Ep. 22 Prenatal Fitness - Running during Pregnancy

Just cause you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you can’t run!  I’ve been running for almost 33 years now, and I had a blast sitting down for a solo episode to talk all about my running journey and how I adapted to the changes throughout pregnancy.  I love to run and exercise, and it was something I wanted to continue to do during my pregnancy.  However, not only is your body changing during pregnancy which means your running will change, but there will be changes in your level of fitness from the 1st trimester vs. the 3rd trimester.  I love sharing how I approached running during my pregnancy, some of the things I’ve seen with the moms I work with, products that can make a huge impact in your comfort level during exercise, other exercises to incorporate besides running, of course what chiropractic care can offer, and much more!

Please check in with your care provider before beginning any new exercises and to go over your fitness goals.
 
Resources mentioned in the episode:

Pillars of Health

Big Peach Running

Pregnancy Support Bands for the Runner Mom-to-be

Recore Fitness

#runhealthy

The Webster Technique: chiropractic care during pregnancy   

Birthfit

Exercising while pregnant: signs to slow down or stop

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Dr. Shannon
www.instagram.com/sunrise_chiropractic_wellness
Doula Rachael
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Transcript

Unknown 0:03

Hello hello podcast listeners, this is the aligned birth podcast. And this is Dr. Shannon today so I am one of the hosts for the Allied birth podcast, and today I'm going to do an episode, all on my lonesome so I've got an outline, I'm gonna try to stick to it and stick to the plan and keep it short and sweet. But, this episode is going to be something very near and dear to my heart. And of course I have so much to talk about with it. I'm going to split it up into two episodes to try to keep it short and sweet for you but we are today going to talk about prenatal fitness, and specifically, prenatal running, and so running through pregnancy running during pregnancy. We're going to cover all kinds of things, and I really want the point of this episode to be not so much information overload, but I really want, just something that intrigues your interest or like hey I haven't thought about this let me jot down this note, and go back and do a little bit more research into it so again this is not going to be all encompassing, but I have things that I want to talk about today with it so we are going to go into the aspect of preconception, health, we're going to cover all things running, goal setting, proper biomechanics, running through all the different stages of pregnancy. Certain attire things to look for maybe some things you hadn't thought about some resources out there people that you can reach out to for help, fitness programs that might be beneficial, but I also want to go into that cross training aspect and other fitness things besides just running even though that's so near and dear to my heart and then, of course, we're going to talk about chiropractic care with it, we're going to talk about pelvic floor PT and good stuff like that so I'm really excited today to dive deep into that prenatal fitness for all of my pregnant people out there.

