Here, creator Sally Moss of Gubernatrix describes the project.

I’m a woman who has been lifting weights for years and loving it. A few years ago I started a strength blog, inspired by Stumptuous, called gubernatrix.co.uk.

The interactions I had on this blog over the years motivated me to do more to get women lifting heavy — to take action on the ground, so to speak. So I started a beginners’ weight training course in the UK, taught by women, for women.

The course is called Ladies Who Lift and does what it says on the tin: classes take place in the power racks (no plastic studio weights!).

I teach the “big” lifts of squat, deadlift and bench, emphasizing learning how to do this stuff yourself without relying on a trainer to set it all up for you and tell you what to do. The course took around a year to come to fruition, and has been a great success so far.

Are women-only classes necessary?

There was a fair amount of scepticism – even from myself – about whether women-only weight training courses would work. The concept seemed patronising, treating women as a special case, needing special treatment and extra help. Would there even be an audience for them beyond a handful of enthusiasts?

It’s similar to the argument you hear for women in the boardroom or in politics: Unless you’ve got the brass balls to march into that male-dominated environment and survive on your own, you have no business being there.

Well, I don’t buy that any more.

The truth is that men help each other in the gym all the time. Why shouldn’t women?

One of my earliest participants told me “I would never have been brave enough to try barbell lifts without this opportunity”.

Just because she isn’t Miss Super Confident Alpha Female doesn’t mean she won’t enjoy lifting and get plenty out of it, once she has been shown the basics and gained a bit of confidence. She’s already busted quite a few barriers by being interested in barbell lifting in the first place.

The other criticism I have heard is that it’s “less motivating” or “less challenging” to have a women-only class and even that it “holds women back”.

This merely reveals the common prejudice that women don’t work as hard as men, aren’t as good as men, and need to have men around in order to get pumped up and motivated. I haven’t found this to be true and I feel that I lift better when my female lifting buddies are around.

What really turned me around on the idea of women-only classes was running a couple of pilot workshops last year. It was immediately obvious that even just a couple of workshops can make a significant difference to one’s confidence, attitude and approach to weight training.

Why an all-female environment?

I don’t advocate women training in an all-female environment forever, but in order to get started and build confidence, an all-female environment is an excellent solution for many women.

First, it’s a more comfortable learning environment for most women, not having members of the opposite sex around.

You lift with people of a similar size, strength level and body composition. It feels like there’s less to prove and you’re not being singled out for being different.

There’s also less temptation to fall back on the “I’m only a girl” defence, which is common in mixed groups. You are not being given an easier or lighter version of what everyone else is doing.

I have often been in mixed male/female workshops where some women use the presence of the men to hang back and participate less, or are quick to count themselves out of perceived “harder” exercises and leave them to the alpha males to show off.

An all-female environment is the most powerful counterpoint to the traditional male view of weight training. Even if you received exactly the same instruction in a mixed or mostly male group, the impact would not be the same as in a group that was solely women and being taught by a woman.

One of the problems I am told about most often through my blog is the lack of female role models in weight training. It is one of the reasons why Stumptuous has had such an enormous impact on women’s lifting – Krista was the first to get her head around this and publicly, globally provide a solution. I have met many women who started lifting because of this website!

A key message of my Ladies Who Lift course (as with Stumptuous also) is that, not only is weight training not a male preserve, but the knowledge does not have to be handed down by men either.

Women are not only capable of lifting weights, they are capable of being experts and teachers in weight training too. This is a really important message: it is not that we as women are being “let in” to a male world, it doesn’t have to be a male world at all!

Being told by a man that “women should train with weights” and “weights won’t make you big and bulky” is one thing. It’s helpful, but sometimes hard to believe. Being told the same thing by a woman who embodies these truths is much more powerful.

Wherever you go on to lift, having these influences early in your lifting career will have a greater impact.

Many of the women who do my Ladies Who Lift beginners’ course go on to join local lifting gyms and train alongside men. They can do this because they have the confidence that they know what they are doing and can hold their own, and they have a sense of what can be achieved by women too.

“The best part of this is that I have been able to train on my own and have a better sense of my personal progress.”
–LwL participant

Women get told all kinds of crazy stuff by men in gyms who think they know better and think that by undermining what a woman is doing they can somehow appear more manly and authoritative. Stuff like “that weight is too heavy for you”, or “women should do light weights and high reps”.

But if you’ve just come from an environment where your female instructor was encouraging you to lift as heavy as you can, and your female training buddies were smashing heavy squats, it is easier to recognise these comments for the nonsense they are and to have the quiet confidence that what you are doing is ok.

Time and again I am told by participants, “I never thought I’d be able to lift as much as I have!” Expectations of female strength may be low among fitness professionals and society in general, but Ladies Who Lift graduates learn that it is perfectly normal for women to be able to lift weights equivalent to their own bodyweight in various ways and have fun doing it.

But of course, you knew that!

For more information on the Ladies Who Lift course, please visit WeAreLadiesWhoLift.com.

The benefits of training during pregnancy are clear and have been researched, but how about the help that exercise can give you while giving birth… and afterwards?

I know that exercising all those months during my pregnancy helped enormously to maintain my health, which includes body awareness and hormones.

During labour, the benefits were also very apparent, especially when pushing, and overall recovery afterwards. I didn’t really need to push full force and I could control my breath as well as my contractions just fine. It was a bit like squatting heavy with a really bad case of constipation. I didn’t even feel the need to abuse my hubby or anyone else, and no need for medication (too late anyway, since it all took about 19 minutes).

Recovery felt much more rapid than I had expected. And Little Sprout had a 9/10 APGAR score, slept well from the start (anywhere), grows well and is rarely sick.

After 3 weeks I got bored of staying at home all the time and went to my gym for my first training. It felt great. And then I crashed completely for the next 2 months. Oops.

Nutritionwise, I had a complete blackout. I could take the easy way out and blame it on hormones but frankly, it was my own stupid fault, since I didn’t have enough milk to breastfeed and in my panic thought that by eating seven kinds of crap, milk would come too. Milk didn’t come; pounds came instead and piled up everywhere. DAMN.

Now, thankfully, 6 months out I’m back on track, I eat healthy portions and healthy food again, I’m back to training 4-5 times a week, and my extra weight is slowly decreasing into the “green zone”.

Starting up your training again after giving birth is tougher than I thought it would be. Even if you have had a good active pregnancy and have the perfect baby (and let’s be honest, the chance of that is about 1:1.000.000), that baby suddenly takes up vast amounts of time that used to be yours to spend. You start from scratch while being sore overall and you go without sleep for what seems like two hundred years at a time. Your partner is cranky.

And everybody who bothered you with “good advice” during your pregnancy is coming back at you with a vengeance now you’re down and out, with advice on how to raise your newborn cute little purple-faced, snub-nosed turbo poo-machine that apparently only sleeps when you don’t.

So how the hell do you fit your training into that crazy schedule as well?

When and where do you start?

And how long should it take to feel strong again and shrink into your usual shape?

Good news: it is possible and even fun to train with a baby around… it just takes some extra organizing.

get going again

According to your level of fitness and strength and how you feel after giving birth, you could give yourself a training break (not counting short walks with the baby) of at least about 2 weeks.

Start with longer walks with the baby outside when you feel like it. I started with 30 minute walks, 10 days after giving birth, plus some short sets of light squats and careful stretching.

After that: slowly build up your stamina and physical condition.

Take the baby with you whenever you can. They love going places. And they’re asleep most of the time anyway during the first few months when they’re not drinking milk or crapping their pants. My gym let me stash the pram within sight in the kitchen area and my little monster loves participating so I sometimes just hang her in her baby carrier and start training with her hanging on at the front.

in the gym

I found that I could easily do these exercises in the gym and it’s actually most of the stuff I used to do before.

• Farmers walks (Go light! Your abs are still stretched out and they need time to recover.)
• Squats (I could do these with stitches, but you might want to skip these at the start)
• Deadlifts
• Lunges
• Step-ups
• Cross trainer (heaviest setting)
• Shoulder press
• Dips
• (Modified) light Turkish get-ups

outside

No gym? No excuse: go do some exercise in the park.

Make your initial walks longer as the days go by to increase your stamina. Babies love being outside, and it’s good for them too.

