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 had a solid plan in place for last week, both nutrition-wise and training-wise. I was fully stocked on fruits, veggies, and lean protein ready for lunches and dinners. But I had a hard time digesting pretty much everything last week except oatmeal. I’ve gradually been able to eat less and less in one sitting, but now what I eat is starting to matter. Unfortunately, veggies need to be small portions and ones that are easier to digest. So a lot of the food I had prepped for the week sat in the fridge. It was very frustrating, not to mention the fact that I was uncomfortable. Mornings are usually good, so at least I was still able to get my training in each day. I’m doing more ad hoc workouts these days because what I can do depends on how I feel that day. So far it is working out and I feel like I’m coving all my bases in terms of cardio and hitting all major body parts with weight training. And I’m still training 6 days/week. I relish my one rest/recovery day though.

I’m getting in some good workouts this week too, and so far I’m able to stick to my normal eating habits. I just need to keep portions small and stay away from stuff that I know is problematic. Thanksgiving should be a relatively guilt-free day since I can only eat such small portions. Although, I may have to eat dinner twice since I’m hungry every 1.5-2 hours with such small portions. And I’m already looking forward to Friday’s indoor cycling class.

Here’s a pic of my tummy at 31 weeks. I am all baby. So far I’ve gained about 14 pounds.

And here’s a fun workout I did last week:

·         Warm-up: Walking/light jogging on treadmill for 5 minutes

·         Treadmill speed intervals – increase speed every minute for 7 minutes

·         Super Set: Bulgarian split squats and rear delt lifts w/ cables – 3 sets

·         Treadmill 90/30 second intervals – 90 sec high intensity/30 sec recovery x4

·         Super Set: DB step-ups and lat pull-downs – 3 sets

·         Treadmill incline intervals – increase incline every minute for 5 minutes

·         (Machine) Hamstring curls – Stripping set

·         (Machine) Leg extension – Stripping set

My legs were pretty hosed after this. My reps were in the 12-15 range. It took me about 70 minutes and a burned 460 calories. The constant change up sure makes the time go by fast.

I really enjoyed my first pregnancy, but I’m anxious to get this one wrapped up and get back to my normal self. I want to wear my normal jeans again and get back to higher intensity, challenging workouts. I was watching some Cross Fit videos on YouTube this past weekend, which made me very envious and anxious about getting through the final stretch of pregnancy. Admittedly, I’m already thinking about my post-pregnancy plan. Hopefully my delivery will be uneventful so I can keep my recovery period to about 3 weeks. In the meantime, I keep doing what I can. And yes, I can still do burpees (albeit modified). Here’ my game plan for this week:

Training
Monday: BW/Weight Circuit (similar to what I did last week)
·         Fast step-ups onto a bench step (1 minute/side)

·         Lateral hops over bench (2 minutes)

·         Lunge switches with a DB shoulder press x20 (big HR booster)

·         Curtsy squat/squat x10 sets (curtsy squat on each side with a squat in the middle = 1 set)

·         DB chest press/fly combo x10 sets

·         1-leg deadlifts x15/leg

·         DB Tricep overhead press x15

·         Kneeling kick-backs w/ band x30/leg

·         DB Bicep curls x15

·         Repeat circuit 3x

Tuesday: HIIT Cardio (Elliptical) and Stretching
Wednesday: Treadmill/Superset Intervals

·         Treadmill warm-up followed by speed intervals (increase speed every 1 minute for 5-8 minutes)

·         Bulgarian split squats and rear delt lifts w/ cables – 3 sets

·         Treadmill 90/30 sec intervals x4

·         Step-ups and lat pulldowns – 3 sets

·         Treadmill incline intervals (increase incline every 1 minute for 5 minutes)

·         Hamstring curls and leg extensions – 3 sets

·         Another round on the treadmill if time permits

Thursday: HIIT Cardio (Treadmill) and Stretching
Friday: BW/Weight Circuit
Something similar to Monday, but the upper body work will be more delt focused.

