Few natural life events are surrounded by more anxiety than conception, pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood.
Pregnancy is not a time of illness and staying active is highly recommended. What's important, is that you listen to your body and do what you feel is best for yourself and your baby.
Pregnancy is not a time of illness and staying active is highly recommended. What's important, is that you listen to your body and do what you feel is best for yourself and your baby.
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00:00The answer to, would I be able to stay active and keep cycling through pregnancy,
00:04has been a resounding yes. However, every element of motherhood is really individual.
00:10I'm keen to reassure the potential mums of the future that my own experience was not nearly
00:15so filled with the trials and tribulations that my social media feed implied it would be.
00:20However, every single one of those posts would have been someone else sharing their
00:24truth and their real experience and that's absolutely not to be undermined.
00:28The individual experience and individual nature of pregnancy is probably the reason
00:33why so much of the advice feels a bit vague and a bit woolly. There are very few studies
00:38because no researchers want to introduce any undue risk to an unborn child and you'd certainly
00:43be hard pressed to find a mother that would be happy to do that as well. Whilst early on in my
00:48pregnancy I found the advice that you listen to your body and do as you feel right extremely
00:53confusing and not very helpful, by the end I actually found it really quite liberating.
00:59Firstly, there isn't a medical expert out there, certainly that I've found,
01:02that will dispute the fact that in an uncomplicated pregnancy exercise is a
01:06healthy thing and it's to be advised. The UK Health Service, the NHS, advises that women
01:12continue activities that they already do and if they're not active they actually suggest they
01:17take up activity. Benefits of being active during pregnancy include a lower risk of
01:22gestational diabetes, lesser chance of problems during labour, lesser chance of gaining more weight
01:28than is perhaps necessary and also just a better overall mental and physical well-being.
01:34However, if you're already quite an active person, certainly if you're training for competition
01:39or just training to hit goals, some of the advice can seem really quite contradictory. For example,
01:45continue doing the exercise you already do but don't become breathless. There's advice such as
01:50you should be able to hold a conversation whilst exercising and do not exhaust yourself, which
01:54leads to the obvious question of, well what do I consider exhausting and how long does that
01:59conversation need to be? So here's my journey and the advice I picked up along the way from the
02:04likes of pro rider from Trek Segafredo Lizzie Deignan on her second pregnancy, as well as
02:09consultant Dr Sarah Rollins who contributed to the guidelines that are used by the Ministry of
02:14Defence. The first trimester was the one where I struggled the most with what felt like an information
02:19void. Thankfully, I didn't need to worry. I spoke to Dr Sarah Rollins, the exercise physiologist who
02:24worked with a team of experts to write the guidelines used by trainers at the Ministry of
02:29Defence to advise military staff on what they should be doing during pregnancy
02:35and also afterwards during recovery. The most questions I found came up in the first trimester
02:42because partly you've got no one to speak to. I think that's probably the biggest thing is if
02:47you've not told anyone you're pregnant, you can't ask someone how to do things when you're pregnant.
02:52And the main thing that I worried about was heart rate, mainly because I think at about
02:58eight weeks I read a blog post by an athlete that had said they've specifically been told you
03:05mustn't let your heart rate go over this set rate. I would be really keen to understand from
03:09from your point of view and your training and understanding, how do women regulate heart rate?
03:16How important is it? Why is it? Do we need to worry as much?
03:22So from the evidence that we've gathered, I would suggest that the heart rate is useful
03:29to understanding what zone you might want to work in. But from a danger point of view, the main dangers
03:36that are perceived and have been demonstrated in animal studies is that you want to make sure you
03:42avoid hypothermia, hyperthermia, so getting too hot, and dehydration. And so the heart rate
03:50guidelines, which are going to be really variable in different women and particularly as you get
03:55pregnant, as your vascular resistance goes down, so all the blood moves from a kind of central
04:00location and starts moving into your periphery instead, you're going to have different heart
04:05rate zones. And so I think that the thing to focus on is not so much your heart rate, but rather
04:14listening to your body about how hard you're working and avoiding that kind of the generation
04:20of heat that would potentially be risky around the time when the fetus or the embryo is developing.
