Lifting While Pregnant (not beginning)

penguinmama87
penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'd appreciate some insight into this as I think about my fitness goals over the next year.

I'm about halfway to my goal weight. My primary form of exercise is running which I love (plus it lets me eat more!) I'm also pretty active in general as a stay at home mom who is on my feet most of the day chasing after kids and doing homesteading type stuff which are big hobbies of mine.

I've been doing a bodyweight routine on my non-run days to try and preserve some of the muscle I already have, especially in my upper body. I'm interested in getting a little more intensive on this now that my running endurance is built up and I didn't want to overdo it. The only thing really holding me back now, besides your typical beginner nerves, are thinking about what would happen if I started, and a few months in I got pregnant, which is a realistic possibility for me at this time.

The advice I have received from my midwives is to continue doing any exercise you were doing before pregnancy as long as it feels good to you. I would have no problem continuing to run and walk as long as I wasn't excessively fatigued (tbh part of the reason I decided I really wanted to get serious about weight loss was because my last pregnancy, at my highest weight ever, absolutely floored me, and as much as I wanted to blame it on being old - I'm only 34 - I'm sure the excess weight was the biggest reason it was so hard.) But could I realistically continue lifting, if I had only a few months of experience?

So I guess what I'm looking for is the lived experience of any members here. Would it be realistic to expect, with a few months training, that I could continue for a bit? I think I would feel discouraged if I started, then had to stop and wait for a year until I had recovered sufficiently postpartum. I guess I'm trying to figure out how best to prioritize - focus on weight loss primarily and then I can recomp later if I have a baby, or just proceed with my plan and then if I have to stop, I have to stop.

I appreciate any insights. :)

Replies

  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    I’m putting a call out to @sardelsa.
    She hasn’t been logging in regularly but I see she was here a few days ago. If she pops in again hopefully she will get this notification and have a chat with you.

    Sardelsa lifted between her 2nd and 3rd babies, and during her 3rd pregnancy (I hope I have got the number of children correct).

    She did have more experience than you may have before you enter your next pregnancy, but I am sure she could give some recent real world advice.

    You could try backtracking her posts for any info too.

    I’ve done this reach out as you were about to go into 2nd page oblivion with no feedback.

    Hopefully someone else will come by with some insights now you have been bumped.

    Cheers, h.
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    Thank you, I appreciate it!
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    I've never been pregnant and don't ever intend to be, but I just wanted to pop in here and give you a thumbs-up encouragement to go ahead and start lifting! Let's look at the worst-case scenario: you start Strong Curves or some other resistance training program tomorrow, say, and two weeks from now learn you're pregnant. That's still two more weeks of strength training than you've done before, and you can continue doing some level of strength training until well into the pregnancy, probably. Consult your doctors/midwives, the "as long as it feels good" guideline probably applies - heavy compound lifts and moves requiring a lot of bending over will probably be less comfortable to do the further along you are, but you could probably do light-to-moderate upper-body stuff almost the whole time. Resistance training is so, so, so important for women especially - it helps protect against osteoporosis, keeping our bones strong and healthy.
  • gradchica27
    gradchica27 Posts: 777 Member
    I only started lifting seriously after my 4th baby, but did run before then. My experience was pretty consistent—I could run comfortably until 22-25 weeks, and then the pressure from baby/belly and hormones starting to go to work on hips started to take a toll and it got very uncomfortable. Around then I would switch to the elliptical, walking, or stair climber. I was working out up to the last day with each baby (none ever wanted to vacate the premises, so I was forever hoping I’d “walk that baby out” up until the night before an induction. Never worked 😂).

    My 2 cents is prioritize your pelvic floor health during and right after pregnancy (plus closing up any diastasis). You don’t want to jeopardize keeping all your lady parts where they need to be for proper function in order to cut your weight loss time by a few weeks.
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    goal06082021 wrote: »
    I've never been pregnant and don't ever intend to be, but I just wanted to pop in here and give you a thumbs-up encouragement to go ahead and start lifting! Let's look at the worst-case scenario: you start Strong Curves or some other resistance training program tomorrow, say, and two weeks from now learn you're pregnant. That's still two more weeks of strength training than you've done before, and you can continue doing some level of strength training until well into the pregnancy, probably. Consult your doctors/midwives, the "as long as it feels good" guideline probably applies - heavy compound lifts and moves requiring a lot of bending over will probably be less comfortable to do the further along you are, but you could probably do light-to-moderate upper-body stuff almost the whole time. Resistance training is so, so, so important for women especially - it helps protect against osteoporosis, keeping our bones strong and healthy.

    Thank you!

    The more I think about it, the more I think that really, the only thing holding me back is the possibility of looking kind of silly, or like a quitter. Which is actually the silly thing, to be so concerned about what it might look like to people who don't really know me!
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    gradchica27 wrote: »
    I only started lifting seriously after my 4th baby, but did run before then. My experience was pretty consistent—I could run comfortably until 22-25 weeks, and then the pressure from baby/belly and hormones starting to go to work on hips started to take a toll and it got very uncomfortable. Around then I would switch to the elliptical, walking, or stair climber. I was working out up to the last day with each baby (none ever wanted to vacate the premises, so I was forever hoping I’d “walk that baby out” up until the night before an induction. Never worked 😂).

