Pregnant CrossFitter - Kelly Biddle

My name is Kelly and my daughter, Ella, was born on October 24, 2010. She was lucky enough to share her birthday with another future Crossfitter - Miss Chloe Lyons!

I've been crossfitting at KOP with Aimee for almost 2 years. It surprised me the most that I fell in love with Crossfit. Prior to becoming pregnant, I would be at the box between 2 and 3 times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. And while I wasn't in there RX'ing everything that came my way, I had seen significant improvements in so many areas from when I first began - I went from not even being able to complete a 200M run to running 400M x 5 in some WOD's. I was box jumping on the 21" box. I was super close to a kipping pull up without a band, where when I started I need someone to push me over the bar even with the thickest support band! These and many more were such accomplishments. To me, these were my RX's.

I found out I was pregnant at the end of January and knew I would have to press pause on my progress in crossfitting. I told Aimee early on, at about 7 weeks, because I wanted to be able to communicate with her on what I could and could not do. I set a goal to get to the box as much as I could. My doctor was on board and told me only 2 things - watch your heartrate and listen to your own body. Almost immediately after finding out, I was hit with horrible morning sickness (although mine was morning, noon and night) that lasted up until about 16 or so weeks. Just lifting my head without the world spinning was a WOD in itself and I wasn't able to get to the box as much as I would've liked.

Once that subsided, I resumed working out at least 1-2 times a week. I scaled my workouts even more than normal because my energy level just wasn't what it used to be. I was also trying to accommodate for the new center of gravity, the sore joints, etc. On the days I did make it to the box though, I found that post WOD, my energey level was so much higher and overall, I just felt GOOD. It was a nice change from the exhaustion and sluggish feeling pregnancy can bring on. I was able to do most things in a WOD and the only thing I really stayed away from completely were sit ups. Everything else was done on a pregnancy scale. I pushed myself as hard as I could and walked away from each WOD proud.

I gained about 25 lbs during the nine months and Ella was born at 7lbs. 5oz., 4 days post due date. She was as healthy as could be and although labor was long (22 hours), it was relatively easy. I'm almost back to my pre-baby weight, just about 4 weeks later. Although I was not and really still am not too concerned about fitting back into my "normal" clothes, I am happy that I was able to maintain my weight and bounce back so quickly. I credit that to Crossfit. I was able to keep actively working out because Aimee & my other coaches helped me scale each WOD and as I mentioned before, I listened to my body. That's the most important thing, listening to yourself. I only did what I felt comfortable doing because my main goal was to have a healthy and happy baby. Everything else was secondary.

I am so happy that I had Crossfit in my life during my pregnancy. 4 weeks later, I am ready to hit the box again. I know I will still scale as I don't yet feel back to 100% but I can't wait to be active again. The entire 9 months and the little person that resulted from it are motivation to get into even better shape and I look forward to even more progress!

Ella

The Great Disappearing Act:

What went away first when I was pregnant?

Primarily my gymnastics movements. The first thing I noticed was my pistols (one legged squats), second the full ROM Handstand push-ups, third and sadly, the muscle up (at about week 24)....which makes the below video of Charity Vale even more impressive!!!

Charity Vale- Pregnant Muscle ups

Who inspires you? I'm continually inspired by other CrossFitters, especially the ladies. In my early CrossFitting days, I watched numerous videos of Annie and Nicole. In recent days it's been Kristan Clever who just blows me away! One video from the archives that has always stuck out is this one of Pull-ups, pregnant by Annie [wmv]. Although with the other three gymnastic movements on hold for the duration of my 40 weeks (which is 10 at this point). I am still able to crank out my pull-ups. I used to be able to string 20-30 in a row, but at this point I am down to 5 (with a 26LB baby-weight vest) and happy about it.

I have gotten a few questions from pregnant CrossFitters and figured I would address them here. Again, my answers are by no means scientifically proven or based on anything but how I feel and think.

Snatches and Cleans:

Can I do them? Does my belly get in the way?

I can still do them, but with lighter weight. I don't feel like my belly gets in the way, I think the body automatically accommodates for the extra inches in the front (and with that said) causes an early arm bend. But in pregnancy your ligaments get a little looser and you have to be cognizant of the Relaxin and other hormones in the body. So between the early arm bend and hormonal changes in the body I have only cleaned/snatched what has felt comfortable. I have not gone out to beat my 1RM pre-pregnancy PR.

