Crossfitting while pregnant at weeks 23-24

My pre-pregnancy weight was 55kg and so far, I have gained about 3kg, which started from week 21. Before that, my weight stayed pretty much the same, fluctuating within 1kg. I am not sure if the weight stagnancy is due to my food aversion for 2-3 weeks during my first trimester (though it does seem to be too-short a period to have caused weight stagnancy) or (and more likely) that I’m losing my muscle mass and gaining fats. And as we all know, fats weigh less. Again, can’t be sure since I cannot use any sort of bodyfat measuring device during pregnancy.

Anyway, the only important KPI to achieve really is the health of the baby, and to make sure that she is growing at the pace which she is supposed to be. So far, so good. And with God’s grace, my ob-gyn’s diagnosis of my pregnancy remains optimistic and complication-free, so I am good to continue with all that I am doing now, including crossfit :D

My last post on crossfit WOD was 2 weeks ago so I really have a lot to catch up with. Since then, I’ve had 7 WODs. I reckon that while it is good to be as detailed as possible, every woman has her own level of fitness. So what I’ve done is to include how I feel at each WOD and be precise about the load/reps that I have done in each workout. I am also bearing the assumption that the reader is familiar with crossfit terminology so there won’t be much explanation. If you do have questions, please put them in the comment below :) I hope this will be useful as a guide.

Week 23

Session 1

Warmup

2 rounds: 300m run + 10 air squats

WOD

10 – 1 reps tyre flips (80kg) with 300m run between each set

How I felt: I used a 200kg tyre pre-pregnancy so scaling down to 80kg is a comfortable load for me (there’s no tyre that weighs in between at the box).

Session 2

Warmup

Skills progression: Barbell Snatch and Snatch Balance

WOD

7 rounds of 20reps push press + OHS (25kg). With partner, cut off time: 35min

How I felt: I completed 5 rounds, and the rest that I got while my partner was doing her set allowed sufficient rest for me. But for OHS load, I had to lower it to 17.5kg in the last 2 rounds due to wrist ache.

Session 3

Warmup

4 sets of 20:10secs air squats with rest at bottom of squat

WOD

Nancy (scaled) 5 rounds of 300m run + 15 OHS (20kg)

Benchpress: 5x5 reps; started with 25kg and worked up to 32.5kg

How I felt: Great, right mix of cardio and strength.

Week 24

Session 1

Warmup

1 – 10 reps burpees

WOD

Backsquats in reps: 1x8 @ 40kg / 2x5 @ 45kg / 2x5 @ 50kg / 1x3 @ 55kg

5 rounds of 10 push press (25kg) and 20 KB swings (16kg) for time ~ finished 10:18sec

How I felt: Due to the light load, this may have become more of a metcon WOD for me. So I focussed more on form and making sure I stayed at a conversational pace.

Session 2

Warmup

Skills progression: Snatch

WOD

Randy (scaled) 75 snatches (20kg), taking turns with a partner

Deadlift in reps: 3x10 @ 45kg, 2x5 @ 65kg, 1x3 @ 85kg

How I felt: For Randy, I managed a 15reps per set pacing, with my breaks happening when my partner is doing her sets. We completed it at 11:08secs. I love deadlifts! My pre-pregnancy PR was 100kg, so I do miss hitting the 3-figure mark. I could have gone on, but my DH was looking on warily/nervously at that point already.

Session 3

Warmup

6 sets of 20:10secs burpees: my reps were 6/6/4/4/4/4

Skills progression: Squat clean

WOD

Tommy (scaled) 21 Thrusters (27.5kg) / 12 Wallwalks / 15 Thrusters / 9 Wallwalks / 9 Thrusters / 6 Wallwalks for time

How I felt: I realised that I could have loaded on more for my thrusters so will aim for 30kg in future. The wallwalks took some getting used to as the blood-rush to the head seems more intense than pre-pregnancy times! This is the first time I’ve attempted wallwalks since my pregnancy started. I understand that there’s some controversy about being upside down when the baby is in the womb, but all in all, I felt fine and in control so I continued. Can’t say the same for my trainer, he confessed that his heart rate increased each time I did the wallwalks :P

Phew! So there you go! There are, of course many conventional wisdom advice that states no heart rate going over 140bpm, squatting below parallel, being upside down, or jumping, etc. I made the choice to scale down to the limits where I know I am in control of the movements and the load, and can maintain a conversational pace. Even when I got breathless, I make sure it is not prolonged and that I sip water in-between the sets. And most importantly, listen to the body and make sure that the body is comfortable, yes, that is possible, even when you are sweating and catching your breath. 

Making space for baby!

Over the weekend, I decided that it is time to go through my wardrobe and pack away clothes that I am not expecting to wear for the next 12months. It is also a good chance to see what I'd ~never~ wear and give them away.

