Exercise in the Third Trimester

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you guys on how my exercising schedule is going. Lately, it’s been a little slow since I was out of town then got a little sick so I was trying to take it easy.

Overall, exercising throughout pregnancy has really been okay. I’ve stopped running as much as I was in the first trimester just because it’s not as comfortable as it once was. I think I’m also a little weirded out about it now that I can feel the baby all the time..I almost feel bad if I run like I’m annoying her or something (even though the doctor says it’s fine!).

Now that I’m getting bigger and bigger every day, I think my workouts will change once again. Over the past few months I’ve still been comfortable with heavier weights and balance testing moves like single leg deadlifts or step ups on a bench. At this point, I think I’m going to come down a notch and stick with medium to light weights like 8-15 pounds and instead of a single leg deadlift, perform deadlifts with both legs or use a hamstring curl machine.

Here are some other exercise guidelines I think I might follow:

• Listen to your body! This is really the main point I follow. If something feels weird, I’ll stop. I thought I’d be doing more high intensity workouts (so naive ha) throughout my pregnancy, but I just don’t feel comfortable doing them-so I won’t. Some people do! Some people do CrossFit and others run until the day they’re due..that is awesome! Whatever works for you. I’ve been pretty tired lately so I’m trying just to get to the gym and walk on the treadmill at inclines for 30 minutes then do some strength training. I’m also forcing myself to go to prenatal yoga!
• Continue to Strength Train– As much as I don’t want to some days, I think it’s important to keep lifting weights. Like I said before, nothing insane but enough so I don’t feel like a blob. Who knows if this is true or not, but I would think being strong might help during labor? We’ll see!
• Prenatal Yoga- I am just not a fan of yoga during pregnancy. I was really hoping I would be but I’m not. I’m not very good at yoga anyway so since becoming pregnant, its become that much harder. For example, just holding plank for like, 20 seconds is brutal! Even though I don’t particularly love it, I’m forcing myself to go. I’ve had hip pain at night and I’m hoping some stretching and strength moves will help alleviate that.
• Walks– I’m going to try to at least go for a 30 minute walk everyday during this trimester. Yesterday, I went to the gym so I walked on the treadmill and added some incline to make it harder. I actually ended up jogging a bit too which felt okay so maybe I’ll try to jog off and on too-as long as the Doc is ok with it.

So that’s my exercise plan for the third trimester! I definitely want to stay active and will as long as I feel okay. I sort of want to get into swimming but I think I might be too late for that….at this point I might just sink :). Swimming would be a great workout so maybe I’ll try it, but since I haven’t been swimming regularly, it might be a little too hard at this point.

Here was my workout yesterday:

• Walk on treadmill for 30 minutes at incline with some jogs off and on
• Squats– 3 sets of 20 with 10 pound weights.
• Deadlifts– 3 sets of 15 with 10lb. weights.
• Sumo Squat– 3 sets of 15 with 15lb. weight.
• Clams– 3 sets of 15 on both legs.

I was sort of in a hurry yesterday so I didn’t do a ton of stuff and it was my first day back in about a week. Today is yoga day!

 

If you’ve had a baby, did you stay active during pregnancy? How did your exercise change?