My wife, Emily Drew Mash, is 39 weeks pregnant. She works at Calvary Baptist Church, personal trains, and helps me run our business. She also finds time to work out, cook all of our meals, clean our house, and keep me sorted. In one way or another, she inspires me every day. Without her, there is no Mash Elite Performance or Mash Mafia Weightlifting.
For those of you that don’t know her, she is a Wake Forest Graduate, a brilliant artist, and an elite level Powerlifter. She has squatted 315lbs, Bench Presses 165lbs, and Deadlifted 355lbs weighing in at 132lbs. She is also a hardcore exerciser! I never understand how she completes all the things that she does. Her art is what perplexes me the most. There are always so many layers to her pieces that it just makes me wonder who exactly I am married to. All of this, but most importantly she loves Christ.
Last night, I posted a video of her squatting 155lbs while 39 weeks pregnant. Here is the video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkCzszwW5EQ&list=UU1i_YMwEfFW_WoPRiISov3Q
Now remember, this is less than 50% of her max, she is able to speak freely, and she is not straining. 90% of all the comments were positive as a lot of people were inspired, but 15% were negative. It doesn’t make me mad at the people. It just lets me know how uninformed most people really are about working out while pregnant. Here are some points to keep in mind about working out during pregnancy:
• Don’t start any new activities. If you were doing it going in to the pregnancy, continue what you were doing.
• Consult your Doctor or Mid-Wife before doing anything of course.
• Heavy lifting is ok! Extreme heavy is not! The rule of thumb is that if you can talk while performing the movement, then the weight is fine. Some might say that as long as you can speak normally, then it’s ok. Once again, this is for people who were already working out.
• Squats are actually good for strengthening the pelvic floor.
• Focus on preventing upper cross and lower cross syndrome! Upper cross is simply a tight chest and upper traps, and weak lower/mid traps and weak serratus anterior(rounded upper backs). Lower Cross Syndrome is weak abs and glutes, and tight hips and hamstrings(major anterior pelvic tilt. Upper cross will cause neck pain, and lower cross will cause low back pain.
• Careful with Snatches, Cleans, and Overhead work because you don’t want to accidentally hit your belly with a bar from an accident.
***Disclaimer- I am not a Doctor. This is just the research that I discovered. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program.
This whole thing has inspired me to do more research, so hopefully I will be releasing more information on this topic in the months to come.
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