I've never thought of myself as a hoarder but as I was going through the clothes, I was beginning to have doubts. I found more than 5 pairs of black working pants (5 pairs?! Who needs that many pairs?!) and 3 pairs of beige pants (doesn't make me much of a colorful person, does it?), numerous dresses, skirts and tops I've not worn for at least 1 year... it's a good thing I've not done much shopping anyway, so I wouldn't kick myself silly for the waste of money. Anyway, what I ended up with eventually was a storage box measuring about 60x45x35cm of clothes that will see the light of day only 12 months later, and this much of stuff to give away, some of which I've never even worn before.

Bye-bye, clothes!

It was a therapeutic session though; not only for clutter-clearing but also the action of making space and getting ready for another family member who'll be joining us soon just feels that much real-er.

Our home is slowly but surely changing. I tire easily these days, and have to break up chores in 2-3 hours sets - any more than that leaves me zoned out completely which is not very nice. Some of the other changes that we have made is to move our bicycles out of the soon-to-be nursery room and into the living room. The expedit bookshelf is now also nicely filled up with books and files, leaving more shelf space in our bedroom and the storeroom for baby stuff :)

Our bikes look like showpieces now!

Last week's lunch was also fairly simple with a mix of veg and tuna, and my parents bring me packed lunch of homemade soup and stir-fried veg/meat about once a week (I'm so blessed!)

All that me and baby needs :)

I'll put up another post later in the week to detail about what I've done in Crossfit for the past 2 weeks, and how I've been scaling it to accommodate the growing belly :)

Perfect timing! Mark Sisson's PB 21-Day Challenge!

Checked my email today and it was a pleasant surprise to see that Mark Sisson is holding the annual Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge. I have read several testimonials from people who took up PB and experienced conception as one of the positive results. If it helps the female body optimise its natural functions, how would it not help an already-pregnant body? I reckoned so and signed up!

For the next 21 days... :D

Since I am pregnant, losing bodyfat will not be one of my goals. Rather it is to "get the rest, food and workouts that my body needs to fuel itself and my baby right". What this means is about 8 hours of sleep/night, 15min of direct sun exposure/day, 3x Crossfit a week (ok this is my little tweak :P), No grains/beans/legumes/added sugar and unhealthy fats, moderate servings of fruit/dairy/dark chocolate (PB allows moderate alcohol but that's out for me now) and lots of meat/fish/eggs/vegetables/nuts/seed and healthy fats! Seems pretty straightforward eh? And all for 21 days, I will be keeping a log so that at the end of the journey, I can look back and have an accurate review of how the process has affected my body. 

Here's what I did for the WOD over the weekend:

30 thrusters (my load was 25kg)

Run 400m and up 7 storeys to the old box

100 pull-ups

Run back 400m to the new box

Barbell Deadlift max rep (I began with a 3-2 reps set starting at 55kg and ended with 90kg)

Our box made the move to another unit a couple of blocks away last week and the pull-up bars are still drilled to the wall at the old unit, hence the run inserted in between the WOD - a pretty creative and fun addition, I'd say! I had to do my pullups with a resistance band that's less than 2cm wide and broke it up into 10-rep sets. My pre-pregnancy PR for deadlift was 100kg so I was fairly pleased with the 90kg load I managed. I could have gone on but my DH's eyes were turning from looks of concern/pride to glaring so I thought it wise to stop. :P

A chat with a friend today brought up the topic of rectus diastisis, which is essentially the separation of the rectus abdominis (think front ab muscles you use when doing a situp). It happens to about 30% of pregnant women, usually caused by the enlarged uterus. This is not a pleasant piece of news for me, but knowledge is power, so I will be reading more on it and will share what I've found in a later post.

An example of WOD and lunch - this prego's love!

This week started great! I finally had the time to fill the Expedit bookshelf I bought from IKEA and it looks great! And also, I finally have extra shelf space to put up baby stuff now! :D

I talked about my return to crossfit and how I’m getting and gaining so much fun and strength from it, so I thought I’d share what I’m doing this week. Pre-pregnancy, I’d train between 4-5x a week but I’ve cut back to 3x per week since I got back to ensure I have sufficient recovery and rest between each workout. After all this time is about maintaining my fitness (which will benefit the baby too), and not about gaining muscle mass and hitting PRs.

Yesterday’s WOD was:
Warm-up – half an ‘Annie’
WOD1 – Complete 3 KB Swing, 7 Toes to Bar and 21 Double-unders in 2min for 8 rounds (I sub toes to bar with knees to elbow as my belly gets in the way now. Completed each set in ~50sec unbroken.)
WOD2 – Backsquats: In sets of 1x5 / 2x3 / 2x2 / 2x1, followed by AMRAP 30sec x 2rds with empty bar. For the first round, I progressed through to 65kg for the last set (my pre-preg weight is 55kg, I’m probably inching towards 59kg now), and did 25reps for each round for the AMRAP set.

