Working Out in First Trimester

I first want to thank all of you for the amazing love and support DC and I have received since our announcement. It sounds silly, but it almost feels like I’ve been accepted into this secret club of BFFs who are there to offer guidance and share their personal stories that make me feel so…normal. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Secondly, I want to give a little disclaimer: this post isn’t going to be about how to modify your workouts during first trimester – that will be coming soon in a few different forms of content where I’ve paired up with an expert, so please stay tuned!

This is more of a post on how I personally modified my workouts, what changed for me and how I dealt with it emotionally. So one more little disclaimer: what worked for me may not necessarily work for you :). 

As you may or may not have seen in my First Trimester Vlog, my biggest symptom during my first 12 weeks was insomnia. So it was safe to say I was abnormally exhausted – like even more than a normal early pregnant person.

My job is to personal train clients and to teach group fitness classes. So regardless of how much sleep I didn’t get the night before, I was at the gym several days a week at 6:30 am demonstrating lunges, passing around 15 pound weights and enthusiastically encouraging my clients whether I felt like it or not. It was difficult to say the least.

By the time it came around to my break in the day, when I normally get my workout in, the last thing I felt like doing was exercising – so I didn’t.

Aside from the random blogger event or slow-moving pilates class, I did not work out during my first trimester. And that sucked. Why? Not because I wanted to workout. Because it felt like I should be working out. 

(shot at 6 weeks pregnant…in between dry heaving in the corner)

I happened to become pregnant a few weeks after some of my favourite celebrity bloggers and YouTubers announced they were expecting and was SO excited to be on this journey alongside them. But from day one, they were working out hard core, like they always have, and then eating their salads with grilled chicken. I was like what????? How is this even a thing? I feel like I’m going to topple over after doing one squat and if you put a piece of grilled chicken near me I will literally hit you and run away. When I watched them online, I felt like there was something wrong with me, especially as a trainer and health and fitness blogger. 

After hearing from so many of you, especially my fellow fitness professionals, I now understand these bloggers are weird unicorn women who are the minority and what I was feeling was 100% the majority. But prior to announcing, it was really challenging to compare myself to them.

On the rare occasions that I did workout, whether it was my own half-ass session in the gym or attending a group class, I want to share with you how I modified my training.

The general rule of thumb is that you can do anything you were doing before but you don’t want to start something new. So for example, I am (aside from my recent injuries) an avid spinner but not a heavy weight lifter. So I could continue spinning no problem but I wouldn’t all of a sudden join a crossfit gym and start loading up the barbells. 

The other general consensus is you want to be able to workout to a degree of intensity where you can still hold a conversation and/or sing. So you want to push yourself but not to the point where you can’t take full breaths.

Again – these are general guidelines – obviously speak to your doctor before continuing any type of exercise to make sure you are accommodating your pregnancy as safely as possible. 

I was told I could continue exercising as usual so during the classes I took, I would check my heart rate on my apple watch, or if I forgot it at home, I would literally sing. (If you have been next to me on the treadmill recently, I apologize). Singing along to the playlist in class is a great way to make sure your level of intensity is under control if you can’t see your heart rate or are not sure what range you should be in.

Aside from controlling my heart rate during cardio, I also really paid attention to how certain exercises made my core feel. From very early on, things like crunches and planks for more than a few seconds did not feel good, so I stopped doing them. It’s not because I’m worried about my abs separating this early (again, there will be a whole post about that coming soon), it’s just that something felt off.  Even just sitting in my office chair right now and trying to flex my abs, they already feel a lot weaker so I have stayed away from traditional core moves. The ab moves I have continued to do are: side planks, lying down heel/leg raises or anything from hands and knees position. Sometimes I will allow myself to do burpees but it really just depends on what it feels like in that moment.

The point is, if you are able to exercise, really listen to your body. If something doesn’t feel right, just don’t do it, even if you see the 9 months pregnant woman next to you doing it. 

I have recently started to get back to a) wanting to workout and b) feeling really good when I do. But if I also get back to the point where I’m too tired, it doesn’t feel good or I’m just too damn lazy, that’s okay too. I know I have my whole life to workout and that this is just a glimpse in time that I should simply enjoy.

So thank you to everyone who made me feel normal for doing nothing the last 3 months and I’m super excited to bring you guys tips, workouts that are safe and advice from the experts really soon!