04:27And so I suppose people might use heart rate as a kind of surrogate measure of how hard you're
04:33working and therefore you would perhaps, they're suggesting that you steer clear of the very high
04:39heart rate so that you don't get too hot. But actually, if you are exercising in a dry environment
04:45and you are, you know, not over straining, and it's cool, then the risk to the embryo is going
04:55to be very low because you're going to be able to, as any other human being, you're going to be able
04:59to dissipate heat. I think as well a really nice mental tip I heard was that, you know, the reality
05:04is you're not going to be racing any time soon, you're going to have a baby. And so if you're not
05:09going to be racing for at least a year, what are you training for? You know, it makes more sense
05:15just to train to be healthy. Yeah, exactly. I read a lot around blood volume, which I think you've
05:20probably already touched on, that can increase by 50 percent, which sounds absolutely huge.
05:25What effect does that have and is there anything you need to do to, like drinking more, to mitigate,
05:33or not to mitigate it, to cater for it? So your body will naturally decide how much fluid it needs
05:38and it's going to, it's increased its plasma volume, so the extra, the water content of the
05:45blood essentially. And that's why you get this relative apparent loss of red blood cells,
05:51they're just swimming around in a lot more water. And yes, so your body will just, instead of you
05:59peeing the water out, it will just keep the water that it needs and the hormones will
06:03adjust that accordingly. But it will want you to maintain that level, so obviously you then
06:07need to make sure that sweat loss is replaced essentially. But yes, there's nothing you need
06:16to particularly worry about that, your body will just do it naturally. Certainly from a medical
06:20perspective, the recommendations are quite firmly that we shouldn't be bumping the bump,
06:24because that is dangerous to the unborn baby and potentially to the mother. And so I guess
06:32different ladies will have different approaches to risk, and so certainly while the womb is still
06:38within the pelvis, it's going to be safe because it's still low enough that it's not going to be
06:44up in the abdomen and then affected. So in your first trimester up to about week 12.
06:50But then after that, as the womb starts to rise out of the pelvis, that's going to be a time when
06:55you need to start thinking about, I really shouldn't be falling off this bicycle.
07:00We mustn't be frightened, we have to be very respectful of the fact that yes,
07:06we're carrying a baby and we want to make sure that we protect that baby and we don't want to
07:11bump the bump. But at the same time, it's not a time of illness. And we should be confident in
07:19our bodies that we're going to know the times when you feel at risk. And there are lots of
07:26things that you can do to stay active, because it's so important to be active during pregnancy,
07:32because it's good for you. And it's good for the baby, it's good for the mind.
07:36And it will mean that you don't become deconditioned afterwards. So it's about
07:41adjusting things. So exercise during pregnancy is advised as long as we avoid getting too hot,
07:47respect the fact that we are now carrying another very small human being and also listen to our
07:53bodies. However, what happens if the symptoms of pregnancy make exercise undesirable or perhaps
07:59even impossible? The first 12 weeks of pregnancy bring with them nausea, bloating,
08:05tiredness and a myriad of other really bizarre symptoms. Every single symptom that you google
08:10followed by and pregnancy returns pretty much the same response. This symptom during pregnancy is
08:17caused by changing levels in hormones. It's really quite incredible how quite so many seemingly
08:23unrelated symptoms can be caused by hormones. And it shows you quite how powerful they are.
08:28To learn more about that, I spoke to Dr. Georgie Brunvelds. She's the lead scientist
08:33at Orico Health and also co-founder of women's health tracking app, Fitter Woman.
08:39I mean, my sort of take on the first trimester now looking back in my third,
08:43was that it was effectively like a 12 week hangover. That's pretty much how it felt.
08:48It wasn't awful, but suddenly every time that I felt really tired, and I didn't want to exercise,
08:54if I did it anyway, and with the kind of understanding of like, I can do the first 10
08:59minutes and if I don't feel good, I will get off. Consistently, it made me feel better.
09:05Do we sort of understand why that might be? Yeah. I mean, I just love what you just said
09:10about how I do it. I'd see how I was after 10 minutes and then I'd reevaluate. And I think
09:16firstly, you've hit the nail on the head of how I believe and from the athletes I've worked with,
09:20exercise should be approached through pregnancy. It's all on that, how are you feeling? And
09:25being okay to be flexible. If one day, actually, you felt really nauseous all morning,
09:30and you're used to training in the morning, well, train later on in the day, or think,
09:34actually, I'll just train tomorrow, or I'll pull back a bit.
