Pregnancy and CrossFit

By shannon

In December 30, 2013

3707 Views

Pregnancy and CrossFit

by Stacey Gregrow

This is my second time being pregnant while keeping up with my CrossFit routine and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. During my last pregnancy I was very cautious. I could not find much information, other than what was on Crossfitmom.com, and I still feel like that wasn’t “enough”. So what I did was follow the guidelines on Crossfitmom.com to a T.

My First Pregnancy

My “comeback” was rough. I had weird aches and pains everywhere, squatting was “different” and so were some other movements. In a sense, I felt like I was starting all over. Also, I watched other females in the gym, including my sister in law, take on pregnancy while continuing to do CrossFit, and they did not scale back as much as I had with Ellie, and they seemed to be doing just fine.

So for this pregnancy, I decided to take things a little differently. I went with the “talk test” during my met-cons, which means that I would complete the work, and once I was so out of breath that I wasn’t able to talk, I would slow down to catch my breath. A lot of times I would just try to sing along to the song that was playing to keep myself in check. As for lifting, I kept up with my max lifts until about 25 weeks. When I say “I kept up” I mean I would only attempt my current PR, or just below it, I never tried to get a new PR because now is just not the time. I just listen to my body, a lot. If something feels weird, I stop. Even if something doesn’t feel weird, I have learned there are things I just cannot do anymore because dealing with the repercussions hurts too much. For instance, I have had to stop squatting altogether. Although it did not seem to bug me during the workouts, I noticed that on days I would squat that I would be in severe pelvic pain for the rest of the day. So, no more squats for me.

My First Pregnancy

One thing that I have noticed though, is that I have less aches and pains this pregnancy. Now, I don’t know if that’s because I kept up with my weights and intensity a little more this pregnancy, or if its just because I don’t have the luxury of just laying around and sulking in all my pregnancy woes this time, but overall I just feel better this time around.

Now at almost 35 weeks, I have to modify almost every workout. That’s ok, I am just glad I am still moving. That’s what is great about CrossFit, and our coaches at Ruination. The workouts are completely scale-able to anyone’s level.

I am no expert on exercise and pregnancy, CrossFit and pregnancy or any of the like, but I just wanted to share my experiences while pregnant and continuing to do CrossFit, because when I was pregnant, especially the first time, I couldn’t read enough! I just wanted to find as much information as I could, even if it was merely just other CrossFitting woman’s experiences. I still look for other’s guidance during this pregnancy, because I think it is interesting.