Fitness Editor Blog

Alrighty then, this being a mom thing is quite the full-time job. Not much time for blogging let alone brushing of teeth before lunchtime with all that has to be done on a daily basis. Not that I'm complaining, look at this beautiful face and tell me you don't melt...

This is his "WTF mom?" face. I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot of it over the next 18 years in varying degrees of intensity...

Anyhoo, back to all things fitness! :)

I have started running again, I took it slowly the first three runs and ran not only super slow, but also not very far and it all went well. In fact it went better than well... it was AWESOME. I actually felt like a person again and although I didn't run far or fast it did me so much good mentally that the bleary-eyed tiredness that's been dogging me for weeks now completely disappeared. 

On the weekend I decided to push it a bit more and ran my old 4/5km route (not quite sure just how long it is cause I haven't measured it yet) and not only did I manage it with only one walking break inbetween, but my legs felt strong after the run and even the next day. 

Usually my legs take a bit of strain, especially my calves, but either the pregnancy has left me with some residual flexibility which makes running easier or Mother Nature decided that it was compensation for hitting me with bronchial pneumonia in the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy. Either way, I'm not complaining!

So now evening runs are a part of my routine. Hubby looks after baby and gets some nice alone time with his son and mom gets to work up a sweat and feel like she's part of the human race again and not just a walking milk machine. It's awesome. 

I coupled last night's run with some push-ups, sit-ups and squats too, although I felt it in my arms today. But I need to get back into shape if I'm going to get back to CrossFit anytime soon. That will be an interesting juggling act time-wise but we will make a plan. An exercising mom is a happy mom as far as I'm concerned and all babies need a happy mom, especially if they insist on peeing on you in the dark at their 4am feed. 

A happy mom with a sense of humour actually... :)

Hello all!

Sorry for the long gap between posts but it's been one HELLUVA month! I promise I will do a longer post later this week but for now I just wanted to give you an update... 

Firstly meet baby Dylan Reece, born October 21 weighing 3.34kg via natural birth (yeah baby!) without an epidural... yup. Sans epidural. Not that I wasn't begging for it at the end but to be fair I was actually only in real labour for about 2h 45m before he was born thanks to the hypnobirthing course we took beforehand. 

Gorgeous no? 

I am of course bias but he is just the most beautiful baby every born and at only 11 days old I can't imagine my life without him. 

On the fitness side of things I have had a bit of a hiatus from any form of exercise for a month now because my chest cold morphed into severe bronchial pneumonia when I was 36 weeks pregnant and landed me in hospital for 5 days. Can't say that was much fun! Add to that the fact that I felt like I had broken a rib or two from all the coughing and you will see why my doctor banned me from any form of exercise.

Fortunately I now have full lung capacity back now baby is on the outside and not kicking my lungs and ribs every five minutes and I feel 100% better. Although I daresay when I cough now the baby finds it quite comforting :)

This week I started going for long walks again and I reckon by the end of the week I should be able to start some light jogging again and hopefully even hit the gym between naps and feeds (the baby's, not mine). I am desperate to get back to some form of exercise because just a daily walk lifts my mood and makes those 3am feeds that much easier! 

And if there was any doubt about how excellent exercise is during pregnancy I have the proof... firstly a healthy, happy baby and secondly it's only 11 days after I gave birth and I am back in my pre-pregnancy jeans. If that's not incentive to keep moving I don't know what is! 

Anyhoo, till I have more to report that's me for now! 

Hope you're all well and keeping the fitness flag flying!! :)

So the count-down to my maternity leave has begun as I come into my 35th week of pregnancy. Only one more week to go and then I will be keeping very close to home for all fitness-related activities just-in-case baby decides to make an early appearance. I have had a chat with him though and I'm hoping he honours my wishes to bake just a LITTLE longer...

This week's exercise routine was marred a little by this ongoing cough I have left-over from my chest infection. The infection has gone and the antibiotics are finished but apparently the cough didn't get the memo that the infection had left the building. It's now squatting illegally in my chest making for some very unpleasant and noisy coughing fits that draw looks ranging from horror to irritation to "OMG is she going to cough the baby out?"

It is also a very violent cough which leaves me shaking sometimes and has been nothing short of a full-body workout for the past 2 weeks. I have also spent the GDP of a small African country on tissues in the last 2 weeks.. and my poor tattered nose is ready to admit defeat and head for the hills.

HOWEVER, I have still been exercising. And despite what the nay-sayers may say, it's been the only thing that has helped me feel better inbetween the bouts of coughing. And since I am no longer on antibiotics it is considered 'safe'. Mentally though it has done wonders for me.