09:36Around this fatigue, what I found really frustrating is, so I wear a Garmin watch,
09:40and I can, so I can monitor my sleep. And I mean, I was falling asleep at 9pm every night.
09:45So I was getting lots of hours of sleep, but it was really, it was consistently saying poor
09:50quality. And I can compare the difference because I was wearing it before. Do we know why sleep is
09:56suddenly extremely poor? Yeah, no, that's a really good question. And there's a few different reasons
10:01and potential theories behind this. So I guess first thing, obviously, your body is going through
10:05so many changes, and your body has to work hard to adapt to that, to adapt to that and deal with
10:11that. And there's also lots of potentially associated symptoms, as we've already spoken
10:15about, whether it's nausea, whether it's lower back pain, whether it's mood changes, feeling
10:21more emotional, and all of those can obviously affect you at night as well. So that's important
10:26to consider. We also know that you might need to go to the toilet more, which can disrupt your
10:32sleep, result in less deep sleep. Getting up and down obviously isn't ideal. And we also know that
10:39restless leg syndrome, which I already mentioned, that can really affect people at night. And
10:44I think that is potentially one of the primary causes why people just feel a little bit more
10:49uncomfortable. And again, as we already said, there are so many potential symptoms because
10:54these hormones are systemic. I find it really frustrating wearables and they need to factor
11:00in the fact that you might be pregnant and actually there should be a feature and I know
11:04that there are in some where you can say actually I'm pregnant because otherwise you're just
11:08constantly getting frustrated and feeling, you know, women typically harden themselves and they
11:14think, God, what's wrong with me? And actually often, you know, this is normal for being
11:18pregnant. But it's great that you're getting more sleep and you're actually recognising, and it's
11:23likely the progesterone that's saying to you, God, I feel a bit more fatigued, I do need a bit more
11:28sleep to accommodate it. There are a lot of physiological changes that happen early on in
11:33pregnancy that can mean that you all of a sudden can't produce the same power that you could, which
11:39feels very strange because at the time you don't look pregnant, everything about you feels, well,
11:44nothing about you feels normal, but, you know, suddenly there's this drop off in power and your
11:51heart rate responds differently. Why is that and how can you sort of adjust exercise? Should you
11:56adjust exercise in line? Yeah, no, really good and important questions and just so crucial to getting
12:02right throughout the whole pregnancy actually. So first thing to say is we know that resting heart
12:07rate slightly increases and alongside that, we know that heart rate variability slightly
12:12decreases. So if you're someone who is wearing your garment and monitoring yourself overnight
12:17or wearing a wearable and monitoring yourself overnight and during exercise, you will start
12:21to see that decrease in heart rate variability and increase in resting heart rate and during
12:27exercise, you will see an increase in heart rate as well. Totally normal, totally natural,
12:32again, in response to these hormonal changes. So it's very normal and natural, but what I really
12:38would encourage people to do is to track these because they really are signs. So with your
12:43heart rate during exercise, for example, we say up to 85% of your max is where you should kind of
12:51yeah, perfect. And you shouldn't ideally go above that and use that alongside your RPE. So monitoring
12:57your self-regulation of how am I feeling? Am I feeling good today? Am I a bit tired? Does this
13:04feel like it's enough? I would also actually really highlight during exercise, making sure
13:08you've got fluids available, making sure you've got food available and the recovery window is so
13:14important because that's where your body needs to be nourished very quickly. And if we also think in
13:20your pre-exercise nutrition, making sure that you're going into exercise fully fueled. If you're
13:26someone who might please don't do this, but train on empty, you do not want to be doing this during
13:33pregnancy. So that will, that can cause potential harm for the developing foetus. I was actually
13:39really lucky in terms of nausea. So to provide some balance on that, we've spoken to Lizzie
13:43Dignan as she really struggled with that a lot more in her second pregnancy. It is also really
13:49important to note that if you're actively throwing up and it's happening often, then you should speak
13:53to your doctor or midwife. I did have some ways of nausea, but I generally found if I ate some carbs
13:59it passed. So basically toast was my friend. Fatigue was definitely an issue for me. I fell
14:05asleep by 9pm on the sofa pretty much every night and I struggled with my new 2pm slump whilst
14:11working. That probably wasn't helped by the advice that I dropped my caffeine intake from
14:16about 3pm before 11am to 1pm all day. Morning, it is 4.30am. I've been lying in bed for about
14:26half an hour deciding whether I should get up and just make a piece of toast or try to go back to
14:31sleep. Finally opted for get up and make some toast, which is what I've been doing good, you know,
14:39not every night, pretty often for quite a while and just seem to sort of wake up in the middle of the
14:44well. Wake up really early morning, starving hungry and can't go back to sleep till I get up
14:49and eat something. So that's a bit annoying, but I guess it's probably decent prep for when we've
14:57got a very small baby that's also going to wake up easily at 4am. So there we go.
