Running Through Pregnancy

Blanket rules about running during pregnancy sound comforting, until they leave you stuck between fear and frustration. We want something more useful: a clear way to decide what’s safe, what’s sustainable, and what actually fits your body right now.

We dig into what the research is saying about prenatal running safety, including longer distances, and why “safe” does not mean “identical for everyone.” We walk through the variables that shape your experience, like your pre-pregnancy fitness, injury history, fueling, and the reality that pelvic floor dysfunction is common in endurance athletes before pregnancy even starts. We also talk about why comparing your current pregnancy to someone else’s, or even to your first pregnancy, can backfire when sleep, recovery, and family demands change.

From there we get practical: how pregnancy can shift gait mechanics, why lower body strength matters more as your center of mass moves, and what to try when symptoms show up. Instead of treating pelvic pressure, SI joint pain, or knee pain as an automatic stop sign, we explore the “rehab first” mindset: small form changes, strength support, and smart training edits that may help you keep running if it matters to you, or switch to cross-training without shame if it doesn’t.

If you ran during pregnancy and you’re less than a year postpartum, we’d love your help with our research by sharing your Garmin training logs. Subscribe, share this with a running friend, and leave a review so more active moms can find nuanced, evidence-based pregnancy exercise guidance.

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Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello everyone and welcome to the Farm Momless Podcast. My name is Christina Farvin. I'm a public school physical therapist, researcher in exercise and pregnancy, and a mom of two who has competed in constant powerlifting or weightlifting, pregnant, post-partness, or both. In this podcast, we want to talk about the realities of being a mom who loves to exercise. Whether you're a recreational exerciser or an athlete, we want to talk about all of the things that we go through as females going into this motherhood journey. We're gonna talk about fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum topics that are relevant to the active individual. While I am a public floor physical therapist, I am not your public floor physical therapist, and know that this podcast does not substitute medical advice. Alright, come along for this journey with us while we navigate motherhood together. And I can't wait to get to it. Hello

Research Survey And Garmin Logs

SPEAKER_00 1:08

everyone, and welcome to the Barbell Mamas podcast. My name is Christina Prebbitt, and I lately have been in the trenches of data analysis. I am a researcher, as you all know, in pregnancy and exercise. And one of the studies that I've looked at is looking at running pelvic flor dysfunction, running variables in pregnancy and risk for mom, baby, pelvic florid dysfunction, postpartum to kind of see the true amount of variability in the experience of running in pregnancy. So we have a survey that is currently open for enrollment and we are asking you to export your Garmin logs so that we can look at how training volume really gets modified across pregnancy as pregnancy progresses, when you stop exercising, et cetera. So first and foremost, this is gonna be my shameless plug that if you are a runner who is less than a year postpartum and ran throughout pregnancy or at some point in your pregnancy and tracked it on your Garmin, if you would be willing, we are still looking for more training logs and more survey participants. I would love if you would export and do the survey. I'll put the link. The link is in my bio as well. If you follow me on Instagram, uh, we would really love for you to fill out that survey because I think it's really important. What this has got me thinking about, because I'm in the trenches of data analysis and looking at our research on pelvic flor dysfunction and running, whether you are pregnant or non-pregnant, postpartum, et cetera, is that there is such a difference in people's experience of running in pregnancy. What I want to talk through today is some of those considerations. I have spoken at length in so many areas of healthcare and pelvic health about how we really need to be moving away from these absolute rules of yes, you can do this when you're pregnant, no, you can't, or yes, you can do this in your first and second trimester, no, you can't. And really take this relative approach where we are taking into account the previous exercise experience of the person getting pregnant, their conception and fertility journey, what their pregnancy symptoms are, what their goals are, and kind of put all this together into creating a framework around movement and running in pregnancy that's going to help clinicians and providers who are working with women who want to be running, but then also for our runners who want to continue running in pregnancy. And so I kind of want to break down some of these considerations, some of these things that we want to be thinking about if you are a person who wants to continue running during pregnancy. First

