crossfit, first trimester.
The first thing I did when I found out I was pregnant was (a) freak out and cry (b) start frantically reading as much as I possibly could.
Most of my research centered around what foods are best to eat while pregnant (it kept coming down to liver and bone broth, definitely having a tough time with that!) and how to work out/what modifications should be done for CrossFitting while pregnant. I've been doing CrossFit since December of 2012, when our local box opened, and I knew I wanted to keep going as long as I could during this pregnancy. I came across CrossFit Mom, and I appreciate seeing what other moms are doing, but the engineer in me wants the information backed with science and studies. This post is not the science and studies, but me making sense of what I've found and how I dealt with CrossFit during the first trimester.
After speaking with both Doctors I've seen at the OB/GYN, I liked their advice best - listen to your body. Pay attention to what you're doing. "If you're running half marathons before you're pregnant, keep running half marathons, but don't train for a marathon," was the way Doctor number 1 put it.
After speaking with both Doctors I've seen at the OB/GYN, I liked their advice best - listen to your body. Pay attention to what you're doing. "If you're running half marathons before you're pregnant, keep running half marathons, but don't train for a marathon," was the way Doctor number 1 put it.
As I got through more weeks of the first trimester, I realized my biggest complaint was being tired and eating food I normally wouldn't eat, I felt pretty good.
Then I started getting dizzy during WODs. To combat the dizziness for the first couple weeks, I stayed away from hand stand pushups, or just did handstand holds, and started doing them again once the dizziness (thankfully) subsided. After the first two months, I was nervous to do rope climbs because I didn't want to fall. Rope climbs I am still comfortable with going halfway up, but that may not be the case for everyone, and will probably change as I get bigger.
I read we shouldn't get our heart rate above 140 (again, why??!) and be able to talk during workouts. Who can talk during a WOD? Seriously. After speaking to my doctor about the heart rate, she said to keep it below 160. Then I find articles like this one from the Mayo Clinic, which tells us heart rate doesn't matter. While I haven't actually measured my heart rate during or after a WOD, I have been taking longer breaks. I do this because for some reason everything is a lot more difficult now (wonder if it has anything to do with making a baby?), and secondly, if this heart rate thing has any merit, to keep it a little lower than what my heart rate would normally be.
This heart rate thing was bugging me, so I enlisted the help of my sister, Dr. Jennifer Vaughn, out of Altamonte Springs, FL, and mother of her own awesome 9 year old. While she hasn't gone into a research project on the subject, her thought on the heart rate was that more toxins are released as you push yourself harder during exercise (as indicated by your heart rate). You really don't want this excess of toxins, because whatever is going through your liver, also goes through your baby's liver. It's for this same reason she recommends to NOT do any sort of detox while pregnant.
One other thing I've experienced is when I bend over, or am sitting down stretching and putting my torso over my legs, I feel squished, and breathing gets a little more difficult. Any time I feel this, I just switch what I'm doing and do something else. Like painting my own toes, last week I went and got a pedicure (totally CrossFit related), and yoga during child's pose (I'll move my legs wider) or during plow pose (will do shoulder stand instead). I really can't say I've experienced this in CrossFit... but time will tell. I'm sure this belly will start getting in the way sometime very soon.
July 2013
September 2013
September 2013, photos by Tony at CrossFit Palm Beach
I read we shouldn't get our heart rate above 140 (again, why??!) and be able to talk during workouts. Who can talk during a WOD? Seriously. After speaking to my doctor about the heart rate, she said to keep it below 160. Then I find articles like this one from the Mayo Clinic, which tells us heart rate doesn't matter. While I haven't actually measured my heart rate during or after a WOD, I have been taking longer breaks. I do this because for some reason everything is a lot more difficult now (wonder if it has anything to do with making a baby?), and secondly, if this heart rate thing has any merit, to keep it a little lower than what my heart rate would normally be.
This heart rate thing was bugging me, so I enlisted the help of my sister, Dr. Jennifer Vaughn, out of Altamonte Springs, FL, and mother of her own awesome 9 year old. While she hasn't gone into a research project on the subject, her thought on the heart rate was that more toxins are released as you push yourself harder during exercise (as indicated by your heart rate). You really don't want this excess of toxins, because whatever is going through your liver, also goes through your baby's liver. It's for this same reason she recommends to NOT do any sort of detox while pregnant.
One other thing I've experienced is when I bend over, or am sitting down stretching and putting my torso over my legs, I feel squished, and breathing gets a little more difficult. Any time I feel this, I just switch what I'm doing and do something else. Like painting my own toes, last week I went and got a pedicure (totally CrossFit related), and yoga during child's pose (I'll move my legs wider) or during plow pose (will do shoulder stand instead). I really can't say I've experienced this in CrossFit... but time will tell. I'm sure this belly will start getting in the way sometime very soon.
While I do agree with not pushing yourself too hard, I did manage to sneak in a couple PRs during the first trimester, especially before my pregnancy was public knowledge, although I don't see myself continuing that into the second trimester.
Then I got slower. Everything I'd been working so hard to get better, stronger, faster, fitter, since December 2012 started to deteriorate. I'd get (and still do get) frustrated in the middle of WODs, kinda crying some inside because I know I "could do better".
Researching yoga, what I came across is this:
Debra Flashenberg, director of the Prenatal Yoga Center in New York City, says, "Often, the hardest thing for experienced practitioners is accepting and surrendering. They could have been practicing for years and years, and their egos are very much involved in their practice. They have to let go of something they've strived for and might be very proud of and accept that it's not just about them anymore."
Of course, duh, sometimes it takes researching yoga to find your "inner peace" and acceptance of what is going on inside you, whether it be recovering from an injury, an off day, or making a baby and still trying to do CrossFit. It's interesting, however, that I still managed to get a better time for two benchmark WODs between last week and about 40 days before that (benchmark #1 and benchmark #2, definitely not done Rx but at the same weight as about 40 days prior).
This article about Heather Bergeron, a 2010 CrossFit Games athlete, provided some additional inspiration. While she is amazing and can still do weighted pull ups and things I could never do un-pregnant while pregnant, the article talks about how she is "scaling her weights" and gives some great tips I could live with regarding scaling and modifications.
This article about Heather Bergeron, a 2010 CrossFit Games athlete, provided some additional inspiration. While she is amazing and can still do weighted pull ups and things I could never do un-pregnant while pregnant, the article talks about how she is "scaling her weights" and gives some great tips I could live with regarding scaling and modifications.
Overall, I think everyone's body is different and will reactions to exercise during pregnancy will vary. For me, the benefits of exercising while pregnant, and how good it makes me feel are enough to make me keep going and WOD to my ability. Besides, baby girl Bordner was already doing squats in my belly, so I'm pretty sure she likes it!