15:06The one person who is a big fan of the early morning wake-ups is Alvin, although he's a
15:12little confused as to whether it's breakfast time yet or not.
15:20The experience is different for everyone and can vary for different pregnancies as well,
15:24as I found out when I spoke to Lizzie. I can't tell you how reassuring it was to hear from her,
15:29both in terms of how quickly she returned to fitness, but also how balanced she was in her
15:34approach. So I'm here with Lizzie Deignan. We were thrilled to hear that you're expecting your
15:39second child in September. How are you feeling for starters? I can finally say I'm feeling good,
15:45but it's taken a little while to get here. I'm 19 weeks now, but it's definitely been a much
15:51harder pregnancy than with my daughter, but I'm in the golden second trimester, so I'm okay now.
15:57Yeah, I somewhat missed that slightly. The golden second trimester.
16:01Yeah, it absolutely is the case though. But I would love to hear about how you felt so far
16:06this time and how that compares to the first time. So starting with the first trimester,
16:12what was it like with your daughter and how was it compared this time?
16:16So with my daughter, I definitely had nausea for the first 12 weeks and some tiredness,
16:22but this time around I had nausea until last week, so 18 weeks, and I was just completely
16:29floored by fatigue. I got much bigger, much quicker, more quickly. So I mean, the size I am
16:36now is, you know I'm pregnant, whereas with all the people at 20 weeks didn't know I was
16:41pregnant still. So things like riding my bike have been much harder this time around.
16:46And did you have any kind of coping strategies with the nausea that helped?
16:51Eating crisps and chips and anything salty and fatty. I really, that was, my mum said,
16:58eat what you can to survive. And I really just did that. I mean, it wasn't a time to be sticking
17:03to any kind of nutritional plan or whatever. It was all about just being flexible and doing what
17:07I could to get through the day, to be honest. What was your riding like last time? Did you
17:12ride predominantly indoors or were you outdoors as well? So in the beginning with Orla, I rode
17:18predominantly indoors until my mental health needed to be outside. I'm really a person that
17:24needs fresh air. And I kind of made my own assessment, my own risk assessments. And I did
17:29start to ride outside. So low traffic times and quiet roads, stuff like that. And I still do
17:36ride outside now, yeah. I mean, have you had much advice? The thing I struggled with a lot
17:40initially was I didn't really know anything about sort of heart rate caps or like overheating,
17:46things like that. And I probably found that out a bit later, which was obviously quite stressful
17:50because you think, oh God, what have I done? Yeah. Did you get much guidance on that? And
17:55did you find it useful? Have you decided to go with a heart rate cap or anything like that?
18:00I very much go day by day, feeling by feeling. And I think every pregnancy is different. I know
18:05that now. Every woman is different. I'm very fortunate that I really have always been a rider,
18:11even when I'm training professionally, that I trust my body and the way it feels. And I'm
18:16very sensitive to how I feel. So I trust my own instincts. So like with Aller, I thought,
18:22oh, I'll try swimming. I'll try a different sport. And I just didn't know myself as a swimmer. So I
18:28stopped swimming because I didn't know where my boundaries were. But because I cycle so much,
18:32I feel that I really know my own limits and capabilities. And I'm actually someone who
18:38quite enjoys the process of detraining and letting my body take over and the baby be in charge. I'm
18:45not someone who is desperately grabbing on to keeping as much fitness as I can. I kind of trust
18:50the process of letting it go. And I'd love to know how you felt after you had Aller,
18:58because there's a sudden drop off when you just can't produce the power you used to produce.
19:03And once you'd had Aller, did that almost come back quite quickly? Or was it a really long,
19:08slow? I had a full six weeks off after having Aller. I had a natural delivery with Aller. And
19:16I'm lucky, no complications, healthy baby, et cetera. But I still needed six weeks to adjust
19:22to becoming a new mom, to feeling comfortable on the saddle and things like that. And
19:26I had Aller on the 23rd of September. And I didn't do any training as such until December.
