Happy Sunday all!
I want to start this week by clearing something up I should have said 2 posts ago. The training log is by no means the gold standard towards which all pregnant women should strive. Every pregnancy is going to be very different because everyone's body is going to react slightly differently in pregnancy and these differences will affect how you train. On top of that, every person has a different exercise/injury history which may or may not also affect the type of training you do.
On top of that, my pregnant training load is no different from my pre-pre-natal training load either. My body is already used to doing some form of moving/training for a few hours a day. I fully acknowledge that for most people the amount of activity I participate in is not feasible. All of this is to say that the training I do works for me but may not for you. The training log I'm sharing with you is not meant for anyone to emulate.
If you are pregnant and either want to start or continue training it's important that you speak to your doctor first and then speak to a personal trainer who is certified in pre-/post-natal training. (As luck would have it, Calibrate Studios has 3 such trainers: Carole, Steph, and myself!)
With that all cleared up, onto the week!
Training
Monday
Woke up in the morning with a complete lack of energy and no will power to turn myself around. I normally wake up very energised, hungry, and excited for the day. Today was the exact opposite. The weather was stunning outside and I normally would have jumped at any opportunity to head outside but today I couldn't bring myself to do anything. I picked up my book, read for an hour or so and then actually ended up taking a 3.5 hour nap. Luckily I didn't have any clients, I wouldn't have had the energy to take them anyway. I did absolutely nothing today and my body and mind didn't regret it in the slightest.
Tuesday
Today was miles better! I even got to spend 2 hours lying on the beach reading.
Morning: 2 hour walk
Afternoon:
3 sets each:
A1. 10 Cossack Lunges
A2. 10 Lat Pulldowns
A3. 10 Leg Lowers
B1. 12 Sumo Goblet Squats
B2. 10 Deficit Push Ups
B3. 12 Plank Push Ups
Wednesday
I did a great job scheduling clients all over the place so I was quite busy during the day walking all over the island. I did manage to find time in the early afternoon to pop into the studio to do a session before I continued with my day though. Feeling energised with the sun I opted for a HIIT session.
5 sets: 45s on, 15s off. 45s between sets.
1. DB Thrusters
2. Bear Crawl
3. Bent Over See Saw Rows
4. Hamstring Walk Outs
5. Swiss Ball Mountain Climbers
Thursday
Another day with the husband off work, another kayak adventure! This time we picked our kayaks up from Ma Hang Park and decided to paddle around the Stanley peninsula until we found a beach. 2 hours later we landed at Stanley Prison, ate our packed lunch, explored the area for a bit, and paddled 2 hours back.
4 hours of kayaking done and dusted!
Friday
Feeling a bit wiped from all the sun and the long paddle yesterday I opted for a long stretch. After 4 hours of kayaking you'd assume my upper body was exhausted but it was actually the opposite. Probably because my legs were stuck in the same position for so long! Definitely needing more of a stretch and less of a training session I opted for a long stretch but still had some fun playing around with isometric holds and unilateral work.
Morning:
3 sets:
A1. 12 Isometric Banded Row Hold, Offset Dumbbell Bench Press
A2. Transverse Abdominis holds
B1. 12 Isometric Bird Dog Holds, Offset Renegade Rows
B2. 40s Weighted Side Plank
40min stretch
Afternoon: 2 hour walk
Saturday
Today was supposed to be rest day, instead we walked from Pokfulam to Kennedy Town for brunch, then walked from Kennedy Town along the boardwalk to Tamar Park, then walked through to Happy Valley, then walked up and over Wong Nai Chung Gap Road, and eventually ended up at my parent's place down by the HK Country Club. All in all it was just over 4 hours of strolling.
Don't worry, managed to grab a mango ice cream to give myself some added incentive to continue walking.
Sunday
And on the 7th day, she rested. Finally.
Fudge Update
For those of you that don't know, the nickname we've given the little one throughout the pregnancy is Fudge. An affectionate name given because upon sharing the ultrasound with my mum's side of the family during a large video call, one of my aunts thought I was holding up some homemade fudge...
Her update: we met our midwife for the first time this week. A lovely woman by the name of Michelle. Michelle did a quick heartbeat check so although we didn't have a full scan to see her, we heard her little heart still pumping away.
It was a very short and sweet appointment this week, the next Fudge update won't be until June 3rd (when I'm in my 20th week) so we all have to wait until then to see her. In the mean time I will be focussing on continuing to help her grow the necessary body parts, last time we checked in she only had one eye, so I'll be eating round foods for the foreseeable (see what I did there?) future.
(Side note: there is obviously no medical or scientific link between the foods you eat and the body part that's subsequently grown. I'd like to think there is though.)
Life in general
The week started off a bit slow but my body obviously needed the rest and it gave me time to start a great new book. I didn't experience any discomfort or pain this week and I still don't have any cravings or aversions. So all in all there's not much to report on this end this week!
Physically I haven't popped too much yet which is good because I've done almost nothing about figuring out what clothes to buy...The only thing I've added to my closet so far are high support (larger) sports bras for running.
I'm up 3kg from my pre-pre-natal weight. When I've told people that the most common question I get is "is that I normal amount?" To be perfectly honest, I did very briefly look at how much weight I was going to put on very early on in my pregnancy but I also decided that given I have quite an obsessive personality that reading too much into that was going to have negative consequences on myself, my mental health, and ultimately my child.
I definitely feel heavier, bloated, and a bit rounder but I'm not going to get caught up on the numbers on a scale. The most important thing for me is to keep up with an activity/training load I'm comfortable with, listening to my body, and eating healthily. I haven't added extras to my plate but I have added an extra small snack in the early afternoon.
With that, it is Sunday morning and it's time to head back out into the sun!
Hope you all had a great long weekend!