I have seen in several of your Q&As that if a woman has been lifting regularly before pregnancy that they should be able to continue resistance training. I finally got my wife lifting end of March and she has been loving it. We recently learned that she is pregnant with our second child and our doctor told her that she shouldn’t deadlift, bench, or squat due to the strain it puts on the core. I want to respect our doctor but I also want my wife to continue the training she enjoys instead of going back to the beachbody type of workouts she dreaded doing before.
So TLDR: Is there a happy medium where my wife can continue resistance training, while still respecting her doctor’s opinion.
We would not agree with that advice, as concerns about “strain on the core” are made up and based on no evidence.
We would recommend all individuals with uncomplicated pregnancies meet physical activity guidelines for pregnancy.
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Thank you for the link! In the abstract it mentioned that the exercise routine may need to be modified due normal anatomic and physiologic changes and fetal requirements, is this suggesting modification to general training intensity(keeping RPE to 6-7) or exercise selection? Being a doctor yourself what is the best way to bring this up to our physician?
See the section in the article titled “Anatomic and Physiologic Aspects of Exercise in Pregnancy” for specific discussion of those changes. In general, there is not much there that would cause me to significantly modify a basic strength training program.
Finally, remember that your wife is the patient who is seeking consultation from the physician; the physician is not in charge of her and she does not need to ask her doctor’s permission to exercise. If there are specific contraindications to exercise (meaning: specific reasons she should NOT exercise, due to a pregnancy-related complication or underlying medical issue), it is certainly important for those to be discussed openly. However, if you want to include the physician in this process, it is fair to print out this article and share it with them.
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For what it’s worth, my wife had our baby in July. Her OB told her she could and should continue to train as much as she wanted as late in the pregnancy as she wanted. They even discussed barbell training and the doctor was all for it. I was encouraged to hear that.