On a Squat clean, I went up to 135# on 8.22.10 which was where I felt comfortable, my max prior to getting pregnant was 157#. I still feel I can do 95# reasonably in a WOD, but at this point it's SLOW. For example on 10.5.10 in my 30th week I did 21-15-9 Squat Cleans 95# and Ring Rows in 15:25, I would compare that to an Elizabeth WOD/time domain and in the past I could have done it sub 10 minutes. The only time (so far) where I have felt some sort of stretching/ligament pain so far was on 8.30.10 when I did 5 Rds of 500M Row, 9 Bear Complexes at 65#.

Rowing/Running:

Are you still running?

At 30 weeks, I have been subbing most all running WOD's with a Row. I feel more comfortable at this point on the rower than with the bouncing on the run. Although when rowing I can no longer keep my legs in front, they splay out the sides causing more pressure on the hip flexors than the quads. The last major run that kicked my butt was on 9.3.10 a Team WOD with an 800M Indian Run in the beginning and the end...WHEW!

Rest/Recovery:

Do you need more recovery between Workouts?

ABSOLUTELY! I have gone from consistently being able to do two workouts in a day to only one. I used to be able to operate 3 days on 1 off with no problem, now I'm lucky to get two possibly three (if I'm lucky) on and I need at least two days off to fully recover. My hips and shoulders take a lot longer to recover than pre-pregnancy. First and Second Trimesters I felt the best, presently during my third trimester my body is feeling like a different creature! I need much more rest and there is some sciatic pressure starting to build in my back. I am on my feet for most of an 8-12 hour day, so this is starting to get taxing on the feet and back.

3D/4D ultrasound of Baby Lyons taken at Interview Ultrasound. It's amazing and worth every penny. Cost was $175.00. Use code AL0406 to get a free DVD of your baby.

Baby-led Weaning- A Real Food Approach to Feeding your Baby

Baby-led weaning is the practice of trusting your baby’s innate sense of hunger, of want, of self-knowledge and of self-limitation. Baby-led weaning offers parents and their children a natural, relaxed approach to the introduction of solid foods and the eventual cessation of breastfeeding. Instead of relying on prepared, commercial baby foods or even homemade purees, mothers and fathers simply introduce their babies to natural, wholesome real food from the start – relying on their babies to self-regulate and lead the way. In her book Real Food for Mother & Baby which is available online (see sources), author Nina Planck discusses her experiences with the baby-led approach to solids at length.

My friend Beth passed along this article to me, click here to read more if this topic interests you!

Pregnant CrossFitter - Cate Kelly

My name is Cate. I live in Bryn Mawr, PA. I have three kids, a dog and a lucky husband. HAHA. I have been crossfitting for almost three years, and I have been at KOP with Aimee for almost a year and a half. I am a stay-at-home mom. My kids keep me pretty busy. I LOVE to go to the box but there are lots of days that I can’t go and I just do my best to follow along at home. Every once in a while, we get a babysitter on a saturday morning and my husband goes with me to KOP. That’s how I know he still loves me! That is my heaven.

I had been crossfitting for almost two years when I got pregnant with our third child. During my first two pregnancies (both were normal & healthy) I worked out in a globo gym, doing cardio and light weights. I lost muscle during each of my previous two pregnancies. When I found out I was pregnant last summer I was at a really good place with my training. I was happy with my performance and I liked how I felt about my body. I wasn’t ready to give that up for 9 months of being pregnant, 6 weeks of recovering from delivery, and then another 9 months to get back to where I started. I knew I wanted my third pregnancy to be different but I wasn’t sure what I could handle.

I decided to break it down by trimester and I set a goal to get through the first trimester with my usual intensity. I discussed this with my OB and she totally agreed. The thing is I am not sure she knew what I meant by intensity. I am certain she didn’t know what I meant when I said I was lifting ‘heavy’. But I trusted my body to let me know when enough was enough. At the end of my first trimester I had the sense that I could keep going. My second and third trimesters came and went and my body was telling me that working out hard was the right thing to do.

The thing that really surprised me about training while I was pregnant was how comfortable I was lifting. I thought that carrying heavy things was uncomfortable and unsafe for pregnant women. Literally in my first pregnancy my husband would accompany me to costco to lift cases of water into my shopping cart. During this pregnancy, I deadlifted 285 lbs, I squatted 245, and I I pressed 120. I regularly completed the wods with the rx’d weights. I did fran, grace and kelly all rx’d. when I scaled a workout, I was typically cutting down on the runs, or substituting an exercise because I had limited range of motion. I was shocked at what my body could do.