Saturday: Boot Camp
Sunday: Rest, recovery, plan, and prep day
Nutrition
Rather than plan a full week in advance, here are some things I’ve done to prepare for the week.

·         Cut up lots of carrots, celery, and bell peppers for snacks

·         Made a flaxseed oil based dressing for salads

·         Threw some turkey breasts on the grill Sunday night while we were grilling steaks for dinner

·         Made a 3-4 serving batch of quinoa

·         Made turkey meatballs on Monday for spaghetti with meatballs; the leftover meatballs can be used for lunches and snacks throughout the week

·         Stocked up on apples from the fruit stand (lots of good ones on sale) and salad stuff so I can have salads for lunches and dinners

·         Chopped up mushrooms, zucchini, and bell peppers for egg while omelets

As you can see, I am well stocked with healthy options for the week. Easy to just grab and go.

Now it is just time for execution… so far so good! What your game plan for this week?

I’m almost 30 weeks along, which means only about 10 to go!  I’m still trying to keep up my “fit” lifestyle as much as possible. But mentally, I’ve decided to give myself a break during pregnancy and not be so hard core. I know I can get back to my normal strict, regimented routine, so I’m not too worried about it. I weighed in at 139 today. Which means I’ve gained about 13 lbs so far. I want to keep my weight gain around 20-23 lbs by the end, so still need to keep up many of my good habits. Here is my game plan for the coming week:

Training
Monday and Wednesday: Cardio/Weight Training Circuit
A mix of upper body exercises w/DBs, lower body exercises w/DBs, and BW cardio exercises (i.e. burpees, jumping jacks) for a HR boost. These types of workouts make the time go by so fast! These will be at-home workouts.

Tuesday and Thursday: HIIT Cardio and Stretching
30-40 minutes of high intensity interval training using my elliptical; followed by a good 10-15 minutes of stretching. These will be at-home workouts.

Friday: Indoor Cycling and Weight Training
My favorite workout of the week. A 60 minute indoor cycling class (easy 400-500 calorie burner); followed by some upper body work. I’ll be going to the gym this day so will do exercises I can’t do at home.

Saturday: Boot Camp
Sunday: Rest, recovery, plan, and prep day.
Nutrition
Monday
·         Breakfast: egg white, veggie omelet; oatmeal w/ half scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 tbsp walnuts, and ¼ cup blueberries

·         AM Snack: 1 cup plain yogurt w/ half scoop of protein powder; apple w/ 1 tbsp peanut butter

·         Lunch: turkey tenderloin, mashed yams, and sautéed collard greens

·         PM Snack: ½ can tuna mixed with a little mayo and curry powder; 5 flax seed crackers; celery and carrots; 1 wedge of lite Laughing Cow cheese (these things are only 35 calories!!)

·         Dinner: Chicken breast stuffed with asparagus, roasted garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes; large salad

·         Evening Snack: ½ cup cottage cheese with Splenda, a few slices of banana and a sprinkle of oatmeal

Tuesday
·         Same for all meals except dinner

·         Dinner: Tofu tacos

Wednesday
·         Breakfast: Same

·         AM Snack: 1 cup plain yogurt w/ half scoop of protein powder; red grapes; raw nuts

·         Lunch: We have a lunch meeting this day with lunch being provided. Depending on what it is, I may just eat the salad portion and supplement with something from home. In which case, I still have turkey tenderloin, mashed yams, and the collard greens on hand.

·         PM Snack: Salmon burger and some instant grits

·         Dinner: Grill night; not sure if I’ll have chicken or lean steak; large salad regardless

·         Evening Snack: Same

Thursday
·         Breakfast: Same

·         AM Snack: Light yogurt, rice cake w/ peanut butter

·         Lunch: TBD – Will depend on what I have for leftovers from dinners during the week.