Have fun: find a fallen tree trunk and try log walking for balance, log squatting, backflips (haha)… all fun. As an added bonus, this stuff will make you feel like you’re 10 again.

Other exercises:

• Pram lunges (or just lunges)
• Step-ups on a handy park bench or stable non-slippery log
• Interval short pram sprints (preferably without launching your baby)
• Squats (using pram for assistance if necessary)
• Park bench push-ups
• Park bench dips
• Park bench plank
• Stretches (careful)
• Etc etc. — use your imagination and go by how you feel (Here are some more ideas, from a couple of new mothers at Precision Nutrition.)

Most of the above indoor and outdoor exercises, and many more, are possible with a baby in a pram or baby belly carrier, but be a Good Mommy and please avoid anything that involves lifting heavy stuff that you wouldn’t want to squash your little sprout with if you let go of it. These include dumbbell presses, barbell shoulder presses, overhead squats. Or exercises that involve sprinting or jumping. Duh.

the basics of getting back into shape

1. Never ever neglect your nutrition for a longer period of time, especially if you have a permanent tendency for Mediterranean curves (like me).
2. Take your time to start up: pushing the limit is fine, but crossing it might mean crashing. QED.
3. Ask for professional help if you have to: there is no shame in that. It’s really difficult to keep yourself on the right track day in, day out. This can be anyone from a counsellor to a physiotherapist who specializes in post-pregnancy rehab.
4. Try something new you always wanted to try but never got around to like dancing, powerlifting or yoga. I started kick-ass street defense classes.

PS: I forgot just how good exercise is for fertility too. Number two is on its way.

Besides having to live through loads of crap and well-meant advice during my pregnancy, I could say I’m probably a statistical anomaly where typical pregnancy ailments and age risks are concerned:

• I’m 40
• I’m (strictly speaking) overweight
• This is my first

All the above are elements that could have seriously hampered my chances of success in getting and staying pregnant. So why do I feel great?

Apart from an admitted possible genetic disposition towards easy pregnancies, I mainly blame training and good food for that.

I’m not going to yap on to you about how beneficial weight training can be, pregnant or not. Current research has already had enough to say about that, and you wouldn’t have gone on reading this far if you didn’t think there’s some truth in it anyway. Besides, you can find more on this subject elsewhere on this site.

I’m into month seven now, and still training 4-5 times a week, using mainly free weights, and experimenting with what feels right as my insides get turned inside out over the months.

How weight training’s benefited me

I try to make objective regular self-observations regarding benefits for me of weight training, actively keeping my weight training and physical condition up to scratch and observe how I feel from day to day, as there is so little research material to compare my results to.

For example, I consciously focus on my back staying strong, and I definitely find that I am not developing a typical arched sore pregnancy back as my belly grows, one of the major problems many pregnant women experience.

I double checked this and other practical points at an otherwise fun birthday party last weekend where (oh horror) 5 other pregnant ladies in the age-range of 35-40 years old and pregnancy month 4 to 8 were comparing ailments ranging from back pain, leg/knee pain, indigestion, sleeplessness, nausea, flatulence and tiredness to hormonal fluctuations with the range of Mount Everest.

None of them trained or even touched a free weight with a stick in case it might bite them.

They were very surprised I couldn’t relate to any of their woes (which made me feel like a freak, a very happy one that is), and even the hormonal fluctuations thing was discredited by my sweetheart. Admittedly, sweetheart knows what’s good for him in any case, but I tend to believe he was telling the truth, as he was visibly gloating while casually mentioning it to all the other washed out and desperate looking daddies-to-be.

What I do

Here are some of the exercises that I’ve personally found comfortable and do daily without discomfort. I would not recommend most of them for beginners, but they could be an inspiration to those who could get some help in figuring out what fits the well-trained bump.

Some articles argue that using machines instead of free weights is preferable when pregnant, and advise women not to do squats and avoid free weights. Arguments (among others) are that machines would be safer and keep you range of motion in check, and your abdominals inert. Leg extensions would keep you balanced better than squats.

I personally don’t get this point of view at all. I do use machines if useful, but prefer free weights where I can exactly because they give me the opportunity to find my best balance without being squeezed into a certain position.

I saw some real gems while doing some extra internet research. One suggested doing “hyperextensions for lower back“. Ladies, just look at the mentioned picture and imagine yourself doing this with a watermelon attached to your front. ‘Nuff said. And how about some “bent over shoulder laterals“? Why? HOW? Medicine ball prehistoric crunches? AARGH!

If you want to use some of the below exercises, but are not sure about proper execution, weight to use or are unsure if the exercises fit your actual level of physical condition, err on the wise side: ask your OB and/or PT whether you should/could do them and get somebody to spot you if you feel wobbly or unsure at first.

General rule: use lighter weights than you would in a non-pregnant state.

Some obvious do’s and don’ts (some out of the Duh! box):

• don’t start a new strenuous exercise program when pregnant and untrained
• don’t experiment with some new training wonder thingie you saw on TV
• don’t overtrain; listen to your body
• don’t go on a weight-loss diet when pregnant
• don’t let other people’s comments keep you from training

• do eat regularly and go for real food, not crap
• do consult your physician and PT
• do listen to your body
• do have fun when training
• do take the time to recover

The list below is not exhaustive. There’s so much else you can probably do, but it’s a start. I’m not getting into training schedules or how much weight to use either. Alternate, combine, in short, don’t get bored: just go for it. And above all: Have fun!

Legs

• Split squats weighted or unweighted, wide(r) stance
• Any type of squats that feel comfortable, weighted or unweighted, wide(r) stance
• Deadlift

Back:

• Lat pull-down wide grip
• Lat pull-down reverse narrow grip
• Dumbbell row
• Advanced: Pull-ups, which will probably change to assisted pullups as you gain weight (see: Mistressing the Pull-up)
• Push ups (if comfortable)

Core:

• Kettlebell pick-up
• Side bend weighed
• Farmers walk, try: one hand loaded, both hands loaded with equal or dissimilar weights (e.g. 20 pounds right hand and 30 pounds left hand).
• Plank variations

Shoulders/arms:

• Military press, seated or standing
• Dumbbell side raises, standing or seated (on medicine ball)
• Dumbbell front raises, standing or seated (on medicine ball)
• Barbell press, hands 90 degrees (like lifting a baby, something you will probably do a lot in the coming few years, so best be prepared)
• Dips
• Biceps using dumbbells

Endurance:

Walk, swim, bike, cross-train, whatever. Jogging or running I cannot honestly recommend as I find it uncomfortable (wobble, WOBBLE, burp…).

Stretching:

Do stretch if you feel like it, but be careful not to overstretch as your ligaments loosen up during pregnancy (although, to be honest, having a fairly muscular build myself, I don’t really notice it myself).

• Back stretches
• Leg stretches/hip stretches
• Calf stretches
• Shoulder/arm stretches
• Front of chest stretches

I remember my younger sister telling me how creepy it was when total strangers would grab her belly in stores etc. when she was pregnant. Now regular site reader, world traveller, and cheese/chocolate aficionado, Lieke updates me on the “enjoyment” of having her body on public display. From the WTF? files…

Have you experienced similar bullshit? What’s up with this? Let’s hear your comments!

I’m 6 months pregnant and already a crappy mommy. How’s that for a new record?

I’ve just turned 40. I’m pregnant because I wanted to be, thankfully without any external assistance (apart from the one you might expect), and in damn record time too. I’m healthy and active, I try to work out 4-5 times a week according to the Gospel of Squat, and yeah: I do that with all necessary precautions and adaptations to accommodate my ever growing bump.

Truth be said, it was already kind of there because despite of being healthy like a pig, I’m also a bit overweight according to most standards, even after losing 25 pounds last year. Apart from the occasional, not even weird craving I usually don’t give in to (crisps and ice cream), I try to eat healthy stuff I cook myself. And I feel fit and great.

SO WHY THE HELL AM I ALREADY MADE OUT TO BE A CRAPPY MOMMY-TO-BE?!

For many people, being pregnant means being in a state worse than physically handicapped.

It apparently also means abstaining from any (let alone strenuous) exercise. Eating “ well” is highly recommended but can be anything from stuffing yourself because you’re “ eating for two” to counting every single damn calorie you ingest.

