The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
What kind of training can, and can't, you do when you're pregnant?
This week I talk about the types of sports, exercise, and training you can and can't do whe you're pregnant.
This on the back of someone asking me if Olympic Lifting is a good sport to get in to.
The do's and don'ts of exercise during pregnancy usually get massively exaggerated. As always, it isn't really rocketscience.
I am talking about this and going through all levels; whether you're already training or not. What to do if you're an athlete, how to adapt your training to still keep improving during pregnancy.
And, of course, for people new to exercise who just want to have a healthier pregnancy, labour and postpartum period.
I'm covering all the bases so enjoy!!
As always; HPNB still only has 5 billing cycles!
So this means that you not only get 3 months FREE access, no obligation!
BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.
This means you can sign up after your first child, use the program and recover and then still have access after giving birth to child 2 and 3!
None of this "pay X amount a year" nonsense, once you've paid..you've paid!
This makes HPNB not just the most efficient and complete post-partum recovery program, it's also BY FAR the best value.
Though I'm not terribly active on Instagram and Facebook you can follow us there. I am however active on Threads so find me there!
And, of course, you can always find us on our YouTube channel if you like your podcast in video form :)
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Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions or comments
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We're played out today by; Lil Red Sky with "Rage"
Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert, peter Lapp, that, as always, will be me. This is a brand new episode oh, yes, indeed A brand new episode, and today I'm discussing sports and types of exercise, or specifically, types of exercise that you can and maybe you can't do when you're pregnant. On the back of a question about Olympic lifting, whether it's safe to do do when you're pregnant. Right On the back of a question about Olympic lifting, whether it's safe to do it when you're pregnant and not we're talking Olympic lifting, powerlifting, bodybuilding type stuff, football, judo, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is there anything that you should specifically be avoiding? Is there anything that you should actually be doing when you're pregnant? Right, without further ado, here we go.
Speaker 1:Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast. This is the podcast for the 29th of June 2025. And if I was more professional, I'd have looked that up before actually pressing record, but you know that I'm not and therefore it's okay. I am here with Lola, kitty and Bob, and Buddy is sleeping in another room somewhere. I hope you're well. It's a gloriously sunny day here. It's beautiful, beautiful weather, to the point that it's warm but manageable for little old me, which is, you know, the best you can hope for when you're a pasty white guy like myself. I hope you're well. I hope you're absolutely crushing it Today.
Speaker 1:I thought we'd have. It's obviously time for a new episode, because, you know, that's what we do. We're alternating it now, peter, at healthypostnatalbodycom. By the way, if you have any questions or comments or things you'd like me to discuss or people you'd like me to have on, or indeed if you'd like to come on to the podcast, just send me a little email. I am miles behind on my correspondence. Just so you know, it can take a couple of weeks before you sometimes get a reply from me. If you're not, if you ask questions about exercise, I can bang them out very quickly. If you have any questions about coming on to a podcast and I get some from agents and all this stuff I'm a little bit behind. It's in a folder somewhere and I need to find time. Hopefully this week. School holidays have started here, so I should have a little bit of time to sit down and do two or three hours of of responding to email. So hopefully uh, hopefully that'll be fine. What am I doing today? I am discussing on the back of an instagram video that was shared with me about olympic lifting.
Speaker 1:Someone asked if it was safe to do when they were. If you're pregnant and it's a good question I sometimes get asked to do. First of all, I mean I absolutely love Olympic lifting, right, I think it's great, I think it works. It's absolutely everything you could possibly want to work other than you know cardio, but you know you do that separately, but just from a, from a movement perspective. It's, it's, it's powerful, it's, it's, it's strong, it's explosive, it is, it works. All planes of motion. It is absolutely wonderful. It's a wonderful way to train. I sometimes get asked if I can teach people how to do it, and no, I can't, because I'm not an Olympic lifting coach and I really do think it's a speciality to do it at any decent level.
Speaker 1:And you have other people that are much, much, much better at this, michaela Breeze being the obvious one that jumps to mind. Look her up on Instagram if you. If you're not familiar with her work, but you'd like to get into Olympic lifting, Michaela is the gold standard of coaching and that's what you find with Olympic lifting, because the people who do it a lot and the people who competed at the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. I think I don't want to get this wrong, but I think Michaela is definitely a Commonwealth medal winning athlete, former athlete. She's retired now from competing, but that's what you get with those sports.
