[steffie]

Hi! I’m working through my first trimester of my first pregnancy right now and am curious about other’s experiences with staying active during pregnancy, particularly regarding longer durations. I’ve definitely slowed down, and am not out as often for as long, but am still going for ski tours that last a couple hours. I find myself drinking more, and taking longer to recover, but keeping the pace conversational I physically feel fine (even if mentally it is hard to move so much slower than ‘normal’ pre-pregnancy pace). Everything I’ve read says that in general exercise is good, but most of the recommendations are for 20-30 minutes sessions. So, what are the potential downsides of 3-4 hour ski tour once a week (as opposed the 4-8 hour ski tours a few days week that were normal pre-pregnancy)?

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on February 26, 2020 at 1:43 pm #38789

Congrats on your pregnancy! While the recommendations have been for much shorter duration, current research doesn’t show any adverse effects if you have a normal pregnancy and I think that recommendations are changing (hopefully!). I went on long mountain runs during both of my pregnancies and was totally fine. This article is really well-written and reinforced my gut feeling that I wasn’t doing any harm: https://www.irunfar.com/2017/12/baby-on-board-long-distance-running-during-pregnancy.html

As long as you’re feeling good, keep at it!

[steffie]

steffie on February 28, 2020 at 11:08 am #38947

Awesome- thanks so much Alison! That IRunFar article was great, and reinforced my gut feelings that as I long as I feel good, what I’m doing is not detrimental (and may even be good!). Now I just need to energy levels back up and I can keep going out:)

[wang.lisay]

wang.lisay on March 11, 2020 at 9:16 am #39444

Hi, i thought i could offer my personal experience here. I’m at 17 weeks now, and i was skitouring at 14 weeks, although i did notice i had gotten much slower and i couldn’t carry all of my gear anymore because i couldn’t cinch my hip straps, so my husband carried my crampons and ice ax. I noticed some “round ligament pain” after walking on flat terrain for a long period of time. Downhill still felt good.

I personally did summits around 3000 meters with about 1000m of altitude gain and felt good about it, but i didn’t push higher because i had a guilty conscience since the medical guidelines are no sports above 2500. i stretched it by about 500 m. Placenta hemoglobin has a higher affinity for oxygen than maternal but i don’t know enough about the biology to understand the actual risks. I couldn’t find any medical studies that showed evidence against female alpine athletes but my doctor friends told me that starting at 2000m a person is technically hypoxic and there is less than maximum/normal oxygen saturation in the blood.

At this point, the reason we aren’t going skitouring on the weekends is because I live in Germany and the coronavirus has made travel into Austria and Switzerland questionable starting from 2 weeks ago. If we could, we would. unfortunately skitouring season is most likely over for us, but multi-pitch climbing is starting soon 😉

[wang.lisay]

wang.lisay on March 12, 2020 at 6:56 am #39463

also, relevant point, i live not far off from sea level (500 m elevation) so i do notice the altitude when i am in the alps. if i were living at 1500m or 2000m i think i would have made very different calls regarding how hard to push it and how high to summit when moving above 2500 m.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on March 12, 2020 at 10:18 pm #39509

@wang.lisay, that’s awesome! One thing I used as I got bigger was a maternity support belt. The brand I had was Gabriella. I tried putting in the link but it didn’t go. Keep it up!

[steffie]

steffie on March 18, 2020 at 3:11 pm #39676

Thanks @wang.lisay! I’ve definitely been wondering about altitude. I live in Salt Lake which is about at about 4,000 ft/1200 m and have did a few tours where I was over 10,000 ft/ 3000 m with total elevation gains of 4,000 ft/ over 1000 m. I wasn’t that high for too long so I’m too worried (I was also very conscientious to keep the pace easy, and stay well hydrated and fed) but it definitely does make me think. And now with Covid-19 I’m just hoping I can keep trail running.

And I was curious about climbing- do you have a special harness? I’m just starting to get a a bump I’m at 14 weeks) and am worried about how much longer my harness will fit.

@Alison Naney I’ll definitely check out the Gabriella maternity support belt. As my bump is starting to grow I can see it making running uncomfortable.

[wang.lisay]

wang.lisay on March 19, 2020 at 1:36 am #39683

The german alpine club is recommending at this point against bouldering and climbing due to the coronavirus, logic being if something happens and you need a hospital bed, then it was an avoidable situation. while limiting, i can understand… i went bouldering last weekend at 18 weeks and just didn’t top out anything high. i am 5’1″ and there is a reasonable chance that i fit into the kids harness that my stepson grew out of.. but i’m certain that at least two out of three of my climbing harnesses still fit. the only one i’ve grown out of is my smallest one. i feel like i’m ‘popping’ and ‘showing’ less than a lot of women at my stage, and i wonder if having done years of overhanging climbing is somehow related to core muscles that make it harder for the uterus to pop? what i have really noticed in the last week is that my pelvic region is very sore after running, and i think thats related to the destabilization of the area from the ligaments softening. my midwife (in germany every woman gets a midwife as well as an obgyn) suggested a few exercises but i haven’t really figured this out yet…. in general, my midwife told me that my body will let me know if i should stop because it won’t feel good (re bouldering etc etc). and i’m just going to keep doing whatever feels good.. i have noticed pull-ups don’t feel good. i feel like i’m straining something in the middle of my chest below my sternum. bouldering with dynamic moves that cut both feet felt fine… so yeah..