When I found out I was having baby two, my first thought was, “I want to stay in decent shape and after having this baby get back in shape fast!” I started scaled CrossFit WODs a couple of years ago, and I knew these workouts were going to be the backbone of my pre- and post-partum fitness plan. CrossFit appeals to me because I can do different workouts every day, which keeps me excited to workout, and I can make the workouts quick. This is a perfect exercise prescription since I don’t have a lot of time to workout with Rugrat One to keep entertained and a full time job.

My goal for this pregnancy was to maintain my strength as much as possible while being very careful not to do anything that could harm the baby. I did not want to gain much weight, with a goal of gaining only 15-20 lbs. My experience with my first pregnancy taught me that keeping in shape helps make not only the pregnancy but also labor easier. CrossFit workouts worked great the first time around so I saw no sense in changing anything this time.

Now, I have to be honest here, I am not a hard-core CrossFitter. I definitely scale the workouts and Fight Gone Bad is not in the repertoire. I want to be in good shape and I believe in CrossFit, but I definitely amend the workouts to fit my needs. For example, I have really bad knees from playing college basketball. So for Helen, I might run on my elliptical machine for 5 minutes, then do the 21 swings and 12 pull-ups for 3 to 5 rounds. I love pull-ups, pushups and other calisthenics and basically use these as substitutes wherever needed.

Once I found out I was pregnant, I decided two things. First, I was not going to worry about the intensity of the workouts. That is, I would scale the workout as needed based on how I felt that day. Second, I was going to do some sort of workout using CrossFit’s functional exercises every single day. With these thoughts in mind, I continued my normal WODs until I was about 4-5 months pregnant. At this time, I made my first adjustment by lowering the weight I used on Thrusters, Snatches, Squats, Overhead Squats and Presses. I wanted to be cautious with the weight I was using because during my first pregnancy, I had a cramping scare after doing 25 lb. DB one-arm swings. So this time around, I switched to 15 lb. DB on many of the workouts, using 20 or 25 lb. DBs sparingly when the exercise did not put too much strain on my abs. For example, with “Fran”, I went down from 25 lb. DB on the Thrusters to 20 lbs. DB and finally to 15 lb. DB’s at 5 months, which was when I started really showing.

I continued to do the WOD as prescribed with regards to push-ups and pull-ups until my 7th month of pregnancy. I made sure I maintained full range of motion, especially on my pull-ups. At 7-8 months, when I felt doing pull-ups was causing too much pressure on my abs and that push-ups weren’t really worth it with the big belly, I cut these out of the workouts. I would substitute DB bent rows with 25 lb. DB’s or 15 lb. DB’s depending on the number of reps in the workout and how I was feeling that day. For workouts that were max weight or reps of 3 in squats or presses, I would raise the reps to 5 or 10 and use either a barbell or dumbbells. I also kept very short rest periods. For example, instead of doing the Crossfit Total, I used a barbell to do 5 sets of 10 in the deadlift, press and cleans without stopping or with 1 minute between sets.

During each workout, I would always make sure I felt comfortable mentally with what I was lifting and also that there was not any physical pain, mostly with my abs. This was especially true when I really started to show (which for me was in the 5 or 6th month). And, I always checked to see how I felt the next day from the workout (again, mostly my stomach area), because often that is when issues come up.

At 8 months, while I was limited on my exercise selection, I was still able to do 3 sets of 15 overhead squats with the barbell, so I did this often. I also made good use of a Concept 2 Rower and elliptical machine. On the day I went into labor, I did my usual cardio on the EFX and did “Fran” with an empty barbell for the thrusters and bent rows with 20 lb DBs instead of pull-ups.

These scaled yet consistent workouts helped me accomplish my weight gain goal—I gained only 12 lbs through the pregnancy. In addition, I believe these workouts made me feel better while I was pregnant and helped me recover from the delivery faster. Finally, though I have no proof, I definitely feel working out while pregnant has a positive effect on the health of the baby. I am very proud of both our boys and glad that CrossFit was a part of both pregnancies.

My Favorite CrossFit Workouts:

a) 15 overhead squats (65 lbs) + 6 pull-ups for 3-5 rounds
b) 5 pull-ups, 10 pushups, 15 squats (Cindy… not scaled!!!)
c) 10 thrusters + 10 DB deadlifts + 10 DB bent rows, the complete round done without putting the DB’s down. Short rest between rounds for a total of 5 rounds.
d) 10 thrusters + 5 pull-ups + 10 pushups for 5 rounds
e) 100 swings and 100 push-ups, get the reps anyway you can.
f) 10 overhead squats + 10 DB military press + 5 pull-ups, 3-5 rounds
g) 10 military press + 10 DB bent rows, 10 sets
h) 50 pull-ups, 50 push-ups, 100 squats (scaled Angie)
i) DB Complex: 5 thrusters to 5 swings to 5 deadlifts to 5 clean and press to 5 bent rows to 5 RDLs with a pair of 20 lb DBs. Do this complex 5 times.