I only got back into it with Preggi Bellies on Tuesday and although I was initially a bit nervous because I know how harsh the cough sounds and I didn't want to be barking in the corner and upsetting all the other ladies. But they're all quite awesome and much to my surprise I didn't cough much during the class at all. And I slept better than night than I have in ages - thanks mostly to the cardio loosening up my chest and all those 'little- pulses' and lunges exhausting my body. 

It's amazing that after just one week of not exercising at all how much harder I found everything. It's not like taking a week off when you're not pregnant, that sometimes helps you come back stronger. But when you're preggers there is SO much that happens inside your body in a week that you can really feel it when you take a break and go back. Ouch!

I took some pics before class to show y'all what Preggi Bellies is all about as well and Sonja the instructor took some during the class too.

Some of the other pregnant chics at Preggi Bellies.

The instructor/slave driver (but we love her) Sonja on the floor in the middle.

Spot the ginger.... some of us doing dips. Its not so easy with a built-in weight belt and as the belly gets bigger the  legs have to spread wider.

Lunges... no-one loves them but if our bums all go back to 'normal' or better, it will all be worth it....

The plank position with a ball... and we all know how good my balance is on a GOOD day :)

Anyhoo, I felt SO unbelievably good after that class I suddenyl felt less like a sick pregnant woman and more like a normal person who jsut happened to have a big belly and a bad cough - if that makes sense....speaking of which, check out this pic of my belly hubby took at home before class. I only ever see my belly from the top, so I was shocked to see just HOW FREAKING BIG it is from the side. I look like I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to smuggle a watermelon...

So after the high of that class I decided to carry on and hit CrossFit the next morning. It was quite a workoutand looked like this:

Hang power snatch (skill) 3-3-3 - I didn't push the weights and only made it up to 18kg. It's kinda hard swinging the bar around this watermelon-smuggling outfit.

and the workout was the 'Baseline' workout that you do when you sign up to test your fitness. When I first joined I did it in jsut over 7 minutes. Then a few months later I did it again and did it in just over 5 minutes... THIS time? SIGH, jsut over 8 minutes and modified with knees-to-hips instead of sit-ups and push-ups on my knees.

As quickly as possible, perform:

• 500m Row
• 40 Squats
• 30 Sit ups
• 20 Push ups
• 10 Pull ups

Then on Thursday I saw the CrossFit workout for the day was a demanding team workout and I didn't think anyone would want the coughing pregnant chic on their team so I waddled over to Virgin Active instead and did a CrossFit Mom workout there which was actually really tiring too  -and drew a lot of strange looks!

It consisted of:

• 250m row
• 20 squats
• 250 row
• 20 push-ups
• 250 row
• 20 pull-ups
• 250 row
• 20 knees-to-hips

Then this morning I headed back to CrossFit and did this workout:

Skill set: 

Front squat best of 5 - I felt strong like bull today and managed to do a whopping 38kg. Not too shabby!

Workout: 5 rounds with 2 min time cap on each

• 10 Pull ups - I used a green band
• 15 Push ups - on my knees
• 20 Sit ups - I skipped this one cause my hands were already taking strain from the pull-ups and I would have had to do knees-to-hips on the bar
• 20 Squats- only one I didn't modify!
  

So that was my week. I m still coughing like a MoFo but the doctor has now said there IS a cough mixture I can safely use (Expigen apparently) so I'm hoping that helps. SOMETHING has to help!

Anyhoo, enjoy Braai Day tomorrow peeps and think of me as you crack some chilled wine or a cold beer... in fact, have one for me - I INSIST!

What's grumpier than a sick pregnant woman with a sore coccyx? If you find out you might wanna tell my husband because I doubt he believes there is ANYTHING more grumpy! I can handle the coccyx pain when I'm sitting and I am honestly enjoying being pregnant, but the cold I had last week quicky morphed into a really ugly chest infection and left me with a deep scratchy voice and a rather alarming death-rattle kind of cough.

And of course all this means no exercise. And no exercise under ANY circumstances puts me in a grumpy mood. I even caught myself staring wistfully at a slow jogger as I drove home yesterday... poor man looked very alarmed at being stared at so longingly by a knocked-up chic with a big red nose and pile of tissues on the seat next to her. Fair enough.

As such I have no updates on my fitness regime while I'm preggers. Hopefully I will be able to get back to it next week without coughing up a lung.

