OK, I have to confess, I'm going to say something that I did not really abide by. But as I get farther along in my pregnancy, I'm beginning to see that this is actually a very important piece of advice.
Give yourself a break. (Right now, I'm thinking, have a break, have a KitKat. Clearly someone has chocolate on her mind.)
Your body is working very hard to produce a baby. Everyday you are producing more and more blood and fluid (or something), and you are making cells - hands, eyeballs, hair, nails... you get the idea. It's hard work. Can I say that again? It's very hard work!
I struggled with this, for a lot of reasons. One reason is I had unlimited ClassPass, so I milked it for all it was worth. (For those who know not what this is, it's a fitness pass that gives you access to a ton of studios - bootcamp, yoga, pilates, etc.) Also, I had just started flying trapeze and was insanely obsessed with it. It had been a long time since I found something I loved doing so much and I did not want to give it up. So I pushed myself, probably way too hard.
Anyway, I digress. Don't be me. Be kind to yourself.
I think it is important to keep fit during your pregnancy. My doctors said I could do most things that I did before. No contact sports like basketball, no cycling in case I fell off, etc. Basically nothing that can cause impact.
I had already been doing bootcamp, yoga, bar, weights and pilates classes, so I continued with them, and am still doing most of them until today. (I am 34 weeks today.) I intend to continue and will try to update this page to document when I decide to stop.
I stopped a number of yoga classes (I continued on with my hot yoga since it was my favourite yoga), but I started doing prenatal yoga right around week 30. At first I was very hesitant. Being an extremely extreme person, and doing all kinds of crazy exercise, I was reluctant to subject myself to a mummy class where I thought I would just sit around and touch my toes and smile at other mums-to-be. The first class I went to was with Jane Austin at Yoga Tree Valencia (in the Mission). This was probably not the best first prenatal yoga class for me. When I entered the room, there were like 40+ pregnant women in the room, most looked very pregnant, and having avoided being super into mummyhood up to that point, I was rather overwhelmed. You go around and state your name, how many weeks pregnant you are, how you are feeling, and any requests. Felt a bit like the AA clips I had watched on TV. Then you go into various exercises and stretches, some of which are not exactly yoga. I won't go too much into it, but I was happy I did this, because I felt that everything I did was super safe, and the exercises helped with things like not feeling so tight where you had felt stretched out, toning the pelvic floor and other muscles that would help with pregnancy and labour, etc. My favourite prenatal yoga teacher is Alexandra Rossi, and she teaches at Yoga Garden, Yoga Mayu and The Mindful Body. She's funny, her workouts leave me feeling energized and open, she's French (everyone loves a French accent!), and she's just amazing.
Some people worry about hot yoga. I asked my doctor and she said it was fine, so I still do hot yoga but with some modifications (see next paragraph). I still do inversions too, like headstands, since they do not make me dizzy, although I must say in the past couple of weeks I've grown quite a bit heavier and my center of gravity has definitely changed and it is getting exponentially harder to stay up.
Things I started avoiding in yoga were deep twists, sit ups, crunches, boat pose, unsupported front and side planks. The reason was because I had read not too long ago about a condition called diastasis recti, a condition where your abs split, from my most newsworthy source people.com. I took one look at the photo and freaked out. I don't think I'm a super vain person, but I most certainly did not want to look like that! She's super brave and all for sharing that, I just did not want that for myself. So I read up a lot about it, and I think there is a ton of articles on that, a ton of conflicting opinions and advice, and to play it safe I avoided all those yoga poses and crazy ab exercises. There is another olympic hopeful runner, Sarah Brown, whose pregnancy I loosely followed, and she had this article about exercises to do to strengthen those transverse abdominal muscles, she and her methodology seemed legit, so I decided to share them. Here is another people.com article. Consult your physical therapist first! I asked both my OBs, and they said that this is a fairly common occurrence - one said it happens to all her patients, the other said it happens to most, and both told me not to worry about it and to practice safe exercise. My abs have split a few centimeters, and I am trying not to freak out too much about it, but it is hard.
I still do bootcamp classes, like Barry's Bootcamp and Rogue and Saint. I don't push super hard, for example when we are supposed to run, if I don't feel like running, I just walk, and I've started to not feel bad about it. I started having a really hard time running super early on in pregnancy, between peeing on myself (no joke, trickles though, not like major I need a maxi pad pee), feeling a lot of downward pressure, the baby smacking me around when I'm running, it just became really uncomfortable and I also became lazy. Also avoided things like planks, sit ups, crunches, etc. as stated in the paragraph above.
Give yourself a break. (Right now, I'm thinking, have a break, have a KitKat. Clearly someone has chocolate on her mind.)
Your body is working very hard to produce a baby. Everyday you are producing more and more blood and fluid (or something), and you are making cells - hands, eyeballs, hair, nails... you get the idea. It's hard work. Can I say that again? It's very hard work!