Also recommended by my army of apocalyptic friends and family: sitting around and not moving at all for 9 months. They even research the internet on my behalf for any scary pregnancy condition I (or the baby) might attract because of my lifestyle.

I’ve been having fun collecting insane advice about my ever-growing bump:

1. Do you drive?! (5 times)
2. You shouldn’t work out AT ALL! You might drop the baby (umpteen times)!
3. Do you swim?! (+ lots of dirty looks on the beach from older women why think I’m behaving irresponsibly)
4. While swimming: (screeching voice from the shore): YOU! HEY YOU! Who, me? YES, YOU!!!! GET OUT OF THE WATER NOW! Are you talking to me? YES, YOU!!! GET OUT! NOW!!!!! But why?! (thinking: sharks? Tsunami? WTF?) THE WATER IS DIRTY! IT’S UNHYGIENIC!!!! (look down: crystal clear, fishes dancing around my toes…)

Well, dear friends and family, I am just not buying into that shit.

Instead of listening to you I:

1. Consulted my physician/gynecologist and guess what: OH HORROR! He gave me the green light to go on with, training, eating and living like I was a normal person, barring any pregnancy complications, in which case (duh!) I should consult him again.
2. Talked to my PT, who adapted my training program and food recommendations to fit the bump.
3. I (sometimes smiling, sometimes grimacing with gritting teeth) pointed out the above to anyone trying to persuade me that “what everybody says” was actually better advice.

And guess what: they shut up.

So, for all of you ladies in the same situation as me: keep up the good work as it’s only going to benefit, not harm you; do what you have to do, want to do and can do, using your physician’s advise and your own common sense.

• Listen to expert advice and your body, and say screw you to anyone else.
• Kiss your partner and thank them for caring.
• Nod to your mom and do your own thing.
• Smile at your friends and say: thank you, I’ll think about it.
• And beat up anyone else on the useful pretext of “ pregnancy hormones” .

She writes:

All you pregnant ladies out there: we’re learning each and every day how and why training during your pregnancy is so good for you AND your baby (NOTE: this information comes from one of the most prominent pregnancy and exercise researchers, Dr James Clapp III, who has studied many pregnant competitive Olympic athletes):

• you accumulate less body fat
• you have a positive sense of well-being and vigor when you might tend to be pessimistic, depressed or lethargic
• you have a reduced incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (colds, sinusitis, etc)
• you’ll tend to have an easier, shorter and less complicated labour
• you can actually IMPROVE your fitness level and physical performance (I can attest to that!)
• your baby has developed an improved tolerance to stress and as such, can handle the stress of labour much better than a baby of a sedentary woman (i.e., fewer drops in heart rate with each contraction)
• your baby has less body fat, but is still able to maintain it’s body temperature
• your baby will most likely be more mature at birth, meaning, they respond readily to environmental cues and will self-quiet themselves if disturbed when napping
• your baby will also be a better sleeper (less likely to wake easily)
• your baby will probably perform better on standardized intelligence tests as they advance in age
• your baby will grow to be a less-fat adult (which is great news in our society of excess overweightness)

If you missed Cassandra’s excellent podcast on training and pregnancy (and other woman-related issues), see here.

Podcast with Cassandra Forsythe

Book review

If there’s a woman in your life who’s considering weight training (or a man in your life who trains women), The New Rules of Lifting for Women is an excellent introduction to the field of women and weight training.

NROL is written by a kickass trifecta of three major names in the business.

Lou Schuler is a well-known fitness journalist who has written several books, including The New Rules of Lifting, The Book of Muscle, and The Home Workout Bible. He’s been a contributor to Men’s Fitness and Men’s Health, serving as the fitness director of the latter for several years.

Cassandra Forsythe is emerging as one of the most authoritative voices in women’s nutrition and training. She’s a Registered Dietitian who holds a PhD in Kinesiology, an MSc in Human Nutrition and Metabolism and a BSc in Nutrition and Food Science. Her main research interests are low-carbohydrate nutrition, dietary fatty acids, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, weight-loss, female-specific nutrition and training, and the female athlete triad. Her other book is Women’s Health Perfect Body Diet: The Ultimate Weight Loss and Workout Plan to Drop Stubborn Pounds and Get Fit for Life

(She’s also, by the way, pregnant. We explore her insights on being an unusual combination — a serious female athlete, Dr. Nutrition, and pregnant — in the podcast.)

Alwyn Cosgrove is one of the best-known strength coaches in the biz. He’s a former Taekwon-do international champion who now works as a strength and conditioning coach with a wide variety of clientele, including several Olympic and national level athletes, five World Champions and professionals in a multitude of sports including boxing, martial arts, soccer, ice skating, football, fencing, triathlon, rugby, bodybuilding, dance and fitness competition.

Podcast with Cassandra Forsythe

Cassandra and I get chatty with it for nearly an hour. Topics covered:

• What was it like to be part of the NROL team with Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove?
• The awesomeness of
  • female muscles and strength
  • mountain biking
  • tire flipping
• Cassandra’s early background as a gymnast and lifting after a serious spinal injury
• What happens to women’s bodies when they weight train
• Training with dudes in the gym
• Challenges encountered in training more seriously, and confronting taboos about women’s weight training
• Problems in finding social support (especially from other women), and why push presses aren’t necessarily compatible with bridesmaid’s dresses
• Disordered eating and “exercise bulimia” among “ordinary” women — “healthy” and “unhealthy” approaches to exercise and food
• The female athlete triad
• The myth and pressures of “perfection” and the reality of being an “imperfect expert”
• The role of stress in women’s lives and why we need to lighten the hell up
• Pregnancy, nutrition, and weight training — including sugar cravings, boot camp, and log pressing while pregnant
• The up-and-coming areas for women’s nutrition and fitness
• What’s wrong with kids these days

As Cassandra points out, it’s unusual to have a podcast with two women weight trainers chatting so honestly about the realities of training and bodily experiences. But that’s just the kind of good stuff that Stumptuous.com is devoted to bringing to the people!

Listen online by clicking below:

Or download in MP3 format for good listenin’ on your iPod. (65 MB – yeah, it’s a biggie!) Right-click on the link, if you want to save to your hard drive first (recommended).

Book review

As I’ve mentioned, NROL is a super introduction to the field of women and weight training, and it’s solidly backed by coaching experience and scholarly evidence.

This would make a great gift for your mom, sister, girlfriend/wife, best friend, etc. — anyone who’s considering weight training but hesitant about whether women should do it. It would also make a great gift for folks who may know their way around the gym a little, but want to become more grounded in some of the fundamental principles of program design and sports nutrition.

The first section of the book provides a primer on sex-based physiology, and why women and men should train the same: with relatively heavier weights, higher intensities, and more challenge overall.

The first section debunks common myths — most notably that women will “get too big” from weight training; that certain types of training can make muscles “longer”‘; and a key point: the myth that men’s and women’s muscles are substantially different.

It explains why weight training is essential for all women, not just athletes, and how weight training improves health, leanness, athletic performance, and daily-life function.

The first section also explains much of the logic behind the training plans provided: the importance of progressive overload, which exercises to choose and why, and why not to waste your time with gender-specific “toning”. (It explains why kickbacks suck. Hooray!)

The second section provides nutrition basics such as how many calories active women need, why protein’s important, and how to supplement with post-workout recovery nutrition. It suggests meal plan and preparation techniques, and there’s no fancy weird stuff or secret/magical ingredients — just clear, basic ideas for organizing your nutrition.

The third section provides a step-by-step, carefully crafted workout program in great detail. If you follow the program closely (and you should, if you want to reap the benefits), it’ll take around 6 months to complete. The lifts are basic yet effective. There’s lots of variation to keep you learning and interested.

Total beginners might be slightly intimidated by the presence of complex exercises such as squats and deadlifts — but hey, they can just come here and get help figuring out the technique!

All in all, this is a super starter text for anyone interested in women’s weight training.

