Project Fit Pregnancy: Week 40!

Well, today’s the big day, but as we all know, due dates are only estimated due dates – and for good reason. Not very many of us actually deliver on our due dates, and it looks like I’m no exception.

The babycenter pregnancy app cautions that serious workouts are out of the question at this point. Far be it from me to disagree with the experts, but since a few days without squatting seems to bring on some very uncomfortable back pain, I’m glad that I can count goblet squats as a light workout.

And I’m serious about that. I’ve seen a direct correlation between how long I go without squatting, and how much back pain I have.

With my previous pregnancy, I didn’t notice that squats helped ease anything, which I think could be blamed on one of two things – or maybe three:

 

1. Consistency – every once in a while I would think to do a few squats, but not very often.
2. Weight – when I did squat, it was body-weight only. I’m not saying that body-weight exercises aren’t beneficial, but for me, I think the force and counter balance of the weight is helping keep my creaky back aligned.
3. Fitness level – lets be honest, I was in very good shape when I became pregnant with Garrett, and My fitness leek only declined during pregnancy. It’s very likely that my body, being much more fit now, responds more positively to exercises now.

But that’s just my very unprofessional two cents worth. And with all that said, I don’t know whether or not I’ll be doing any more weighted squats for the duration of this pregnancy – however long that may be.

Copying my workouts from my fitocracy log:

Tuesday:

Goblet Squat (kettlebell):

    25 lb x 8 reps
    25 lb x 8 reps
    25 lb x 8 reps
    25 lb x 8 reps
    25 lb x 8 reps

Standing Barbell Shoulder Press (OHP):

    45 lb x 5 reps
    45 lb x 5 reps
    65 lb x 5 reps
    65 lb x 5 reps
    65 lb x 5 reps
    65 lb x 5 reps
    65 lb x 5 reps

Saturday:

Goblet Squat (kettlebell):

    25 lb x 5 reps
    25 lb x 5 reps
    25 lb x 5 reps
    25 lb x 5 reps
    25 lb x 5 reps

Standing Barbell Shoulder Press (OHP):

    45 lb x 5 reps
    55 lb x 5 reps
    55 lb x 5 reps
    55 lb x 5 reps
    55 lb x 5 reps

All through this fit pregnancy series, I’ve preached that women were designed to pack on weight during pregnancy, while also touting weight lifting to help control weight gain as if it were some sort of miracle cure.

I’m sure that seems like a bit of a contradiction, so I thought some explaining might be in order.

This morning when I woke up and stumbled or to the kitchen, Gabriel asked me how I’d slept. I’d happened to have an exceptionally good night that night, and only got up twice. Ie filmed to him hat I haven’t had the hip pain this time around that I had with Garrett, which got me to thinking about why.

When I say “hip pain”, I’m referring to pressure pain from lying on one side for too long, so there’s really only one reason why that could be.

I’m 20 pounds lighter this time. I’m more fit, I carry around a lot more muscle, and a lot less fat.

A 25 pound pregnant weight gain, while on the low end, is generally considered pretty healthy.

It’s all about focus. See, this whole pregnancy, as you may gather from the title up there, I’ve been focused, not on trying to stay skinny (that’s a terrible goal IMO, pregnant or not), but on being fit. I will never deprive myself of food during pregnancy in the Interest of keeping weight down.
Your body always needs an adequate supply of nutrition when it’s trying to build a baby, and with all that estrogen coursing through your body, that means weight gain – lots of it if you’re not able to workout.

A midwife I respect once told me that in her experience, healthy mamas tend to gain between 40 and 50 pounds during the course of their pregnancies. Since most midwives and health professionals don’t recommend exercising other than some walking during pregnancy, that makes all the sense in the world. So while it seems there are some benefits to gaining less weight, gaining that 40-50 pounds is also not bad, and I hate it that so many women beat themselves up over it.

I don’t care what the magazine covers tell us, being skinny ain’t the end goal. Let’s think about being healthy instead, and let the weight take care of itself.

I hope that makes sense.