I struggled with this, for a lot of reasons. One reason is I had unlimited ClassPass, so I milked it for all it was worth. (For those who know not what this is, it's a fitness pass that gives you access to a ton of studios - bootcamp, yoga, pilates, etc.) Also, I had just started flying trapeze and was insanely obsessed with it. It had been a long time since I found something I loved doing so much and I did not want to give it up. So I pushed myself, probably way too hard.
Anyway, I digress. Don't be me. Be kind to yourself.
I think it is important to keep fit during your pregnancy. My doctors said I could do most things that I did before. No contact sports like basketball, no cycling in case I fell off, etc. Basically nothing that can cause impact.
I had already been doing bootcamp, yoga, bar, weights and pilates classes, so I continued with them, and am still doing most of them until today. (I am 34 weeks today.) I intend to continue and will try to update this page to document when I decide to stop.
I stopped a number of yoga classes (I continued on with my hot yoga since it was my favourite yoga), but I started doing prenatal yoga right around week 30. At first I was very hesitant. Being an extremely extreme person, and doing all kinds of crazy exercise, I was reluctant to subject myself to a mummy class where I thought I would just sit around and touch my toes and smile at other mums-to-be. The first class I went to was with Jane Austin at Yoga Tree Valencia (in the Mission). This was probably not the best first prenatal yoga class for me. When I entered the room, there were like 40+ pregnant women in the room, most looked very pregnant, and having avoided being super into mummyhood up to that point, I was rather overwhelmed. You go around and state your name, how many weeks pregnant you are, how you are feeling, and any requests. Felt a bit like the AA clips I had watched on TV. Then you go into various exercises and stretches, some of which are not exactly yoga. I won't go too much into it, but I was happy I did this, because I felt that everything I did was super safe, and the exercises helped with things like not feeling so tight where you had felt stretched out, toning the pelvic floor and other muscles that would help with pregnancy and labour, etc. My favourite prenatal yoga teacher is Alexandra Rossi, and she teaches at Yoga Garden, Yoga Mayu and The Mindful Body. She's funny, her workouts leave me feeling energized and open, she's French (everyone loves a French accent!), and she's just amazing.
Some people worry about hot yoga. I asked my doctor and she said it was fine, so I still do hot yoga but with some modifications (see next paragraph). I still do inversions too, like headstands, since they do not make me dizzy, although I must say in the past couple of weeks I've grown quite a bit heavier and my center of gravity has definitely changed and it is getting exponentially harder to stay up.
Things I started avoiding in yoga were deep twists, sit ups, crunches, boat pose, unsupported front and side planks. The reason was because I had read not too long ago about a condition called diastasis recti, a condition where your abs split, from my most newsworthy source people.com. I took one look at the photo and freaked out. I don't think I'm a super vain person, but I most certainly did not want to look like that! She's super brave and all for sharing that, I just did not want that for myself. So I read up a lot about it, and I think there is a ton of articles on that, a ton of conflicting opinions and advice, and to play it safe I avoided all those yoga poses and crazy ab exercises. There is another olympic hopeful runner, Sarah Brown, whose pregnancy I loosely followed, and she had this article about exercises to do to strengthen those transverse abdominal muscles, she and her methodology seemed legit, so I decided to share them. Here is another people.com article. Consult your physical therapist first! I asked both my OBs, and they said that this is a fairly common occurrence - one said it happens to all her patients, the other said it happens to most, and both told me not to worry about it and to practice safe exercise. My abs have split a few centimeters, and I am trying not to freak out too much about it, but it is hard.
I still do bootcamp classes, like Barry's Bootcamp and Rogue and Saint. I don't push super hard, for example when we are supposed to run, if I don't feel like running, I just walk, and I've started to not feel bad about it. I started having a really hard time running super early on in pregnancy, between peeing on myself (no joke, trickles though, not like major I need a maxi pad pee), feeling a lot of downward pressure, the baby smacking me around when I'm running, it just became really uncomfortable and I also became lazy. Also avoided things like planks, sit ups, crunches, etc. as stated in the paragraph above.
I did flying trapeze until a little past 26 weeks at Circus Center, and aerial workouts until 31.5 weeks. I know most people would have plenty to say about this, but my doctors for the most part were OK with this up to a certain point. I felt I needed to stop flying earlier, since it involved falling onto the net, which could cause placental abruption (the separation of the placenta from the uterus), which was extremely dangerous. I tried to hang on to aerial workouts for as long as possible, but a few things made me stop right when I did. First, the gym I loved doing my workouts at, Acrosports, wanted a doctor's letter certifying I could do this. I think one of my doctors may have given a limited recommendation to allow this if I had pushed. However, I had also decided I was getting too heavy to pull myself up and invert, plus I was very concerned about getting diastasis recti, so I just decided to give it up.
The one circus activity I started in the middle of getting pregnant was trampoline. I was always very safe, never did any tummy drops. It was supposed to help me with certain flying trapeze moves, and it did, but it wasn't quite as fun, plus the bladder control was an issue, so I stopped that after a month or two.