Unknown 2:14

I want to start with my running history because you know why am I talking about

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running during pregnancy today because I did run during both of my pregnancies, and I mean I use the word run, loosely because I did run in the day before I went into labor with both of my kids. But of course, that running then was very different than when I was running in that first trimester and so I want to go over some of those things, too, because there are going to be differences within, even within that pregnancy journey of how running changes from first trimester, all the way into third trimester, but like I said I've ran through both of them. I have been running for almost 33 years now, so I started running, when I was six. I ran my first race. And maybe I got the running back then because I actually won that race and I got a medal and so maybe that was just like, Oh, this is amazing, but I loved running so much my mom actually started heading up the Youth Track program in my area, and I continued to run in and so she was a big part of why I was able to continue that and so we would have tracked me and it was such a big, a big endeavor, I look back on it now as a parent, I'm like lackeys and my mom did that, that was amazing so I did I did Youth Track and then I ran through middle school, you know Junior Varsity all of those things, and then I ran varsity sports in, I did track and cross country in high school. And I guess just fun little things do so track I did the 800 meters I did HighJump, I did the four by four relay. So I did those Sprint's to wasn't so much distance then but I did do cross country cross country at that point was just the the 5k, which you know felt like forever to a high schooler, but now, you know, high schoolers are definitely running a lot further than I had even thought about at that age, then, going to college I did not run at the collegiate level, um, lots of reasons there. I sure wish I had at least attempted and tried maybe those are topics for another episode but I did, I still worked out and I went to the University of Georgia we'd had the brand new Ramsey center there and it was this amazing fitness facility. And, I mean there were tons of places to run there so I would still run on the track there and do my workouts so I did a lot of running in college and then even after graduating I ran, and I continued to run, and I ran through both of my pregnancies, so there was never there was never that consideration that oh I'm pregnant now, oh I can't run, I will say, I was, I don't know how far along I was but we have the Peachtree road race here in Atlanta, which is this massive 10k That's on July 4. And I remember running that. When I was pregnant with my first, and I remember taking it a little bit slow, like just wanting to maintain my breath, and saying like I felt really good and I thought I could push it more but I was a little bit worried and afraid so I remember those feelings like early on because I think it was 10 weeks I mean it wasn't anything crazy so I remember just kind of jogging and going through so I understand those aspects of like, oh, how much can I push it, but I knew I had been running for so long that just because I was pregnant now, didn't mean that I needed to stop running. And so I want to start a little bit of this by talking about the fact that preconception of health is so very important. And I love, that's why I love working with families in that pre conceptive journey. You know, if, when you find out you're pregnant. It's not the time to say, Oh, I think I want to go train for a marathon now or I want to pick up this whole new fitness journey and I have this new fitness goal. No,

Unknown 6:27

the time, that's not the time the time to start these things is either before or after, way before and after, when dealing with pregnancy, and those fitness goals that you have, it really could come down to looking at how do you want to feel how do you want to move your body and how do you look best you want to support yourself with fitness and knowing and maintaining a certain level of fitness and so with even with my preconception of health. I'm looking at my five pillars of health, I have a blog written about it. And my five pillars, really come down to mindset, which is that first one, and that can set the stage for everything else, then we're looking at, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and then chiropractic care. So those are my pillars of health and so really in that pre concept of world. I think addressing all of those areas and making sure we are looking into all of those things can make a big impact in the overall health and wellness of this preconception, let's talk about it family because, you know, both people need to in the relationship, need to kind of be on the same page there with that preconception of health so I do love working with that aspect of patients and people coming in because yes, if we've got that certain level of preconception health, then there really shouldn't be no reason why we can't continue that. So of course, if you are finding out you're pregnant, and you do want to start a certain level of fitness or movement in motion for your body. Here's that disclaimer everything in this episode is not intended to be medical advice you need to go to your OB you need to go to your provider your midwife and say hey I'm thinking about starting this have those conversations with them because they are going to have insight, too, if you're seeing a pelvic floor therapist, talk to them and let them know where you're wanting to start if you're seeing a chiropractor talk to them, get all of the information that you need so that you can make the best decision for you, your health, the health of you and your baby and then also that fitness journey and fitness aspect. I will say that, you know if you have been running before becoming pregnant, you know what your body can do. And you've got to be graceful with yourself during that prenatal running acid because things are going to feel different. You're going to have some aches and pains that feel different. You're going to have your your speed is going to be compromised. Your. I mean everything is going to be changed in different, so you've got to be a little bit graceful with yourself and saying, Okay, I know that things might be changed. Now, while I am trying to run during my pregnancy and that is okay because you can always pick it back up to a certain level, later on, so just enjoy running while pregnant, you know, so just definitely be graceful with yourself. Like I said earlier now is not the time to sit like, oh I want to run a PR 5k That's great and I love that goal. Maybe we should look at doing that at a different time, right. So, and it doesn't mean that you won't hit some of those goals you might go out and have a really wonderful 510 You might feel good, but I think mindset, remember we talked about this the first thing, it's having that mindset of maybes Now's not the time to have that goal. It's okay if we do hit something like that but when we, when we put that goal that tension out there and we're focused on it and it's so big and important, we kind of lose ourselves in it and so right now we're focusing on growing a baby and keeping our body healthy.