In the meantime however the pregnancy is progressing well, I am now 34 weeks and according to our latest scan baby is 2.3kg with 7cm long feet. I don't really have a point of reference on this but that sounds quite big to me for feet belonging to a baby. Maybe it mean's he'll be a super-fast runner! Or a kick-ass crossfitter? Either way this poor dude is destined for some future that's full of sports and activity whether he likes it or not... he already has a lovely jogger pram I can't wait to try out along the Blouberg beachfront and plans are afoot to get one of those baby seats for the back of our bikes when he's old enough to sit in one without his head bobbing all over the place.

Anyhoo, I am going to try hit the gym this weekend for some swimming and see how that goes. Hopefully by Monday I will be strong enough to get back to CrossFit and Preggi Bellies on Tuesday. It's only been a week that I haven't been to either but it feels like forever.

Have an awesome weekend peeps!

PS Hubby and I got some gorgeous pics taken with maternity and baby photographer Sally Mellish of SoMe Photography, if any of you are looking for a photographer to do a shoot for you who will make you feel TOTALLY at ease and make you look less like a beached whale than you feel then I recommend her. Although she has developed a fascination with my belly button which has not popped yet... I can't see it from way up here but she assures me it looks like a sad face :(

Apologies for the lack of a post last week, it was a busy one topped off by a visit to a chiropractor and the passing of my dearest granny a few weeks short of her 91st birthday. Emotions are rife during pregnancy so bad news is never a welcome addition to the daily roller-coaster ride. But she is happier now, of this I have no doubt. And she will be watching my exercise antics with the greatest of amusement too.

As such I only managed one Preggi Bellies class last week which I wasn't too happy about as I am now a gut-busting eight months pregnant and I've realised how few classes I have left before the little gremlin pops forth. I am enjoying them so much I will be really sad when they come to an end as not only do I feel physically better after each class, but the camaraderie with the other women has also been really great.

Perhaps I have just been lucky enough to fall into a group where the women are all really nice and we have all clicked quite well, but I also think that the TYPE of woman who goes to a Preggi Bellies class is my kind of woman - one who is putting her health and interests of her baby first by realising how important exercise is during pregnancy.

Unfortunately however I have developed a super-painful coccyx (tailbone) pain which made a few of the exercises a bit impossible such as sitting on the ball. Not to worry though, Sonja is a very inventive instructor and promptly produced a step for me to work out on while the others used the ball. I'm not sure if I had an easier or a harder workout, but either way I left feeling happily exhausted and once again had a brilliant night's sleep.

I've never really been a fan of exercising in the evening/afternoons because I prefer to get it all over with in the morning so my afternoons are free - I used to do running in the afternoons and I'm all for exercising twice a day, but I find if I don't exercise in the morning there is BOUND to be some excuse or reason that will pop up to stop evening exercise too. And then that's a whole day wasted. But I gotta say, it's growing on me... the nights after Preggi Bellies classes are the only ones I sleep really well.

My coccyx has hindered a lot of my exercise, although it's most painful when I sit down and stand up, it's put paid to much time on the spinning bike or rowing machine and squatting is also not such a pleasant experience. I broke it four years ago but the cause of the pain is apparently because the baby is lying 'funny'.

I've asked nicely but he's refusing to budge. It would appear he has his mother's stubbornness. Yay for me.

So on Friday I left the remaining shred of dignity I had at the door and went to the chiropractor to work on my bum. He poked and prodded and put some lovely vibrating machine on my back but it's still quite sore. I am going back again so hopefully a few sessions will sort it out, I really cannot see the rest of my pregnancy being much fun if I have to hold my breath every time I stand up because it's so painful.

The good news is that he said I can carry on exercising though because it's not likely to make it any worse, or better. Which it doesn't, most of the time I don't feel it unless I'm sitting down. And sitting down defeats the purpose of most exercise anyway!

So last week at CrossFit I did a lot of hang power cleans, push presses and pull-ups. I am still using the bar rather than dumbbells and I've perfected the art of bringing the bar up around my belly which still makes the instructors smile. I can only assume it looks nothing short of ridiculous but at least I still feel like I'm doing something.

This morning was the finals of the Fran Challenge which started eight weeks ago (read my blog post about it here) and consists of:

21 -15 -9 of thrusters and pull-ups

Eight weeks ago I did the beginners part because I didn't think I would still be going at this stage, and because pull-ups were starting to get a bit hard with my increasing weight. Little did I know how that weight was to increase in two months. Yowzers!

Spot me - I'm the one with the BEEG pink belly :)

Anyhoo, much to my surprise and delight I managed to shave three minutes off my time - eight weeks ago I completed the workout in 10:37 and today I did it in 7:37. So not bad overall. I am quite impressed I still have some strength left.

