Navigating Through the First Trimester

FIRST TRIMESTER RECAP
Now that I'm almost into my third trimester (26 and 1/2 weeks now), there's a lot that we've missed. As soon as I found out that I was pregnant I had to reevaluate my entire exercise routine. As you recall in the previous post, my normal regimen consisted of sprinting intervals, heavy strength training, plyometrics and various forms of jumping, with some yoga thrown in here and there. I was working out intensely about 4 or 5 days a week.


I immediately eased off a bit, especially with the sprinting and jumping. I felt totally fine, in fact I didn't feel any different at all in the beginning, but figured it might not be the wisest thing to workout at 100% of my maximum. I started to do a little researching to determine what I could actually continue doing.


The first frustrating moment came at about 6 weeks when we had our very first appointment with the nurse at my ob/gyn clinic. This appointment was a basic history and information gathering session: I peed in a cup, had blood taken, and then was handed an arm-full of brochures and information. They also gave me a few exercise guidelines: "You can continue doing what you've been doing, but don't let your heartrate go over 140bpm, don't lift anything heavier than 25 pounds, and drink lots of water". I wanted to yell at them and say, "But that's not continuing what I had been doing at all! Don't you know what I do for a living?? I can lift 25 pounds with my pinky!" There had to be another way.


So I went to the ACOG (The American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists) website to see what they said about exercise during pregnancy. They gave these basic guidelines:

• Exercising for 30 minutes most, if not all, days of the week is extremely beneficial during pregnancy for a number of reasons


• Avoid jerky, bouncy, or high impact motions (i.e. plyometrics and jumping) because your joints have more laxity and are more susceptible to injury


• Maintain a moderate heart rate that allows you to still carry on a conversation


• After the first trimester, avoid exercises that require you to lie on your back


• Activities that are safe during exercise include walking, swimming, cycling, aerobics, running (if you had been doing it before), some racquet sports, and strength training


• Avoid sports and activities that increase your chances of falling


• Always warm-up and cool down


• Don't exercise to the point of exhaustion and be sure to avoid overheating

These tips can be found at http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/bp119.cfm.

Pretty basic and straightforward, right? Well, I felt like there was quite a bit of wiggle room in there. It doesn't say anything about 140bpm or 25 pounds. And after talking to my doctor and some other ob/gyn nurses, I seemed to get the green light to keep doing all the strength training and fairly intensive stuff as I had been doing before.

WHAT I DID DIFFERENT

So I decided to completely cut out the sprinting intervals. They fell into the high impact and higher than moderate heart rate category. I continued to run about once or twice per week at a moderate pace. (I tend to have a very high heart rate on average, so moderate for me is about 175bpm.) I would typically run for 3-4 miles. This was somewhat annoying, since I know that distance running is borderline worthless unless you're training for a distance event. However, it was still running and that made me happy.

I also (mostly) cut out any form of jumping and plyometrics. However, I must say that I still occasionally perform a jump here or there (lunge jump, box jump, tuck jump, rapid response plyometric, cone agility drill) primarily for the purpose of demonstration. I still train athletes and athletes must jump now and again. Sometimes it's highly frustrating to describe the exercise rather than just show it. But, I limit it to just one or two jumps. Only in the last week has it started to make me feel crampy and uncomfortable, so I'm going to have to be a little more careful now.

My strength training really didn't change at all during the first trimester. I was able to maintain the same exercise routine that I was having Scott (my husband) perform...pretty advanced exercises on the TRX Suspension Trainer. Click here for more info about the TRX. I also occasionally performed strength training exercises with dumbbells, bands, exercise balls, etc. My intensity typically ranged from 2 or 3 sets worth of 8-10 repetitions maximum. I would perform this in a circuit format. The ONLY thing I noticed was that I tended to get tired much more quickly. I needed longer recovery time between sets. Frustrating, but understandable. I was just glad I was still doing my power pulls and weighted lunges.

So my exercise routine became strength training 2 or 3 times a week and moderate running 1 or 2 times a week. I felt great, experienced very little morning nausea, and no cramping. By the end of my first trimester I had only gained about 2 pounds (which Scott was fairly concerned about...he thought I might be overdoing it). The doctor assured me my weight gain was totally fine, the baby had a super strong heart beat and all my blood draws checked out great.

So far so good. I was ready to be "super-prego-woman", running well into my third trimester with absolutely no discomfort. We'll see about that... I at least felt like I was able to maintain my muscle mass and strength without being uncomfortable, which I think is the key. When an exercise or activity started to become uncomfortable, instead of pushing through it, as I was geared to do, I tried something different. Listen to your body. My routine as described above may be a scale back for some (as it was for me), but for others it may be extremely advanced. I think the key is if it was a fairly advanced level of exercise, but you had been doing it long before you got pregnant, it's probably ok to continue doing it...within reason. Don't go make yourself puke with hill repeats. Probably not a good idea.