A Powerlifter Has A Baby - My Pregnancy/Postpartum Story

markedbychrist

New member
I’d like to share my experience so far going through pregnancy, birth and postpartum in the fitness sense—more specifically, as a powerlifter. I was so frustrated at the lack of content I found searching during pregnancy (thank you Meg Squats for leading the way!) Although I didn’t do the big 3 as much as I imagined during pregnancy, I still very much think my background influenced how it went, and I hope to add to r/powerlifting once my training becomes a bit more sport specific again!

Pre-pregnancy: I am a bit vertically challenged, 4’ 11”, and have always been smaller. However, consistent fitness has been part of my life for a decade, so I’m not really sure what is genetics vs. workload in my case. I started powerlifting in 2014. I last competed in March 2021, a month before I got pregnant, doing a bit of a YOLO meet.

Pregnancy: Both COVID and my own personal limits challenged the idea that I’d lift heavy weights throughout my pregnancy. From about weeks 12-24, I did feet up/incline bench, and light beltless squats and deadlifts. With cases on the rise and just not feeling comfortable trying to hide my growing belly at my HOA gym (I definitely live in a place where someone could say something stupid), I started working out at home. I was noticing some coning in a few movements, so I really had to be vigilant of my form and modify as necessary. By the third trimester, I was working with 5-10 lb dumbbells doing mainly upper body and body weight squats, and walking my dog a LOT. I felt so unlike myself—I’d get tired standing in the kitchen cooking! Definitely a lot to mentally swallow, with a constant reminder it was all temporary.

Birth: I had a very long 21 hour medical induction that ended in a c-section. I think the main contributions to this were: my induction STARTING AT 2 AM (let’s run a marathon at the crack of dawn, why not?), baby facing “sunny side up”, and developing a fever towards the end. But maybe everything could have went textbook perfect and I’d still have the ending I did, who knows.

Postpartum: as selfish as I felt, my first thought when I was told I needed a c-section was “cool, now recovery is going to be even longer”. And the beginning did absolutely suck. If I thought I needed to be humbled towards the end of my pregnancy, now I couldn’t even put on my own pants because of fluid swelling. However, the changes I saw week by week were incredible!

Day 4: went on my first walk outside…for about 6 minutes. My husband would walk the dog and I would push the stroller, then I’d turn around and they would continue without us. I worked my way up. Started working on diaphragmatic breathing.

Week 3: 10 minute walks with the dog while baby wearing (sadly, husband returned to work). Worked my way up again.

Week 4-6: this is when my son spent the majority of his time in the hospital (about a month total, surgery and then infection from surgery a week later). I mention this because wow, does stress do things. My exercise was walking the dog when my husband took his turns at the hospital, and a lap around the building when a nurse watched my son. Since my walking space was limited and I knew my 6 week check up was around the corner, by week 5 I SLOWLY introduced a resistance band in the hospital room. I did 2x10 of band walks, rows, glute bridges, pull aparts, and maybe 10 squats. It felt so good!

Weeks 6-12: once cleared by my doctor, I started using light dumbbells again. I mainly did squats, floor dumbbell presses, overhead presses, glute bridges, single-arm rows, and single leg deadlifts. I also focused on stretching and ab stability, with movements like bird dogs and cat/cow. And don’t forget diaphragmatic breathing! I started with 2x8 and would increase reps/sets each work out, then increase the weight after a week or two. Still lots of walking and eventually hiking. Around week 7, I went on a hike with friends saying “I wasn’t ready for an 8 mile hike yet, something more like 4-6”…then we got lost and did 8 miles anyway :) but I felt great!

Week 12+/present: I just graduated to using a 30lb bar. I hope to use my brand new Rogue power bar in the next week or two.

My future goals: months 3-6 I plan on transitioning to more powerlifting-style workouts, but not committing myself to any programming. Just enjoying lifting again. Around months 6-9, I hope to take training a bit more seriously, and my ultimate goal is to compete again within 12-18 months of birth. These are my loose goals based on what I think I’m capable of, giving myself some grace along the way.

I’ve heard a ton of fit women say they don’t necessarily think fitness helped with labor, but definitely contributed to recovery, and I think that’s so true in my case as well! The first week I could barely get out of bed, let alone take care of someone else too. But within a few weeks, I felt a version of myself coming back. I say a version because physically and mentally, I’m not the same.

I think my powerlifting background helped me accept the physical changes that comes with having a baby. Lifting heavy changed my body, and I wasn’t going to let that stop me from getting something I love out of it. The battle for me was just feeling weak when I worked so hard for so long to feel strong. Mentally, I think this experience will make me a stronger athlete. I’m able to embrace chaos and life changes with more acceptance that this too shall pass.

Here is a picture of my progress. From left to right: 10 days before baby, 10 days after baby, 7 weeks postpartum, 12 weeks postpartum. I weighed the same as I did walking into the hospital as I did walking out. A ton of night sweats, the stress of a hospital, many Clif bars and a few workouts later, I am within about five pounds of my starting weight. The human body is so wild!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! :}
 
@markedbychrist Thank you for your post. You're making great progress and your outlook is healthy. It's hard and you didn't he best you could.

I’ve heard a ton of fit women say they don’t necessarily think fitness helped with labor, but definitely contributed to recovery, and I think that’s so true in my case as well!

My two pregnancies we're pretty different. With the first I ate all the things and didn't move much. Took a long time to get back in shape and the immediate recovery was debilitating. My second, I stayed active without pushing my limits and tried to eat better. Recovery for number two was light-years easier than for number 1. The giving birth part was awful for both so I don't think my fitness going into it mattered for that part.
 