Unknown 10:04

So, don't beat yourself up. Don't beat yourself up too much about that. Now, there are differences in your biomechanics, you've got to have a change in your center of gravity so as baby grows as uterus expands. I mean, we definitely have that change in your center of gravity, the i doing motor scans in my office I can see the shifts in the postural muscles too and the postural muscle activity in my mom's, and so it's very evident so you've got to understand that with those changes you're going to have changes in your gait, you're going to have changes in your stride, you're going to changes in everything you might end up being more of a heel striker because we're trying to counterbalance that. So thinking of this things you might have more aches and pains, it might be more IT band pain there might be more knee pain. So just take that with a grain of salt, you know, adapt and modify and maybe do a run, walk maybe change the speed that you're running all of those little things can make a big difference. And then you've got to think about. I always look at that to trails versus roads, I did a lot of trails when I was pregnant. Still, I loved the trails. But I also ran roads too. With trails, you've got to be careful again your center of gravity has changed so you might feel off balance and then you're going out on a trail which is inherently off balance so take it slower. And just find your footing, and be a little bit more careful with it too. With. I mean I love the roads but it's also so boring, so that's why I think I really liked and gravitated more towards the trails now attire is something else to think about with running. When I mean, I don't know about you guys but I my feet changed you know you might have swelling in your ankles, your shoes may not fit the same so that's something to think about too, not necessarily wanting to have a whole new running wardrobe and attire just because of that, but maybe changing the lacing on your shoes can make a big impact as well. And in the next episode we're going to go more into postpartum running. And with that, that's going to cover a little bit more with maybe being fitted for a different sports bra but you might find, even during pregnancy that you might need a different sports bra, and so I even got fitted for one, because I wanted to make sure hey is this going to hold up is this going to be comfortable when I'm actually running, and instead of just, I went and tried them on like beforehand instead of getting something online and I actually went to our local running store called Big peach running, and they were wonderful and helping me find that sports bra so that's something you can even do during pregnancy as well. Now something that I never needed was a running belt like a pregnancy running belt. I've worked with a lot of moms who do want them, and a lot of times it's really coming from, there's a couple things, and a couple of reasons why I do talk about running bands and running belts in an aspect of if we've got pubic symphysis pain. So right there at the pubic bone. A lot of times, something called us to roll a belt is one that I recommend, and it fits real real low like very low, below the belly kind of at the hips. I've had some moms use that with running as well. But if we don't really have any of that pubic symphysis pain, but you've got like a heaviness in the belly and just feeling with your running that it feels tight you've got that pelvic floor heaviness, sometimes a running belly band can help and so I really love. There's this wonderful blog bombs on the run, USA. It's from Emily. She's a physical therapist and a running coach and she has a blog that talks about some of her favorite wedding bands. So I'm going to link that in the show notes too. And there's the maternity fitsplint from record fitness, I have wonderful things to talk about with record fitness, which we probably go more into that with the postpartum episode too, Because she really Celeste Goodson is the physical therapist that created that band and created that brand, and she does a lot of postpartum running fitness and information as well but she's also got a running band so those are really the two that I'm most familiar with. And like I said I didn't use that any of those though so it really does depend because it doesn't mean just because you are pregnant, it doesn't mean you have to have a belly band, like you can be just fine running without it.