Overall it was a great workout. I’m glad I didn’t lose my double-unders despite being away for 3 months. I did lose my kipping pull-ups though. It will be cool to get them back before I deliver, that would make it a weighted pull-up – WOOT!

And finally, my lunch. I used the weekend to make a batch of Primal Meatloaf and Egg Squares for the week. And what I’d do is to pack along vegetables which can be cooked quickly with little water using the microwave oven to complete a healthy, wholesome Primal lunch!

Steamed celery and radish with meatloaf and omelette

I’ll have to start brainstorming for new lunch ideas soon. If you have any, I’d welcome them very much! :D

Clean eating matters more during pregnancy

Steamed cauliflower, carrots with tuna. Simple yet satisfying!

During my first trimester, two of the few things that I could take were rice and kale. My taste-buds have gone weird during this period so other food/drinks would make me lose my appetite because they taste or smell ‘off’, or I’d suffer excessive bloatedness and nausea. I couldn’t take any oily, fried or (my favourite) spicy food. It’s a good thing I love kale to begin with, so having it stir-fried with ginger (helps rid the wind) tastes really good with rice during that period.

Getting into the second trimester also means I get my normal sense of taste and smell back, and food starts to taste like how they did before I got pregnant. It was great! I still can take deli food and salad when I’m out due to risks of listeriosis. But all in all, I was really happy being able to enjoy the food I love and cut out the processed carbs.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before some strange craving strikes, and earlier this week, I found myself indulging in local delicacies like nasi lemak, laksa (without the cockles) and chicken rice. “The baby wants to eat”, some of the older folks would say. “You are pregnant; this is the time you get to eat whatever you want”. Shamelessly, I succumbed to the temptation, telling myself that I’ve been good with my eating, and I deserve a little treat. I didn’t even stick to the half portions I know I should, and wolfed down the full portions that was dished out to me. The rational voice in me is saying, “You know you shouldn’t be eating this way. It’s not healthy for you or the baby… You really should stop eating once you are no longer hungry.” I only chose not to pay attention.

And of course, the results bit me back in the behind before I can consider having a char kway teow or chwee kueh. My belly felt like it was stuffed with a 6kg medball, not a baby. I felt sluggish, lazy, out of breathe and even had abdominal pains due to the indigestion. I couldn’t even drink much water which led to … constipation. Talk about the waves of disaster! And I don’t think my baby is enjoying the sudden lack of space!

What our ancestors ate was what led them to the top of the food chain. What I chose to indulge in landed me in the waste drain – lesson learnt. Two days ago, I started eating clean again – steamed veg with a palm-size of protein for meals, sweet potatoes or cheese for snack options, and lots of water. I watched my portions, and made sure I walk about at least once an hour; even at the office (toilet breaks are better than nothing). It’s only been a couple of days, and I can feel my system getting back on track and my mood and spirits lifted up.

Eating proper is important, and there’s no time it’s in more dire need than when one is responsible for the welfare of another human being.

Nearly 5 months prego, and back at crossfit!

Positive result! :D

I found out that I was pregnant in late April.  And armed with the best intentions, I decided that I will start a journal immediately to start documenting my pregnancy and how I will maintain my crossfit regime and start on a Primal/Paleo eating lifestyle.

But things did not turn out that way, as I was sideswiped with pregnancy symptoms, changes and moods that my body and mind was going through that I couldn’t keep up with, let alone try to understand.

In short, May to July was a period of mostly feeling nauseated, fatigued, giddy, lost – in short, greatly overwhelmed and slightly grumpy. I stopped crossfit altogether; rice and kale were the only things I could eat in decent quantities without discomforts.

At the beginning of my 2nd trimester, my energy started seeping back and I felt the itch to get moving. I’ve been going for my ob-gyn checkups; the baby ultrasounds and blood tests came back with very positive results. So I decided to get back to crossfit and get started on a primal diet starting August. Better late than never!

It’s been a month and my body has gotten used to the physical demands from crossfit WODs. The first week was embarrassing; I couldn’t walk down steps without looking like a jittery robot in need of oiling the joints. I’ve managed to get though most WODs with a little scaling here and there to ensure the overall intensity remains above 70%, that I can keep a conversational pace with regular breaks and water intake. Food-wise, I’ve managed to keep a 70/30 level, leaning closer to the primal diet than paleo, and keeping processed carbs off my plate. The aim is to get to 90/10 in another month’s time.

Emotionally, it’s been a great return. I feel a better control of my body and feelings. I have a better sense of where I am and who I am developing to be. I enjoy my pregnancy much more now, and the guys at the box kept referring my baby to being my “battery pack”! :D