A Fit Pregnancy 10

I’ve always been very in touch with my body. It is a large reason why I’ve been able to carve out and build my physique the way I want. I understand my body, listen to it and make adjustments depending on my strengths and limitations. I also have a grand vision for it.

My pregnancy and vision for my own labor and delivery has been the same. I had a fantastic pregnancy! Sure, I had major food aversions the entire time making it extremely difficult (but possible!) to get in enough protein. I also experienced, at times, severe joint pain. But, both of those issues were completely manageable and, other than that, I felt like a goddess the entire journey!

I’ve said it many times before—if you make it a goal to be healthy and fit before your pregnancy, it will be so easy for you to continue that during your pregnancy, as long as your pregnancy is healthy and you don’t have any medical issues. If you’re not exercising prior to becoming pregnant, it’s not recommended that you start exercising as soon as you find out you’re pregnant, or sometime during your pregnancy. You may, though, begin a light workout regimen that you ease yourself into and take it slow.

Listen to your body—know when you can take it up a notch or when it’s time to take it easy. You can ALWAYS start a prenatal yoga class, regardless of your fitness or yoga background (or lack there of).

If you have made it a goal to be healthy and fit prior to pregnancy, there is no reason why you can’t continue that all the way through the end! As long as you put a huge priority on understanding what your body is going through and knowing and being okay with your limitations.

You will go in and out of different stages throughout the weeks. Some weeks, I felt incredible, and some weeks, I was just happy that I did some body-weight lunges without tipping over.

One of the toughest parts of my pregnancy was constantly reminding myself to have compassion for self and my own process! I have spent so many years building muscle and strength and showing how much I can do with my body on the outside. During pregnancy, it’s what is happening on the inside that matters most.

Keeping your body healthy while growing a baby is no small feat—it will take up almost every resource you have at times. If you don’t have compassion for yourself during this process, you’ll spend a lot of your pregnancy frustrated. My main goal has been to do what I can…as long as I try!

Full Term Training

I’ve taken you through many styles of workouts throughout my pregnancy and now, at full term, I’ll take you through another one that I know you can do!

I wanted to be one of those awesome pregnant women that were doing squats at the gym on their way to the hospital, but…I am not. My hips have been sore my entire pregnancy, and I have not been willing to push my limits with that. Instead, I have made substitutions in the weight room and have replaced squats with regular visits to the chiropractor to make sure I stay healthy, pain free and that the baby has plenty of room in there!

Below is a great arm workout and lower body workout you can try if you, like me, have had to forgo squats and other compound movements during your pregnancy. (Note: I WOULD be doing these movements if I didn’t have pain or wasn’t at risk for injury. Compound movements are my GO-TO when I need to have effective, most bang-for-your-buck workouts.)