·         PM Snack: TBD – Will depend on what leftovers I have

·         Dinner: TBD – Leftovers or an egg white omelet; large salad

·         Evening Snack – Same

Friday
·         Pre-workout: 1 piece of Ezekiel toast w/ cashew butter

·         Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ one full scoop vanilla protein powder, walnuts, and mixed berries

·         AM Snack: Yogurt and fruit

·         Lunch: Sandwich with grilled chicken, mustard, and lots of veggies

·         PM Snack: TBD – Will depend on what leftovers I have

·         Dinner: BBQ chicken pita pizzas

I can plan the first 2-3 days pretty good, but the rest of the week is subject to whatever is available for leftovers. I always cook extra so my meals are pretty similar throughout the week. Whenever we grill (usually 1-3 nights a week), we always throw on a bunch of stuff to use for lunches and dinners the rest of the week. If I don’t have any leftover protein (chicken, turkey, salmon, etc), I always have canned tuna and eggs on hand as a fall back plan. The cottage cheese w/ Splenda and a little banana at night takes care of my sweet cravings; sounds like a weird combo, but I love it! Since I’m pregnant, I incorporate more dairy than usual, which is another reason why I have cottage cheese in my plan.

I’m nearly halfway and still most people don’t know I’m pregnant unless I tell them. But I sure feel like it and my pictures show it for sure. I weighed myself the other day and I’ve gained about 6-7 pounds so far. I gained 22 lbs with my first, so I hope I end up around the same with this one. I’m now reaching the point where I’ll need to start breaking out the maternity pants… at least the early stage ones with a wide-stretching waistband. Since low-rise pants/jeans have been the fashion over the past few years, I’ve been able to make my regular pants last longer since they ride below my baby bump. As for gym attire, I’ve given up on tank-style tops as they don’t cover my belly and just ride up (very uncomfortable). And since I don’t complete a workout without being drench with sweat, baggy cotton t-shirts are not my thing either. I just go with sports bra style tops and let my protruding mid-riff show. In the gym, it is more obvious that I’m pregnant and I often get double-takes (mostly from guys) because people can’t believe this pregnant girl is doing bench press, BB deadlifts, squats, sprints on the treadmill, etc. I’m like ‘hey, I’m not disabled… just pregnant!’ It will be even more amusing when I’m closer to 7 months and still doing steps-ups w/ DBs.

Speaking of training… it is time for more modifications. I’ve transitioned to doing push-ups on my knees for the most part. It is also probably time to either maintain or lower the amount of weight I use for most exercises and work within a 12-15 rep range. When I use heavier weights and work in an 8-10 rep range, I engage too much core. Which contradicts with what I should be doing… relaxing my core so this kid doesn’t have to fight for space with hard abdominal muscles. Other than kneeling push-ups and lighter weights, I’m still following my usual routine while watching my intensity and not doing things that just don’t feel right.

I don’t have any new, good routines to share this time, except for some cardio intervals. Since I can’t push my HR into the 85%+ zone, I’m doing longer bouts of cardio. Here’s a couple I’ve come up with:

Treadmill – Jogging/Incline Walking
·         Warm-up with walking, light jogging, or a combination of both – 5-7 minutes

·         Incline walking @ 4 mph w/ the grade set to the max level or close to it – 5 minutes

·         Jogging @ 6 mph w/ a flat or low grade – 5 minutes

·         Repeat the incline walking/jogging interval 3 or 4 times for a total workout time of 35-45 minutes (including warm-up)

·         Cool-down

·         Note: You’ll find the incline walking more challenging and increases your HR more than the jogging. At least, that’s the case for me.

Elliptical – Pyramid
(Note: I used a resistance scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most difficult. Since resistance levels vary by machine, just use the 1-10 scale as a guide.)

·         Warm-up at a moderate pace/resistance – 5 minutes

·         Max effort on L7 – 1 minutes

·         Active recovery – 30 seconds

·         Max effort on L8 – 2 minutes

·         Active recovery – 30 seconds

·         Max effort on L9 – 3 minutes

·         Active recovery – 30 seconds or 1 minute if needed

·         Max effort on L9 – 4 minutes

·         Active recovery – 1 minute

·         Go back down the pyramid starting with max effort for 4 minutes

·         Cool-down

Be sure to have your music player of choice loaded with high energy tunes and a well-charged battery. I personally have been enjoying Disturbed, Seether, and Buckcherry during my cardio sessions lately. Enjoy!

