The Open 2016 has come and gone. And like many Open seasons before, it brought much struggle, sweat, angst, triumph, and of course some mad DOMs. I’ve participated in 6 Opens now and every year I face different challenges and learn something new.

I like to use the Open as a time to look back across the last year for a bit of insight into my progress and reaffirm my direction moving forward. In my first few years my reflections centred around performance – what movements, weights, and workouts did I struggle with? Where did I place high and where did I place lower? Using this I would focus on different things in my training.

There is value in this, especially when addressing basic strength and technique. But the longer I’ve been around CrossFit the more I dive deeper into what I’ve learnt about myself and how I can improve by changing the way I think, not what I do or how I train.

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There is no doubt about it – numerous studies show that maintaining an exercise routine whilst being pregnant has many benefits for both the mother and baby.

However, there is so much conflicting information out there about exercising whilst pregnant it is often difficult to know what is safe and what isn’t safe. This is particularly so for a pregnant Crossfitter – society isn’t used to seeing a pregnant woman squat, deadlift or even run. When a picture is posted of a pregnant woman swinging a kettlebell, all hell breaks loose on the social media front.

In the interest of our growing demographic, I thought I would share my approach to exercising through pregnancy. The following is based off my own personal experience – having Crossfitted through both of my pregnancies – but also having trained a number of women through their pregnancy journey.

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