Speaker 1:Those small sports, gymnasts are kind of the same, those smaller sports. There's no money in it and therefore you can get most of these people, most of the former athletes, fall into a coaching role of some sort when they retire or at least quite a lot of them do and that's who you go to, because they're not that expensive, because you know they end up coaching the normal public quite a lot. A lot of them end up becoming personal trainers. I know one or two gymnasts that are definitely that definitely tried the personal training route before they realized that they had social media, changed everything right so you can monetize that now. So a lot of them do challenges and social media make more money that way.
Speaker 1:But a lot of them used to become personal trainers and they can only charge personal training rates because you know they, like I said, there's no money in in olympic lifting, so people won't pay, won't tend to pay £150 to £100 an hour for an Olympic lifting session, so they end up doing. Michaela does online at least you'll see a lot of her classes and it's all small group type stuff where she explains how Olympic lifting works. So that's why I always say don't come to me with that stuff, because for the same amount of money or a similar amount of money it'll be ballpark. At least you can train with an actual Olympic level athlete who is going to be so much better at a specific sport than anybody else? Coaching, even strength and conditioning, is right when we're talking technique. You learn that from people that perform these things all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry, it's not my area of expertise, but I'm a big fan of Olympic lifting and I do hope that at some stage I will find the time and be able to travel down to do some classes with those level of people but I don't teach it myself, but I'm a big fan of it and I was asked after someone sent the question, sent the video is this a safe thing for me to do as someone who's pregnant early on in the pregnancy? And fundamentally the answer is yes. There is no reason at all why you should not do Olympic lifting, perform Olympic lifts or indeed any sort of powerlifting type stuff whilst you're pregnant. It kind of comes down to the you're pregnant, you're not injured sort of statement. The only thing I would say is that you tile down the intensity of the exercise, especially towards the end of the pregnancy. You don't go 9 out of 10, you go 6, 7 max. But it's a wonderful time during pregnancy for Olympic lifting and for powerlifting. It's a wonderful time to work on your technique because if you're say you're clean and pressed is I don't know an 80 kg clean and pressed, as in you're quite strong then dropping that to 20 or 30 will give you doing a lot of bar work, focusing on your range of motion and all that sort of stuff is a really powerful way to spend your time when you're pregnant towards the end of your pregnancy.
Speaker 1:Like I said early on, you can do whatever you want, right? This goes kind of for all sports other than maybe contact sports, mixed martial arts and all that sort of stuff, karate, judo, that type of stuff and I've discussed judo before with people. I'm not a big fan of throwing pregnant women onto the ground, right, so maybe I shouldn't say it that way, but it's not. You know, that's not what we do. And the punching and kicking and all that sort of stuff element of martial arts is a bit of an issue, of course, when you're pregnant. But the training for it, right, is completely fine. If you want to do technique or bag work or anything like that, or conditioning and all that sort of thing, that is completely fine.
Speaker 1:When you're pregnant you just dial the intensity down the further on in the pregnancy you get and you, you, just you channel the focus of your exercise more onto the technique side and you know there's a lot of, there are a lot of athletes who, of course, you spend a lot of time on the technique side, right, I'm not saying you ignore it, but for a lot of, especially people who play team sports you know football, rugby, that type of thing, you know football rugby, that type of thing, that type of thing. A lot of them and I mean this in the nicest way possible don't spend as much time training technique anymore after a while, because they get caught up in working with the team and doing the conditioning stuff. And it's actually really nice to take a few months where you just work on skill set, because you're not running around like a maniac anymore. You can just try different things. You know, I've worked with one or two football players and football by now means soccer, right, for all you Americans. One or two football players who, yes, they work on technique, but it's not where the main focus is anymore in training. And it's nice. And not all of them, right. We're not talking Premier League level players for a lot of people, right, we're talking slightly lower than that. And they don't spend David Beckham-like amounts doing free kicks with a goalkeeper and all that type of stuff. That isn't just in their wheelhouse to do that every day, because they've got stuff to do so. There's more gym work happening, there's training with the team happening, prepping for the next match happening, but less time spent on pure skills development. And the same goes for a lot of people who lift heavy. They will appreciate the chance if they take it Let me put it that way to focus on technique for a while With regards to safety, because this is often where it comes from, as in is it safe to start a sport when you're pregnant?