My baby girl, Keira Grace was born on May 2nd. My last workout was the day before, squatting 205 for sets of 5. I normally would have rested that day but I was determined to have her that weekend and I was pretty sure that squats would help her along. She was 7 lbs 5 oz and perfect in every way (unless you count the fact that she wakes up 2-3 times a night). She is my third and labor was relatively easy. Keira was born 2.5 hours after we arrived at the hospital and I was home the next day. I started back crossfitting five days later. It wasn’t really my plan to start right back in but I was exhausted and hormonal and it just hit me that if I had worked out all through my pregnancy it didnt make sense to stop now. Working out made me feel good and gave me more energy. My first workout back was helen and I did it at home. It was tough. It kind of reminded me of my first helen ever. But the fun part is that everything has come back so quickly. There’s nothing like progress to keep me motivated!

Kiera

ORAL GLUCOSE TOLERANCE TEST- "OGTT"

The OGTT-A day I have been dreading for awhile (afraid of possibly going into insulin shock), ingest 50-100g of sugar and have your blood drawn and then see how fast your body can clear out the glucose. If you fail, you are insulin resistant and thus have "gestational diabetes". Failure results in one of two things, 1 - you have one more shot, you get to do this test for 4 hours & consume lots more sugar or 2- you have been diagnosed with "gestational diabetes" and now have to monitor your glucose for and extended period of time while consulting with an "expert" on nutrition.

I made the decision to do the following...a short met-con:

250m row

40 squats

30 KB swings 35#

20 Good Mornings 45#

10 Pull-ups

250m row

...followed by a handful of nuts, some turkey..and then downed my 50g of sugar in the form of OJ. Being that I go to the Bryn Mawr Birth Center, they gave me the option to either drink OJ or the fancy glucose sugar syrup. I chose OJ and I chose 50g vs 100g. Results to be determined but, as I was sitting in the office today awaiting my test, I was surfing around the web and came across this post from Robb Wolf. Gestational Diabetes: What constitutes low blood sugar? How fitting, he sums up the topic pretty concisely but I will copy and paste this one short paragraph:

FROM ROBB WOLF:

If you are unfamiliar, the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is a diagnostic test used to establish gestational diabetes. The thinking goes like this:

If you consume a large bolus (75-100g) of glucose and fail to clear it in a timely manner, you are insulin resistant and thus have “gestational diabetes” (GD). I’ve written on this topic before and the whole thing makes me want to lobotomize myself with a blunt instrument. It’s a tough and incendiary topic. On the one hand our medical professionals deal with a huge population of women who eat very poorly, never exercise and somehow still manage to get pregnant. Miracle that this situation is, biology makes things worse. During pregnancy the mom becomes even more insulin resistant due to an evolutionary adaption in mammalian-mom’s in which they become slightly insulin resistant to allow a positive flow of nutrients to the developing fetus via the placenta. If the mom was more insulin sensitive than the fetus we could end up in a nutrient scarcity situation due to nutrition flowing to the more ubiquitous tissues of the mom. Biology fixes this problem by making mom a little insulin resistant, effectively “pushing” nutrients to the fetus. Score one for biology! Problems arise however when our modern diet and lifestyle make this otherwise favorable adaptation dangerous. Too many carbs (particularly chronic fructose intake), autoimmune complications with lectins, loss of insulin sensitivity due to sleep deprivation and stress can drive expecting moms into gestational diabetes. From the paper linked above we have an interesting observation that severity of GD is likely determined in part by estrogen and progesterone levels. One of the key features of hyperinsulinism is a decrease in sex hormone binding protein (SHBP) which then makes estrogen more available to the tissues. Interestingly, this problem with estrogen is actually at the heart of most female infertility, but that is a topic for another day (or a book…)

Thinking and reading has led me to believe that giving pregnant women an Hb1Ac blood test would be a much better indicator of diabetic risk than OGTT and would limit the false results and possible insulin shock!

"Linda" (not as Rx'd)

aka- "The three bars of death"
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of the triplet:

Deadlift: 1 1/2 body weight
Bench press: body weight
Clean: 3/4 body weight

185# Deadlift, 95# Bench, 95# Clean - 31:37

I scaled the weights below what I would have typically used and paced at a rate where I was still able to breathe/talk through out the entire workout...for start of week 26 of pregnancy I felt I scaled well based on my level and ability. At this point when I work out, I approach every WOD with the thought that the exercise I'm doing is beneficial for my health and the baby. Even though the day's of doing WOD's as prescribed are becoming fewer and fewer, the production of another human is more amazing than putting a number with an Rx on the board.