Reviewed by Erin Weiss-Trainor

Having experienced the joys of being pregnant three times over for a total of 839 days (who’s counting), it’s clear just from watching Lauren Brooks’ latest DVD, Baby Bells: Fit Pregnancy Workout With (Optional) Kettlebells that it would have been a great addition to my training regimen as I aimed to stay fit and strong as each of my babies grew. Similar in training structure and instruction to Brooks’ first DVD, Baby Bells offers a variety of lower intensity and equipment options, along with modified positions to accommodate a wide range of abilities and the changes in a woman’s body as pregnancy progresses. For those who have used kettlebells in the past, and are looking to continue training during their pregnancy, this DVD is a great follow-up to Brooks’ first DVD, The Ultimate Body Sculpt and Conditioning with Kettlebells.

With a more mellow and calming feel than her first DVD, Lauren, 6 ½ months pregnant with her second child, introduces viewers to the benefits of exercise during pregnancy and the precautions that need to be taken when exercising during pregnancy, as outlined by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Encouraging participants to listen to their bodies and always err on the side of caution, the DVD takes viewers through a three-part workout where three to five exercises are completed circuit-style and then repeated.

Along with bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, many of the standard kettlebell exercises, such as two-handed swings, sumo squats, one-arm rows, step back lunges, and tricep presses are included. Lauren shows how kettlebell size should change with each exercise and gives options to perform these with dumbbells or bodyweight alone. As Lauren demonstrates the higher intensity versions, an inset video provides alternatives for modifying the position and range of motion of the movements. Participants are encouraged to take as much rest as they need between exercises, and between sets within each part. Paired with a joint mobility warm-up and a cool-down with stabilizing and stretching geared specifically to target muscles and joints that are under more stress during pregnancy, the entire workout takes just over 35 min and can easily be performed anywhere with little to no equipment.

For experienced kettlebell users who want to experience increased energy and strength during their pregnancy, and prepare their bodies for an easier delivery and recovery from childbirth, this DVD provides a complete and enjoyable way to do so. With less specific instruction on kettlebell form than the first DVD, those who are both pregnant and new to this type of training can get the same benefit, but would be best to stick with bodyweight or dumbbell options. Learning the basic kettlebell movements is best mastered when a woman’s body is not going through the many changes of pregnancy, or having to worry about a cumbersome belly.

Something about watching Brooks swing the kettlebell around her gorgeous belly makes you appreciate the strength and power of a pregnant woman. Once again, Lauren inspires. While many women may use the excuse of pregnancy to literally “eat for two” and stay away from the gym, the energy that Lauren radiates proves that making fitness and healthy eating a priority even during pregnancy is good for mom and for a healthy baby.

Lauren Brooks is a fitness and strength trainer in San Diego, CA. Lauren earned her B.S. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Fitness, Nutrition, and Health from San Diego State University. Lauren Brooks is certified by the American Council on Exercise and Russian Kettlebell Challenge.

Lauren’s site |  Previews of the DVDs

For example, in the 1980s, women were officially banned from competitive boxing in Ontario. Boxing executives argued that if a woman got hit in the breast, it would cause breast cancer. Indeed, the kindly gentlemen felt so strongly about protecting the ladies’ delicate buzzums that they sent cops to bust up an attempted women’s match. (No word on their efforts to protect testicles.) I’m sure those dudes are big contributors to pink ribbon funds everywhere now.

To understand what effects exercise actually has on breasts, let’s start with the anatomy.

breast anatomy

Cross-sectional view of the breast

Breasts are composed of both fat and glandular breast tissue. Anatomically, they’re sort of like bunches of grapes in Jello — the grapes are the glands and the Jello is the fat.  As the image shows, the breasts sit on top of the pectoral muscles. There are also lymph glands, which are little nodes of tissue that are part of the immune system, threaded throughout the top and sides of the breast towards the armpit and collarbone.

The breast is supported by connective tissue in the form of Cooper’s ligament, a ligamentous band that holds the breast like a natural bra or sling. This tissue is strong but not invincible. If the breasts have any appreciable weight, the ligaments benefit from a little help in the form of a good bra. (More on this below.)

Men and women actually have the same basic breast structure; it’s just that women’s breasts are more developed and substantial as a result of hormones released during puberty. Men whose hormonal environment contains excess estrogen, such as men taking too much testosterone (which aromatizes into estrogen), or men who are carrying a lot of bodyfat, may experience gynecomastia, or the growth of breast tissue. Men can also sufer from breast cancer, by the way. And they can lactate if given appropriate hormones. (Rather useful, really.)

Hormones do play a role in breast size: folks taking supplemental estrogens may also notice breast growth. You’ll probably notice changes in breast size and texture over the course of your menstrual cycle. And then of course there are the legendary — indeed, epic — pregnancy gazongas.

breasts and body fat

Because much of the breast is body fat, overall body fat levels will play a part in shaping your snoobs. But the relative amount of glandular tissue and body fat composition varies from woman to woman. For example, some women will have larger breasts even if they have lower bodyfat, and other women will have relatively smaller breasts at any level of bodyfat. Women who are genetically more “apple shaped” will have larger breasts, while women who are genetically more “pear shaped” will usually have smaller breasts at the same level of body fat. At my heaviest, I contemplated buying a 38D bra. At 5’0″ and pear shaped, I leave it to you to calculate how big my ass must have been for that to occur.

So, while losing bodyfat is a pretty reliable way to shrink your breasts, genetics will determine just how much you lose. In general, though, it is quite rare to have large breasts at a low level of bodyfat, which is why most swimsuit and fitness models have implants.

If you’re considering a reduction, think about getting your body fat into a healthy or even lean range first through regular activity and good nutrition. This is a much less invasive way of managing the situation.

gravity can get you down

Since the breasts are basically bags of gooshy stuff that aren’t supported by a hard skeleton or a lot of connective tissue, they move a lot and suffer the effects of gravity and breastfeeding. As we age, the natural elasticity of our tissues loses its sproing, and the girls start to head south.

Women who run a lot, and/or women with larger breasts may also experience pain in their upper/mid back and neck as the weight of the breasts pulls their spine forwards. A good sports bra will help counteract this downward force and make things more comfortable. It won’t prevent gravity entirely (hey, gravity’s not just a guideline — it’s the law) but it will ensure your girls go kicking and screaming all the way.

muscle and breasts

As you’ll notice, the breasts sit on top of the chest wall. Thus, it’s a myth that building up the pectoral muscles underneath the breasts will make them perky if they are already sagging.  The visible division of the pec muscles at the top of the ribcage does help to create the illusion of cleavage if you’re lean and lacking it. However, the breast tissue is independent of the muscle beneath it, so you can’t make your breasts bigger (or smaller, depending on which rumours you listen to) by doing any form of chest work. Building muscle mass on the chest, or doing any form of pectoral exercise, will do nothing to affect the shape or size of the breasts themselves.

Do not be dissuaded from doing chest work because someone says your breasts are already big enough, or that pressing exercises will somehow harm your breasts. You’re not going to develop massive pectoral muscles, and you need to work your entire body. The pecs perform an important function of drawing the upper arm across the body. That being said, many women would benefit more from doing more pulling/mid-back work such as wide-grip rows, in order to counteract the forward/downward pull from their breasts.

breast cancer

Like the buzzkills from boxing who assumed that breast cancer was a significant health risk, women may think that breast cancer is a top killer. In fact, your risk of breast cancer is much lower than the less exciting killer: cardiovascular disease. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 1/3 of deaths among women are from some form of CVD. Cancer is an important killer that accounts for around 13% of deaths, but the #1 cancer is lung cancer. 80% of those lung cancer deaths are from smoking.

In other words, it’s good to be safe and sensible about breast cancer. Research shows that a diet high in fruits and vegetables, regular activity, and maintaining a healthy body fat is important. Obesity produces a hormonal environment that is conducive to cancer growth; one reason that breast cancer can be so deadly is that the lymph nodes sit adjacent to the breast tissue and breast fat. You know how one jerkoff neighbour can ruin it for everyone with his car up on blocks and beer cans all over the driveway? Same idea. Just like your atrocious neighbour, the chemicals produced by excessive body fat pee all over everyone’s lawns, and if that lawn next door is a lymph node, that’s big trouble.

We should also be concerned about things like chemical exposure, hormone use, and environmental hormones. Inspect your breasts regularly. But if you have to choose one thing to worry about, focus on your heart before fretting excessively about what’s on top of it.

