I'm pregnant! Weight lifting now?

[alison13]

Hello everyone,

I just found out I am pregnant a few days ago. I'm totally excited, but of course, confused about weight lifting now! I completed my first round of STS before Christmas, and started another round 3 weeks ago. I would like to keep up with it, but use the weights I started with for the first round of STS. I am wondering if that's a bad idea...STS was pretty tough the first time around and I'm not sure if it will hurt the baby. I know I'm not supposed to be flat on my back past 4 months (is that the beginning of the 4th month, or the beginning of the 5th month??) and I know I have to be careful about how I breathe while lifting, and getting too hot or fatigued...but the funny thing is that I don't know what fatigued means on the pregnancy/exercise websites. Fatigued to me is having to lay down between sets during Meso 2! Fatigued is not a little tired....I think of it as REALLY tired. So,

I know that other people have asked about exercise during pregnancy, and I did a forum search, but I just feel confused about terminology.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

(I did just order that "Exercising through your pregnancy" by Dr. Clapp.)

Thanks everyone,

Alison

 

[Sweetpea1]

Congratulations! I wish you a happy and healthy pregnancy! First of all, you will soon learn the definition of fatigue, don't worry. My suggestion is to listen to your body and don't try to increase your weights but stick with what you are comfortable with. The idea is to maintain your level of fitness, not try to break any records. Also, check with your doctor at your first appointment. Good luck!

 

[melimcn]

Have to echo Jen here, you'll find out pretty quickly what fatigued means!!

In general, don't workout to the point where you're gasping for air. That's the rule of thumb for those of us that are already fit. Most continue lifting as they were, but don't strive for improvements. Just maintain.
All doctors are different with what they tell you is OK. Truth is, none of them know, honestly. So the above advice is about the best you'll find. You'll know when you're pushing too hard, you'll feel it. Just take a rest if that happens.

As far as laying on the back, I never had that problem. It's tied to oxygen deprivation in the baby, depending on a particular blood vessel being "cut off" by the weight of your belly. If that were to happen, you would feel it LONG before anything caused the baby to be in danger. I did bench presses, ab work, etc....laying flat until the very end. No issues.

Everyone is different and each pregnancy is different. Best advice I can give, is do your homework and make decisions for yourself. Again, doctors really don't know anything about exercise and what impact is has on pregancy. Only that it makes delivery and recovery easier. Study up on everything and decide for yourself what's best for you.

Congratulations!

 

[welch]

Alison - congatulations on your pregnancy!!

My take on weight lifting may be a little more cautious than others. I've had a miscarriage before, so my doctors want me to be extra careful this time around. I go to a practice with 3 different doctors and they rotate who I see, so I've been given lots of different advice.

One doctor told me absolutely no weight lifting at all. She also said not to do any ab work after 12 weeks and no exercises flat on my back after 12 weeks either. Another doctor said his rule of thumb about exercise is to do only 80% of the effort/weight/intensity that you normally would if you weren't pregnant. One of the ob nurses at my first appointment told me that the maximum weight I'm allowed to lift is 25 lbs (I'm a vet, so I think she meant that for lifting dogs, boxes, groceries, etc. and not specifically about weight lifting).
But they all agree that moderate exercise is good for pregnant women, and I'm allowed to workout so long as I'm not having any complications.

I've been focusing mainly on cardio, but I still do upper body one day a week, and lower body on another day of the week. I'm keeping my weights light for upper body and Muscle Max has been my primary workout. I used to to do bicep curls with a 35# barbell, but now I'm just using 10# dumbbells. I did barbell rows with 40#, and now I'm only using 25#. My shoulders have always been weak. I used to use 10# for upright rows and shoulder raises, but now I use 10# for the first set, and drop to 8 # for the second set. Anything that Cathe does flat on her back, I do on an incline step instead. My method is to use less weight, but still try to keep some tone in my muscles. For lower body, I've been doing STS Meso 1 Legs. Again I'm keeping my weights light and not picking up more than 10# - 15# dumbells.

I'm at my 14th week, and so far, so good. I was able to workout through most of the 1st trimester, but I certainly had days where my workouts were less intense and lower impact due to fatigue. I know of others who weren't able to workout much at all in the first trimester due to morning sickness and fatigue, so don't be hard on yourself if you go through the same thing.

Good luck and keep up posted!!
Carrie

 

[alison13]

Hey Thanks for all the advice and input!

I asked my doc yesterday-she said no more than 20 lbs I think. That seems rediculously low to me-I was squatting 90 lbs during Meso 3 this December. My doc is great, and really good bed-side manner, but it doesn't look like she knows anything about exercise in general. I am reading "Exercising through your Pregnancy", which has some good facts, but more on cardio stuff rather than weights, so I'm a little baffled by that still.

I did the Back and Triceps workout number 8 from Meso 1 yesterday, and it felt great actually-I lifted about the same amount of weight yesterday as I did back in October (the first round of STS I did). The only thing I noticed was a little pulling through my abdomen when doing lying tricep extensions-so am thinking I will decrease weight for those in the future. Otherwise, everything went very smoothly!

Thanks everyone!

Alison