Hubby and I also started Hypnobirthing classes last week, all in the name of an easy, relaxed and natural childbirth. So here's hoping all this residual fitness will stand me in good stead for that too!

Anyhoo, time to hit the chiropractor again.

And to buy myself a donut cushion if that doesn't work.

I tried that last week and was nothing short of mortified when the kind woman at Dischem shouted out to her assistant across the shop that "Theeeees lady needs a donut - like for when you have HAEMORRHOIDS.... no, no.... HAEMORRHOIDS....".

You could barely see my dignity as it fled in a flurry of dust that would make the Roadrunner proud.

Baby, I hope you appreciate what Mama is going through here.....

This week it hit me just how close we are to having a baby. We are between 6 and 9 weeks away from D-Day. And never was it more apparent than on Tuesday night at my Preggi Bellies class when one of the women who was about 35 weeks pregnant went into labour. Because in that group, I'm 'next in line'!

Yikes!

So there we were, sweating and huffing and puffing away on our Pilates balls, working up a sweat nicely when she went to sit down because her stomach felt hard and strange. None of us thought too much about this because weird things happen to your tummy when you're pregnant and exercising and as long as it's not sore it's generally nothing to worry about. Besides, her water hadn't broken and she still looked normal. No screams of agony as movie-style labour pains gripped her either.

But 20 minutes later she looked a little more worried and was convinced to go home just to be sure. Turns out she was in fact in labour and gave birth to a little girl the next day! Some people will do ANYTHING to get out of exercise :)

Hubby and I also attended our first antenatal class this week which was an eye-opener.

Literally. Nothing like a big screen with lady-bits popping out grey-gooey babies to get your attention.

The poor men didn't know where to look. And after watching a video of a rather graphic water-birth I don't think poor hubby will ever be the same... as we left the class he looked at me with big eyes, patted my shoulder and said in all earnest "Good luck!"

However, until I am the one in labour I will focus on that which I can still control.... like my exercise regime. So here we are, week 31 and still going strong.

This week appeared to be the week of the upper body. Between CrossFit and Preggi Bellies I have done well over 300 push-ups this week. Which is no mean feat when you have a belly the size of a beach-ball (but not nearly as light in weight).

CrossFit's Wednesday workout was fun, but gruelling. It consisted of "Cindy", another infamous lady-killer workout that sounds simple enough with 20 minutes of as many rounds as possible of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats. But you try do that fast and I can guarantee you by the 5th minute you're wondering what the fudge you were thinking...

So this was the workout, except with a 30 second break inbetween rounds. I used the green band for the pull-ups and did the push-ups on my knees. So although it was "easier" it was still enough to elicit pig-like squeals from me. I managed to do 10 and a half rounds in the 20 minutes, which works out to 55 pull-ups, 105 push-ups and 150 squats.

Needless to say I couldn't straighten my arms or lift them very high above my head the next day.

Which was unfortunate - since Sonja had decided that this would be the day to up the ante on the upper-body "little pulses" with light weights and dips. Cue more pig-like squealing.

I also managed a 28kg push-press this week which was quite cool, I'm not losing as much upper-body strength as I had feared.

This morning I Power Cleaned a measly 29kg, but Jobst wouldn't let me go higher anyway.Then for the workout we did three "will-it-ever-end" rounds of this:

30 seconds of the maximum number of thrusters you could do

30 seconds of maximum number of push-ups

30 seconds of maximum calories rowed on the rowning machine

30 seconds of maximum number of power cleans

With a 30 second rest between each. Very tiring. Induced yet more pig-squealing. Getting quite good at that now, if only it were a real talent...

So as another week draws to a close and the nay-sayers still shake their heads in dismay that such a 'heavily pregnant woman' is still doing so much exercise I can honestly say I'm feeling super. I have lots of energy and even when I don't feel like leaving the house on a dark, cold and rainy morning for crossfit or a dark, cold, rainy evening for Preggi Bellies, I know that once I'm done I will feel amazing.

And I always do.

Have a super weekend y'all! :)

This week I think I might have walking-lunged my way into some sort of world record. At least that's what my quads are telling me every time I try do something energetic... like stand-up. Or take a step.

Anyway, this week I am 30 weeks pregnant and I have the belly to prove it. There is no doubt to anyone now that I'm 'with child' and even the men who weren't too sure before and looked uncomfortable when I made eye contact with them after catching them looking at my belly are now smiling confidently and asking "so when are you due" without fear of possible negative repercussions.