Despite the obvious numerical fact that at any one time, some female athlete must be getting her period, and despite the fact that Olympic medals have been won by pregnant or menstruating athletes, there is a pervasive fallacy in some circles about women’s “problems”. In the 1800s, although it was conveniently forgotten that huge numbers of women already performed strenuous manual labour on the farms and in the factories, the prevailing medical wisdom about exercise for women was that during the menstrual period and pregnancy women must be sequestered from ALL activities. It should be noted, however, that during this time period it was also commonly held by medical professionals that studying mathematics would cause the uterus to shrivel.

Normal female bodily functions have been pathologized as “conditions” or “diseases”, which affects the way we think about them. The truth is, these functions and processes have been around for quite some time and are showing no signs of disappearing. While some, like pregnancy, may require a little extra planning and exercise modification, in general there is no reason whatsoever to believe that weight training and other exercise, done in moderation, are problematic.

Need to hear an “official” opinion on this instead my yammering? Drs. Clapp and Little write in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology:

[A]t all points in a woman’s life the overall effect of regular exercise to appetite appears to be beneficial rather than harmful and in the absence of other stressors exercise performance must significantly exceed usual recreational levels to have an adverse effect on any aspect of a woman’s reproductive life. Therefore even in elite athletes abnormalities of any part of the reproductive process (puberty, menstrual cyclicity, pregnancy, lactation, and menopause) should not be attributed solely to exercise without complete evaluation.

In other words, you go girl.

[Clapp JF 3rd; Little KD. "The interaction between regular exercise and selected aspects of women's health". Am J Obstet Gynecol, 173(1):2-9 1995 Jul]

menstruation | amenorrhea | pregnancy | menopause

menstruation

I don’t know about you but I used to use the “I’m getting my period” excuse to get out of gym class a lot. Frankly, I would have used the “my dog ate my gym clothes” excuse if I had known there was a chance in hell of it working. This was OK until I encountered a real hardass gym teacher in Grade 9 who insisted that violent menstrual cramps were figments of our imaginations and she expected to see our pathetic bleeding carcasses on the track, same as usual. Obviously she was a woman for whom Advil was just a headache remedy and not Holy Cramp Communion. Really, there has to be some kind of happy medium.

Anyway, plenty of studies have been done that try to show some decrease in performance during menstruation. Whenever some decrease is actually found it is difficult to sufficiently isolate the variable such that the decrease can be explicitly linked to menstruation. In other words, there is NO conclusive clinical proof that getting your period negatively affects your athletic performance. In addition, there is a great deal of individual variation among women.

Results vary wildly from study to study, which shows that individual physical variation combined with psychological factors around menstruation produces highly diverse outcomes with regard to performance during menstruation. Frinstance:

• No change to cardio capacity
  • [Smekal, G, et al. Menstrual cycle: no effect on exercise cardiorespiratory variables or blood lactate concentration.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007 Jul;39(7):1098-106]
• Some elevated risk of knee injury, though this varies by menstrual phase
  • [Hewett TE, et al. Effects of the menstrual cycle on anterior cruciate ligament injury risk: a systematic review. Am J Sports Med. 2007 Apr;35(4):659-68.]
• In a study of female athletes, “physical performance was not affected by the menstrual period and the pain decreased during the training and competition.”
  • [Kishali NF, et al.Effects of menstrual cycle on sports performance. Int J Neurosci. 2006 Dec;116(12):1549-63]

And this abstract is worth posting in entirety:

This article reviews the potential effects of the female steroid hormone fluctuations during the menstrual cycle on exercise performance. The measurement of estrogen and progesterone concentration to verify menstrual cycle phase is a major consideration in this review. However, even when hormone concentrations are measured, the combination of differences in timing of testing, the high inter- and intra-individual variability in estrogen and progesterone concentration, the pulsatile nature of their secretion and their interaction, may easily obscure possible effects of the menstrual cycle on exercise performance. When focusing on studies using hormone verification and electrical stimulation to ensure maximal neural activation, the current literature suggests that fluctuations in female reproductive hormones throughout the menstrual cycle do not affect muscle contractile characteristics. Most research also reports no changes over the menstrual cycle for the many determinants of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), such as lactate response to exercise, bodyweight, plasma volume, haemoglobin concentration, heart rate and ventilation. Therefore, it is not surprising that the current literature indicates that VO2max is not affected by the menstrual cycle. These findings suggest that regularly menstruating female athletes, competing in strength-specific sports and intense anaerobic/aerobic sports, do not need to adjust for menstrual cycle phase to maximise performance. For prolonged exercise performance, however, the menstrual cycle may have an effect. Even though most research suggests that oxygen consumption, heart rate and rating of perceived exertion responses to sub-maximal steady-state exercise are not affected by the menstrual cycle, several studies report a higher cardiovascular strain during moderate exercise in the mid-luteal phase. Nevertheless, time to exhaustion at sub-maximal exercise intensities shows no change over the menstrual cycle. The significance of this finding should be questioned due to the low reproducibility of the time to exhaustion test. During prolonged exercise in hot conditions, a decrease in exercise time to exhaustion is shown during the mid-luteal phase, when body temperature is elevated. Thus, the mid-luteal phase has a potential negative effect on prolonged exercise performance through elevated body temperature and potentially increased cardiovascular strain. Practical implications for female endurance athletes may be the adjustment of competition schedules to their menstrual cycle, especially in hot, humid conditions. The small scope of the current research and its methodological limitations warrant further investigation of the effect of the menstrual cycle on prolonged exercise performance.

[de Jonge, J. Effects of the menstrual cycle on exercise performance. Sports Med. 2003;33(11):833-51.]

However, that being said, many women find that there are cyclic changes in their strength, recovery, and athletic performance. In particular, anecdotal data suggests that during the premenstrual period, and often the first day or two of the menstrual period:

• pain perception increases  — you may feel achey, soreness from training may be more intense, joint pain may increase
• energy levels decrease; fatigue increases
• joint laxity increases; you may be more likely to experience joint pain and injury

Many women also find that their strength temporarily decreases, although exactly when this occurs varies from woman to woman.  In my case, I am weaker for a few days when my period starts. I noticed this years ago, and now take note of my menstrual cycle in my training journal. I simply schedule some recovery/light days to accommodate.

In terms of the effect of exercise on menstruation, no clinical evidence has been found to show that moderate regular exercise affects the cycle negatively. In the next section on amenorrhea, I point out some of the problems associated with heavy training and low bodyfat levels. The majority of women find that exercise alleviates many of the negative symptoms associated with premenstrual and menstrual discomfort.

amenorrhea

Amenorrhea is the clinical term for cessation of menstrual periods with possible related loss of ovulation. This is generally seen in women who train very heavily and/or have bodyfat below 12-15%; thus, athletes, bodybuilders, and models may all experience this condition. In essence, menstruation has ceased because the body does not feel that it has sufficient resources to nurture a fetus. Interestingly, there seems also to be a relationship between intense athletic training in young girls and delayed initial onset of menstruation, although the exact variables are hard to determine. It may be that lean girls are more athletically predisposed anyway, and the delay of menarche (onset of first menstruation) is merely an adjunct rather than a result.
One of the main concerns around amenorrhea is the concomitant loss of bone density. In other words, skeletal bone mineral loss has been observed to be related to lack of menstruation.

However, research has demonstrated that amenorrhea is not caused by low bodyfat per se. Women with relatively higher bodyfat levels can and do experience cessation of menstruation. Rather, it appears to be triggered primarily by a long-term negative energy balance, which can result in a low bodyfat. Energy balance is the relationship between calories in and calories expended. If a female athlete consistently maintains a negative energy balance for a long time (in other words, if she does not eat enough to fuel her activity), then this is what stimulates loss of menstruation, not a particular bodyfat level in and of itself. Indeed, female athletes and bodybuilders who are sensible about their nutrition and dieting practices may find that they do not lose their periods even though they get quite lean.

Recent research suggests that multiple hypothalamic-pituitary hormones and environmental factors such as stress and nutritional restriction are involved in regulating menstruation in active women.