Unknown 14:54

But, just tap into yourself see you know, are you feeling some of that pelvic pain and discomfort, you can always add that in. Now, again, these are all running specific, we're gonna get to the cross training aspect of things later but another thing to think about is this amazing hormone that's in your body now that you're pregnant called relaxing, and it literally does what it says in the name, it relaxes the ligaments in the body and helps the body prepare for birth, which is an amazing and a wonderful thing because we want relaxing in the body. But if we are continuing our fitness journey. You've got to take that into account. So not only are we changing our center of gravity. As the baby fetus and the uterus grows, we also have relax and that's loosening up the ligaments, and so not only can you maybe have it banned knee pain from that change in gravity that change in your gait, but it can also be from relaxing. So, again, that's where we're coming in with being graceful with ourselves, and not necessarily trying to push it so hard during this but to go out and to like to feel good, what are those goals and intentions that you have with it I just love movement and motion in my body, I love to run, I love the feel in my lungs. I love the feel in my body, I just, I don't even know how to describe it, I just love it so much. And it is literally like running is my therapy I don't think it's the only therapy that people could and should have but I think it's a beautiful aspect to it. I mean, exercise does release endorphins, so don't forget to check in and say okay what are my intentions with this, I want to move my body and feel my body and I want to help it stay healthy and strong. It doesn't have to be so much of, I want to push through and power through and get this race goal and get this mileage goal and those type of things, so maybe that shift in mindset mindset can really help with that prenatal pregnancy, running journey, don't forget about the relaxation though, because they don't throw you for a loop with some of the aches and pains. Now, I also have a hashtag run healthy blog that I wrote a while ago. And it's not just pertaining to prenatal fitness but it does have a lot of good things in there, so I want to highlight that before we move on to some of the other aspects of prenatal running, I'm only going to hit the high notes of the blog so just my little headers, because you need to go and read the whole entire thing. So I talked about shoes, I talked about nutrition, I talked about water. I talked about chiropractic care, of course, I talked about rest days, cross training, stretching is a big thing, looking for a running coach and then even looking for running friends, so I think all of those things are things to think about and consider even in printed running but again that blog is not specific to that. Now,

Unknown 17:56

where does chiropractic care fit into this as well. There's Rachel and I have talked about prenatal chiropractic care probably in almost every single episode. So, again, Webster technique is that specific pelvic and sacral analysis and chiropractic adjustment that is used on prenatal patients we're really looking at pelvis and sacral alignment the biomechanics and the normal physiology of the pelvis and sacrum and the nerves that are coming into the pelvis, out of the pelvis, and where those nerves are going so we're really looking at what that Webster technique. We're looking at the nervous system function as it pertains to the pelvis, and sacrum of mom. So of course, that's going to be impacted if we've got a mom who is doing a lot of fitness. And so, I think it's super important, not only for pregnant women to have him find a Webster certified chiropractor and get adjusted during pregnancy but especially to if we are at a certain level of fitness or we want to maintain that level of fitness and we want to feel good with that level of fitness that we have. So, definitely throwing that out there. I know personally, what, well, I know personally, but then again I don't my personal chiropractic story has more to do with that postpartum care. Because remember, I've shared in several other episodes, I wasn't adjusted in my first pregnancy and I didn't get adjusted until I was 36 weeks pregnant with my second child, so I don't really have a whole lot of time to experience running while pregnant aide with chiropractic care, I sure wish I had, but that's okay, but I do have that postpartum aspect and so I do work with moms that run and have experienced those differences between being under care not being under care so I know it can make a huge, huge difference and especially to we're adjusting all the Moana all the bones of it but we can go through and look at the biomechanics and we can do adjustments to the hip and the knees and the ankles because those are also going to play a big part in those running biomechanics. Um, I want to talk a bit about cross training because again in my run healthy blog I talked about cross training and the importance there, because we're engaging other muscles, it's you know it's the same thing, I talked about in the office where the big and small traumas in life can impact the spine, while those repetitive traumas can impact the spine. Well, if it's the same thing it's like we're just running every single day and we're not throwing in some other movements that can cause those micro traumas to the spine but you can also in activate other muscles and other function groups that we need in the body. So, I do have my favorite ones my favorite fitness activities during pregnancy. And I mean honestly, it's some of my favorite activities like outside of pregnancy as well too, so it's not limited to that but other things to think about swimming. Swimming is amazing. I'll never forget floating in a pool while pregnant and feeling like light again. Right, just after feeling so heavy, for so long, that was amazing so that can alleviate a lot of joint pain so trying to find a pool or fitness facility, again, we're not going for like, Olympic swimming here but it can provide a lot of joy, relief. I love yoga I love prenatal yoga. I love yoga modifications you don't have to do all of the crazy moves in any of the yoga practices again remember that's why it's called a practice because it changes and ebbs and flows, and I even give my mom's yoga moves I love cat cows spending that time on all fours, because that can really help with proper fetal positioning as well so I love yoga. I love hiking, even getting out and moving hiking and locking are amazing, amazing things and can offer a huge benefit to mom, while pregnant. Again, with the hiking if you're going on trails, just remember that change in center of gravity, weights, resistance training, it can be bands, it doesn't even have to be at a gym and it can be like super lightweight but that resistance training and movement and motion is so so good, and those cross training aspects can really help to with injury prevention, not only am I prenatal people but in my regular running people as well. Look for programs groups for this, you know, there's no specific thing do it on your own find people look for a program have someone tell you something to do. Again online or in person. I love birth fit, we'll link to them I love them because Lindsay, Dr. Lindsay, the founder,

