) phase.  The main implication here is that you will probably have to reduce your weights from pre-pregnancy levels in order to accommodate a continuous breathing pattern.

3. Balance. During pregnancy, your body is growing, your centre of gravity is constantly shifting, and hormonal changes may interfere with mental concentration.  This results in many pregnant women becoming rather clumsy and prone to falling… and the last thing you want to do during pregnancy is lose your balance and fall over with a heavy, loaded bar!  Balance is an important consideration in the overhead squat, as well as the ballistic lifts: the snatch, the clean and the jerk.  As your pregnancy progresses, you might even start to find that balance becomes an issue in front and back squats — especially if your technique pre-pregnancy was less than perfect.  Don’t be afraid to reduce your weights to whatever level is necessary to ensure your safety — even if this means using a training bar or wooden dowel for overhead squats, cleans, snatches and jerks, and switching from weighted front/back squats to air squats (body weight only).  Eventually, you many find that you feel uncomfortable or unsafe performing ballistic lifts, and if that’s the case, simply discontinue them for the remainder of the pregancy.

4. Hormones. Beginning as early as two weeks after conception, and possibly lasting as long as three to five months post-pregnancy, the hormone relaxin works to slacken supportive tissues in a woman’s body.  This allows the body to stretch to accommodate the growing fetus, and also allows the joints of the pelvic girdle to ease in anticipation of labour and delivery.  While this is obviously a desirable effect, it does have implications on a woman’s prenatal exercise capabilities.  Because relaxin causes a softening of ligaments (especially those supporting the joints), pregnant women must use caution in conducting ballistic movements and movements that exercise the full range of motion of a joint.  In early pregnancy, you will want to start to scale back the weights of your cleans, jerks and snatches, and in later pregnancy, depending on how your joints are feeling, you may even want to avoid them altogether.  You will also want to avoid doing max load squats (especially below parallel), since your knees and hip joints will not be as stable as they were pre-pregnancy, and relaxin reduces the amount of elastic energy available to propel you back up from the bottom of the squat.

5. Physiology. As your belly grows, you might find it difficult to perform standard deadlifts, cleans and snatches.  Using a sumo (wide) stance for deadlifts, and using dumbells or kettlebells for cleans and snatches can help you safely continue to perform these lifts while accommodating your growing belly.

6. Lower back strain. Deadlifts, done consciously, with an appropriate amount of weight and with proper form, do not cause back strain.  Leaning over to pick up a pencil off the floor might hurt you if you’re not being careful, but a properly executed deadlift is a safe movement.  A couple of lifts that might be aggravating if you are experiencing pregnancy-related lower back pain, however, are the overhead press (shoulder press, push press and push or split jerk) and the clean, especially if you have a tendency to lean backwards and let your hips shift forwards when straining to execute or catch heavier lifts.  This can be easily remediated by reducing the weight to one which you can perform comfortably and safely, and by focusing on keeping your hips back and your spine in a neutral position.

In summary, lifting during pregnancy is a safe and essential activity, that when executed with careful attention and proper form, can help to reduce pregnancy aches and pains, and may even ease the process of labour and delivery.  But pregnancy is not a time for egos, nor a time to be setting personal records (save that for a few months post-delivery, when your body will experience its biggest surge in human growth hormone since puberty!).  Your pregnancy lifting program needs to be guided by a combination of common sense, intuition, impeccable technique and ongoing modification.  And unless you are a strong, confident and experienced lifter, I would highly recommend enlisting the guidance of an expert trainer, who can both ensure correct form and assist you with the necessary modifications as your pregnancy progresses.

Before I knew I was pregnant, I signed myself up for an eight-week series of adult gymnastics classes.  I figured it would be a lot of fun (it is!), and a great way to improve my balance, coordination, agility, flexibility and strength.  I went to the first two classes, but unfortunately skipped the last three due to being completely exhausted by the time evening rolled around.  I am planning to go tonight, though, as I have only three more classes left in this session, and I really don’t think it would be advisable for me to register for next session, given that it would take me from weeks 19 through 26 of my pregnancy

Apparently gymnastics falls under the category of “not recommended during pregnancy.”  I can kind of see why, but at this point, where I’m still quite lean, strong and coordinated, and I don’t have much of a belly to get in the way or throw me off balance, I think it’s perfectly okay for me.  I find that certain skills are a little bit uncomfortable (bridges and excessively long handstands), and I am definitely more cautious than usual, especially when it comes to movements that might result in falling from a height, but mostly I am enjoying myself, and I’m really glad that I decided to try this.

UPDATE:  Too tired.  Didn’t make it.  Oh well.  :-(

A chainsaw and an axe might have actually felt good on my itchy skin!

About two months ago, I started to get really itchy — and by really, I mean relentlessly, intolerably, driving-me-batshit-insane itchy. Then, a few days later, I noticed the beginnings of a scaly rash on my legs, which later spread (albeit intermittently) to the rest of my body. Although the rash elsewhere on my body seemed to come and go, my legs only worsened with each passing day.

I Googled “itchy skin during pregnancy.” Bad idea. Apparently itchy skin during pregnancy is a sign (more…)

I have been very fortunate, thus far, to have not had to deal with any unusual or unmanageable cravings. I’ve heard horror stories from some of my male friends about being sent out to 7Eleven in the middle of the night to track down some obscure food combination that their pregnant partner absolutely had to have RIGHT F-ING NOW!! I can’t say this has happened to me yet, and I’m hoping it simply won’t. So far, my cravings have mostly been limited to (more…)