Although some women who re-start menstruation can make some moderate gains back, it appears that long-term bone mineral loss related to amenorrhea is largely irreversible. With the increasing concern about osteoporosis in our society today, this is a critical concern for female athletes. Data is still sketchy on the bone density concerns of developing girls, although perhaps this problem in general might be somewhat alleviated by weight training, which is known to increase bone density. Along with the problem of bone mineral loss comes the problem of stress fractures. The possibility of stress fractures raises some important questions. Is, for example, the increased bone density of the marathon runner as compared to her sedentary colleague enough to withstand the actual activity of marathon running? At what point do the load-bearing exercises, which improve bone density, become too much load for the bone to handle?

Obviously there are more variables involved in the problem of amenorrhea and bone density loss. Diet, training, and other environmental factors are also significant considerations. However, amenorrhea as a long-term clinical state is highly undesirable in any case.

Sources:

Baker, E. and L. Demers. “Menstrual Status in Female Athletes: Correlation with Reproductive Hormones and Bone Density”. Obstet Gynecol 72:683-7, 1988.

Barrow, G.W. and S. Saha. “Menstrual Irregularity and Stress Fractures in Collegiate Female Distance Runners”. American Journal of Sports Med 16(3):209-16, 1988.

Broocks, A. et al. “Cyclic Ovarian Function in Recreational Athletes”. Journal of Applied Physiology, 68:2023-86, 1990.

Frisch, R.E. “Body Fat, Menarche, Fitness, and Fertility”. Human Reproduction 2(6):521-533, 1987.

Laughlin, G. et al. “Nutritional and Endocrine-Metabolic Aberrations in Women with Functional Hypothalamic Amenorrhea”. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 83 (1): 25-32.

Miller, K. et al. “Decreased Leptin Levels in Normal Weight Women with Hypothalamic Amenorrhea: The Effects of Body Composition and Nutritional Intake.” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 83 (7): 2309-2312, 1998.

pregnancy

Historically the question of what women should do during pregnancy was a highly class-based one. Upper- and middle-class European and North American women of previous centuries were kept in confinement and forced leisure. To be visibly pregnant was constituted as a bit of a social shame, and women were discouraged from appearing in public with the evidence of reproduction swelling their bellies (plus, it was kinda tough to fit into those corsets after a few months, although many women tried and subsequently did quite a bit of damage to themselves and the baby). However, being immobilized and enshrined in the house was a luxury not available to the majority of the female population. Most worked at some sort of manual labour right up until their delivery and still do (female Japanese pearl divers, for example, work in physically strenuous conditions and continue to do so until the point of delivery). Thus the question of what women can do during pregnancy reveals a lot of middle- and upper-class assumptions about what is appropriate for women at any time.

One of the important truisms about activity during pregnancy is that pregnancy is not the time to begin a strenuous exercise program. Don’t start German Volume Training or any kind of masochistic weight program. In fact, pregnancy is not the time to make any drastic physical changes. However, women who are already accustomed to regular activity and exercise generally find pregnancy no disruption to their normal routine.

The female body has had plenty of evolutionary time to adapt to the stress of pregnancy and compensates for the extra demand in a variety of ways. For example, oxygen consumption/aerobic capacity can increase up to 30% during pregnancy in nonexercisers and even more in women who exercise. In addition, strenuous exercise can be exceedingly uncomfortable in the last part of pregnancy, which is perhaps the body’s way of telling mom to lay off for a while till things get back to normal.

However, anecdotal and clinical evidence shows that fitter women tend to have easier pregnancies and shorter deliveries with fewer complications. Many women also find that exercise during pregnancy helps alleviate fatigue and keep energy levels up. In addition, exercise has been shown to reduce the gain of subcutaneous (under the skin) fat associated with extra caloric intake during pregnancy. Thus, regular and moderate exercise during pregnancy can have many positive effects.

One of the most typical problems encountered by pregnant women is back pain. Their centre of gravity shifts and extra weight is added over nine months. Women tend to slouch the shoulders and arch the lower back to compensate for these changes, which of course leads to discomfort. A strong abdominal column as well as a strong back gained through weight training before pregnancy can alleviate much of this problem.

Hormonal changes during pregnancy contribute to a softening and loosening of the connective tissues. This is done by the body so that it will be able to accommodate the stress of delivery. Women find that during their pregnancies it is easier to “pull” or “twist” things due to the joints putting up less resistance. Once again, weight training before pregnancy can help ensure that injury does not occur.

As I mentioned in the section on beginning to work out, rehydration is essential, at this time more than ever. Pregnant women are especially prone to overheating during exercise, so monitoring temperature, avoiding exercise in hot, humid environments, ensuring that there are mechanisms for body cooling (sweating, loosening of clothing, etc.), and drinking lots of water are key.

With regard to fetal effects, no detrimental effects have been shown in the babies of women who exercised during pregnancy. Birth weights were similar, rates of cesarean section the same, and general health of newborns was in normal range.
If you choose to exercise during pregnancy, here are a few guidelines to follow.

1. Monitor your nutritional needs. You will need extra calories and attention to a balanced diet.
2. Get adequate rest. This is true for any weight training program and more so during this period.
3. Make exercise regular. Infrequent and/or irregular exercise can result in injury or fatigue.
4. Be prepared to make modifications in your program as you need to. This is not the time to push the limits of your endurance or strength.
5. As part of your regular medical checkups, have your doctor advise you on possible changes to your body (e.g. cervical dilation) that may require you to modify your program. Ensure that you keep your doctor up to date on what kinds of activities you’re engaging in.
6. Be careful about joint and connective tissue injury. Make sure you have an adequate warmup and cooldown as part of your workout.
7. Don’t take any supplements during pregnancy or breastfeeding other than a good-quality whey protein and a multivitamin (your doctor may recommend additional vitamin supplementation). Obviously, use of anabolic substances are a huge no-no at this time.

See the other articles on pregnancy and postpartum training in this section.

There is a bit of folk wisdom which suggests that women should not engage in exercise after having had a baby. There are dire predictions about souring the milk and so forth, having your uterus fall out, or heaven knows what. This is, for lack of a clinical term, crap. Studies have shown no increase in acidity of breast milk after mom’s exercise. Regular postnatal exercise reduces or eliminates most of the unpleasant postpartum symptoms of physical and mental stress, depression, and so forth, as well as promoting a faster recovery. Furthermore, children of moms who exercised before, during, and after pregnancy were shown to be relatively leaner themselves five years later.

Sources:

Margolis RS. “Exercise and pregnancy”. Md Med J, 45(8):637-41 1996 Aug
Sternfeld B; Quesenberry CP Jr; Eskenazi B; Newman LA. “Exercise during pregnancy and pregnancy outcome”. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 27(5):634-40 1995 May

Clapp JF 3rd; Little KD. “Effect of recreational exercise on pregnancy weight gain and subcutaneous fat deposition”. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 27(2):170-7 1995 Feb

TanJi J. “Exercise during pregnancy and pregnancy outcome”. Clin J Sport Med, 5(4):267 1995 Oct

Hale RW; Milne L. “The elite athlete and exercise in pregnancy”. Semin Perinatol, 20(4):277-84 1996 Aug

Lee G. “Exercise in pregnancy”. Mod Midwife, 6(8):28-33 1996 Aug

Schramm WF; Stockbauer JW; Hoffman HJ. “Exercise, employment, other daily activities, and adverse pregnancy outcomes”. Am J Epidemiol, 143(3):211-8 1996 Feb 1

Clapp JF 3rd. “Morphometric and neurodevelopmental outcome at age five years of the offspring of women who continued to exercise regularly throughout pregnancy”. J Pediatr, 129(6):856-63 1996 Dec

Pivarnik JM. “Cardiovascular responses to aerobic exercise during pregnancy and postpartum”. Semin Perinatol, 20(4):242-9 1996 Aug

Veille JC. “Maternal and fetal cardiovascular response to exercise during pregnancy”. Semin Perinatol, 20(4):250-62 1996 Aug

Sternfeld B. “Physical activity and pregnancy outcome. Review and recommendations”. Sports Med, 23(1):33-47 1997 Jan

Koltyn KF; Schultes SS. “Psychological effects of an aerobic exercise session and a rest session following pregnancy”. J Sports Med Phys Fitness, 37(4):287-91 1997 Dec

