Week 25: Good Ol' Fashioned Heavy Lifting

Just felt like I needed to lift some heavy things (relatively speaking, of course--my 5 rep max's well into the 2nd trimester are maybe half what my pre-pregnancy lifts were).

Nonetheless, a good session that left my legs quivery.

Squats, several light warm-up reps:

45x10; 65x5; 95x5

Then:

105x5; 115x5; 120x5; 120x5; 120x5

Deadlifts: had to move to a sumo-style to accomodate my belly!

95x5x3; 105x5x3

Bench

65x10x2; 75x10x2; 85x10x2

All good!

Week 25: Walking

So they say that walking is supposed to be the best thing you can do while pregnant. It's also the quickest way for my low back to start to feel tweaky. I mean, I do it, I walk, but I'd so much rather row, bike, life weights, or do something totally dynamic like a typical crossfit metcon where more of my body is engaged to support the core.

So anyway, despite my griping, I went on a lovely after-work walk with my sweetie. We just meandered around the beach of our little town, maybe 2-3 miles total. It wasn't a huge sweat fest, but it was a nice walk. It's also amazing how much my cardiovascular system resents hills right now. It's like there's so much blood in my system that asking my body to do anything in a sustained cardio mode sends me into light breathlessness so much more quickly than before. An odd feeling.

Week 23: Baby Helen

5 Rounds

Row 800 meters

10 - Pull-ups, band assisted

15 - 35# plate swings

Total time: 32? minutes

Week 23: 7 x 5 Dumbbell Progression

7 rounds

Round 1-3: 25# each hand

Round 4-7: 30# each hand

5 Dumbbell deadlifts

5 Dumbbell hang cleans

5 Dumbbell push presses

5 Dumbbell squats

This was fine. I didn't warm up, and felt really fatigued going into it. My ass and hip/low back area has been really sore. A good hard foam roller session helped some, but there's a deep muscle pain in my left glute that's really nagging me. I'm wondering if it's carry over from the relative passivity of the return road trip. Unlike the way down, Nick and I didn't stop for a workout on the return trip, and sitting that long just isn't good for the body.

Anyway, I started out at rx pregger weight of 35# and I just couldn't handle the weight. It felt much heavier than it should have, but I dropped down to 25ers and did the first 3 rounds at that weight, pretty comfortably. At that point, I was warmed up and knew I could push it a tiny bit, so I split the difference and moved up to 30# weights. The original rX was for 5 rounds, but I went to 7 rounds because I knew I could and I wanted to get something out of those 30s.

Finished with another foam roller session for my glute/hip soreness. It helped, but only a small amount.

Week 22: Connect the Dots

En route to the Willamette Valley for a birthday get away, Nick and I took advantage of a grassy patch with some well placed trees at one of the rest stops to get our workout on, outdoors and with with on-lookers. What? You never seen two full grown people doing bearcrawls at a highway rest stop before? As I like to say, if they aren't staring, you aren't doing it right.

So, picture a triangle. At the bottom point of the triangle is a picnic table. Some distance from the picnic table are a line of trees, each spaced out diagonally away from the picnic table. We did a series of exercises from the picnic table to the last tree, then ran back to the picnic table, connecting the dots and completing round 1. Make sense? Yeah, it'd be a lot easier to understand if I had an arial diagram. But I don't.

Here's the workout:

5 Rounds:

Picnic table-Tree #1: Bear Crawl (about 36 crawls)

Tree # 1 - Tree #2: Jump Squats (about 12 squats)

Tree # 2 - Tree #3: Walking Lunges (about 16 walking lunges)

Tree # 3 - Picnic Table: Sprint back (about 100 yards)

This got our blood pumping and kept our asses from falling completely asleep on the next leg of the drive.

Week 22: 6-16 Progression

5 Rounds:

6 Pull-Ups (Small Band Assist)

8 Push-Ups

10 Lower Ab Leg Raise (Roman Chair)

12 Squats

14 Plate Swings (First Round @ 25#, Remaining @ 35#)

16 Walking Lunges (8 per leg)

Rest 5-10 minutes, then:

Row 500 meters for time. Rest 2 minutes between round.

1st Round: 1:58. Went out too hard, had to pause for a few seconds at 350 meters...still kept it under 2 minutes, which shows exactly how hard I started. :)

2nd Round: 1:59

3rd Round: 1:58

2nd Round

Week 22: 55# of pain

3 Rounds

15 overhead squats #55

15 hang power cleans #55

15 shoulder press #55

15 walking lunges

15 bench dips

So the really sucky part of this was definitely the shoulder presses. I think my non pregnant 1 rep max ever on shoulder press is 105#, and I am definitely NOT in the kind of condition I was in when I pushed that weight up....once! 55# gets heavy in a hurry when you're doing 15 reps after shoulders are already fatigued from holding the bar up for 15 OHS!

