I’ve only worked directly with a few pregnant women and don’t consider myself to have a lot of experience dealing with this. However, I got an e-mail inquiry from Sarah, wife of Joe (hey Joe), on how best to train through a pregnancy. The interesting part about Sarah’s situation is that she only recently started working out by doing push-ups, pull-ups, and body weight squats. Right as she was about to transition into lifting barbells with Joe in the gym, they found out she was pregnant.

Before we get into Sarah’s specifics, let’s discuss some points about training during a pregnancy.

Training can and should still occur while pregnant.
There’s no question that good training with quality nutrition improves health. There’s also no question that there’s a baby growing inside of a pregnant woman — I’m pretty sure this is the case. There’s also no question that the health of the woman is going to have an effect on the health of the baby. Thus we can conclude that since “good training and quality nutrition” improve health, it will be provide an optimal set of characteristics for the baby to develop in.

Hard, intense training isn’t necessary.
We’re talking about health as opposed to optimal performance. The mother doesn’t have to train like she’s getting ready for a meet or a Spartan race. She shouldn’t be trying to PR her squat or jumping around excessively when 8 months pregnant. Even if she did want to maintain optimal performance, we know that the female body experiences a steady state of flux. The hormonal response to training will be jumbled up with the natural hormonal changes that occur to create an environment for the baby to grow. In other words, let’s let the system prepare for the baby instead of trying to have an optimal increase in performance.

By using this logic, we can agree that training should occur, but it doesn’t need to be excessive or “super intense” so that we don’t disrupt the biological preparation for the baby. Furthermore, we don’t want to physically bother a developing baby. We don’t want to significantly increase the intra-abdominal or thoracic pressure, and we don’t want to jostle him around in the womb by jumping around like a spaz. We don’t have to “baby” the baby, but we don’t want to give him the equivalent of elbow dropping him or putting him in the sleeper (NOBODY GETS OUT OF THE SLEEPER).

Don't do this to your baby

Lifting weights is still okay.
Yet, as the last section showed, it doesn’t need to be super intensive. I would have a pregnant gal do squats, presses, RDLs, and chin-ups (or whatever assisted equivalent like pull-downs, ring rows, etc.). I’d probably split it into two days and not really worry about the weight increasing. I’d also include conditioning, but the term “conditioning” is relative to the person. If they are un-adapated to anything, then fast walking can act as conditioning. I’d probably prefer to schedule walking, rowing, and stationary cycling for the bulk of conditioning later on in the pregnancy while the earlier stages would still use barbells, implements, and calisthenics. The main theme will be to not do too much, especially in the second half of the pregnancy.

The training should change over the course of the pregnancy.
Here is a snippet of an e-mail that I wrote to someone about half a year ago when they asked about training while pregnant:

On a given workout you probably shouldn’t deplete yourself to the extent that you can…meaning don’t do conditioning till you’re lying on the ground and don’t squat 1RMs and don’t try and get a 20RM with your previous 10RM — keep it all under control so you’re not putting a huge systemic stress on the body. This means that you should leave each training session refreshed. Keep the volume of lifting and conditioning low, and keep an eye on the intensity so that it doesn’t get too out of hand (maybe keep it below 85%?).

Training while pregnant should exist to maintain, or slightly improve the health of the mommy, not the performance. Leaving the gym refreshed and rejuvenated is better than leaving wiped out. Why? Because we don’t want to require a major systemic recovery because the system should be preserved for developing the baby and staving off illness. The mother shouldn’t be in a weakened state because her immune system is now treating her plus the baby. Most people — male or female — don’t understand that the “system” is essentially the same thing as the “immune system”. If the system is depressed, then it’s defenses are lowered and more susceptible to sickness. If you’re constantly sick (or a sniveling Expert Shoveler), then look to see if your training is depressing the system.

Three words: eat right.
A mother’s body should be ready. Along with exercise, she should eat a healthy, nutrient dense diet. At this point, a newly pregnant mother will have read as much as she can about eating when pregnant, now combine that with the quality nutrition information we know about nowadays. Things like eating nutrient dense foods, avoiding processed foods, not eating frivolous carbohydrates, and sticking to quality meat, fats, fruits, and vegetables. It’s okay to give into the weird cravings every now and then, but don’t splurge regularly. Just because it says “pregNANCY” doesn’t mean you should act like a Nancy.

If there was ever a time to take care of your health, this is it.
My mother took her health very seriously when pregnant. Despite her efforts of eating healthy and avoiding anything “bad”, she contracted cytomegalovirus (CMV), a mono-like virus that can have congenital birth defects. This virus is the reason that my older brother is mentally handicapped (yet he is much better off than the majority of kids that are handicapped by CMV). My point is that even when everything is going right, weird things can still happen. Do everything in your power to optimally prepare your body’s health prior to and during the pregnancy so your little babe can be a healthy little butter ball.

