Weight Training in Pregnancy
This is a personal post for me. I, like many women, have been tracking my pregnancy week by week using an app. It gives general advice on body changes and developmental milestones of baby Blair. This week I came across this blurb:
I like the overall message. It doesn’t discourage women from lifting weights during pregnancy and warns against the increase in intraabdominal pressure. Intraabdominal pressure (IA) can put extra stress along our abdominal wall, especially our linea alba, which may result in significant coning with pregnant exercise. Increases in IA can also put stress on our pelvic floor muscles and lead to stress incontinence (leaking) or pelvic organ prolapse.
Breath holding (or Valsalva breathing) with weight lifting can reduce oxygen to your baby, but this technique usually isn’t necessary until you are lifting close to your 1 rep maximum of weight.
‘Loosened ligaments’ caused by a hormone Relaxin has been highly overstated as a reason for injury during pregnancy. Most injury I see in practice is from:
Changes in the positioning of our ribcage, low back and pelvis
Centre of mass shift that happens as baby is sitting right in front
By having a pelvic floor physio or pregnancy+pospartum coach assess your movement mechanics, this can easily be avoided and shouldn’t be a reason for fear.
Advising women in their 3rd trimester to switch to ‘lighter weights and more reps’ is extremely generalized advice. It doesn’t discern between the sedentary pregnant woman and the woman who has an extensive strength training background.
What constitutes a ‘light weight’? What constitutes a' ‘higher rep range’?
Better advice would be:
“If you want to continue strength training into your third trimester, seek out individualized advice on programming from a pregnancy and postpartum fitness expert or pelvic floor physiotherapist”.
It can be dangerous and mentally/emotionally taxing on pregnant women to give blanket advice that may not apply to them. The dangers of higher weights can be mitigated by learning:
Different breathing patterns for exercise
Postural changes to reduce IA for pregnant women
Programming adjustments to reps/sets done with a professional
Learning how to brace during weight training
A goals analysis: Why are you lifting this weight? What is the goal? Will it enhance or hinder your postpartum recovery journey?
I appreciate the apps out there acknowledging the importance of movement and fitness during this season of a woman’s life, but let’s direct women to professionals in the field for actual advice instead of generalized guidance.
As always, here with you to chat + explore this passion of mine,
Danielle