I’m now into my 17^th week and both baby and Mom are doing well. When I go in for my check-ups, the nurses and other maternal medicine staff all say things like “baby is really moving around” or “baby is kicking.” So it looks like another active, high energy child is on the way. At least now this one will have a sibling to chase around to help expend all that energy. Here I am at 17 weeks:

I’m starting to make some adjustments to my training. However, I generally follow the same routine, minus core work and lower intensity cardio (still high by many people’s standards). I’m finding that cutting out core work also involves cutting out exercises that engage a lot of core, such as chin-ups and pull-ups. Also, no push-ups with feet elevated on a bench or stability ball. And I often drop to my knees for the remaining 5 reps. It’s not so much that I can’t do them, as much as paying the price later with painful cramping from my ligaments and muscles trying to relax while I’m making them work! I’m such a preacher of compound exercises, but in some cases I’ve had to resort to more isolated or single muscle group exercises. For example, I rarely do bicep only exercise (such as bicep curls), instead I do chin-ups which have lots of bicep emphasis but also hit my lats. But to keep my biceps strong for all the kid carrying I’m about to do (well, still do), I started incorporating bicep exercises into my routine. While I prefer the more ‘hard core’ exercises such as chin-ups, pull-ups, dips, and decline push-ups, I guess doing the more targeted exercises has been a nice change up. I’m still doing an outdoor ‘boot camp’ style workout at a local, neighborhood park once a week. I put together the training agenda for each workout and invite some recruits to join me, but soon I may need to play more of a Drill Sergeant role pushing my recruits to their limits. I hope to keep my boot camp workout as part of my weekly routine at least through the early fall while the weather is still good.

Here’s a workout I put together earlier this week. It took me 70 minutes, which included a 10 minute warm-up. It kicked my pregnant but pretty good. I burned 423 calories with this one… not bad considering it was all interval work.

1)      Warm-up: Elliptical and light BW exercises (prisoner squats, kneeling push-ups, stick-ups)

2)      Jump rope: 500 jumps

3)      Mini-circuit #1 – Repeat 3x

a)      Side-step lunges x15/side w/ 20lb DBs

b)      DB flies on stability ball x10 w/ 20lb DBs

c)       Tricep overhead press x10 w/ 25 lb DB

d)      Lateral hops over a bench x15 (over and back counts as 1 rep)

4)      Jump rope: 500 jumps

5)      Mini-circuit #2 – Repeat 3x

a)      Plie squats x15 w/ 20lb DBs

b)      1-arm DB clean-press x9-10 w/20lb DB

c)       1-arm DB swings x12-15 w/ 15-20lb DB

d)      Burpee push-ups x10

Give it a try… change it up if you like… let me know what you think.

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

Uh, both?! Now 11 weeks pregnant, I start my second “Fit Pregnancy” journey. Although, this second time around has not been as easy as the first so far. With my first, I just had the typical first trimester extreme fatigue/exhaustion so I just had to will myself through my workouts. I have a lot of willpower and self-discipline so that wasn’t much of an issue. This time around I still have mass fatigue, but also nausea, cramping, and a very up/down appetite. The thought of vegetables and protein just added to my nausea. And those are my diet staples! I didn’t completely fall off my clean eating rocker, as McDonalds and ice cream didn’t ever sound good either. But often times, bagels, bread, and bananas were all I could manage. And I usually keep that stuff to a minimum. The next six months are not about me, so I haven’t beat myself up too much over it. After the baby is born I know I’ll be able to get myself back into pre-baby shape. And if it is like the last time, I will be in even better shape. I actually plan to blog my pregnancy and post-pregnancy journey to use it as marketing material for my personal training career. It will help ‘make it real’ for others and I strongly believe that practicing what you preach builds a lot of credibility.

Next week I’ll start posting pictures as I’m starting to pop out. Well, at least I think this little pooch in my abdominal area is pregnancy related.