Question about how to modify Cathe Kick Punch Crunch while pregnant?

[sdebromhead]

I am newly pregnant with my third. I want to continue using the Kick Punch Crunch dvd through my pregnancy. Can anyone please advise how I should modify it? Presumably no jumping/windmills etc. How about the ab exercizes?

Thank you!

 

[FiddleFit]

Hi! Congratulations on your pregnancy! I modified KPC about 6 months into my pregnancy by simply taking out the impact and either doing low-impact jacks (where you step out one foot at a time) or marching in place. I stopped doing the jump-kicks and just did a grounded kick instead. I did the low-impact version of the windmills - the one she shows you in the warm up where you keep one foot grounded, then squat. I kept my range of motion for all of the moves within a comfortable range. Overall I found this workout to be highly modifiable for pregnancy, and still gave me a good workout. I stopped doing the ab work on this one altogether. The only ab work I did in the third trimester was stability ball crunches and a few others. I used Cathe's Basic Step/Body Fusion add-on ab routine quite frequently (only had to skip a couple of exercises).

Enjoy!
Sandra

 

[sdebromhead]

Thank you very much for replying so quickly and with such great detail! That is a huge help. I will follow your advice. Just to clarify one thing: so you followed the dvd exactly as is and didnt modify anything till your 6 month mark, right? And then you substituted the low impact. When you say you stopped all ab work on this one do you mean after the 6 month mark or right from the beginning of your pregnancy?

Thank you again! You are extremely helpful. I really enjoy this dvd and would be disappointed to have to stop doing it.

Best,

Susannah

 

[melanalyus]

Hi there! I'm going to agree with Fiddlefit's great description. Basically, I followed the same regimen on all Cathe's workouts until it didn't feel right anymore (got to difficult cardiovascularly), then I moved to low impact.

As far as ab work goes...that's variable depending on who you ask. I did mostly stability ball crunches as long as I could (each pg was different...with #2 I followed until 8 mos, with baby #3 it was more like 6 mos). I was able to follow most ab workouts fully until the 6 month mark or so.

Cardio & Weights and Low Max are other Cathe vids that are easily modified during pg.

Enjoy your pregnancy!

**Melanie**
28lbs lost 5lbs to go

Jadon born 11/23/05
Justin born 1/17/04
Jory born 4/9/94
" Take care of your body like it will last a lifetime. Take care of your soul like it will last for eternity"

 

[FiddleFit]

Hi Susannah,

I'm trying to think back to the pregnancy - it was only a few months ago for heaven's sake, and it already feels like years ago. I had an unsual situation whereby I was put on bedrest for 9 weeks, at the start of my second trimester. Prior to the bedrest, I didn't modify the impact level of any of my workouts. When the doctor gave me the okay to exercise again, I was halfway through the pregnancy, and I started off really slow and easy. Within a few weeks I had worked my way back up to a good intensity level, but can't say that I ever returned to the level I was at prior to the bedrest. Essentially, I just did my best to listen to my body, and decided to modify based on what felt comfortable. That's going to be different for everyone, and something you need to gauge for yourself.

What I did not do was simply stop doing a particular exercise just because some book told me not to. For example, I read in many places that pregnant women shouldn't do kickboxing or step aerobics because of a lack of balance due to the growing belly. While I'm sure many women do find their balance gets a bit off as the pregnancy progresses, I didn't find that to be the case for me, and I kept up with all my kickbox and stepping workouts. It's all about personal judgement, IMO, and rarely do general rules apply to everyone.

Regarding the ab work, it is suggested that after the 12th week women don't lay flat on their backs, as the heavy uterus blocks of the blood flow going through a major vein to the heart. With both my pregnancies I found that laying on my back after about the 12th week made me feel nauseas and dizzy, so I modified my ab work starting at that point. One recommendation for pregnant women is to do crunches on a bit of an incline. So, I modified my ab work to an incline on the stability ball, starting around the 12th week. I stopped doing various other ab work (such as the Intensity Series) over time, when the moves just began to feel uncomfortable to do. So that happened kind of gradually.

I forgot to mention that the core work in High Step Circuit (the beginner/intermediate workout) was great for pregnancy, as was the core work in SuperSets (modifying the bicycling to crunches on the ball).

Hope this helps!
Sandra