Safety Data For Longer Distances

SPEAKER_00 4:14

and foremost, let's talk about safety. Especially for our longer distance runners, thinking marathon, ultra marathon runners, while the 5Ks and the 10Ks and even a little bit the half marathon, there's a lot more acceptance of those distances of running in pregnancy and its relative safety. We have data now for ultra marathon runners, longer distance runners, those who are doing more than 300 met minutes of running, and safety data for mom and baby. So we are not worried, especially if your body is used to that type of volume, that type of running volume, that you can maintain that running volume. There is no risk for baby. And we do not see that linked to pregnancy-related complication. Our data in ultra marathon runners is smaller. Um, so we still have a lot that we want to learn there. But right now, we um do not have any areas of running where we are concerned about the health of mom and baby when mom's body is used to running those volumes. When it comes to the choice of continuing to run, there are a lot of variables uh that might be potentially, we're still kind of evaluating this, predictive of your experience of running in pregnancy. Things that may be variables that may influence your experience. Number

Injury History And Pelvic Floor Symptoms

SPEAKER_00 5:45

one is your relative fitness and your injury history prior to getting pregnant. We know that rates of musculoscal injury in our runners, these repetitive overuse injuries are high for my runners who have underfueled. Um, rates of injuries like stress fractures from relative energy deficiency in sport is also high. And our number of runners with pelvic floor dysfunction, which could include pelvic pain, stress incontinence, so peeing while running, um, having difficulty deferring the urge to go pee or poop, anal incontinence, and heaviness. Rates there can range between 30 and 41%, depending on the survey data that you are looking at. And so rates of pelvic floor dysfunction in our endurance athlete space is also quite high. So your relative fitness and your current injury history is an important consideration going into your pregnancy. Not that you can't run if you have these things, but you're adding a stress on a body that is recovering from a stressful injury. What that means is that we want to make sure that if you are a person who is going into pregnancy with it with an injury that is not resolved or pelvic floor issues that aren't resolved, we will want to try and prioritize that recovery in that first trimester or as you kind of go into your pregnancy, because pregnancy is going to add another stress on the body. So when we're thinking about recovery or injury, especially um lower extremity injuries, I always say that your body needs to be strong enough to handle what you're asking it to do. And if it doesn't, it breaks down. And so if your body is kind of in a position of breakdown because of strength deficits or overtraining or fueling mismatch, whatever the variable might be. And in a non-pregnant state, it's having a hard time recovering. When you add the stress of pregnancy, which is going to stress the muscles and joints in a good way, in a necessary way, it might cause those injuries to flare up on you. So considering that if you're in the preconception window, making sure that we're kind of doing our due diligence on the rehab side, not pushing through injuries, trying to put ourselves into a strong position to go into pregnancy. Number one, so thinking about pelvic floor dysfunction in injuries prior to. And that is where some of my research is starting to look at this as well, where oftentimes we talk about risk of the development of pelvic floor injuries in pregnancy and postpartum. Rightfully so. There are unique stresses where now anti-gravity, right? The pelvic floor is under more strain. We have pelvic widening, our static supports are changing, et cetera. We have very real extra stresses on the pelvic floor that increase risk of injury. But unique to our female athlete population, where 30 to 50% of humans may be walking into their pregnancy already with pelvic floor dysfunction, it's a unique consideration to think, well, they already have kind of symptoms. What does that symptom profile do? How do those symptoms change potentially in in pregnancies and then in subsequent pregnancies? So then that's consideration number two is it is very difficult and you should not compare yourself to other pregnant runners and to yourself in prior pregnancies, right? When I see moms who are in their second, third, fourth pregnancies, and they start to have to modify things earlier, it can sometimes be disappointing. And this is not for everyone, but especially going from first to second pregnancy, your pregnant experience is just so different, right? In your first pregnancy, you feel so miserable sometimes, especially in that first trimester when you're exhausted or right towards the end when you're so tired and you're like, get this baby out of me. But you're kind of in this sweet spot, right? Where you can rest because there isn't a toddler who's pulling on you. Not to say the first pregnancy isn't hard, but there is unique considerations of that second pregnancy that may make your recovery a little worse, right? Like if you were not sleeping through the night because of pregnancy and your toddler is up, then your recovery is gonna be worse. And therefore, how much volume you're gonna be able to recover from from running is going to be different. And so your previous pregnancies or, you know, your pregnancy journey with running may look different in your first pregnancy versus your second. So that's kind of the second consideration. First consideration, what does your injury history look like? What is your current injury status going into pregnancy? And is your body going to be strong enough to handle the added stress of pregnancy? What is your obstetrical history? What does your family life look like? Is this first pregnancy, second pregnancy, third pregnancy? And please try not to compare between your pregnancies because it can be so different. The third is this priority.