Horns PN; Ratcliffe LP; Leggett JC; Swanson MS. “Pregnancy outcomes among active and sedentary primiparous women”. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs, 25(1):49-54 1996 Jan
Kardel KR; Kase T. “Training in pregnant women: effects on fetal development and birth”. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 178(2):280-6 1998 Feb

Dumas GA; Reid JG. “Laxity of knee cruciate ligaments during pregnancy”. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, 26(1):2-6 1997 Jul

Clapp JF 3rd; Little KD. “The interaction between regular exercise and selected aspects of women`s health”. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 173(1):2-9 1995 Jul

Carey GB; Quinn TJ; Goodwin SE. “Breast milk composition after exercise of different intensities”. J Hum Lact, 13(2):115-20 1997 Jun.

menopause

Surprisingly, there have been few studies done on menopausal women and exercise. I suspect as the boomers continue to age, we will see much more interest in the subject. Most research has been done on pre- or post-menopausal women, or simply midlife women as an aggregate age group without specific regard to reproductive status. The problem with studying menopausal women as a group is that it is difficult to distinguish the particularities of menopause from the particularities of aging, as well as the individual variation in terms of body weight, physical activity levels, genetic propensities, nutrition, etc. As one writer notes, “Much of what has been considered aging in the past is considered functional disuse today.”[1]

The main concern for menopausal and postmenopausal women is the drop in estrogen levels that is associated with bone density loss. This is especially problematic for those women who may have been amenorrheic in their youths, since there is likely some bone density loss which has already taken place.

Weight training, however, has been shown to have very beneficial effects irrespective of age. Obviously a menopausal woman isn’t going to respond in the same way as a teenage girl, but the positive consequences of weight training are undeniable. Within every age group, active women fare better than inactive women in just about every test. Some studies show that exercise can reduce and/or delay much of the symptomology (hot flashes, anxiety, etc.) associated with menopause.

Frinstance, one study that compared exercising vs non-exercising women over three years found that exercisers got stronger and improved bone density, body composition (waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio), blood lipids (total cholesterol, triglycerides), and menopausal symptoms (insomnia, migraines, mood changes). The non-exercisers got weaker. [Kemmler et al, "Exercise Effects on Menopausal Risk Factors of Early Postmenopausal Women: 3-yr Erlangen Fitness Osteoporosis Prevention Study Results." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 37(2):194-203, February 2005.]

Another interesting study on the nutritional requirements of older women, done by Wayne Westcott (an expert in the field of older athletes) and coauthors, found that women given appropriate resistance training and postworkout nutrition gained a surprising amount of muscle and lost a surprising amount of body fat. (I had the pleasure of speaking to Wayne in person about this one. Apparently everyone was floored.) Full study

If one has been inactive, menopause is a good time to become active. It’s never too late to begin to strength train and engage in regular exercise. Excess body fat is associate with a host of later-life problems such as heart disease and diabetes. As I have shown in the other articles, increasing one’s muscle mass contributes dramatically to a decrease in injuries and chronic problems, as well as to a loss of excess body fat. If you have been inactive for a period of time, make sure to see your doctor for a complete physical before you begin.

One important point for aging women: in the calculation of body fat percentages, the same actual caliper measurement (say, 15 mm) will mean different body fat percentage readings depending on age. This is due to inter-abdominal fat deposition with age. In other words, the older you get, the more fat you accumulate on your internal organs as opposed to beneath your skin (subcutaneous fat). Thus the “healthy” range of percentages increases with numerical age.

[1] Peters, Gregory. “Conditioning the Aging Female”. The Athletic Woman, ed. Arthur Pearl. USA: Human Kinetics Publishers and the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, 1993.

Early guidelines about training during pregnancy were largely based on speculation and expectations about middle-class women’s roles, rather than on clinical research and demonstrated results in a particular population. Luckily these guidelines have been updated and now reflect women’s experiences more realistically. The 1994 bulletin of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists indicates that “[t]here are no data in humans to indicate that pregnant women should limit exercise intensity and lower target heart rates because of potential adverse effects.”

Kettlebell coach Lauren Brooks. Eat your heart out, Demi Moore.

Similarly, the 2001 Canadian guidelines indicate that regular exercise has a number of benefits and few drawbacks for women. And yet, a recent study shows that in the United States, “Half of obstetricians do not routinely discuss exercise. The majority is hesitant to advise sedentary gravidae to start exercise and is conservative with respect to exercise intensity. Action may be needed to convince more Obs to routinely recommend exercise to all healthy patients.” (Entin, Pauline and Kelly Munhall. “Recommendations Regarding Exercise During Pregnancy Made by Private/Small Group Practice Obstetricians in the USA.” Journal of Sports Science and Medicine 5 (2006): 449 – 458. Full text)

Ideally women should be fit and active before getting pregnant, so if you are thinking of conceiving, begin an exercise program now (but of course, if you’re reading this, you’re probably already exercising!).

One of the important truisms about activity during pregnancy is that pregnancy is not the time to begin a strenuous exercise program. In fact, pregnancy is not the time to make any drastic physical changes.

However, women who are already accustomed to regular activity and exercise generally find pregnancy no disruption to their normal routine, and previously sedentary women can safely begin a moderate exercise program as late as the second trimester.

For ideas, check out Lauren Brooks’ new DVD, Baby Bells. Lauren (see photo to the right) is a certified kettlebell coach who’s written an article elsewhere on this site. She trained with kettlebells throughout her pregnancy.

general concerns

There is a bit of folk wisdom which suggests that women should not engage in exercise after having had a baby. There are dire predictions about souring the milk and so forth, having your uterus fall out, or heaven knows what. This is as realistic as the tooth fairy. Studies have shown no increase in acidity of breast milk after mom’s exercise. Regular postnatal exercise reduces or eliminates most of the unpleasant postpartum symptoms of physical and mental stress, depression, and so forth, as well as promoting a faster recovery. Postpartum exercise appears to help promote insulin sensitivity.

My sister and brother in law doing some tummy rubbing before the birth of my nephew. They are so damn cute I can barely stand it!

Furthermore, children of moms who exercised before, during, and after pregnancy were shown to be relatively leaner themselves five years later.

While exercise during pregnancy has clear benefits, many women tend to cease doing it. The two primary reasons for quitting exercise are significant weight gain and interestingly, the demands of care for other children.

This points to the importance of support systems (such as child care) for pregnant women in order to enable them to continue to exercise during pregnancy.

“Muscle conditioning” exercise (i.e. weight trainng) is considered low-risk and safe. Self-monitoring of training is essential during this period, however, using tools such as the rate of perceived exertion (RPE).

This is a good time to keep a journal that records eating, training, workout reports, notes on how you feel, heart rate, recovery, etc. Here are some general concerns for training during pregnancy.

joint laxity

This is a crucial issue for weight trainers. The body “softens” connective tissue in order to prepare for delivery. Great for pelvic expansion during the crucial moments, not so great for folks trying to keep their kneecaps stuck to their legs during training. On the plus side, strong muscles help to hold things together and improve overall stability, so strength training will be helpful as long as care is exercised.

overheating

Another significant issue for weight trainers. Dress to stay cool, drink lots of fluids (even though you’ll feel like you have to pee every ten minutes), get a fan on you if possible, and monitor the situation during your training sessions. If you need a break to cool down, take one. Oxygen will be less available to you, and you will find that in later months of pregnancy, the baby presses upwards on your diaphragm, making it harder to breathe deeply.

nutrition

Good nutrition is essential during pregnancy, but hey, you knew that didn’t you? It is often difficult for female athletes to accept the inevitable weight gain that occurs during pregnancy, but this isn’t a time to diet or be nutritionally stingy. You may notice wild fluctuations in blood sugar (leading to a feeling of “I have to eat NOW!!”), so try to eat at regular intervals and not go more than a couple of hours without a small meal. In the first trimester you may be limited in what you can tolerate, and formerly appealing things may make you feel sick, but this is usually restricted to the first three or four months. You may experience an increase in appetite, including nearly uncontrollable cravings for carbohydrates (mmmm donuts). This does not signify weakness or gluttony on your part; let the hormones do their work and get a balanced diet as best you can. Due diligence requires me to tell you to take in at least 300 kcal over maintenance each day, but if the pregnant women I’ve known are any indication, you’ll be chowing down like someone who just wandered out of the wilderness into a hot-dog-eating contest.