Speaker 1:Right, those are usually the two camps. There's usually two camps Can I start the sport when I'm pregnant, or training when I'm pregnant, and can I keep doing what I'm currently doing? Keep doing what you're currently doing is usually, yes, everything is completely fine, especially the first 4 or 5 months, 6 months, that's fine. And then you start to taper down a bit. Until then you, really other than if you're getting punched and kicked and all that type of stuff you can train. You can train at a relatively high intensity. You just don't go all out to 10 out of 10, right. But if you are looking at picking up training when you're pregnant, when you say you find out you're pregnant and you're like, oh, I need to get into training now because I want to be as healthy as I can possibly be, because it makes, you know, labor easier, pregnancy easier, labor easier and postpartum period is easier, and that's true for as a general statement, by the way, it does all these three things.
Speaker 1:Then, yeah, the answer is kind of kind of in the question itself, isn't it? Can I do these things because it will make everything easier, because I want to do it, because it will make everything easier? Then, yes, it is completely safe to do so because it makes everything easier. You just want to be a little bit careful building it up. What you're finding, what I find, at least with a lot of people who are um, relatively new to exercises, they don't know how to gauge intensity very well. Um, they don't know what seven out of ten feels like, or five out of ten, or or or eight out of ten, right? If I'm asking them is this? It's a similar to someone who's never really thought about distance because they drive everywhere, right, asking them how well do you think you'll be able to walk 20K and how long do you think it will take? It's kind of guesswork, right? And that might be a stupid analogy Food If someone who's never had any consideration for how much they eat or what they eat and you ask them how full are you, a lot of people wouldn't actually know.
Speaker 1:Five out of ten or eight out of ten. It's kind of If I go to a chinese restaurant, I walk out of there. I completely oh geez, I ate too much. Right, it's because I never had any awareness whilst I was eating and where I actually was and where I was actually going to end up. And that comes with experience. If I go to a Chinese restaurant every week, so to speak, then after a while I will realize when I should stop eating to still feel comfortable within myself. I'm not saying I would stop because it's Chinese food, right, who can say no? But it's, yeah, fundamentally, that's where you are.
Speaker 1:So that's why I always tell people that, listen, if you're already training and you're already exercising, no matter what it is, whether it's a HIIT class or whether it's gardening or Olympic lifting or speed walking or whatever it is, just keep doing what you're doing. That is completely fine. You don't need a coach. Um, just be aware that you need to slow down on some stage. If you're just starting, that is really when you want to bring a coach on board, someone who's experienced, not necessarily with the sport you're going to be doing or the type of training you're going to be doing, because you know it's all when you're starting out. Any coach can make you better. It's just that simple. But the priority should then be on a coach who's experienced with people who are pregnant and that type of thing and getting them successfully through improving their athletic performance when they're pregnant.
Speaker 1:Those are the people you then want to work with and the sports specificity specificity is significantly less important, as in I can teach back to the Olympic lifting thing. I can teach an absolute beginner how to do a clean and press. Of course I can. I just can only do it up to a point that I'll be comfortable teaching someone how to do. Can only do it up to a point I'll be comfortable Teaching someone how to do A Clean and press Up till around about 5, 6, 7 months, when you know they get the hang of it.
Speaker 1:They get a little bit and then it becomes. We start to tinker Around the edges a little bit and then it becomes a. We start to tinker in around the edges a little bit. Um, then it's better if you work with somebody else and they can then get rid of all the bad. It's not someone picked up working with me, right? Because the priority is then more centered around the how to deal with someone when they're pregnant. That is kind of. That's kind of where we are With regards to the type of exercise you want to do, because that's usually a follow-up question when we're pregnant.
Speaker 1:And I say we, it's the royal, we, right. When you're pregnant, you want to do loads of core work. Of course you do, as in I keep everything active. You want to do your range of motion stuff, so you want to be able to squat as deep as you can, because you know that comes in useful. Trust me, I always tell people to focus on your breathing as well. It's a good habit to get into. Get your breathing right, because you're not going to set any PBs anyways when you're pregnant or unlikely to. So focus on those things. Do your core work, do your breathing, get your breathing right so you move as naturally as possible. And that's where the technique comes in right, especially if you're looking at tennis players and all sorts of the amount of tennis players, by the way, that I've seen, that don't know how to breathe is shocking. I mean, it is absolutely atrocious. And again, we're not talking about the Djokovic's and Alcaraz's and the Williams's of this world. I'm talking about lower level tennis players. You guys need to learn how to. I was going to swear there how to exhale on your swing. You really really do. It is shocking how many of you hold your breath. It is. It's atrocious.
