Exercising in your third trimester, is it time yet?! ~ My experience

Baby Dehestani has been clocking a decent amount of hours at the gym and in yoga classes during the third tri. Pregnancy isn’t a picnic but I’m making it through, one sweat sesh at a time, and feeling much better because of it!

I have been having some swelling in my hands, feet and ankles along with some hip pain. I get a lot of stares and compliments when working out (like it’s such an anomaly for a pregnant woman to be exercising, what did you think we’d be at home on the couch eating bon bons?) Guess what?, people move out of your way when preggo, so I am able to get my pick of wherever I would like to set up my circuits.

33 weeks and an extra 28lbs has slowed me down a bit but I am happy to report that I do not yet have the “waddle”, although this may be inevitably on its’ way.   My advice to pregnant women is to continue being active. There are definitely days I’m feeling tired or achy, but I make myself “just do it” and I’m always glad I did. You will never regret a workout, just slow things down to what feels right in your body. I’ve prohibited myself from taking group classes at the gym because I know my competitive nature, and I could potentially push myself a bit too much. Know your limits and tendencies and work within that throughout your pregnancy.

I’ve had to give up running which I miss dearly. Cramping along with the constant preggers peeing factor did me in. I will be very much looking forward to getting back to running post-baby. Along with being able to get back to the full array of ab exercises and exercises and yoga poses that require you to lie on your stomach. Speaking of yoga, my friend Andrea and I (because of our Starving Yogis blog), were invited to do yoga in the window of Lululemon’s Natick store, a few weeks back. I most likely was the only preggo ever up in that window, there were some poses we didn’t do due to my “condition”, but for the most part we flowed through many traditional poses and rocked it out for an hour. It’s nice to let other women see that hell yeah you can be 8 months pregnant and still get up there in a window in a bright orange tank at a busy mall and be every bit as amazing of a yogi as you were pre-pregnancy.

Just because you are pregnant doesn’t mean you are any less sexy either! You don’t need to crawl under a rock for 40 weeks, rock what you’re working with. I did some oh la la sexy boudoir maternity photos at Ma Cherie in South Boston and am so happy I did. Will be great to look back at them.

Over these next 7 weeks (or who knows, maybe more, maybe less), I am getting excited and curious to meet the baby. And who knows, my odds of going into labor while training clients, at the gym, or in a yoga class, are pretty good…so fyi, the Brigham is where I’ll be delivering if I need a ride there 😉