Most instructors, when they found out I was pregnant, were extremely accommodating and eager to help, even the aerial instructors. The two that left a bad taste in my mouth were Angela Watson and AJ Aires from Rogue and Saint. First of all, I believe these big group workouts really should be done at a level that you are comfortable with. But for some reason, some of the instructors at Rogue and Saint would thump on your treadmill, or put bigger weights in your hands, when they feel you could go further. I mean, these people, they don't know you, they don't know jack about you. Let's start with Angela Watson. I was taking a bootcamp class, and did not tell her I was pregnant, I just decided I was not going to do some of the exercises. She came up to me and was kind of like what's up, so I'm like OK fine, I'm pregnant and I don't do some of these things, and she got SO frustrated with me, threw her hands in the air, and was like well I don't know what you want me to do to, this is a full body workout. Well, lady, I did not ask you to change anything about the class for me, I was just there minding my business. And then this AJ Aires, I decided then to tell him I was pregnant, and he was pretty much like don't come to class next time. WTF?! And then he's like, you cannot be on your hands and knees. WHAT?!?! If anything, a pregnant woman should not be on her back. DOH. Clearly he knows nothing about pregnant women. Anyway, a lot of things about that session with him made me really angry and frustrated, and his lack of empathy and not being able to admit he knew nothing really irritated me. So, I'm boycotting his class forever. I normally hate him anyway, he's one of those who hits on your treadmill to try to make you go faster.
A big shoutout to some instructors that have been really helpful during my pregnancy. Gabby from Mint Studios, Alexa, Ashe and Stephanie from Acrosports (and Aerial Artique), Anca from Rogue and Saint, the folks from Circus Center, Ritual Yoga and Burn. My favourite prenatal yoga teacher Alexendra Rossi, and I also love Jane Austin's class. Also to Barry's Bootcamp, who probably knows I'm pregnant but does not yell at me for not doing things I am not comfortable doing. Thanks for keeping me fit during my pregnancy.
So, I guess that's all I wanted to talk about with relation to exercise. I'm not saying what I do is correct, in fact I probably take on more risks than I should, and should have probably told my instructors I was pregnant a lot earlier. I just did not want them to limit me. Do things you are comfortable with, do NOT do things you are not comfortable with, and don't let anyone else tell you that you need to do anything else. For the most part, what you had done before, you can continue doing, and don't start anything too crazy after you get pregnant. Good luck with keeping fit!! I think it is super important during pregnancy!!
The one circus activity I started in the middle of getting pregnant was trampoline. I was always very safe, never did any tummy drops. It was supposed to help me with certain flying trapeze moves, and it did, but it wasn't quite as fun, plus the bladder control was an issue, so I stopped that after a month or two.
Most instructors, when they found out I was pregnant, were extremely accommodating and eager to help, even the aerial instructors. The two that left a bad taste in my mouth were Angela Watson and AJ Aires from Rogue and Saint. First of all, I believe these big group workouts really should be done at a level that you are comfortable with. But for some reason, some of the instructors at Rogue and Saint would thump on your treadmill, or put bigger weights in your hands, when they feel you could go further. I mean, these people, they don't know you, they don't know jack about you. Let's start with Angela Watson. I was taking a bootcamp class, and did not tell her I was pregnant, I just decided I was not going to do some of the exercises. She came up to me and was kind of like what's up, so I'm like OK fine, I'm pregnant and I don't do some of these things, and she got SO frustrated with me, threw her hands in the air, and was like well I don't know what you want me to do to, this is a full body workout. Well, lady, I did not ask you to change anything about the class for me, I was just there minding my business. And then this AJ Aires, I decided then to tell him I was pregnant, and he was pretty much like don't come to class next time. WTF?! And then he's like, you cannot be on your hands and knees. WHAT?!?! If anything, a pregnant woman should not be on her back. DOH. Clearly he knows nothing about pregnant women. Anyway, a lot of things about that session with him made me really angry and frustrated, and his lack of empathy and not being able to admit he knew nothing really irritated me. So, I'm boycotting his class forever. I normally hate him anyway, he's one of those who hits on your treadmill to try to make you go faster.
A big shoutout to some instructors that have been really helpful during my pregnancy. Gabby from Mint Studios, Alexa, Ashe and Stephanie from Acrosports (and Aerial Artique), Anca from Rogue and Saint, the folks from Circus Center, Ritual Yoga and Burn. My favourite prenatal yoga teacher Alexendra Rossi, and I also love Jane Austin's class. Also to Barry's Bootcamp, who probably knows I'm pregnant but does not yell at me for not doing things I am not comfortable doing. Thanks for keeping me fit during my pregnancy.
So, I guess that's all I wanted to talk about with relation to exercise. I'm not saying what I do is correct, in fact I probably take on more risks than I should, and should have probably told my instructors I was pregnant a lot earlier. I just did not want them to limit me. Do things you are comfortable with, do NOT do things you are not comfortable with, and don't let anyone else tell you that you need to do anything else. For the most part, what you had done before, you can continue doing, and don't start anything too crazy after you get pregnant. Good luck with keeping fit!! I think it is super important during pregnancy!!
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