Athlete Kristin Auger shares her experiences with CrossFit training while pregnant.
I stand just inside the open door with one leg forward, feeling the customary adrenaline and prickly anticipation I always feel before the start of one of my favorite benchmark workouts. The familiar elements are all in place: my comrades milling beside me, bars loaded in rows behind us on the gym floor, music pulsating on high from the stereo.
“3,2,1 go!
I’ve heard the refrain hundreds of times, and I shoot off like a lightning bolt because running is my thing.
“Except for right now,” I think. “Maybe running isn’t my thing right now.”
My chest feels awkwardly heavy on my ribcage, and my belly feels hard and rotund under my tank top. I slow down, think about my breathing. It’s harder to breathe than normal. My legs feel sluggish.
I let a number of determined CrossFit athletes rumble past me, and I fight with my own stubbornness because I remember this internal battle between instinct and ego. Now is not the time to push myself to my limits, as has become customary in the last three years. Digging deeper, conjuring determination, getting after it—none of these apply to me right now because I’m 13 weeks pregnant.
The content of this article is not intended to supersede the advice of a licensed medical professional.