Nails: this time are brittle and breaking, last time were long and strong
Skin: constant breakouts vs. beautifully clear
Breasts: bigger and more sensitive
Body fat: accumulating in my hips and thighs vs. moved away from my hips and into my arms
Weight gain: ok, I've only actually gained about 2-3 more pounds than last time.
Muscle loss: practically no muscle loss so far! We'll see how the rest of the pregnancy goes, but with baby #1 I had lost about 7lbs of lean muscle by the time I delivered. This probably explains why my weight gain has been greater this time, too.
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| Please excuse the hair - we had just gotten back from the beach. Also excuse the blatant posing.... as any of my girlfriends will attest, I literally cannot help myself. |
Ok, onto the good stuff: Workouts.
I felt so strong this week - I was almost lifting my regular weights. I've been on my current program for about 4 weeks now, so my body is likely adapting to the routine. Which means one thing: it's time to change it up! Although pregnancy is not a time to be increasing the intensity of your workouts, there are lots of other variables you can play with to make sure your body isn't adapting and you keep moving in the direction of results.
-Change the order of your exercises: instead of doing lunges then pushups, do pushups then lunges. Simple, but it keeps the body guessing.
-Change the type of cardio you do: treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical, outdoor walks/runs, swimming, stair climber..... You hit different muscles with every piece of equipment, so change it up!
-Increase or decrease the number of sets and reps you do: Having said that, this is not the time to be lifting SUPER heavy (for safety reasons), so stay out of that 2-6 rep range.
-Change your resistance equipment: As you become more pregnant, your joints will get looser and your centre of gravity will shift. For this reason, I would recommend moving away from free-weights and instead towards machines, which are safer. But don't worry - the change in equipment will hit your muscles differently, thus challenging them in a new way :)
-Change the exercises you are doing: Again, unless you are an advanced lifter, this is not the time to start experimenting with new exercises. But do switch up the ones you're already familiar with. Like pull-ups instead of pull-downs, or glute bridges instead of glute kickbacks.
-Change your split: If you usually pair back with biceps, try pairing it with chest instead. Or do legs and triceps one day - why not? Or how about doing full-body workouts for a while? The sky is the limit when it comes to splits!
So this week I'll be changing my split, moving away from the full-body circuits (See ya, circuits! It was fun..... sort of) and back to a more standard 4-day split, keeping in that one day of just cardio/yoga.
Keep on challenging yourselves, ladies! These phenomenal bodies of ours are designed to grow babies AND still keep doing our regular activities. Pregnancy does not make us weaker - it's a celebration of our true STRENGTH!
-Tess
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