[blockquote style=”boxed”]When I became pregnant, I knew instantly that I wanted to stay fit and healthy throughout the 9 months of my pregnancy. I decided to give up pilates and yoga, and stick to Crossfit as my one form of exercise.[/blockquote]

When I became pregnant, I knew instantly that I wanted to stay fit and healthy throughout the 9 months of my pregnancy. I decided to give up pilates and yoga, and stick to Crossfit as my one form of exercise. Training while pregnant meant 9 months of tweaking and scaling movements. The first trimester meant no handstands, no burpees and no core work of any kind. Followed by the second trimester of no squating below parallel and limited kipping on the bar. The third trimester, where the most tweaking occurred, consisted of no more lunging, running or rowing (I really started to hate the bike), ring rows replaced pull ups and as you can imagine Olympic Lifting got pretty interesting where the only way to lift was outwards instead of upwards, and also trying not to hit the bub on the way down. Although I did manage to get a couple new 1RM’s while pregnant, and my best Fran time as well.

So coming back to Crossfit post pregnancy, I was really looking forward to getting back into it, but I wasn’t completely sure how my body was going to react, and how 9 months of changes and limitations was going to play out. I perhaps naively thought that now that the baby was no longer in my belly everything would be just as it was before, in terms of my flexibility, strength and fitness.

I was sorely mistaken. I remember my first WOD back 6 weeks after having my baby boy, it consisted of pull ups and burpees. I struggled through the entire workout and felt so unfit, but what shocked me more was that I could hardly do a pull up (pull ups were and still are one of my favourite movements). It was a bit of a shock to the system that I hadn’t been able to just slide back into it and pick up where I left off.

[blockquote style=”boxed”]He told me to think about Crossfit as though I am starting it for the first time, and to forget about what I use to be able to do, and start fresh. After that I stopped getting so frustrated at myself and started just being happy to be able to make it to classes and get some ‘Me’ time. [/blockquote]

The next few weeks of Crossfit led to many more realisations at how much my body had changed over 9 months. I wasn’t as strong and no where near as flexible as I use to be, and I became frustrated with knowing what I use to be able to do compared to what I could do now. Then in stepped Eric with some expert advice that really helped. He told me to think about Crossfit as though I am starting it for the first time, and to forget about what I use to be able to do, and start fresh. After that I stopped getting so frustrated at myself and started just being happy to be able to make it to classes and get some ‘Me’ time.

Slowly in the last 7 months my strength is starting to come back, I am now lifting around my old 1RM’s, and I have been able to do more and more WOD’s RX as time has gone on. More importantly in the last couple months, I have been able to squat below parallel again, although sometimes its a bit borderline (this may sound like an easy achievement but it took me months of having to consciously think about getting below parallel every time I squatted) and my core is starting to become strong again. And although I am not back to where I was prior to becoming a mummy, I’m pretty happy with my progress as I have seen so many improvements since that first WOD back.

[blockquote style=”boxed”]I whole-heartedly believe that it really helped with my pregnancy and my recovery post baby[/blockquote]

I would just like to say a massive thank you to all the coaches in the gym, especially to Sovita and Eric. The coaches at CCW made it really easy and clear on exactly what I should and shouldn’t be doing through each trimester, and always ensured that I felt comfortable with everything. I am really glad that I continued to keep exercising all the way through, as I whole-heartedly believe that it really helped with my pregnancy and my recovery post baby, and although its taking a while to get back to where I use to be, I know I will get there eventually.

Jess