supplementation

Don’t take any supplements during pregnancy or breastfeeding other than a good-quality whey protein and a multivitamin (your doctor may recommend additional vitamin or mineral supplementation). Aside from the lack of knowledge about the safety of creatine during pregnancy, the last thing you want is more water retention. Given the issues with overheating and heart rate, thermogenics and stimulants are contraindicated (this includes caffeine, so cut down on this as much as you can; my experience indicates that the smell of coffee makes many pregnant women sick anyway). Obviously, use of any hormonally-based substances, including prohormones, is a huge no-no at this time. Fish oil has been suggested as desirable supplement for pregnant women, but the research suggests that more study needs to be done before this is a given.

medical supervision and ongoing monitoring

As part of your regular medical checkups, have your doctor advise you on possible changes to your body (e.g. cervical dilation, threatened miscarriage, hypertension etc.) that may require you to modify your program. Ensure that you keep your doctor up-to-date on what kinds of activities you’re engaging in, and whether you notice any worrisome symptoms such as persistent bleeding.

exercise choice

As the pregnancy progresses, avoid exercises which involve lying on the back, or pressing against the stomach (such as chest-supported rows). You may find that you need to modify or eliminate exercises which involve excessive head movement, such as stiff-legged deadlifts, if they cause nausea or dizziness. Avoid prolonged periods of standing. Balance will eventually be a concern, so in the second and third trimester, reduce and eventually eliminate the Olympic lifts and perform demanding overhead lifts while seated (see the section on physioball use below). One of the most typical problems encountered by pregnant women is back pain. Their center of gravity shifts and extra weight is added over nine months. Women tend to slouch the shoulders and arch the lower back to compensate for these changes, which of course leads to discomfort. A strong abdominal column as well as a strong back gained through weight training before pregnancy can alleviate much of this problem, so assistance work geared to this need is helpful. Bodyweight exercises, such as unweighted squats, present a useful alternativeas the pregnancy develops, as do exercises which take some weight off the joints, such as swimming or cycling.

exercising for two

A growing fetus is a greedy little thing (as parents will attest, not much will change in that respect once it’s born, either). The body will adjust its substrate utilization to ensure that the wee tenant gets the best of what you have. Your nutritional needs will change as will your body’s response to exercise. Pregnancy dramatically alters glucose and insulin response to prolonged exercise, as well as blood lipid profiles. These return to normal postpartum. It has been speculated that this represents a glucose conservation mechanism and a protective shunting of energy substrate for fetal use. In other words, physiology dictates that fetus is numero uno when it comes to getting first dibs on the good stuff.

recovery

Be prepared for reduced recovery and adjust your training accordingly. Be aware that some of the modalities you may use for active recovery, such as hot tubs, may be inappropriate during this time. You’ll probably want to do a lot of sleeping anyway.
postpartum urinary incontinenceSorry, squeamish readers, I had to mention this. After giving birth, many women notice problems with mild to moderate urinary incontinence during exertion, such as squatting or deadlifting. Kegel exercises are a must during pregnancy and after delivery. You may find, to your chagrin, that you will occasionally experience some slight laxity in this regard even with careful attention to treatment. Simply plan it into your workouts: avoid caffeine, go to the bathroom before your workout, wear a pad, and remember that there are a lot of other women out there experiencing the same thing. While we’re on the topic of embarrassing things, you may also notice hemorrhoids which are aggravated by lifting. Again, normal and treatable, though unpleasant. Are you starting to comtemplate growing the baby in a jar yet?

training frequency

An interesting finding of recent research on pregnancy is that exercise frequency is a determinant of birth weight (the higher the birth weight, in general, the healthier the baby), and that too much exercise can be as detrimental as too little. Women who exercised more than 5 times weekly and fewer than 2 times weekly were both at risk for having lower birth weight babies (interestingly, intensity did not appear to be as significant a factor as frequency). This finding points to a “happy medium” of 3-4 weekly sessions of structured exercise for pregnant women. In this case I mean 3-4 weekly sessions of training, rather than general activity. Daily activity and movement, in some form, is the ideal.

Other research suggests that a lower volume of exercise in the second and third trimester is associated with better fetoplacental growth (although the mother demonstrates more fat gain rather than lean body mass gain relative to a higher volume of exercise). The more recent ACOG document (2002) argues that daily or near-daily moderate exercise of 30-minute sessions is recommended.

It seems evident that total workload should be reduced as the pregnancy progresses. For most women this is intuitive, since the demands of a growing fetus tend to reduce their desire to go all-out in the gym. Few women have the urge to do a maximal lift while eight months pregnant; the idea of a nice nap is likely more appealing.

However, some athletes feel that they cannot tolerate a reduction in training volume or intensity. For these women, the research gives a clear caution which must be heeded.

My preggo sister, always fashionable even walking around with a watermelon stuck to her

whither weight trainers?

A difficulty encountered with the research on pregnancy and exercise is that the majority of studies look at cardiovascular exercise, and will often use endurance athletes as a population or sample,perhaps comparing them to sedentary women. While we can make inferences from this work, we cannot expect that all elements will apply precisely to women who weight train.

Guidelines on weight training are sparse, and hint at using lower intensities by defining appropriate rep ranges (between 15 and 25 reps per set). This appears to indicate a lack of familiarity with structuring weight training programs, as well as the needs of experienced weight trainers for whom such a low intensity may be inadequate. Thus we need to begin to theorize about how best to develop a strength training program based on the evidence we have.

Given concerns about joint laxity, heart rate, oxygen consumption, and overheating, it seems inappropriate to suggest that weight trainers build their program around long sets of lower intensity. Rather, I would think it sensible to take an approach which uses shorter sets combined with a lower intensity, resulting in a similar overall volume. So, for example, let us say that our pregnant trainee normally performs 3 sets of 10 reps in the squat, using a weight which is somewhere around 65-70% of her 1RM. For an experienced trainer this is a relatively low intensity to be using, so we assume that she can continue to use it as long as she is comfortable with it.

However, we might modify her program so that she is performing something like 6 sets of 5 reps each, or even 10 sets of 3 reps, for the same total volume, but changing the demands of each set to reflect the increased need for rest and moderation.

Eventually you might also substitute some machines for certain free weight exercises to reflect challenges to balance (though bear in mind the challenge of joint laxity, and choose machines wisely, avoiding those which require you to exert the most force in the weakest position, such as pec decks).

For example, the bent-over position assumed during a one-arm dumbbell row might produce dizziness and back pain, so an intelligent substitute might be seated cable rows, or even a modification to the free weight exercise which includes a higher support and so less of a forward lean.

Many of these considerations do not come into play until the second or third trimester. Many women have successfully met significant athletic challenges while in their first trimester. In the firsttrimester, the primary concern is usually nausea, dizziness, and blood sugar swings. Attention to hydration and nourishment should = help; sipping at a carb drink (if you can tolerate it) during the = workout can be useful. Training can be mostly normal during this = period. However you should begin to consider decreasing intensity and volume from the fourth or fifth month onwards.
physioball phunA nifty piece of gym equipment which is beginning to be used as a pregnancy accoutrement as well as equipment for labouring women is the swiss ball, aka the physioball, aka the giant vinyl beach ball thingy that “core stability” devotees seem to be into these days. Since these are relatively cheap, it’s not a bad idea to pick one up.

In later months of pregnancy, many women experience significant pelvic pain as the weight of the baby presses down and ligaments stretch. One undignified but useful position which appears to alleviate this pain is getting down on hands and knees and hugging the ball, resting the weight of the upper body on it, and rocking back and
forth if desired.

Bridging exercises with the physioball can help relieve back pain and strengthen torso and hip extensors.

Pregnant women may also find it more comfortable to use the ball in place of a chair or bench while sitting during normal activities (such as desk work or watching TV), as well as during exercise. The squishiness of the ball provides cushioning for increased weight, and the instability of the ball helps with torso mobility and awareness.

Women in later stages of pregnancy can use the ball to help modify common exercises, such as squats. Wall squats with the ball are performed by placing the ball between your back and the wall, and rolling down the wall with it into a squatting position.

Finally, women in labour may find some relief from sitting on the ball during contractions, and rocking back and forth.

sources

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