Pregnant and returning to orangetheory after a month hiatus. Any advice?

J

joeycamaro

New member
First trimester exercise did not go well for me, so I put my membership on hold and now that I'm nearly into my second trimester I feel up to it. I'm still pretty tired, but no longer cripplingly nauseous all the time. Prior to pregnancy I would go 4-5 days a week and push myself as hard as I could, running as fast as I could and lifting heavy weights. I know I want to play it a little safer, but I'm not sure where the balance between barely doing anything and going too hard is. I guess I'll just show up today and try to do what feels good. Also when do laying down exercises (e.g. situps) become illegal? Is it 20 weeks? Earlier? I don't have much of a bump yet. I'd say it's more of a bloat. Baby is only lime-sized according to my app.
 
@joeycamaro Yup. I'd say go in and take it easy the first few times and don't push hard. I just re-started pilates this week and some exercises I was close to 100% and then some stuff totally threw me for a loop. Also, I'm way more sore the day after than I thought I would be. So just take it easy and slow at first and see how your body feels during but also after. Then you can slowly ramp things up. Just don't expect to push as hard as you did before.

As for positions? I'm no expert, but for me I just avoid what feels uncomfortable and as I grow bigger I will also keep an eye on any potential doming, and if that happens I shall exclude exercises that make that happen. I was definitely surprised that even though my bump is also 90% bloat, lying on my stomach felt REALLY weird, so I am already stopping any moves that require that... I just used that time to do some stretches.
 
@westbridge Can you share a bit about doming? What do you mean by this?

I’ve been doing some prenatal Pilates and yoga through an app and feeling up to doing a bit more now that my nausea is getting a little less intense!
 
@epablo Doming is basically when you see a bulge appearing on your belly when contracting your abdominal muscles in a certain way. It's when the muscles separate in the middle and, uh... whatever other stuff pushes through the gap. You're supposed to avoid anything that causes doming. Google images of it. That helped me understand a bit better. But I'm no expert. Ftm and only 16 weeks so I haven't experienced it (yet?).
 
@westbridge Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve heard only a little of diastasis recti- I knew of someone who had to have surgery for it, but she had twins so figured that played into it as well.

Never heard of building and will def be Googling now!
 
@joeycamaro Listen to your body! It should be pretty easy to tell what does and does not feel good for you. I'm almost 12 weeks pregnant, and I've been doing HIIT and group fitness. Even though it's still early on, don't be afraid if you need to modify things. If you're comfortable, also mention it to the class instructor. That way they can offer some tips for modifications and they will understand if you're taking extra breaks.

Some things that I've found helped me are:
1. Slowly getting up and down from floor activities. (Getting up too quickly makes me feel dizzy)
2. Elevated mountain climbers. (Doing these normally caused bad cramping and burps)
3. Deadlifts instead of kettle bell swings. (Not sure why but I think this baby is allergic to kettle bell swings, they made me very nauseous)
4. Stepping out for burpees instead doing them normally.

Good luck! It will feel soooo good to get back into the gym! 🥰
 
@joeycamaro I am 22 weeks and still doing exercises lying on my back like bench press, Emily Oster analysed some studies on it and didn’t find any evidence that it restricts blood flow except in fringe cases where the women always felt super unwell when they lay down. So if you’re comfortable on your back, you’re probably fine. But you have to weigh up your own personal comfort level.

Saying all that, I am avoiding pure ab exercises like sit ups, but only because I had some quite significant coning with my first pregnancy and you’re more prone to diasis recti with subsequent pregnancies. I’m subbing them for planks or bird dogs (although the latter are definitely nowhere near as challenging!)

Generally I don’t find a blanket approach to advice on working out in pregnancy super helpful because your body will be different and used to different things compared to other people. I’m just trying to stay in tune with my body this pregnancy and listen to what it’s telling me. It’s hard because exercise is inherently uncomfortable so sometimes I worry that I’m skipping out on stuff that is potentially not risky but just not fun, but it’s better than taking too much risk and pushing too hard.
 
@joeycamaro Hi! Almost 27 weeks and I do Orangetheory too! Honestly, you’ll kind of have to see how you feel when you go back. Try jogging/running, if you feel like you’re overly exerting yourself (or any pain at all), switch to power walking. As for the laying down exercises, that depends on feel too. Crunches and situps started to feel funny to me around 14 weeks, so I just started substituting other things (bird dogs, good mornings, nothing that causes ab coning). Laying down in general just started to be an issue for me in the last couple of weeks though! The big issue with laying down flat on your back for too long is blood flow, so you will feel it if there is an issue. I’ve never felt dizzy or anything from being on my back for a minute or so, it’s just more comfortable for me now to do things like chest press on an incline bench instead of a flat one. Basically, there wasn’t one day where I needed to cut out a bunch of exercises, I’ve just slowly stopped doing anything that feels “off.”
 
@joeycamaro I had an sch and didn’t workout from week 6 to 12. Maybe ask if any of the trainers have prenatal experience. I know I can’t remember when I’m not supposed to be lying down when I can’t do this and that.

My main focus has not been overheating and not losing my breath by not letting my heart rate get too high. I don’t know what the heart rate recs are during pregnancy but I’m trying to keep CrossFit to zone 3 (everyone’s zone is individual), cardio to zone 2.
 
@joeycamaro I didn’t go back to working out until week 16. The biggest thing I noticed was that my HR was much higher than usual and I was sore for an extra 1-2 days. I try to take breaks more frequently to control the HR and drink extra water - my doc said I’ll know if something feels wrong (doing exercises on my back still feels totally fine for me). Have fun!
 
@joeycamaro I'm in the same boat. Second pregnancy and 8 weeks in and I've spent the last month eating the most plain carbs and not being able to do much without getting nauseous. I'm finally on the up and am heading back after over a month off.

As others have said, just take it easy. I did OTF throughout my entire first pregnancy and I think it really helped when I was ready to get back into shape postpartum. I ended up weighing less + had higher muscle when I got pregnant this time than the first because I did OTF so much throughout my pregnancy and postpartum. I think it's better to do it at an easier pace than not at all.

Just listen to your body as you ease back in, even with core (up until a certain point). It will truly tell you what is OK and what isn't if you're in tune with it :)
 
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