Jo from CrossFit took some pics of me last week with my big belly at crossfit. For those who need 'proof' I'm still doing it!

And while I still managed to do a full week of gym, - CrossFit and Preggi Bellies - I actually felt more tired than I have in a while. I'm hoping it's just a sign of a few nights of disturbed sleep though. Hubby has been away and my dogs have been keeping me cosy in bed, which is all good and well except that they snore so loud I barely sleep. But they look so cute I can't wake them. It's a dilema I tell you.

Monday kicked off with one MOTHER of a workout. After one mother of a warm-up. However I had to modify the bejeezers out of it to be able to do it... you'll see why:

It was the workout Angie, but a 1/2 Angie x 2 (if that makes sense) and looked like this:

• 50 Pull ups
• 50 Push ups
• 50 Sit ups
• 50 Squats
 

Naturally there was little chance I could do this UN-modified at the best of times, but with a big belly and lots of extra weight (from the BABY people... the BABY!) I had to change it quite a bit. That's not to say it wasn't still a hard workout though.

So in the end I did two rounds of:

• 10 pull-ups with the green band
• 50 push-ups on my knees
• 25 knees-to-hips
• 50 squats

See? Still bloody tiring!

The pull-ups are getting more tricky because firstly I'm a LOT heavier than usual so it's like trying to do it with a weight-belt on. Secondly the green band feels too 'light' but the grey one, which is the next one up, is too strong for me and I almost go through the ceiling. It's also hard to do pull-ups with a band and not constantly knock my preggy stomach. I can only imagine how awesome pull-ups will be when I'm not pregnant anymore!

Tuesday was Preggi Bellies - and man was it hot. Cape Town winter is having a bit of a mid-life crisis this year and swings between hot flushes and cold blasts. Both of which we've had this week.

On Tuesday night however it was boiling hot and humid and we were all harassed by some very confused mosquitoes. So Sonja let us workout outside which was awesome.

The ball-bouncing is still a work in progress but my dislike of it has been replaced by a new loathing... I don't know the right name for them but it's when you lie on your side and lift your leg for 'little pulses".

Lots and lots and lots of "little pulses".

They BURN like MoFo's. It's insane. I barely ever make the full set despite Sonja's sweet and cheerful voice going "Come on, just 30 more - LITTLE PULSES everyone, just little ones..."

OMG woman.... it's the little ones that hurt the most!!!!

(My legs better look fan-freaking-tastic after this)

Wednesday at CrossFit was burpees and toes-to-bar. Neither of which I could do and secretly I thanked the pregnant fairy for my luck. They're both quite nasty exercises so I substituted with push-ups and knees-to-hips. Which was also hard but not "kill-me-now" hard.

The warm-up beforehand was however, quite hard.

It was walking lunges. Lots and lots of them. And they were hot on the heels of lots and lots of side walking lunges at Preggi Bellies the night before and those kill-me-now-and-make-it-fast LITTLE PULSES. My poor legs were quivering beneath my belly, if I could have seen them I would have given them my best "sorry mate..." look.

Push-ups - always better than burpees.

Thursday's Preggi Bellies class was thankfully a lot cooler and we worked up a sweat to the sound of the pouring rain outside which was nice and refreshing. Although Sonja's impromptu circuit of one-legged lunges, squats and step-ups with weights nearly made my legs give up and go on strike with the Samwu folk. If it wasn't for their dislike of unruly looters I would have been seriously stuck.

Then this morning at CrossFit it was also touch-and-go for a while with yet more walking lunges. Fortuantely I slept really well the night before so my legs were in a more forgiving mood. Tomorrow I fear they might exact their revenge however...

That was followed by some power cleans (I managed a respectable 33kg for a set of 3 before Jobst almost collapsed laughing at how I was pulling the bar around my belly and how 'cute' it was).

After that the workout kicked my ass - 20 minutes of 6 thrusters every minute with a 15kg bar.

Doesn't sound like much huh? But I tell you after 5 minutes it's hell! My wrists were so sore, my hands are ripped and very unlady-like-looking, I was grunting like a happy little warthog and I was dripping in sweat.

But it was either do the full 20 mins of that or make up the remainder of the time in a plank hold. And although I dont' mind the plank hold for some reason I decided that I simply HAD to do the full 20 minutes. So I did.

We'll see how that worked out for me tomorrow morning when I have to, oh I don't know... move.

