My confession (+ workout inspiration and bump shot!): So tomorrow I’m 18 weeks pregnant and although I’m a personal trainer I’ve only used my gym membership once in about the last three months. Fatigue, working, toddler wrangling and nausea just made it the too hard basket (because in the first trimester I got ‘morning’ sickness in the afternoon and evening!). Today I went to the gym properly for the first time in AGES and it felt really good.
Permission to take it easy
Previously I would have beaten myself up over ‘donating’ to the gym but you know what? In the husband’s words it was there just in case I felt up to it, and over the past decade or so I’ve been at the gym more than enough to justify a relatively short period of non-use.
Instead I got into the habit of doing whatever I could manage each day without pushing myself over the edge – whether that was a 5 minute stretch, running around after my toddler at the playground, a 20 minute yoga flow practice, or joining my PT clients for some bodyweight resistance training. It’s a big difference from my last pregnancy when I still hit the gym most days for an hour or so each time! But as I’ve mentioned before, my previous pregnancy was an absolute breeze and this one’s teaching me the lesson that you can’t always push through and do everything you would usually do. That said, today I felt normal. Today I went to the gym with no plan, and just did what felt good…
Workout plan
Here’s today’s 30 minute workout (focus on core, stability and LEGS!):
- Cat/cow (x5 rounds)
- Dancing bear (for spinal mobility)
- Tabletop superman (held count of 5 each side x3, taking arms/legs straight, then 45 deg. angles outwards, straight again then back down)
- Squats holding 2.5kg plate to chest, on standing press overhead + triceps press (x20)
- TRX squats (x20)
- TRX lower half pulse squat + stand (x10)
- TRX curtsy lunge + lateral leg extension (×10 each side)
- TRX pistol squats (x10 each side)
- Balance sequence with flow transitions: Tree > standing figure-4 with arms overhead > standing figure-4 in forward fold > warrior III > dancer’s pose > lateral extended hand to big toe pose (repeat other side, 3 breaths in each pose)
- Child’s pose, shoulder stretches and quads/hamstring stretches to finish
Giving this workout a go? Let me know how you get on and comment below!
Image / NZ Real Health