The Hang Power Cleans were fun and I didn't run into any problems until I whacked myself in the boobs on the way up. I guess that's the drawback of my new, curvier pregnancy body....I have boobs to get in the way of the barbell! There was no belly-whacking, which is the important thing, but uber-trainer Kevin has forbidden any more HPCs due to the risk of bar-to-belly impact. Bummer, but ya gotta listen to your coach.

Week 21: Swings, Walking Lunges, Wall Ball

Functional Friday:

3 stations:

KB Swings, 1.5 pood (about 53#)

Walking Lunges (OH with 35#, though I only did the first 2 rounds with weight, then ditched weight for a round, then went to a 10# overhead weight for the final round)

Wall Ball (10# Ball - these just felt really hard today, and normally wall ball and I are pretty tight.)

Here's the Drill:

15 reps on, then 10 second rest off. Repeat as many times as possible for 1:30 interval. Move to next station. 15 reps on, 10 seconds rest. Repeat as many times as possible for another 1:30 interval. Continue rotating thru stations for 20 minutes total.

I was averaging 2 rounds per interval on swings, just under 2 rounds per interval on walking lunges until I jettisoned the weight, then I was right at 2 rounds per interval, and I was at about 1.5 rounds per interval on wall ball until the final wall ball round, where I squeezed out 2 complete rounds.

I was happy, happy, happy to be able to the KB swings at the same weight as the boys. I wasn't real high in the swing--definitely Russian style, not American, but that's about my height with that weight KB when I'm not pregnant, and about as high as the guys were getting, so all in all I felt good about it!

I'm definitely getting bigger! My workout top kept rolling up in the middle of the workout!

Week 21: Thrusters, Dips, Pull-ups

Standard Crossfitmom.com warm up--

2 rounds of:

400 meter run @ 2% incline, 6.5mph

10 squats

10 good mornings-15#

10 shoulder press-15#

Workout--

5 Rounds of:

10 Thrusters-45#

10 bench dips

10 pull-ups. Had to break out the small band for an assist on the pull-ups! My extra 10 pounds and changing tummy contours are making a difference in my pull-up ability. :)

Week 20: Tabata Wall Balls, Rowing Machine, Burpees

Tabata 20 seconds on : 10 seconds off, 8 rounds:

Wall Ball, 8# ball to 12' mark. Average 8-9 shots per round.

Rowing Machine, total distance over 8 rounds. 834 meters.

Pregnant Burpees. Squat to Wall Push-off. Average 7-8 burpees per round.

Week 20: Lots of Walking

AM: 40 minute walk around track...just walking, nice and brisk.

PM: 110 minute walk around town with dear hubby to celebrate our anniversary, including a 30-40 minute beach walk portion that, while slow, was surprisingly effective as working some stabilizer muscles. Lots of slippery rocks to scramble over. Also got some nice hills in that had my heart rate a bit elevated. So, nothing too dramatic to report, but lots of moderate-slow movement across nice, varied terrain.

Week 20: Lunges, Squats, Back Extensions

3 Rounds:

100 feet walking lunge

50 squats

25 back extensions

Took maybe 15-20 minutes, with my frequent breaks. :)

But, as this was my second workout of the day, I feel just fine about my pace. Afterwards, I went for a brisk 30 minute walk with hubby and came home to whip up a delish salmon dish with asparagus from the garden!

Week 20: 4000 meter farklek

10 laps of the track, walk/run/jog/sprint as energy & body desired. In practice this ended up being a warm up walk lap, brisker walk lap, jog lap, several sprint laps with various sprint distances (from about 200 meters to probably 80) and recovery distances (also from about 200 to 80), intermittent 350-400 meter jog laps, and several cool down jog/walk laps towards the end.

This was a truly wonderful way to get out there, play and move without a feeling of drudgery or necessitated pace. I was just listening to my iPod, going as I felt comfortable, and more often than I would have thought, what felt good were those interval sprints. I haven't been able to really push my heart rate with spin class or the cardio WODs so doing some nice hard sprints felt great...like I was making my heart work, but still within the context of listening to my body.

Relatedly, my Dr. gave me the green light yesterday to do pretty much whatever I wanted athletically as long as I stayed away from impact sports that could lead to trauma to the core area...ie, no basketball, volleyball, etc. But she said as long as I listened to my body, and didn't push anything to the point I hurt myself, there was nothing I could pick-up, push or deadlift that would hurt the baby! Yeah! So I can continue to do heavier weighted squats and DL, as long as I mind my own back stability. Coolio.

Week 19: 21-15-9 Row/Swing

Functional Fitness Friday...

Fran style 21-15-9:

Calories on the rower

Swings. First 10 swings with 45# plate, then to 35# plate.

Time was 4:30ish I think.

Week 19: DL, Step-ups, Push-ups

30-20-10

DB deadlifts 45#

Step ups - 18" box

Push ups - from 18" box

I'm off the floor for push-ups. Made the call today while looking at the 30 push-ups in this first round. Did my push-ups to the 18" box I stepped up to, and they were still hard. I'll try to keep it here for a while before going the the wall....hopefully that can wait until T3. But you know, gotta modify as you gotta modify.