Have a good weekend everyone and keep warm!:)

It's been a busy week as far as exercise and baby-stuff is concerned. Hubby and I took Monday off since Tuesday was a public holiday- although all plans to chill were quickly thwarted when we realised at our 28-week scan at the doctor's that our boy is gonna be a big one and is already two weeks ahead in size (i.e. he is the same as a 30-week baby).

Which means he could come early. YIKES!

Our boy showing off his muscles... like baby like mama!!

Not much time left for exercise and getting as fit as possible beforehand - and would you believe my doctor has now told me that if I intend on having a natural birth (which I do) then I need to be as fit as possible for both the birth and recovery afterwards. It's a far cry from the "don't lift heavy washing" advice I got from another doctor at our last scan but I'll take it!

So Monday morning I took myself off to a spinning class, I haven't been spinning in about two weeks because of other committments so it was nice to be back on the bike. An interesting thing happened though - I was wearing my heart rate monitor as I always do in spinning classes because I find sometimes you THINK you're working really hard but then you check your heart-rate monitor and apparently you're over-estimating things a bit.

Usually it takes me quite a while to get my heart-rate up and I have to really work to keep it up because any decrease in resistance or effort and it drops quite quickly (which is good by the way). But not this time. On Monday my heart rate shot up really quickly and even though I didn't FEEL as breathless as I should have, it stayed high for the whole class. I'm guessing it's a combination of the extra blood - of which I now have 50% more - and the extra weight from baby and all.

On Women's Day on Tuesday I took part in the Women's Day 10km road race. It was tough, without a doubt the toughest race I have done yet and I walked about half of it. Again, I think it was a combination of factors such as my poor little legs carrying so much extra weight and the fact that baby decided to play football with my bladder between the 4km and 7km mark which made walking really uncomfortable and running near impossible.



I held out hope for toilets along the route but alas there were none :)

Thankfully an awesome woman from the West Coast Athletic Club was there to show support and when she heard I needed the loo so badly she marched up to the first house on the route where some poor unsuspecting people were sitting outside watching and demanded that they let me in to pee. Which they duly did, she's not a lady to be argued with.

So thank-you kindly to Alida and the nice folk who let me use their guest loo! If it wasn't for you I might not have made it to the finish line and with my balance issues there was very little chance a bush on the side of the road was gonna cut it.

So I ran the rest of the route and was very happy to cross the finishing line, even though it was in a terrible time of 1h 45m (CRINGE) which is 45minutes longer than my best 10km... but I suppose given the fact I'm seven months pregnant I should be happy that I even finished!

On Wednesday I went to CrossFit where the warm-up was super-challenging and amounted to more than what most people do in an average gym session - all in all about 400 rope jumps, countless push-ups, oh-so-many squats and far-too-may wall-balls. The strength part of the class was the back squat.

I managed a meagre 36kg for 5 reps but I didn't want to push it too much as Jobst was keeping an eye on how deep my squats were and with every rep his frown became more furrowed so I decided not to push it.

The workout was more wall-balls and burpees... but since I can't do burpees (YAY! although getting pregnant is an extreme way of avoiding them) I substituted with push-ups. Pregnant burpees just don't do it for me.

Thursday evening I was back at Preggi Bellies which I'm really enjoying, more and more every time. It was once again a heart-thumping aerobic workout and my ball-bouncing skills are still a little worrying and I shudder to think what I must look like doing them, but I don't feel like I'm going to fly off the ball anymore, which is good progress.

The classes are getting really full now and last night there were women from all stages of pregnancy there - some as 'early' as 14 weeks. It turns out in that class I am the furthest along which is a bit of a scary thought.. mean's I'm next in line to pop a baby out!!

I must say though that after a Preggi Bellies class I sleep SOOOOOO well. I can imagine that if I wasn't pregnant and didn't have to get up to pee I would sleep like the dead. As it is I only had to get up once to pee, and while I realise that to many who are either male or not pregnant that might seem like a little TMI, trust me... to anyone who has ever been pregnant, the fact that I only had to pee once in a night in my third trimester is nothing short of celebration time.

Crack open that uh... sparkling grape juice....

This morning at CrossFit I felt strong and so well rested from my basically undisturbed sleep that I even did a 66kg 5-rep max deadlift, which is fairly impressive. It's almost 80% of my one rep max which is 91kg (pre-pregnancy of course). I could have gone higher as well but once again Jobst was giving me the beady eye so I held back. Bless!

The workout was 21-15-9 of 30% of your 5-rep max deadlift (in other words I did 38kg) and push-ups (on my knees). Usually that would have killed me, and those last nine push-ups also pushed out some high-pitched squeaky noises I'm not proud of... but I did it in a time of 3m 19s which isn't too shabby.