19:31So I was just riding my bike. But I was shocked how fast I got fit. Really, really shocked how
19:37quickly it all came back, considering I'd done as much as I could in pregnancy, but I'd still
19:42had that solid six weeks off. But yeah, it really surprised me. It really comes back quickly.
19:48Yeah. I mean, I remember I spoke to you when you were pregnant with Aller a long time ago now,
19:53I suppose. And you'd spoken about, previously, you were doing about 20 hours a week. And at the
19:58time, you were doing about 10. Has this been kind of quite similar?
20:02Um, probably less. Yeah, 10 weeks would be a good week this time around. And I've just had
20:07to accept that. It's just simply not been possible for me. And it's incredible to see
20:12how different it is for different women. There are women who at 20 weeks can still do a 20-hour week.
20:18But absolutely no way. Perhaps it's because I also have to take care of Aller as well.
20:24Or perhaps I'm just more comfortable taking a step back. I trust the process of
20:30regaining my fitness postpartum. Yeah, I guess having done it once before, you've seen
20:35what that was like. And as a result, yeah, absolutely. And I'd love to hear just if you
20:40have five tips for women that are either thinking about getting pregnant or currently pregnant,
20:47about how to keep moving or to stay, I guess, physically and mentally happy, rather than
20:53pushing themselves to do more than maybe they want to. But what would you say?
20:57Um, a massive thing that we all do anyway is comparison. But I think particularly when
21:03you're pregnant, and it's your first time, you're desperate to know how big your bump should be,
21:08how big the baby is, or you know, the fruit, how big the baby is compared to fruit and all these
21:13different things. And the point is that every pregnancy in every woman is different. And it's
21:18just pointless comparing. I mean, like, scientifically, they say your first trimester,
21:23you don't need to put that much weight on. Whereas for me, as a very lean athlete,
21:28in my first 12 weeks, I put on most of the weight, and I really slow down towards the end.
21:36And I, you know, I remember my first pregnancy, oh my goodness, I'm like, putting on 300% more
21:41than they're telling me to what am I going to feel or look like by the end, but it's just,
21:46it's pointless making comparisons. I would also say it's really not a good idea to try and set
21:52goals because you may feel great one week and completely flawed the next. You just have to
21:58really be flexible, listen to your body, take it day by day. I think it's important to express
22:04your feelings to the people around you, because it's a very emotional and hormonal time. And I
22:10find that just being able to express myself, talk to my husband about the way I feel,
22:15helps me kind of rationalise my internal thoughts a lot of the time.
22:19And just try and enjoy the process. I think it's hard for some people to let go.
22:25But it is a pretty magical thing that your body is doing, powerful thing. And
22:30it's okay to not be in charge, because your body will come back to you eventually. But right now,
22:36the most important thing it's doing is being a safe, healthy environment for your child. So
22:42just go with the flow. The second trimester is often referred to as the golden trimester.
22:48Whilst it's not the case for everybody, a lot of women find that nausea and fatigue at the
22:53first trimester have begun to subside. You're not quite so round of stomach that day to day
22:58activities are difficult. I can't say the entirety of the second trimester was entirely golden for
23:04me. The first half was great. I could still run for 90 minutes and ride a bike for about three
23:09hours with some friends if I wanted to. I was slow, but I was really enjoying being active.
23:14All right, so it is Thursday morning. I was shooting video yesterday and got back quite
23:21late. So I thought, well, I fell asleep on the sofa really early, which meant I woke up early.
23:26So I thought I'd have a go at a morning run because I've been doing most of my training
23:29in the evening. And it was just really nice. But it's definitely starting to feel quite hard.
23:34There's a couple of little hills that feel a lot harder than they used to. But it was so nice and
23:41there were some lands in the field that was really cute. And yeah, I'm now feeling pretty
23:47pumped for a day of work. Although last time I went for a lunchtime swim, I did then feel knackered
23:52all afternoon. So we'll see how productive I am when I actually get to my desk. Wish me luck.