Unknown 22:40

a focus that she's chiropractor so it focuses on, you know there's a focus in there of chiropractic care, which I love, obviously so but they do a lot of breath work they do a lot of proper movement and functional motions so there are programs out there to help, instead of you just feeling lost and overwhelmed and having to come up with everything. I want to touch on pelvic floor PT. Of course I'm going to hit the score in the postpartum episode, but it definitely can't hurt we've talked about this in our birth support team episodes before but it definitely can't hurt to get with a pelvic floor PT during your pregnancy. Because we can look at pelvic floor and we can assess that during the pregnancy, and then maybe we can come up with some things in ways to help. Maybe we need to engage muscles, Maybe we have hypertonic mostly we have hypotonic and we have you know too much intensity not enough intentionally intensity in the muscles so there's lots of things to look for exercises to look for breathwork to do that can, we can look at that during the prenatal time, and then we can also revisit that in that postpartum time too, so don't don't think you can only go see you know pelvic floor therapists in that postpartum time. Again, all of this is very surface level, because they could go on and on and on about it because I love it so so much. I think those big things that I want to hit home is just you remember the mindset with it just find that movement in an activity that you love, I know running helped a lot to with my nausea and vomit feelings in that first trimester I just needed that exercise and needed that motion I also at the time was sitting at a desk or at a lab bench all day and in weird positions and awkward motions and movements and so I needed that running as well just to help with the biomechanics of my body so I knew that, just because I was pregnant. It didn't mean that I couldn't run any more. So again, check in with your provider OB midwife whoever it is checking with the pelvic floor PT your chiropractor and say hey this is what I'm thinking about doing, let the people know those health care providers in your life, let them know where you're wanting to do, and hear from them their feedback, and their advice, okay because that's going to be step one, with it. I'm going to link to a couple of, well, there's all kinds of blogs that I mentioned here I promise I'm gonna link them in the show notes, and some warning signs to look for when you are exercising so again that disclaimer that this episode is not intended to be any sort of medical advice. A good again, definitely go to your OB But warning signs to look for if we're starting to get contractions if we have spotting and bleeding if we're Dizzy shortness of breath, all of those things. It's time to tone it back and it's time to check in with your provider so there is a really good BabyCenter blog that has been used some of those warning signs so definitely not wanting to put that information out there and put that on the universe but it's something to know and it's something to keep in mind because there is a lot going on with your body, but there's no reason why you can't keep moving and keep motion in your body, and why you can't keep running during pregnancy. So, I hope you took some notes today. Don't forget to stay tuned, because part two of this series, we're going to go into postpartum running, which is its own beast in itself but can also be so, so good morning so thank you for tuning in today.

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