    My 2 cents is prioritize your pelvic floor health during and right after pregnancy (plus closing up any diastasis). You don’t want to jeopardize keeping all your lady parts where they need to be for proper function in order to cut your weight loss time by a few weeks.

    Thank you for sharing your experience! I have five kids at present and have been able to avoid those issues thus far, which I'm thankful for. Many moms of many seem to view them as inevitable, but I have a suspicion that in addition to some genetic luck, I've also been helped by a generally high activity level and commitment to exercises like kegels, despite being a higher weight. I don't know how many more children I will have, but I think if I stay committed to good weight management any future pregnancies should go just as well if not better in terms of how tired I feel, even as I get older.

    I have a friend who has more children than me and has always been very active and lifts, and for whatever reason she just always goes way past her due date. All of mine, with the exception of my first, have been born within a couple of days of the 40 week mark. As I get closer, though, maybe due to nesting instinct, my walking ramps way up. I tend to spend labor walking as long as possible too. Maybe it doesn't actually do anything physically, but it helps me mentally to feel like I'm doing something!

    This is all very encouraging! I'm leaning toward just going for it and if I do get pregnant (which is an if, it might not happen soon or at all) and I have to stop at some point, I can just go back later. I think I might be making it a bigger thing in my head than it actually is.
  • hlr1987
    hlr1987 Posts: 151 Member
    I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant with my third kid: prior to getting pregnant this time I'd been running and lifting for about a year but not in a stage where I was pushing progressing in either at the time, just ticking along.
    I don't believe you can predict how your body will cope with any pregnancy, but from my personal experience this time:
    Running stopped early in trimester 1 because of the progesterone/ breathing issues (not weight or pelvic floor problems), but I've been able to lift throughout and paired that with an exercise bike for lighter cardio. I've needed alot more recovery time in between workouts, as I don't tend to feel fatigued as I'm working out when I lift but the day afterwards can be very 😴. I've also had no problems keeping the weight gain to a minimum/ reasonable amount this time (unlike my other pregnancy's) and I currently have no more than an occasional twinge and can run after two young kids happily most days. It's a world of difference from my other pregnancies when I suffered sciatica and back ache at this stage.
    I would suggest starting a routine, and if you get pregnant, just really focus on managing recovery time and not pushing the intensity beyond what you can handle. I'm managing a lot more regular workouts in my third trimester than the first/second, and not experiencing joint issues or pain, but its been a process of working out what I can handle, and researching tweaks to movements rather than following a written program to the letter. I wish I could have kept running, but it wasn't to be this time, so I'm glad I found able to keep lifting and active even if I had to get fewer workouts overall to allow for extra recovery.
  • noel2fit
    noel2fit Posts: 235 Member
    I’ve lifted while pregnant through both pregnancies and the rule of thumb my midwife had me follow was limit it to whatever you were doing before pregnancy. So even though I only started snatching for a few months before pregnancy I could do 65# so I just used 65# or less through pregnancy. When my body ached or was exhausted I just lifted less. Lifting while pregnant is great for your health though and I feel it really kept me strong for delivery and recovery! Good luck to you!
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
    I've never been pregnant. But hopped in here to recommend you have a look at the Girls Gone Strong website. They do all sorts of courses and workout plans specifically aimed at pregnant and postpartum women and there are a lot of good articles there too.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    SnifterPug wrote: »
    I've never been pregnant. But hopped in here to recommend you have a look at the Girls Gone Strong website. They do all sorts of courses and workout plans specifically aimed at pregnant and postpartum women and there are a lot of good articles there too.

    Ooh I will take a look at that!
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    Thanks so much for everyone's responses! I got started with a dumbbell lifting program last month and I'm actually surprised by how much I am enjoying it as well as how much I've improved already. I will keep track of resources for pregnancy and postpartum so I'm grateful for those too!

    The specific program I am doing features how-to videos for the lifts and one of the demonstrators is pregnant even though it's not a pregnancy-specific program. I find that really encouraging, even though she's lifting heavier than I can right now! 😂 Goals!
  • Cassandraw3
    Cassandraw3 Posts: 1,214 Member
    Hi! Just popping in to say that you absolutely can continue a program while pregnant. I would like to echo what a previous poster said about prioritizing pelvic floor health above all. Stop any core movements if you can feel your abs coning. I managed to make it to 34 weeks my last pregnancy working out/lifting weights. I stopped due to the exhaustion (on days I worked out, I had zero energy for my son or any housework) and for my mental health (I'm competitive, and the amount of modifications was getting to me). Once I got pregnant, I started to wear a heart rate monitor regularly and made sure I wasn't red lining during any workout. I'm now 4 months post partum and working to build it all back up.

    Brianna Battles is a good resource for working out while pregnant and post partum. She has free resources as well as some programs you can buy.

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