Working Out Through the Trimesters

So here I am on week 37 of my second pregnancy, and still keeping active to a certain extent. Although for my first pregnancy I used to weigh myself every single week (not that it made a difference to my weight gain...), this time around I'm not as focused on the scale but rather trying to keep myself as active as I can to the extent that I can.

There are some general guidelines on what workouts to avoid during pregnancy, it's always best to check with your doctor, but I thought I'd share what worked for me personally. Everyone's fitness level is different and where you start before pregnancy will influence what you are/ aren't able to do during pregnancy.

Prior to Pregnancy

My workouts were a combination of body pump, crossfit, yoga and body balance. I generally liked some weight training and cardio, balanced with yoga.

First Trimester

Although what I read was that it was safe to continue carrying out exercises that you were normally used to. I preferred to play it safe since I'd had a miscarriage in the past, so I kept things lower key with mostly just yoga although it was vinyasa/ power yoga with some minor adjustments.

Second Trimester

By the second trimester, I was more confident picking things back up. I was starting to get a bit tired of lower impact workouts and was not feeling myself. So I picked up body pump again, and felt great to workout and get my heart rate going, I kept my bench on an incline and did some stretches instead of ab workouts for the last track. I continued to alternate this with some yoga and gradually reduced weights as I got bigger. Towards the end of my second trimester I started feeling less comfortable in body pump classes, as my bump started to get in the way of the bar, and it was especially difficult for me to pick myself back up from laying on the bench with a bar. It's really important to keep proper form to ensure that you don't get injured so as my bump grew it started getting a bit more difficult to keep the correct alignment. 

Third Trimester

As the third trimester kicked in, it was like a switch that turned off and I would just have general lazy vibes, and really could not be bothered to go to workouts at the gym anymore. I started focusing more on pre-natal yoga workouts, my own yoga routines, balance ball exercises and using some dumbells for weight training at home. Although in earlier trimesters, I would find pre-natal yoga too laid back and not enough of a workout, I started feeling more in-the zone of transitioning my mind-set to more calm and relaxing activities in preparation for birth. At my 33 week appointment I was informed that baby was transverse (laying side-ways and hadn't moved head-down yet), so I visited  spinningbabies.com and started following their recommendations for activities that could help the baby turn including; walking, swimming, handstands underwater and certain inversions.

I have another scan tomorrow, so wish me luck that baby has started moving head-down!