So overall a good week of working out.

However none of this compares to going for our 4D scan on Wednesday when we got to see the face of our little boy. It was awesome. He is nothing short of absolutely gorgeous and I daresay already a contender for the cutest baby that ever lived. I mean LOOK AT HIM! Too perfect! :)



He is also a very healthy 1.7kg at the moment and has feet that are a whopping 6cm already... which explains why his kicks are now so potent! :)

Anyway, have a super weekend everyone!

x

This week marks the 7th month of my pregnancy, so I am officially in the third trimester. Can I have a whoop whoop!

*does a little jig*

Last week was a bit of a stuff up exercise-wise because I had laryngitis for the first half of the week, which was delightful for everyone since I had no voice for a good four days, and when I eventually kicked that I woke up with a cold two days later. Lovely.

So I only really got back to my routine this week.

It kicked off with a CrossFit class on Tuesday comprising of the following:

Overhead Squat, 5-5-5

then

'Fat Cindy'

For four rounds off the clock:

5 Chest-to-bar pull ups (I used the band)
10 Clapping Push ups (on my knees)
15 Box jumps (I did step-ups)

Was exhausting! But fun as always. My overhead squat has improved and I managed to do 5 overhead squats with 18kg which was awesome.
Me doing an overhead squa a few weeks ago when the belly wasn't so big..
Apparently I look quite funny doing it though with my now super-size belly hanging on my knees.
I am having a slow, longering kiss goodbye with my dignity as we speak...

Then it was my second Preggi Bellies class on Tuesday. I was quite nervous as it was a scorcher of a day here in Cape Town at a lovely wintry 26 degrees and I tend to over-heat quite quickly when it's warm. And I wasn't disappointed with the workout. I was beginning to think that perhaps I'd imagine how good a workout it had been, I mean, it's a class for PREGNANT women! How hard could it be?

Apparently my porridge brain isn't completely slushy yet and I had remembered right. It was tough.

But it was fun. I still completely suck at bouncing gently on the ball while doing some of the exercises and I fear it will be a while before bouncing on the ball and doing a toe-touching move is anywhere within my grasp. It's a good thing there are no mirrors because I can only imagine what kind of ridiculous I looked even trying it. But I will persevere, one day I'll get it right!

The class was busier this time than before and there were two women who had given birth already and were back to tone up - although they looked pretty close to fabulous to me. If that's the end product of a few months of Preggi Bellies then I'm IN...

On Wednesday I went back to CrossFit and the workout was a little beyond me with bench-presses, which I couldn't do because it requires lying on your bakc pressing heavy weights overhead. No can do right now. So instead Jobst suggested I do overhead presses with dumbbells. I managed to get up to a respectable 12.5kg on each arm, although my left arm had clearly been drinking on the sly and did a super-wobbly windy-road up and down on the last 5 reps.

I dunno, I'll have to have a word...

Then the workout itself was more core work with:

•1 minute Handstand hold
•2 minute Plank hold
•1 minute L-sit
 
My tummy now does this weird cone-shaped thing when I do stomach exercises which is more than a little freaky. Apparently it's quite normal but I have to concentrate on sucking my belly button in more to try and limit it because  -wait for it - you can get abdominal separation if you're not careful. Yes folks, tha'ts right. Where your abs say adios to their happy home and try slumming it on the streets. We don't want this to happen so I'm gonna be taking extra care when exercising those puppies from now on.

The second Preggi Bellies class was on a much more typical winter's night with hard rain and gale-force winds - much more Cape Town winter and a lot nicer to cool you down after exercise.

This time I remembered to take my heart rate monitor just to see what kind of a work out ye old heart was getting. Turns out I didn't underestimate the class one iota. From the first five minutes me heart rate was up at around 130 BPM and it didn't drop past 135 for the full hour. It even got as high as 156 BPM at one point, although I didn't feel any more breathless or tired than when it was at 135. So go figure. Either way it shows you what a good workout you're getting, and there's nothing I hate more than exercising without feeling any benefit. Fortunately it appears this will not be the case in this instance.

Then my week finished today with a crossfit class to make even strong men whimper a little - a workout called "Jackie".

She's a nasty old tart... looks like this:

•1,000m Row
•50 Thrusters
•30 Pull-ups
 
I did it all except for the 30 pull-ups - I managed 20 with the band before my forearms started seizing up. And this was after a helluva warm up of rowing and push-ups and pull-ups and squats.

