This blog has only seriously been a million days in the making. Well, not really a million, but ten days. Seriously. Between a storm that knocked out power for three days, insanity at work (gotta love poll papers!), clean up from the snow storm, and life in general… It’s been a bit since I’ve been able to sit down and put this blog together.

Working out has been my therapy. It has helped me work through ups and downs, demons, happiness, sadness, frustration, anger… Everything. I sometimes find myself in the gym for hours, working my body – and my mind, in sync. It has kept me level.

The funniest thing ever, when I first started telling people I was pregnant, was what they’d say to me, informing me of things I would surely miss. I’d miss drinking. No, not really, because I’m not much of a drinker. I’d miss seafood. Again, no, not really, because I don’t eat seafood (I know, a coastal person who has no love for the food from the sea or lakes).

What I do miss, is being able to hit the gym after a long, stressful day of work, or after a day where it feels like everyone has piled everything on me to handle, and just go at it. Work it out and get through it. I also miss heavy lifting.

That’s where I’m dying. In the gym. Out of every year, I had maybe a total of 4-weeks in which I would put my body through just a typical maintenance workout. Give my body one month, maybe a month and a half, to just chill out after putting it through some pretty rugged workouts. So, you can imagine, when I hit week 23 of pregnancy, being stuck on loop in maintenance mode… I was wilting like an unwatered plant in the sweltering hot sun.

I’ve been constantly fiddling with my workouts since finding out I was pregnant. For a run, I was doing something completely different every time I was in the gym. Most of the time, it was a set workout of doing x for arms, x for back, and so on. I’m getting bored. Like anyone would after five long months.

Which brought me to thinking, what can I do now? What haven’t I done in awhile?

So now, I’m bringing it back to the basics. It’s a win-win for me at the moment, I’m getting bigger, my range is being limited by that growing belly, and I really don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to work out. I’d like to think that I’ll be doing it right up until the baby comes, but in attempts at being realistic: I know that might not be what happens.

Leg Day

Squat
Deadlift
Standing Calf Raise
Hamstring Curl*
Romanian Deadlift

*For us pregnant ladies, being on our bellies once it starts to grow gets hard. To modify it, use a cable machine, or a band looped around your ankle and bend your leg at the knee (like you’re kicking your hiney).

Arms & Back

Dumbell Drag Curl
Hammer Curl
Kick Back
Dumbell Triceps Extension
Wide Grip Pull Down
Supinated Row

Shoulders & Chest

Single Arm Overhead Press
Lateral Raise
Single Arm Upright Row
Face Pull
Cable Flye
Pec Dec

As of right now, I’ve only done one full cycle through the workout program. When I hit legs for the second time last Tuesday, I didn’t quite approach the reps in each set the same way, and I did the same tonight with my second time through with arms. The exercises stay the same in the workout, but alternate between straight sets with straight reps at a set weight, do staggered sets where you do 2 sets with maybe 10 reps of a light weight, then do a set to failure, or do pyramids.