Strength training vs. Cardio

Yesterday's Workout:
45-minute BodyJam Class
60-minute Burn & Firm Class

Total Time: 1 hour, 46 minutes
Average Heart Rate: 120
Total Calories Burned: 675


Today's Workout:
Treadmill (4 minutes running, 1 minute walking=25 minutes)
Total Body Workout (Circuit-style, 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise)

1A: Wide-grip lat pull-down

1B: Dumbbell side lunge

1C: One-arm dumbbell row

1D: Dumbbell squat

1E: Bicep Curl

2A: Narrow-grip reverse lat pull-down

2B: Reverse dumbbell lunge

2C: Wide grip barbell row

2D: Straight-leg dumbbell deadlift

2E: Triceps dips

Shoulder Complex (3 sets of 10 reps per exercise performed back-to-back)
3A: Press
3B: Lateral raise
3C: Upright row

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Average Heart Rate: 136
Total Calories Burned: 694

I really do love to workout. Sure there are days when I have to drag myself to the gym, but I never regret going and I always enjoy myself once I'm there. I'm pretty addicted to those endorphins that exercise gives me without fail.

For most of my adult life, I would be considered a cardio-junkie. I started running when I was 15 and ventured into aerobics classes, spinning and riding the elliptical in college. I ran three half-marathons while going to school at BYU and generally felt pretty good about my fitness abilities. My obsession with cardio workouts continued after my first child was born and when she was about 15 months old, I started training for my first marathon. I trained for about 3 months before I found out I was expecting baby #2 and I ended up running that marathon (Richmond) when I was 11 weeks pregnant! (Note: This is not something I would recommend doing nor do I ever plan on doing it in the future!!)

Soon after my second baby was born, I was back at the gym and a year later I was training for another marathon (Baltimore). Soon after that marathon though, I knew I needed a change in my workouts. While I had great cardio endurance, I felt really soft and I wanted to firm up a bit of that extra flab. Near the end of 2009, I began to get more serious about weight training and I loved the results. I finally started to see the changes that I had been seeking by combining quality cardio workouts with intense weight workouts and I really liked these changes. In the spring of 2010, I was healthier and thinner than I had even been in my adult life. I loved the way my body had changed due to weight training and loved the strong feeling it left me with after every workout. So with this pregnancy, I've changed things up a bit. In some ways, I'm performing an experiment with my own body. I exercised throughout my second pregnancy but it was almost all cardio-based. With this pregnancy, I'm still doing plenty of cardio workouts, but I am trying to emphasize doing more weight workouts as well this time around. I really like doing total body weight workouts and I do them circuit-style in order to get the most bang for my allotted time at the gym. I'm really interested to see the results of this informal "experiment," to see if I'm able to bounce back quicker after this pregnancy and how my body will respond to these changes. I guess we'll all find out in a few months!!

Benefits of exercise for those "with child"

Today's Workout:
45-minute BodyJam workout (This wasn't a very strenuous workout really, but it was a lot of fun!)
35-minutes Eliptical

(Photo found here)

Sometimes while I'm at the gym, I get compliments for continuing to exercise while pregnant. But there are other times when I get some really strange looks and even a few comments such as "Are you sure you should still be doing that?" or "What would your doctor say?" or even "Be careful with the baby!" Generally these looks and comments come from older people (say 60+) and I know that advice back when these people were having babies was far different than today's recommendations. Pregnancy back in the 1960s was considered more of a disease than a natural phase of life and women were encouraged to lead pretty sedentary lives and engage in lots of bedrest. Of course like everything else, exercise during pregnancy has gone through phases of various recommendations. In 9 BC, Plutarch stated that the women of Sparta "...should harden their bodies with exercise of running, wrestling, throwing the bar, and casting the dart, so that they, by gathering strength thus by exercise, should more easily away the pains of childbearing" (Shrock).

Hmmmm....I think I would REALLY get some strange looks if I started wrestling and casting darts during my gym time!

Advice shifted again early in the twentieth century, with doctors who feared that exercise could damage the fetus, and recommended bed rest for even their most athletic patients.

However, another shift has occurred with the current generation that highly recommends exercise during pregnancy. According to Babycenter.com, there are seven great benefits of pregnancy exercise...

1. Boost your energy
2. Sleep better
3. Reduce pregnancy discomfort
4. Prepare for childbirth
5. Reduce stress and lift your spirits
6. Improve your self-image
7. Get your body back faster after childbirth

I also read that it can result in easier and shorter labors (woohoo, who wouldn't want this?!?!) Some studies have also shown that those who regularly engage in physical activity during pregnancy tended to have smaller and healthier children. Obviously this can be different for every person though. I have been blessed with two healthy children but certainly not "smaller" babies (at least at birth anyway.) I ran a marathon with my last baby and exercised up until the day of delivery and he still came out a chunky-monkey at 9 lb 14 oz. But I tend to believe that because I was in pretty good shape going into that delivery, his birth was fairly smooth and I pushed him out in less than 10 minutes despite his big size.

Of course, there are many cases when a woman should use extreme caution when exercising while pregnant and many others who are required to remain on bedrest for a good portion of their pregnancies. And it isn't always easy to get out there and do it even during a normal pregnancy, especially during the first trimester when nausea can be so bad and during the third trimester when tiredness, achiness, and general "largeness" are difficult to overcome. But for healthy and normal pregnancies, exercise is great for both mother and baby and has many lasting benefits. Maybe I should make a t-shirt with all of these benefits and wear it to the gym to avoid those well-intentioned but ill-informed comments!!

I'm baaaack!!

Today's Workout:
25 minutes on treadmill (4 minutes running + 1 minute walking)
Total Body Circuit Training (3 sets of 12 for all exercises/60 second planks)
1A: Single-leg dumbbell straight-leg deadlift
1B: Jumping pullup
1C: Dumbbell swings
1D: Cable row
1E: Side plank
2A: Barbell row
2B: Underhand grip lat pulldown
2C: Straight-leg deadlift
2D: Rear lateral raise
2E: Plank

So after a three-month hiatus, I've decided to bring this blog back to life!! I am now 28 weeks pregnant and I thought that regularly blogging about fitness again will help to keep me motivated for these last 12 weeks before delivery. I am amazed at how fast this pregnancy is flying by!!28 weeks down...12 to go

(Please excuse my awkward right hand in this photo...I can never quite figure out where to place it!!)

I do have to admit something kind of embarrasing though...I think I need to invest in some bladder protection pads here pretty soon!! I've never been able to run this far into pregnancy before (with both of my other two pregnancies, I've always had to stop right around 20 weeks or so because it was just too uncomfortable.) I'm happy to say that at almost 7 months I am still running but my bladder is quite compromised with the extra baby weight pressing down on it. This is especially true when I run. I came off the treadmill today pretty sweaty and admittedly a bit leaky too. Anybody else have this problem? Please tell me I'm not the only one with terrible bladder control these days!!

(Disclaimer: "Running" is a pretty relative term these days. I am definitely slower and can't go as far, but I am still out there plugging along so I will still continue to call it "running" although "jogging" or even "shuffling" may be a bit more accurate!!)