Kickboxing Chic’s BodyBlog

I’ve wrapped up week 34 and now head into week 35. About a 15-16 pound weight gain so far. If I can get up and get my workout in on a given day, then it is a good day. But what I am able to do in the gym is becoming more and more limited. No more jogging on the treadmill… incline walking only. Even the bouncing from that can be a bit much on my poor ligaments and muscles. The various forms of squats and lunges I do for legs are becoming challenging too… need to keep them shallow. For legs this week, I resorted to the leg extension and hamstring curl machines. Despite these growing limitations, I keep plugging away doing what I can. I don’t plan too much and just do what feels good on any given day. At this stage, I’m ok with just doing a long stint of cardio. As long as I get in a good sweat, I’m happy.

My uterus is measuring smaller than where I ideally should be at this stage. I’m thinking ‘how can that be? I feel so huge and maxed out!’ I’m having an ultrasound next week to check baby’s growth. My little one moves a lot and depending on where she decides to position herself, I have more discomfort some days than others. I’m thinking the reason baby may be small is because all that movement she is doing is burning the calories I’m giving her! Like mother, like daughter.

As for a workout to share in this post… here’s one I did on Thanksgiving Day. It was a good, quick, power workout given that I was short on time. My delts were fried. The high reps for legs kept my HR up.

1.       Treadmill warm-up (walking/light jogging) – 15 minutes

2.       Circuit 1:

a.       Step-ups onto a bench x20/side

b.      Rotator cuff/shoulder press combo x15

c.       1-arm DB swings x15/side

d.      Repeat 3x thru

3.       Circuit 2:

a.       Side-step lunges x20/side

b.      Lateral raises with a twist at the top x15

c.       1-arm DB clean/press x12/side

d.      Repeat 3x thru

This workout took me ~1 hour and I burned 425 calories. Not bad considering there was no focused cardio effort involved. I haven’t done delts this week so I may give this one a go again for today’s or tomorrow’s workout.

Here I am at 34 weeks:

I just closed out week 15 and now my bump in the front is starting to be a more obvious “baby” bump. At least in my workout clothes. Most would not know I was pregnant in my normal clothes. At this point, I’m using RPE to monitor my intensity levels but still trying not to go over 160 bpm. Many would say that is high, but I’m pretty well conditioned so I would rate this about a 7 or 8 (out of 10) based on RPE. I try to stay in 150 range, which is ~75% of my max HR. I’ve also cut-out abdominal work (started that about 3 weeks ago). During pregnancy, your abdominal muscles and ligaments stretch out and relax to make room for the baby (in a basis sense). This has been somewhat of a painful process for me because my abdominal muscles are stronger and tighter than most. So I get these sharp pains/cramps every now and then. They usually occur at night when I’m tossing/turning, so they jolt me awake. I’ve cut-out the abdominal work and am being careful of doing exercises that have heavy core engagement. Other than watching my intensity and cutting out the abdominal work, it is business as usual in the gym. I’ll soon be cutting out exercises that involve lying in a supine position. Lying in this position is not optimal for the baby to get good blood flow from Mom. Pregnant women should not sleep on their backs for the same reason. If there is a substitute exercise for a supine position one, I’ve already started implementing the substitute. Such as with DB chest press; instead of lying flat on a bench or ball, I’ve been using an incline bench. As you can see, all it takes is some minor changes.

Here’s a good, quick leg workout I did the other day. I was sore the next day, but not so sore that I couldn’t walk up the stair in my house. And the soreness started to subside by the second day. As you can see, pregnancy hasn’t held me back too much.

Warm-up:

·         Jump rope x500 jumps

·         BW prisoner squats x50 (you could also do some alternating lunges)

Set 1:

·         DB squats x15 (30 lb DBs)

·         Jump squats x15 (holding 10 lb DBs)

·         1-arm DB swings x20/arm (15 lb DB)

·         Repeat for a total of 3 sets

·         Jump rope x500 jumps

Set 2:

·         Elevated split squats (1 foot on a low bench w/ all BW forward) x15/leg (20 lb DBs)

·         Jump lunges x10 (holding 10 lb DBs)

·         Burpee push-ups x15

·         Repeat for a total of 3 sets

·         Jump rope x500 jumps

Set 3:

·         Stability ball hamstring curls

o   Single leg x20/leg

o   Both legs x20

It seemed like a standard, innocent leg workout. Plus, I’m still being cautious after pulling my hamstring about 5 or 6 weeks ago, and used a higher rep range (15 reps) with lighter weights. Yet still, my glutes were OMG sore for 4 days! It was that extreme sore where you dread going to the bathroom and don’t want anyone to come near you. I’ve done the below leg workout twice now and both times it has made me very sore. The first time was my first leg workout in 3 or 4 weeks after pulling my hamstring. So I wasn’t too surprise that I was brutally sore for 4 days. But didn’t expect the same experience the second time. Perhaps I over did it. Anyway, I figured I’d share it in case you are one of those weird people who like a good DOMS. I am one of those weird types, but this was more than I usually like to tolerate.

Warm-up: Walk/job on the treadmill

Superset 1:

A)     BB Deadlifts

B)      DB Squats

C)      Burpees w/push-up x15

D)     Repeat for a total of 3 sets

Superset 2:

A)     Bench Step-downs (Similar to step-ups but start by standing on the bench and lowering leg down then immediately push back up using the leg still on the bench; repeat all reps on one side then go to the other side.)

B)      Side-step Lunges

C)      Donkey Kicks over a bench x15 (over and back counts as 1 rep)

D)     Repeat for a total of 3 sets

Superset 3:

A)     Smith-machine reverse lunges w/ knee lift (do all reps on one side then go to the other side)

B)      Standing calf raises

C)      Jumping lunges on BOSU x10

D)     Repeat for a total of 3 sets

With the warm-up it takes me about 70 minutes. I keep rest periods to a minimum, but since I’m pregnant I do rest more than when I’m not. None the less, I still burn about 450+ calories after the 70 minutes.

That’s it. Looks pretty basic and innocent, huh? Well, it certainly humbled me. So do I plan to do this one again despite the intense soreness that sticks around for 4 days? Yup, it is on the agenda for tomorrow. Although, I plan to mix-up the exercises a bit just for fun.

Oh, in a week or so I’ll start posting pictures of me and my baby belly with more about my fit pregnancy journey. I’m 12 weeks now, so nothing too exciting to report. At least the nausea is subsiding and I’m getting my normal appetite back.