23:58The second half was a bit more of a roller coaster. Firstly, I did a bit too much exercise
24:03in one week and gave myself quite a bit of pelvic pain, which was far from ideal. And then I got
24:09COVID, which again was quite suboptimal. However, I did decide that it was better to have COVID at
24:1426 weeks than 36 weeks. On the pelvic pain front, at around 22 weeks, I was having a little bit of
24:22a meltdown and imagining that by week 30, I would be in a wheelchair. Thankfully for me, that wasn't
24:27the case. Once I removed a few exercises from my routine, it got an awful lot better. However,
24:34pelvic girdle pain is something that a lot of women do really struggle with during pregnancy,
24:39and it can become quite severe. I spoke to a physiotherapist, Nick Roberts, about this and
24:44all things pregnancy. So thank you for making time to speak to me. It's really great. We had a good
24:50chat at around 20 weeks. And there were a few things there that I wanted to sort of recap,
24:56and then some more things have popped up since then. The thing that we spoke about must have
25:01been, I think I was about 22 weeks. And I did have a bit of a meltdown because I just did really
25:07too much exercise, I think, in one week and really gave myself a lot of pelvic pain. So it was all
25:13kind of along here to the point that just walking upstairs, like closing the dishwasher with my foot,
25:18you know, as you do, just like just anything that was really, really quite painful. And we spoke a
25:25lot about what the cause of that was. And, you know, how I could avoid it, because my fear was,
25:31okay, well, it's 22 weeks, I've got another 18 weeks to go. Is this the beginning of the end
25:38for me and my active lifestyle? And thankfully, that wasn't the case. So yeah, what would be
25:44kind of good to understand? I mean, that pain is usually called pelvic girdle pain.
25:49What is that? And what are the kind of triggers? Okay, so pelvic girdle pain is sort of a blanket
25:57term for any pain that you might get around the pelvis during pregnancy. And the reason this
26:03happens is because of, well, there's different thoughts on it, actually. But one of the suggestions
26:09is because of the increase of hormone relaxin that is in your system to allow movement of your pelvis
26:18to increase the space for the birth canal for the baby to come out. So because of that, there's more
26:27changes happening through the pelvis. And it also means that the pelvis, which is normally really
26:32solid and strong, has the potential to shift slightly. And so this can cause pain. Pelvic
26:38girdle pain also covers exactly what you were describing. So pain coming in through the groin,
26:44and it can also be pain around the back. So here you've got your sacroiliac joint,
26:50so your sacrum and your iliums, and you can have pain running through the back here. So
26:54it can be the hips, it can be the back, the lower back, it can be the front, and it can also be
27:01quite severe pain right over the front of your pubic bone. One of the first things I'd say if
27:06you start to notice it would generally be to try and rest from whatever activity you've been doing.
27:12So try and give your body a chance to catch up. Some of these changes happen in different stages
27:18and at different speeds. So it's not that it happens very, very gradually. Sometimes it can
27:23be, well, you know, it's changing. And over those two weeks, you might have to really limit your
27:27activity. And then you can build back into it. So a bit like for yourself, it was not that suddenly
27:34it changed and it stayed like that. For some people it is, the pain comes and it doesn't go
27:40away. So it's about balancing your activity. One thing that can help is to wear a support belt. So
27:47a belt that goes around the bottom of the pelvis and can also support the bump a little bit,
27:52adds a bit of compression to the pelvis and makes it feel a bit more comfortable to do
27:56day-to-day activities. Cycling is actually, by virtue of the fact you're on a saddle and it's
28:01fairly supported, is normally pretty good. The only thing is with cycling is obviously,
28:08as you get bigger, there's the baby. So you have to change the bike fit a little bit to
28:13accommodate that, which is where if you normally use a road bike, it would mean
28:19lifting the handlebars. Some people have even tried, you can turn the handlebars around. So
28:24rather than being on the drops, you can turn them up. So you can use it in that direction.