@dawn16 Thanks for sharing! I have heard similar stories, not that is the same for everyone. I’m glad you had a better recovery and learned from your first experience :)
 
@markedbychrist Congratulations on your little one and getting back to the gym . You have been very restrained in starting back , I am always a terrible person and do more than allowed !

I also do power lifting , my youngest is now 16 months , and my big 3 1 RM is higher than it ever way before ! I’ve found the main changes are ;

squats used to be my favourite but now I hate them .

My bench was much quicker to get back to wear I was at

My core has taken a lot longer to get back to normal , even without separation . And I just don’t automatically engage it anymore when doing lifts , I have to actually think about switching it on.

I’ve started doing some reformer Pilates which I think has really helped in with the core stuff !

Well done for making some time for you in the mist of the newborn stage . You can’t fill someone else’s cup when yours is empty !
 
@mugen Couldn’t agree more :) I hated squats and I still…hate squats lol. Interesting about bench! I find putting my feet down/trying any sort of arch right now is where I’m unstable and may even see coning. Trying hard to work on my core to bring it up to speed!
 
@markedbychrist Love this comparison. I used to be pretty active before having babies, lots of walking and tennis. Gained 60 lb with first pregnancy and 30 of it stayed with me then got pregnant again a year later. So after two babies I was 35 lb heavier than I’ve ever been. I felt so big and different than pre babies. It was very apparent on a 5’2 frame; I was in the obese BMI with the weight gain. I didn’t have the courage to join the gym until my second baby was 10 months old. I really struggled to lose the weight, tried a lot of different cardio activities and high reps with light weights. Fast forward, I ended up falling in love with lifting heavier and that’s when I saw a major transformation on my body. I really wish I had lifted earlier haha.
 
@mikehu I have no problem with cardio—not a runner, but love to walk my dog and hike. There is a reason it’s what a lot of people start with. It’s either no machine or one machine, pretty simple to time or keep good form. I’m glad you found joy in lifting like I did!
 
@markedbychrist Thank you for this! I'm 33 weeks and while I'm more of a marathon runner who supplements with heavy lifts, I've found that running was completely unsustainable past the second trimester but lifting still felt great. I've been following Megsquats' program and I swear it's the reason I'm still pain-free this far along in my pregnancy. It's so motivating to see how you came out the other side, even with your little one in the hospital and your husband going back to work so soon. This combined with a post from a runner friend who said she's breaking her pre-pregnancy PRs with a stroller in tow is making me feel so much better about the possibility of getting my fitness back postpartum.
 
@winston87 Meg is so great! I bought her postpartum program to support her, but read through it all and still ended up building my own recovery. If it’s important to you, you WILL do it again, even if it doesn’t look exactly the same. With my “loose timeline” of competing again in 12-18 months, I am totally okay with that taking 2 years, or deciding my priorities changed, as long as I don’t totally bury myself in my family and look back in 5 years and say something sarcastic like “oh remember when I did that? Those were the days!”
 
@markedbychrist This is so awesome and inspiring - I'm intending to start a family in the next few years and my goal is to ATTEMPT to maintain my fitness, but above all my goal is to accept the changes and be emotionally and mentally resilient about the situation (like you showed here). I do NOT want to be preoccupied with getting my "old body" back while I'm literally growing a person and becoming a mother.
 
@draculkain That is great that you’re already thinking that way, and it’s a great mentality to have! It can be easier said than done, but as I mentioned, it’s all temporary. My body will never be the same and I might end up bumping up a weight class permanently, and I’m okay with that, so as long as I (one day) return to what I love!
 
@adame Hi! Probably at the beginning of the second trimester, around week 14-16. For me it was anything prone or with my body extended, like downward facing dogs and wall push ups. I’m still not doing bench press with my legs on the ground, as that is when my core seems to be the least stable. For me, even if it is pretty slight, I stop. MamasteFit (a great resource) says a slight one is okay, but I wanted to be safe. Literally everything I did was with recovering quickly in mind, so I feel like I played it really really safe. Hope that helps!
 
@markedbychrist Im also 4ft11 and I lifted heavy and did Muay Thai throughout my pregnancy. Except for the third trimester I drop Muay Thai because belly was in the way of kicking. However I did continue lifting. Me at 35 weeks lifting heavy. I'm not a powerlifter, I lift just for fitness and health.

My pregnancy did go very well. My obgyn was very supportive of me continuing whatevee workouts I was doing throughout pregnancy. In fact she encouraged. She said doing squats and stair climbing will help with labour and doing physical activities will help with recovery. Just that as pregnancy progressed to reduce the weight on lifts as the centre of gravity changes.

Unlike you I had a vaginal birth with epidural. Although I laboured for over 15hours, I was surprised how easy it was to push baby out. I pushed my daughter out within 5 mins with 3 big pushes. I attributed that to my strong core thanks to Muay Thai and lifting. Was also amazed how mobile I was even in the third trimester. I didn't suffer from any backaches either. Anyways I was also quite lucky it was a unicorn pregnancy.

And I'm glad I kept pics I got clearance to resume all physical activities by week 6 since my wound healed very well. And a summary

Congratulations on your newborn and being a mother!
 
@meteorstorm Girlllll you are killing those weights! I’m so glad it helped you with birth and recovery! It could be a unicorn pregnancy, but it could also be the work you put into it that helped. I felt like physical activity kept most of those common side effects for me away at least :) thanks for sharing!
 
@markedbychrist Oh yes definitely. I think the years of Muay Thai and lifting developed a strong core which was why I didn't have any backaches then.

I recovered extremely well physically. However my mental health was another thing. I had PPA. However, when I went back to working out again, my moods improved because it was the only thing I I had control over while trying to survive the 4th trimester.
 
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