Strength And Gait Changes Matter

SPEAKER_00 10:58

I think that we're gonna see this need to maintain strength to keep running in pregnancy. What we are seeing from some of our gait uh changes, and I'll talk about gate changes as you adjust in in later pregnancy. But what we're seeing is that because baby bump comes out in front, right, we know that we arch our back more to keep our center of mass balanced. Um, and that your pelvis will widen. With running, sometimes that can decrease how much our butt muscles are turning on when we run. And our butt muscles are super important for control and how we are running and our mechanics of running. And so maintaining lower extremity strength in pregnancy to withstand the changes to how you are moving around and adjusting as baby gets bigger, adjusting to the fact that we are having hormones circulating that are loosening our static support up, which means that we rely more heavily on our muscles to help support us in pregnancy and how important it is to maintain that throughout pregnancy in order to support your running exercise. And so trying to maintain strength as much as possible and prioritizing that cross-training pre-conception and into pregnancy, I think is going to be a modifying factor that could allow us to keep running for longer in pregnancy. The last consideration, so first one, pelvic flow dysfunction and injuries. Second one is your current like life with babies and where you are in your life in fertility journey, thinking about maintaining strength and understanding these gait mechanics. And then this fourth consideration is all of the other biopsychosocial issues that kind of come around in are hindering or helping your ability to stay running in pregnancy. So

Real Life Factors That Change Training

SPEAKER_00 13:04

things like weather, right? If you are end of pregnancy, third trimester in the winter and you're an outdoor runner, your sense of safety when it's icy later in pregnancy may be different, right? And so you may self-select to not run outside. And if you don't have access to a treadmill or you're like me and treadmills are the bane of my existence, I hate them so much. Um, you may try, you might try cross-training and you may not run third trimester. And it has nothing to do with your ability to run and everything to do with the logistics. Childcare, same thing, outdoor runner, or if older kiddos do not want to stroller run with you anymore, right? That might be issues, uh, support, social support around you. Like, what does your partner and spouse do? Are they home at night? Can you get out? Like, what is that, those considerations look like? Um, support from your provider. What we see is that when your providers, pelvic PT, obstetricians, midwives, are supportive of you, you are more likely to keep running because you feel like you are not going against medical order. You're not um doing something that your medical provider who was taking care of you during pregnancy is telling you is unsafe. And so that type of support is also really important. All of these things, like your sleep, your fatigue, nausea in first trimester, pregnancy complications that come up, these are kind of these buckets of things that are oftentimes outside of our control. We can maneuver a little bit in them, right? With trying to put into place child supports, trying to go to bed early to try and get a little bit more sleep to feel a bit more uh rested in your body. Um, but there's kind of this acknowledgement of this other component or these other factors that are kind of outside of our control sometimes, which may modify or change the way that we approach running in pregnancy.