28:28And also using a mountain bike is good because you're in a more, or a hybrid bike, you're in a
28:33more upright position. So there's more space. During pregnancy, you read a lot about pelvic
28:38floor exercises, how often you should be doing them. I mean, my first question, we'll talk about
28:44postpartum as well, but my first question is how often someone that's quite athletic should be
28:51doing them? Or are there, I mean, the standard kind of Kegel exercise that most people find
28:59anywhere. Is that the best thing to do? Or are there other exercises that perhaps we're already
29:05doing that we're not aware of exercising the pelvic floor? I think it is important to do
29:11pelvic floor exercises through pregnancy. And yeah, the general sort of thing I would advise is
29:20the basic Kegels, which is feeling like you're holding onto a tampon, or if you're sitting on
29:25a chair, feeling like you're lifting up away from the chair. It's important that it's to remind
29:30yourself, it's a gentle exercise. It's not squeezing the buttocks. It's not using your
29:33abdominals. It's a very gentle lift and then relax. The best way to know that you're doing
29:41it correctly would be to see a women's health physio. I think during pregnancy, particularly
29:46if you're quite athletic and exercising a lot, it's important to not overdo it. So not get hooked
29:53on it, to not do many of them throughout the day, because we don't want to increase, make it too
29:57hypertonic. So important to do them, but don't get overly hooked on them would be my advice.
30:04And I have noticed in later stages, so really more of a third trimester thing, that in some
30:09exercises, I do get what I think is called sort of doming, you know, when this centre of your
30:14stomach suddenly becomes domed, which is very weird to look at. But I mean, that would to me
30:21suggest that maybe there's just that bit too much stress going through the abdomen. And maybe those
30:25exercises are not the best thing. Yeah. And I think, you know, as I was saying that the,
30:30your normal six pack has changed. Most of us have to imagine.
30:36They're always there. They're just slightly, slightly hidden. So your six pack has changed.
30:42It's given space for the baby. So when we think, when exercises are designed, they're designed to
30:49work along muscle fibres and work along the activity of that muscle. That's why we do them.
30:54So the rectus abdominis works in this position to create a curl. But because the rectus abdominis
31:01has now changed, it's more in that position. If you're doing a curl or a sit up or using your
31:06abdomen, it's working in a different way. So it's not really, you're not really doing the exercise
31:11it's designed for. And I suggest if you're getting that doming, that you're just putting too much
31:15load through and the muscles aren't able to, to cope with that. Things did get harder as the bump
31:21grows, your organs are effectively forced to relocate slightly. And that can result in
31:26breathlessness, which is something that I noticed both on the bike and just also going about daily
31:31activities like walking up the stairs. So just coming down after one of the baby on board workouts.
31:38That one is called a gentle reminder. And it is actually the last in the series. I do wonder if
31:43it's meant to be the hardest. Name kind of implies it. It's definitely feeling quite hard.
31:50Yeah, it's a really great session. And what I quite like is that towards the end of each
31:54sort of six-minute interval, I definitely just nudging the heart rate threshold that I've set
31:59myself. So it shows that they're really well thought out because to be getting pretty much
32:05exactly there means I'm pushing myself a lot overly hard. Pretty hot. Obviously got the fan
32:12on full blast, all the windows open. But yeah, looking forward to a nice chilled out cool down
32:18and getting on with my day. However, during the second trimester, I did find that I had a lot more
32:23energy. So as well as the Zwift Baby on board sessions, which are designed specifically for
32:28pregnancy and are highly recommended and really helped me out a lot during the first trimester,
32:33I also started doing more of the Wahoo System Sufferfest sessions. I just reduced my bias to
32:3980 to 85% and I found I could complete those sessions without going over the heart rate
32:44threshold that I'd set myself. In the gym, I did find that anything lying on my back for some time
32:50was becoming a little bit uncomfortable. So I just switched those exercises up, for example,
32:54using incline benches. And I also cut out a lot of the single leg exercises that I would usually do
33:00and swap those for double leg versions of the same, just to avoid flaring up that pelvic pain.
33:06I was actually pretty amazed at how consistent I was able to be with exercise. Yes, the volume was
33:11lower and intensity was definitely lower, but I could still continue to do about an hour a day
33:16without really any problems. During the second trimester, I started to find that my road bike
33:21wasn't really all that comfortable and I made changes at about week 20. That just meant simply
33:26flipping the stem, which brought up the front end of the bike. Most of my bikes are aggressive road
33:32racing frames and generally I have cut the steerer and slam the stem. So I've made it really
33:37quite difficult for myself. By week 27, I found that I was actually just much more comfortable
33:43on a mountain bike. Finally, onto the third trimester or the home stretch. This section
33:49is going to be a little bit shorter because I found not really an awful lot changed. Physically,
33:54yes, the bump grew bigger and also kicks became a lot more frequent and a little bit painful from
34:00time to time. But in terms of being able to be physically active, not a lot changed. I found that
34:06the pelvic pain from the second trimester really subsided and dramatically improved and the amount
34:12of time I could sleep for increased as well, albeit still rated poor quality thanks to Garmin.