The 1,000m row took me just under 5 minutes which isn't bad considering my 500m row is about 2.30 and I did the thrusters with a 5kg bar. It was a bit light but there is no 10kg bar and the 15kg one would have been pushing it.

So this weekend I'm gonna chill.

Not really. Just tomorrow probably because I have a feeling I haven't seen the last of Jackie and my arms will be quivering like a shcool-girl on prom night come this time tomorrow.

I have also entered the Women's Day 10km challenge on Tuesday, which i will be walking and running. Not sure how much longer I will be able to do runs like that for so I intend to take full advantage while I can...

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and happy Women's Day to all the lovely ladies out there!

While doing my seemingly endless research into pregnancy and exercise as not only my duty as Fitness Editor on Health24 but also as a pregnant exerciser, I was lucky enough to stumble across Preggi Bellies. Imagine my surprise - an all in one package of people who understand the importance of fitness in pregnancy and who practice what they preach too.

Anyhoo, long story short, I decided to join one of their classes and see what it was all about. Not because I don't have enough fitness-type things to do, but I'm still a bit of an exercise junkie and despite the blooming bulge of my belly I still want to try out new things on teh fitness front.

So I showed up to class, not expecting AS gruelling a workout as I'm used to with CrossFit but also not expecting to just breeze through the class. Too often have I made that rookie mistake and paid the price afterwards - and fortunately this time it was a wise decision to have made.

Preggi Bellies is one helluva workout!

It would have been easy to mistake the big-bellied women all trooping into class sporting a variety of different sized bumps disguised by different sized t-shirts as nothing more than a gentle group of softly-spoken moms-to-be who might also indulge in some afternoon tea while discussing future birthing options. But let's make no mistake, these women are all there for the same reason - to get fit and stay fit and healthy for both their sake and the benefit of their unborn child.

Women after my own heart I tell you!

One woman was already roughly 32 weeks along, so her bump was quite big and the trainer later told me that she'd joined their class when she was 12 weeks pregnant and at that stage had never exercised in her life before... now she's a regular in class and has actually LOST body fat from the training. She sat across from me on one of the big Pilates-style balls and despite the fact she looked ready to pop, she kept up with class and even though some of her movements were smaller than mine (and guaranteed more graceful), she didn't stop moving once.

And neither did I.

Halfway through the class I had sweat pouring down my back and my heart rate was right up there. I kicked myself afterwards for not wearing a heart rate monitor just to see the impact, but my heart was pumping the same satisfying way it does in a spinning class.

The class began with us all on a Pilates-style ball (one day someone will make up a REAL name for them that's universal... but for now suffice to say it's one of those really, really big balls they use in Pilates classes ok?). The instructor, Sonja showed me how to gently...no, gently... no, no...geeeeently bounce on it while keeping my balance.

Tricky. Very tricky.

But it got better... although once I had that down we began to move on the ball WHILE bouncing. As in co-ordinated movements that required me bouncing GENTLY up and down while moving side to side with my arms and legs usually moving in different directions. It's not easy people. I very nearly bounced out the door.

GENTLY!!! Apparently I need to practice that...

After that warmup we moved onto the step and did a mini-circuit workout which included using the step, light weights, lots of lunges and squats and even some abdominal work. Cause let's not forget that one day this stomach will NOT be housing a growing human being and I'd like for it to return to some form of normal stomach-looking consistency.

By the end of the class, when we were all stretching the music and heavy breathing was replaced by chatter amongst the moms-to-be about their one most common trait... being knocked up. I lay there listening to these women who had all obviously been to a few classes together and all knew each other by now and shared stories of common aches and pains, pregnancy-concerns, gynae visits and scan results.

My how my life has changed :)

I not only knew what they were all talking about but could appreciate it too. Which made me realise that even though this sort of a class is in my mind of VITAL importance from a fitness and health point of view, it's also so great that women from the same area who are all pregnant (or have just had a child), can chat and make friends with the parents of the kids that their kids will one day probably be friends with. Does that make sense? Read it again slowly... :)

Anyhoo I have now signed up with them for classes twice a week until the end of my pregnancy and I would strongly urge any women no matter how 'early' she thinks it is in her pregnancy or how unfit she thinks she is to check them out too. Like the Preggi Bellie peeps say,

"Pregnancy shouldn't be the excuse, it should be the reason"

Methinks I need a t-shirt printed that says that....

From my side I will still continue to do the CrossFit and other gym stuff, but the Preggie Bellie classes are jsut too much of fun - and most importantly, they're a great workout. And we all know I'm a sucker for a good workout...

Check them out here: Preggi Bellies.