BUMPING IRON
Pregnant women are working out harder than ever — but how much is too much?
WHEN Carolina Gunnarsson was pregnant with her first child, she searched high and low for a workout class that met her standards.
“I tried prenatal yoga and didn’t think it was hard enough. I went to SoulCycle, but I had to modify so much that I didn’t get any value out of it. And I had my personal trainer, but [solo] workouts could only do so much,” says Gunnarsson, 30, a former fashion p.r. executive and the co-founder of the Big Rock Community Farms Market in Stanfordville, NY. “I thought [that] there has to be a way to combine a really good workout with a community of people.”
So she teamed up with prenatal trainer Joanie Johnson to create the Fit Pregnancy Club, or FPC, a cardio class that blends dance and strength training with labor- prep moves such as kegels and breathing exercises. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
As boutique classes and workouts such as CrossFit become more popular, a growing number of women are committed to keeping up their exercise routines as their pregnancies advance. There are more than 800,000 Instagram photos tagged #fitpregnancy.
At the same time, pregnant women are making headlines for their athletic prowess. Olympic runner Alysia Montaño, five months pregnant at age 31, raced in last week’s USATF Outdoor Championships. Serena Williams, 35, was nearly eight weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January for a record 23 Grand Slam singles titles. “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot filmed that movie during the early stages of her pregnancy, and did reshoots of action scenes while five months pregnant.
“I’ve noticed a huge shift,”
says wellness coach Kyla Cowell, 36, who ran races throughout her two recent pregnancies. “I’ve [seen] more women working out during pregnancy, and not just at the beginning — there’s this one woman at my gym who’s going to pop any day,” she says.
But the increase in pregnant exercisers doesn’t stop people from staring.
When Cowell, who lives on the Upper East Side, would run in parks around the city or post about exercise on Facebook, she says, “Other moms would say, ‘Are you sure you should be doing this? This is the time you should rest.’ ” And when she ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon 5¹/₂ months into her second pregnancy, she says there were “people whispering and pointing while I was cooling down at the finish line.”
Cowell found that exercise helped her to combat fatigue, and she wanted to stay in shape for an easier labor and postpartum recovery. But finding an OB-GYN who was supportive of her workouts took a bit of effort.
“I wanted someone who was open to allowing me to do these things, and was active and on the same page as me,” says Cowell. When she met with each doctor, she’d ask if they exercise and if they exercised through their own pregnancies. “If they said no,” she says, “I’d go to another doctor.”
Min Santandrea, 42, a former amateur boxer who attended a recent FPC class, said it was a no-brainer that she’d keep up her same routine throughout her two pregnancies.
“I boxed to the last minute,” says the Upper East Side resident, although she did avoid sparring or anything that put her bump at risk. The conditioning routine made her pregnancy easier, she says, by improving her balance.
Her doctor encouraged the workouts, too, since her body was used to the moves, and the mix of intense bursts followed by short rests prepped her for the big day.
Barring certain conditions that make exercise dangerous during pregnancy, such as placenta previa, experts say that an active pregnancy is generally healthier than a sedentary one.
“It’s great to [exercise] during pregnancy, because there are so many benefits,” says Dr. Grace Lau, an OBGYN at NYU Langone Medical Center. “It keeps your energy up, it makes you feel good, it makes your heart strong and helps with nausea, back pain and complications.”
But she cautions that fit moms-to-be can overdo it. “Now’s not the time to reach new fitness levels,” she says. “You don’t want to cause yourself any discomfort in pregnancy . . . or cause any injury or harm.”