34:20This really surprised me because I'd always seen the third trimester as a time that it would sort
34:23of be all right to just give up. But the fact is, I wasn't inclined to and I didn't want to
34:28stop being active. We're now at week 31, well into the first trimester. I had a week off work,
34:35which has been pretty nice. I actually got a fair amount of riding in, so a good 10 hours
34:40worth of exercise this week, which has been quite nice to see that I can still do that
34:48because I suppose I haven't up until now, but actually largely because work's getting in the
34:53way as opposed to necessarily physical capacity. Some three-hour mountain bike rides,
35:00definitely felt like I had to keep fueling during that, definitely need more food.
35:06But overall, it's been actually really quite easy. No hard rides, they've all been pretty
35:11chill, but a couple of little efforts. There's always efforts required in a natural terrain.
35:16It's all been on the mountain bike and actually the mountain bike has been worth its weight in
35:20gold, which is actually not that much weight, but just that position is so much easier to adopt.
35:25I think like the road bike, it really starts to kind of hurt around my stomach and my lower back
35:30as well after a couple of hours, whereas on the mountain bike, it's just easy as well. I think
35:35the gearing helps a lot because certainly on a road bike, as soon as there's a little hill,
35:40I'm kind of leg pressing, which kind of feels like, I don't know, maybe that'll have some sort of
35:45helpful payoff in the legs one day. I don't know, probably not because I'm sort of a much
35:50lower capacity, but on the mountain bike, I can just spin, it feels natural, it's just nice to
35:54get out. So it's certainly not about fitness or about training or anything like that. It's just
35:59nice to get outside and enjoy the things that I usually enjoy. It's nice that I can still do that
36:05because I never anticipated that would be the case. So, so far, so good. I did have some fun
36:12with Braxton Hicks contractions, basically practice contractions, and life got pretty
36:17busy with midwife appointments every two weeks, antenatal appointments every week,
36:21viewing nurseries, preparing our nursery at home. It was a lot to have going on all at once,
36:27but not enough to stop me riding my bike. Well, for now, that's all that I can share. I hope that
36:33you found this video reassuring if you're looking to cycle and stay active during pregnancy. However,
36:39it's important to remember that every pregnancy is unique. Speak to your healthcare professional
36:44before deciding what exercise to undertake. And of course, listen to your own body. After all,
36:51you know it best. So we, nine weeks postpartum, our baby is nine weeks in just two days. And we
36:59are settling into life as a family. So it's been a gradual return back to exercise. I started off
37:04with a couple of the baby on board sessions. I don't still have a baby on board, but I certainly
37:09have a baby very prevalent in my life. And they just helped me to ease back in. And then I started
37:15on the Sufferfest sessions, starting initially with the 4DP set to kind of 80%, then 85. And I
37:22did do a session with a few intervals at 100% yesterday. I certainly would have done the whole
37:28session at 100%. And I've been able to get outside on the bike as well. And on the days that I'm not
37:35outside on the bike, we've been doing an awful lot of sling walks. For years in my 20s, I knew
37:40that I wanted to have children at some point. But I was very nervous about the implication that would
37:45have. And of course, I've got a long way to go and a lot to learn and find out. But for me, pregnancy
37:52and those early weeks were not what I expected. And yes, of course, there were stressful moments,
37:57there were hard moments, I wouldn't sugarcoat that. But equally, there have been so many beautiful
38:03moments that have far, far outweighed the difficulty. And that is something that I just
38:07wanted to share. And I guess make an audience aware of because for me, it looked like there was
38:15far greater amounts of anxiety and negativity. But that's just not been my experience.
38:22Hey, babe. And we have had a wonderful time. So much joy and so much happiness.
38:30And that's really where I wanted to end. We've got many future adventures ahead. We are looking
38:36at some of those kind of top two baby seats. So I hope you've enjoyed this video. I hope that
38:40it's shown that whilst pregnancy can be very difficult, there can be instances where you
38:45won't be able to exercise. It's certainly not always the case. And you can have an active
38:50pregnancy and enjoy being active as your baby grows older. So I think that's it over and out.
38:59And on to the future.