When I found out I was pregnant,
one of the first topics I wanted to read about was working out and training jiu
jitsu over those nine months. Most of
what I found were pregnancy exercise guidelines that recommended very
conservative rules: No getting your heart rate over 140, swim, do prenatal
yoga, walk, and above all avoid any contact sports. I asked doctors, moms, midwives, and athletes
about their experiences. I could not get
any definitive answers to the question “how long can I keep training jiu jitsu
before I switch to only drilling and when do I stop completely?” Any other diehard athlete will understand how
a sport like jiu jitsu can be a huge part of your life and identity. With an extensive background in personal
training, I was fairly confident I could structure a training regimen that
would take me through the entire nine months.
Of course, everything I did was based on trial and error. I am hoping to share my experiences with
other women who might have the same questions and provide a guideline to
training that worked for me. I am not a
medical professional and I do not want anyone to follow my advice without
consulting your own doctor/midwife. I
think what I was able to do is approaching the upper limit of what is safe to
do during pregnancy.
First Trimester
I did not find out I was pregnant
for several weeks and of course during that time I continued training as
normal. I even competed in a submission
only no-gi tournament.
Once I found out, I stopped
training MMA and out of caution avoided takedowns and situations where I would
be thrown. Otherwise, I continued
grappling, lifting, and running. Early
on I was one of the unlucky ones to experience really bad morning sickness. Difficulty drinking water or eating combined
with the heat of the summer caused me to cut down on my training until I
started to feel better in the second trimester.
I continued to walk, swim, and started going to yoga consistently.
Second Trimester
In the second trimester, I reached
out to other athletes as well as doctors, nurses and midwives asking how I
should modify training. I did not get
much specific guidance but medical professionals told me to listen to my body
and stop if anything feels uncomfortable or I experience any bleeding.
I found I was able to continue fast
paced drilling but I made sure I didn’t push myself to absolute
exhaustion. I spent most of my time
drilling and much less time doing controlled sparring. When I did spar, I chose only training
partners I trusted and mostly played pass and keep the guard (once someone passed
my guard we would start over. This
avoided most situations of me being trapped on bottom with my partners
bodyweight on me).
For my lifting programs I switched
to higher rep circuit training. Doctors
told me to avoid exercises on my back towards the end of the second
trimester. I found regular pullups
caused some pain in my abs (since at this point the baby was getting big enough
he was pushing my ab muscles forward). I
remedied this by switching to band assisted pullups.
One change I noticed late in the
second trimester (about 23 weeks) is that I could no longer run without round
ligament pain. I cut running out of my
training and switched to hitting mitts, swimming or fast walking with my dogs. Which, for me, was not a huge loss since I
was not an avid runner before pregnancy.
I found that going to a vinyasa yoga class helped me a lot with any
discomforts. I was still able to go to
the regular yoga class and the only modification was I did not do anything
where I had to lay on my stomach.
Third Trimester
The third
trimester brought about the most changes to my training. I kept checking in with my doctor about what
the limits were and she couldn’t give me definitive answers except to avoid
being on my back for long stretches of time and no abrupt falls or strikes to
the stomach. I now found that I would
get lightheaded and uncomfortable if I was on my back for more than two minutes
at a time. Most of my drilling now was
guard passing with lighter training partners.
The last time I did very modified live rolling was at eight months. My training partner was much lighter than me,
a mother herself, and very controlled with her movements. For those that decide to drill or lightly
spar this late into pregnancy, make sure you pick responsible training partners
and minimize your time spend on the bottom.
Weightlifting modifications included lighter weights, no
deadlifts after week 36, no exercises off my back, no twisting exercises, and
no core exercises such as planks. In the
third trimester the prowler push was my best friend. Luckily I had access to one at ForeverStrong. It provided an opportunity to incorporate a
full body exercise that translates very well into BJJ conditioning. Even better, it added no strain to my back
and provided an opportunity to reap the benefits of sprinting without running. On days when I didn’t feel great or had low
energy I would do tabata rounds of goblet squats, KB swings, and pushups. To
those unfamiliar with tabata, it is a workout template that comprises 8 rounds
split into 20 seconds of work then 10 seconds of rest.
Sample Workout
(through week 38)
Prowler push down
Prowler rows back
X 4 rounds
Circuit:
Swiss ball incline bench press x 15
KB Swings x 20
Overhead DB press x 15
Goblet squats x 10
Lateral stepover lunges x 8 per leg
X 5 rounds
This full body workout takes about 30 minutes. It raises the heart rate and does not include
twisting or anything on your back.
Through the
end of the third trimester boxing training was a great source of cardio. The more my pregnancy progressed, the more
difficult it was to use proper form because too much twisting was painful. I also found I was more out of breath, so I
did not push the pace to utter exhaustion.
Yoga and swimming were a great
complement to training especially later in pregnancy. After 34 weeks I stopped going to the regular
yoga class because I was starting to get uncomfortable and had to modify too
many motions. I switched to a gentler
yoga class and reaped the same benefits.
I never really enjoyed swimming, but in the last few weeks nothing felt
better than getting in the pool and doing some easy laps.
Conclusion:
As I head
into my last few days of pregnancy, I have taken the last two weeks to rest and
prepare. I still walk, swim, and do
tabata workouts mostly consisting of pushups, Kettlebell swings, and squats. I have been extremely lucky to have a healthy
pregnancy and a great community of people around me. The owners of the martial arts academy I
train at supported me training and did not question my participation in
class. I appreciated that they trusted
my discretion on what I could and could not do.
I also had many training partners who were willing to modify their training
to be my drilling partners. When I
trained in other gyms, I encountered many negative comments from people criticizing
me for working out. It is sad that
people will shame a pregnant woman staying active but not a pregnant woman who
sits around eating pizza and drinking soda.
I am
looking forward to meeting my son soon and spending a few weeks focusing on my
family. When the time feels right, I am
hoping to be back a couple weeks after baby drilling and slowly easing back
into training and coaching my Women's Only BJJ class.
Special Thanks To:
My coaches and teammates at Performance Martial Arts (http://pgbjj.com/), ForeverStrong (https://www.facebook.com/fspf1/?fref=ts)
