5 Reasons I’m Still Training Hard During Pregnancy
Before we dive in, let's define what I mean by "hard," because hard is relative.
Six months ago, hard meant max-effort lifts, sprint intervals, and training for a 100-mile bike ride. During my first trimester, hard often meant simply showing up for some type of movement. Some days it was mobility. Some days it was our family walks. Some days I had enough energy for more of a true training session.
Now that I'm in my second trimester, I'm incredibly thankful to have more energy again. I'm following a structured program, lifting moderate weights, moving consistently, and continuing to challenge myself. But if I compared this version of "hard" to what hard looked like six months ago, it wouldn't even be close.
That's something pregnancy has reinforced for me: our version of hard changes with every season of life. It will also almost always look different from the person standing on either side of us.
Training hard doesn't have to mean pushing our bodies to their absolute limits. Right now, it means challenging myself appropriately for the season I'm in and continuing to build strength without ignoring the very real changes happening during pregnancy.
With that said, here are five reasons I'm still choosing to train hard.
1. Training Is Preparing Me for One of the Hardest Physical and Mental Challenges of My Life
I'm planning for a hospital birth with as few interventions as possible while fully recognizing that the health and safety of our baby and me are most important. If labor ultimately leads to an epidural, C-section, or another intervention, I'll be grateful those options exist.
Regardless of how our daughter enters the world, birth will likely be one of the most physically and mentally demanding experiences of my life. I can't recreate labor in the gym, but every workout gives me another opportunity to practice willingly doing something uncomfortable.
Lifting weights is obviously not the same as labor, but I do believe there is value in regularly practicing how we respond when something gets hard. Can I stay calm? Can I control my breathing? Can I remain present instead of immediately looking for an escape from the discomfort?
One quote Cody and I have been saying a lot recently comes from Cam Hanes: "Pain is just a feeling."
Of course, pain with purpose is very different from pain signaling that something is wrong, especially during pregnancy. Training isn't about ignoring warning signs or proving how tough I am. It's about practicing how to breathe, stay composed, and move through appropriate discomfort with intention. Those are skills I hope to carry with me into labor.
2. I'm Practicing Skills I Hope to Use During Labor
Pregnancy has changed some of the ways I approach training. I'm far less concerned with how much weight is on the bar and much more interested in the quality of how I'm moving.
Every session gives me an opportunity to practice breathing well, managing abdominal pressure, strengthening my core and pelvic floor, and becoming more aware of when my body needs tension and when it needs relaxation.
I'm also continuing to squat, hinge, move laterally, train on one leg, rotate, and get comfortable moving my body through different positions. My hope is that maintaining those movement options will help me feel confident moving and changing positions during labor if circumstances allow.
None of this guarantees a certain birth experience. Labor is unpredictable, and I know there will be plenty outside of my control. But there are things I can practice now, and I want to take advantage of that.
3. I'm Building Stability as My Body Changes
Pregnancy asks the body to adapt constantly. As the belly grows, our center of mass shifts, the abdominal wall changes, and pregnancy hormones contribute to increased joint and ligament laxity.
Rather than viewing those changes as problems to fix, I've been thinking about how I can best support my body through them.
Much of my training now prioritizes glute and hip strength, adductors, core work, single-leg movements, and the smaller stabilizing muscles around my pelvis and spine. I'm continuing to lift, but I'm increasingly interested in being strong and controlled in a variety of positions rather than simply moving the heaviest weight possible.
My focus isn't about grit for the sake of grit or intensity for the sake of intensity. My goal is to maintain confidence in the way I move, support my changing body, minimize unnecessary aches and discomfort where I can, and continue building strength that serves me outside the gym.
4. I'm Investing in My Postpartum Recovery
I believe postpartum recovery begins before postpartum.
Maintaining strength throughout pregnancy gives me a foundation that I hope will serve me as I heal, gradually regain function, carry our daughter, get up and down from the floor, push a stroller, haul around a car seat, and meet all of the other physical demands that come with caring for a baby.
I'm not training during pregnancy because I'm worried about "bouncing back." In fact, the further I get into pregnancy, the less appealing that entire idea becomes.
My body is going through an enormous process to grow and eventually deliver our daughter. I expect recovery to take time, and I want to respect that process.
But I also know that the strength I maintain now isn't suddenly lost in value once she's born. I'm training because I want to enter postpartum with the strongest foundation that's appropriate for me, recover patiently, and ultimately feel capable enough to fully enjoy the season ahead.
5. I'm Preparing to Become the Mom I've Always Wanted to Be
Motherhood has always been the role I've looked forward to most. Over these next few months, I'm not only preparing to give birth. I'm preparing for the incredible responsibility and privilege of helping shape the culture of our family.
Children learn so much from what we model. Our daughter will eventually watch how I respond to stress, how I speak about my body, how I move, how I eat, how I care for myself, and whether health feels like a gift or a punishment in our home.
Long before she understands a lesson about nutrition or exercise, she'll be learning simply by watching us live.
Cody and I have spent years believing that one of the most important parts of coaching is walking the walk and leading by example. Now that conviction carries even more weight.
We want movement to be a normal part of our family's life, not for the sake of burning calories or earning food, but because our bodies were made to move. We want balanced, nourishing meals to be ordinary rather than restrictive. We want walks after dinner, bike rides, backyard games, lifting weights, and family adventures to simply become part of our family's rhythm.
We're not trying to raise children who are obsessed with health. We want to raise children who understand how to steward the bodies God has given them, while witnessing us try to do the same.
That starts long before they're old enough to understand our words. It starts with our example.
What "Training Hard" Means to Me Now
Pregnancy hasn't taken away my desire to challenge myself. It has changed what that challenge looks like.
Right now, training hard isn't about chasing PRs, testing my limits, or comparing what I'm capable of today to what I could do before pregnancy. It's about meeting myself where I am and continuing to ask something of myself within that capacity.
Some days that means a challenging strength session. Other days, hard might mean scaling back, choosing mobility, going for a walk, or accepting that my body needs more recovery than my mind would prefer.
Both require me to pay attention to the body I'm in today rather than the body I had six months ago.
Training during pregnancy has become one of the ways I get to care for my own health while supporting our growing baby girl. It's an opportunity to prepare mentally for labor, physically for postpartum, and, most importantly, to continue becoming the kind of mom I hope to be.
I don't need my version of hard to look the way it used to for it to still matter.
I just want to keep showing up for the season I'm in.