Then:

250 meter row

10 one-armed snatch, right hand, 20#

250 meter row

10 one-armed snatch, left hand, 20#

250 meter row

10 one-armed snatch, right hand, 20#

250 meter row

10 one-armed snatch, left hand, 20#

250 meter row

10 one-armed snatch, right hand, 20#

250 meter row

10 one-armed snatch, left hand, 20#

That was fun! The snatches were hard, especially left arm, but the short rows felt great.

I'm holding pretty steady at 162 right now, a 7 pound gain from pre-pregnancy weight of 155.

Week 19: Beach Workout

Went for a lovely 1.5 hour walk with Nick along the waterfront and on the beach. At a nice driftwood strewn stretch of beach, we got a little functional fitness in, primal-style. Using the logs and hungs of driftwood all around us, we ran through a nice collection of standard movements. Doing these with uneven hunks of wood rather than uniform hunks of metal added a fun component, as did the gorgeous and oxygen-rich seaside local!

25 Partner Log Carry Side step-overs (holding a relatively heavy log with Nick, we side stepped up and over another large log. Uneven elevation on either side of the log made this fun from a stability standpoint)

25 Squats (to ~15"Log depth)

25 Good Mornings with Driftwood Log (Estimate 25# log)

25 Log Step Ups (~18" Log)

25 Log Tri Dips

25 Shoulder Press with Smaller Log (Estimate 10# log. Really light, but the larger ones were too big around to grip securely. I ended up doing 10 regular presses and 10 single-arm presses each side to somewhat compensate for the light weight. Next time we find rocks for this.)

25 Push-ups in Sand (fun!)

25 Log Deadlifts (Lifted up one end of a really heavy log. I would estimate aprox. 95# pull equivalent, with was more of a Sumo/KB deadlift style because of hand position together, directly under torso and fairly turned-out leg position. The "handle" point on the end of the log made it nice to grip, but hard to finish the stand because the point wanted to whack me in the ever-larger belly!)

Nick added in 25 Curl and 25 Curl-to-Press with the ~10# log after shoulder presses while waiting for me to finish the DL.

Walk was gorgeous! We saw a seal and the weather was just perfect--soft ligth on the water but patches of sun in the sky. Excellent!

Week 19: Lunges, Farmer Carry, Med Ball Cleans

Warm Up:

2 rounds

1/4 mile run (6 mph)

10 squats (15#)

10 good mornings (15#)

10 shoulder press (15#)

Workout:

3 rounds

30 walking lunges

1000 ft farmer carry with 35# plates each arm

15 Med Ball Squat Clean (10# Med Ball)

Stretching & foam roller to finish

Had the ultrasound today--It's a boy!

Week 18: Jogging, Burpees

Kevin's Functional Fitness WOD, as Rx:

700 meter run (2 laps outside running path)

30 burpees

700 meter run

25 burpees

700 meter run

20 burpees

700 meter run

15 burpees

700 meter run

10 burpees

As Modified for Pregnant Me:

700 meter run (2 laps)

30 burpees

700 meter run

25 burpees

350 meter run (1 lap)

20 burpees

350 meter run

15 burpees

350 meter run

10 burpees

Kevin took out a lap from each of my last 3 rounds to cut down on the jarring of the running. I'm grateful because I have felt a real fall-off in my (not particularly great to begin with) cardio conditioning. I have done a few bike sessions where I just cannot get my heart rate past about 120. It's like beyond that oxygenation becomes an issue, and I'm not able to push any harder. It is what it is, and I'm sure it's there for a reason, so I just go with it and do my little jog-shuffle and my little paced-out spin class and know that it's better to keep it slow and steady than to risk too little oxygen to the baby.

Week 18: DL, Power Clean, Push-Press

Standard Warm-up, which I barely ever do:

2 rounds:

1/4 mile job (6.5 mph)

10 squats (15# body bar)

10 good mornings (15# body bar)

10 shoulder press (15# body bar)

Then, 4 Rounds:

12 Deadlift-65#

9 Hang Power Clean-65#

6 Push Press-65#

Then I went home and made, and ate, a hamburger. This is the first time I've purchased beef for my own consumption in years. I bought grass finished chuck steak that I ground into burger and seasoned up with worcestershire and ground onion. I took pics and will post about my burger bender as soon as I can. It was a very satisfying foray back into beef.

Week 18: Row, Press, Good Morning

For 15 minutes, do rounds of the following:

250 meter row

15 Shoulder Press - 45#

15 Good Morning - 45#

Got 4 rounds + complete 5th row.

Felt fine. I love those short, intense rows. The workout followed about 30 minutes of foam rollering my low hip and low back area. I've been really feeling the changes from my tendons loosening, and it's manifesting in a lot of low back pain. The rollering helped so much, though it hurt a bit at the time, but I really need to make time for that on a regular basis.