Individual Plans Over Absolute Rules

SPEAKER_00 14:56

And so, with all of these considerations, what I really am starting to see, and this is where I kind of hope that we're gonna go in a lot of different areas of exercise and pregnancy and postpartum, running just being a good example, is that there's gonna be a lot of individuality in the way that people approach running, how long they can keep running for, and how we are counseling women in running during pregnancy, right? Where, you know, some women are gonna stop feeling good with running at 17 or 18 weeks. We're gonna trial treatment to see if there's anything that is going on from a pelvic floor PT or a physio side that we can help individuals. And they may say, you know what, I'm gonna just stop running until postpartum. Some individuals are gonna be running right up until delivery. They may slow down because their body feels heavier. It's just more effort to maintain their paces when they're 35 pounds heavier than they were pre uh pre-pregnancy, and they're gonna run all the way up, but you know, their speed is gonna go down, or their distance is gonna go down, or their number of runs per week is gonna shift, and they're gonna do instead of four runs per week, two runs per week, and two cycles per week. There is no right or wrong way, and there is no checklist that we can give that is going to work for every single human. And this is hard to distill, right? Like this information is difficult to get out. Like I'm now talking for 15 minutes about different like considerations and and ways to modify and things that are going on, and it makes it so that the information can feel kind of confusing. But when we think about this personalized, individualized approach to exercise prescription, it allows you to make the best decision for you. And hopefully you have providers that are coming alongside you if that is something that you desire that helps you make the best decision for you. The last

Rehab First Before You Quit Running

SPEAKER_00 17:07

thing that I'm gonna say, and I kind of am seeing this in the pregnant running space, the decision is always your own when and how you modify running. What is an interesting thing that I am thinking about and challenging maybe is that when stuff starts to hurt, or you know, you start to feel pelvic pain or pelvic pressure or you know, knee pain with running in pregnancy, it is interesting that our knee jerk reaction, maybe pun intended, is often to remove it to postpartum. That is fine if that is what you want to do. It's just interesting because oftentimes that is not the reaction, the first reaction when in a non-pregnant state. My challenge or my encouragement is to try rehab first to see if you can maintain running, if running is something that is really important to you, before the reaction is immediately to remove. For example, you may be experiencing more SI joint pain with running into your later second trimester. And the response or the instant connection in your brain could be, oh, I'm guessing it's time for me to remove running. But if you went and took a video of you running, you could see that you're a little bit too exaggerated in your arch back. And so you're trying to slow yourself down, you're adjusting as baby bump is getting a little bit bigger, and you're really too extended through your low back. And it's just kind of making your SI joint feel a little wonky. So instead, to trial, let's let's do a running analysis and adjust some variables. Let's try and bring your ribs down a little bit when you're running. We can change your speed a different way. Let's do some strengthening around your butt muscles. Let's see if we can help it and you can maintain your 5K running one or two times per week a little bit longer. If you have trialed all those things, or if you are a person who running isn't as a big a part of your identity and who you are, and you're like, I'm totally fine getting on the bike, or I do Peloton too, and I'll shift gears, that's fine. That is an okay reaction as well. It's just a lot of times this uh knee-jerk reaction of it's time for you to adjust and go away as soon as you have any symptoms at all, um, is often coming from medical providers as well. And so um just because you're pregnant and you're getting into later pregnancy doesn't mean that we need to switch. Um, we can try and see if there's any variables that we can manipulate first. If that's not really working out, um, then we can shift gears and cross-train, et cetera, to make you feel uh very ready to return to running in the postpartum period if that's your goal. But let's kind of make sure that we just don't go into panic mode when we have one run that doesn't feel great into pregnancy.

Questions And Final Survey Ask

SPEAKER_00 20:16

A little bit jumbled up in thoughts. I have a lot of kind of ideas that are swirling around in my head as I'm going through data analysis and I'm in my own head about my own research. But I hope that you all found that helpful. Where we are now getting into this kind of framework, nuanced, individualized approach to exercise in general in pregnancy and just kind of this one example of going through uh with if you have any other questions, please let me know. If you are less than a year postpartum, please give me your training logs. Um, let me know. Um, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week and we will see you next time.