Speaker 1:If you want to get better at your sport, focus on breathing, and that's what I mean. When you're pregnant, this is a good time to do it. It's a great time to do it If you're pregnant. The last two, three months, when you're not running around like a maniac anymore. Have someone lob soft balls at you and hit them back as hard as you can whilst exhaling properly. It'll be a game changer. Same golfers the amount of golfers I see who exhale at the top of a swing it's, it's no, no, that is no. That is just not what we do. Exhale through your swing and I guarantee you once you get that right, you'll be a better golfer at the end of that. You're really honest to god will be, I promise you. That's the technique you should be working on, in my humble opinion, but those are the things that you can work on when you're with practice.
Speaker 1:Focus on your breathing. Do some, do your core stuff, especially your rotational stuff. You know I'm going to say especially, not solely your rotational stuff, but especially rotational stuff. Nice thing about learn to lift stuff overhead. It'll come in very, very useful. So again, this is where Olympic lifting comes in handy. Being able to hold a small weight overhead whilst having your core do its thing and then squatting and having a range of motion and moving to the side apologies, moving side to side whilst holding a weight above your head will be very useful for when you're schlepping loads of stuff about. When I say stuff, I was going to say something else, you know. So work that stuff, train that stuff, but do your breathing, do your core, do your glute stuff, get your squats, but do your breathing, do your core, do your glute stuff, get your squats in, get your lunges in and all that type of stuff. Those are the exercises you want to be going for. You don't need to be doing sit-ups. I mean, do we still do sit-ups?
Speaker 2:I mean I don't think so.
Speaker 1:But things like battle ropes are actually really useful when you're pregnant as well, by the way. Yeah, just throwing it out there, because that's the image I'm going to use on the things I need to mention. But all those things hit classes are completely fine, but you just need to ask yourself is your intensity right and are the moves you're doing beneficial? Usually, the answer is yes. You just need to learn how to translate them and, for God's sake, work on your breathing, especially if you want to be professional at anything. You need to sort that out. It's embarrassing.
Speaker 1:He said adamant. And again, I can't hit a tennis ball to save my life. I can't swing a golf club to save my life either. I like calling a golf club to save my life either. I like calling them a stick. These things are stick Give me the word stick Just to mess with golfers who are all. Every single golfer out there is a better golfer than I am. Every single golfer out there. I can make you a better golfer, unless, of course, you're elite level, because then you've already worked with someone who taught you all that stuff. Right, anyways, that's me done for another week, because that was an awful lot of yucking. You have a wonderful week. Take care of yourself. Peter at healthypostnatalcom. Bye now.
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Speaker 2:I maneuver through the scene. I'm watchin' them all lean, breakin' the necks, chasin' checks, tryin' to stack green Like us. Stay clean, say please, and still make moves. We count by twos, cause one just ain't enough when we come to mess it up. Yeah, yeah, I'm at the top. You know they watching me. Yeah, I pour a cup off the balcony. Yeah, these haters thirsty, coming after me. Yeah, I strike them out soon as the battle swing.
Speaker 2:I know we ain't the only ones rocking, but I bet that we the only ones doing it like this. We take the party low. It ain't no stopping. We control the whole scene so clean I might just Rage rage. When I'm up on the stage stage, we take over the front page, all my people just rage, rage, rage, rage. And we vibe stepping out the whip. We fly, yeah, yeah, and we vibe rocking to the shit all night. Yeah, yeah, just let go. Don't let to this shit all night. Yeah, yeah, just let go. Don't let nobody tell us no, yeah, yeah, just let go. You know that we run this show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know we ain't the only ones rockin', but I bet that we the only ones doin' it like this. We take the party low. It ain't no stoppin'. We control the whole scene so clean. I might just Rage rage when I'm up on the stage. Stage we take over the front page, all my people just rage, rage, rage, rage. And we vibe, yeah, we fly, yeah, and we vibe, yeah, yeah, all night. Yeah, and we vibe, yeah, we fly, yeah, and we vibe, yeah, all night. It's rain 5, it's rain 5 All night, thank you.