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Monday, May 7 |2012 | eDiToR MAGGie lANGRicK 604.605.2101 | MlANGRicK@vANcoUveRSUN.coM

motherhooD

Pregnancy need not slow you down

Keeping up with a modified exercise program is safe and pays off, experts agree
This is the first in a four-part series on health during pregnancy.
By Erin Ellis
VancouVer Sun

Love being fit? Dont stop now

Here are some tips gleaned from women who kept up their highlevel fitness programs throughout pregnancy, as well as a trainer and medical officials: Unless your doctor identifies some pressing medical reason, its safe and healthy to continue with cardiovascular exercise such as running, swimming or circuit training and weight training throughout the pregnancy. If youre used to intense exercise during pregnancy, keep going. If youve been a sloth, start with walking and a pre-natal exercise classes. Being fit will give you more endurance during labour and help you bounce back more quickly after delivery. Listen to your body and change your routine as needed, by slowing down as the pregnancy progresses, adding props to make it easier and modifying exercises to suit your growing tummy and changes in balance. Stop immediately if you have excessive shortness of breath, chest pain, faintness, painful uterine contractions, leaking amniotic fluid or vaginal bleeding. Let your doctor or midwife know what youre doing and seek their guidance
Sources: Onefitmom.ca blogger Carli Sussman, Studeo55 Fitness Club owner Nathan Mellalieu and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada

enn Belong set out to train for the biggest workout of her life and youd have to say she aced it. She kept to a gruelling workout regime until the day before she delivered her first child a mere 60 minutes after arriving at the hospital. I gave birth to my daughter within an hour. It was amazing. It was too good to be true. I was better equipped to control my breathing, endurance through pushing and that sort of thing. And also the ability to handle pain throughout the labour. My body was able to deal with that so much more efficiently, which is why I made it to the hospital just in time. I was fully dilated, ready to push. The 29-year-old is at home now with her 17-month-old daughter and still works out several mornings each week while her husband minds the baby. Her delivery may sound like stroll in the park, but the way she got there was more of a marathon broken up with sprints. Working in a store as a beauty consultant by day, she was also training to become a CrossFit instructor. Thats a demanding workout program that can include lifting and pulling weights, tossing medicine balls, running, jumping, pull-ups and more. She modified the workout as the pregnancy progressed no rope skipping after six months, for instance. I train hard so life is easy, says Belong. While Vancouvers known for its fitness keeners, keeping up with the program during pregnancy is relatively new. Guidelines by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada say women should keep active with strength training (lifting light weights or using resistance bands) and aerobic activities (running, walking, swimming) as long as theyre not training for a competition. Scuba diving is out because the fetus isnt protected from risks due to changes in pressure. And since a womans balance changes as the fetus grows and shifts her centre of gravity forward, the guidelines recommend caution in activities where theres a risk of falling such as horseback riding, downhill skiing, ice hockey, gymnastics, and outdoor cycling. A womans heart starts to beat faster soon after conception, so another concern is boosting heart rates too high. The recommended upper limits vary between 150 beats per minute for a woman in her 20s to 140 beats per minute for a 40-year-old, says Melanie Osmack, founder of Fit 4 Two, an exercise program designed for expectant and new mothers. Because there is little research on high-performance athletes and child bearing, health experts will err on the side of caution to ensure women dont exercise so hard that their muscles are fighting the fetus for fuel. Women are also advised against getting severely overheated usually brought on by sitting in a hot tub or steam bath or having a high fever since thats linked to abnormalities in brain and neural column during early stages of pregnancy. That said, more women continue to run through the early months of pregnancy and youll even see the odd phenom like Amber Miller, who became a media darling last fall when she ran the Chicago Marathon and then delivered her second baby a few hours later. For women who already know how far they can push themselves, safe

exercise is a matter of paying close attention to how they feel, says Molly Edge, a 35-year-old pregnant with her first child, who trains at Studeo55 in downtown Vancouver along with Belong. As the type of person who likes to do the Grouse Grind three times a week for fun, Edge says shes made some modifications to her exercise regime since becoming pregnant lets say running 10 km when it used to be 23. Why do it? I want to stay healthy and true to myself, says Edge, an executive coach. And stay safe absolutely, but I still want to challenge myself. When Canadian Forces reservist Carli Sussman became pregnant last year at age 31, she wanted to keep up her hard-core fitness, but found a real lack of information. She launched a blog to chart her journey onefitemom.ca and says some of the rulesare arbitrary. If you look at other cultures, or even historically, women were active in their pregnancies, they were working on the farm, they had to care for other children, they had to carry water. Yet somehow in the modern, Western world weve come to the point that we think women who are pregnant are very fragile, shouldnt do anything difficult. It didnt make sense to her that women shouldnt lift anything heavy, for instance. What about a 12 kg toddler? And what about advice to not lie on your back for sit-ups after the first three months because of the danger that the heavier uterus will press down on the vena cava, a major blood vessel? By the time thats a danger, sit ups will be far too uncomfortable, she says. That fits with the advice from health

Jenn Belong works on her CrossFit program at Vancouvers Studeo55. Her fitness level helped with the delivery of daughter Isabella, now 17 months old. The gym is normally off-limits for children.
experts who say active women can generally keep doing their regular workouts until it feels like too much. That took a long time for Sussman, who climbed the Chief at Squamish carrying a 15-kg pack when she was eight months pregnant. Its my favourite hike. I knew there would be some down time after the pregnancy and I wouldnt have a chance to do it again until this summer. But for every woman like these three, there are many more who may get serious about their health for the first time after finding out that theyre pregnant, says fitness trainer Osmack. Some women tell me, Im fitter than Ive ever been in my life because I have this new motivation. For those newcomers, the benefits of tackling a fitness program designed for

Nick ProcayLo/PNG

pregnant women are great, she says. Theyre more likely to have appropriate weight gain, reduce stress, prevent gestational diabetes, diminish aches and pains and generally maintain their ability to move around easily. Never underestimate the achievement of being able crouch down and tie your shoes, she adds.
eellis@vancouversun.com

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