Sarah’s situation is no different. She can certainly start learning how to use barbells despite the recent news that she is pregnant. However, she and Joe don’t need to worry about putting weight on the bar every session, and instead should just get quality muscle contractions with some medium conditioning. It’s a perfect opportunity to work on the technique of all of the lifts without the pressure of having to increase the weight on the bar.

To all of you mothers out there: train well, eat healthy, only splurge occasionally, and your baby will pop out with a mustache to make Burt Reynolds jealous.



If you are a mother who has experience training while pregnant, share your thoughts in the comments.

Happy PR Friday to you, sir. Or madame. Whatever. Post your PRs and training updates to the comments. Last week I asked what your least favorite lift was, and it seems that most of you hate front squats.
What is your biggest muscular weakness?

NOTaFlamingTrollCLown Says:

@ JUSTIN
i already fixed grip width thanks to you and my press shot up after being stalled @ 165 3×5 for a couple months so THANK YOU! yes i always have to remind myself to get under the bar.

This wasn’t really a question, but I just thought I’d point out how a proper grip on the press makes it mechanically efficient and properly utilizes the musculature of the triceps and shoulders.

Terrible Says:

I have stupid-long femurs and a short torso. Conventional DL feels the strongest, but I have to pull around my knees which is definitely not ideal (and makes any set longer than 1 rep a mess). I’ve pulled sumo for ~1 year as (obviously) sumo reduces the impact of femur length.

I still just don’t feel right pulling sumo. Could I theoretically make up for less-than-ideal anthropometry by having very good hip mobility (ie, a large amount of external rotation to get my knees out of the way)? Or would the amount of external rotation required be too hard on the hips?

6’2”, 220 lbs., sumo 1RM around 440 lbs., conventional 1RM unknown

Dear Terrible,

You won’t need to “pull around your knees” in a mechanically sound starting position that is followed by “pushing the floor away”. Methinks your butt is too low and stance potentially wide (see Q&A-4 for stance info). If you were able to get your knees out a bit with your shoulders slightly in front of the bar (putting your scapulae over the bar), then push the floor away, then you won’t have this “KNEES KNEES KNEES” business. Long femurs usually means long arms, so you could get by with a grip that is a finger width or so outside of the inside rings (the rings where the knurling starts in the center of the bar). The wider grip would allow your knees to shove out a bit more.

Keep in mind your musculature won’t currently be adapted to lift heavy weight well with the conventional technique if you’ve been doing sumo. In fact, I’d wager you have a hamstring weakness. But, like I said in the reply to your comment, send a video and I can say things definitively.

echo Says:

A question for Justin: a quick wikipeida WR comparison between the classes shows that the heavier the class the lower the total kg:class kg ratio. For example – the 56kg class shows a total that is 5.44 times the lifters body weight, but the 105kg class is 4.15. Why does this happen? Is it because the lower weight classes are shorter and don’t have to move the weight as far?

Dear echo,

There is not a direct correlation with body weight and strength among a population of lifters. There still is a correlation, but it isn’t linear. As with any physical attribute, there are diminishing returns. It’s just what happens. For example, my Facebook friend Klokov went 196/232 for a 428 total. If it were possible to replicate the 5.44xBW total of the 56kg class, that would mean about a 570 total. If his snatch were 84% of his clean and jerk (like in the WWC a few days ago), that would result in him snatching 260 and clean and jerking 310 to make a 570 total. Numerically we can see that this isn’t possible given that 260 is near the clean and jerk WR.

In any case, how many times the BW a lifter can lift is irrelevant since absolute weight is what matters. And even when it does — like in the Sinclair formula — larger amounts of musculature matter since Akkaev and Klokov (105kg lifters) placed 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Sinclair formula for the WWC.

Paul Sousa, Movember team member (and will be watching Twilight to raise money for Movember…), asks on the Facebook page:

Justin, for someone training 2 days per week who wants to try and linearly progress on press and bench, would going to 5×5 sets across be helpful? Just wondering if the bump in volume would offset the reduced frequency.

Paul has decreased his training frequency cause he’s about to be a daddy. I’m not a huge fan of using 5x5s in general, but especially when that lift is only done once a week. The 5×5 inherently uses a low percentage of the 1RM, and creeping it up over time would primarily get someone adapted to lower percentage, high volume lifting. Instead, I’d suggest using one week of an ascending 3×5 and a second week of an ascending 3×3. The bench and press, especially the press, respond well to encountering some heavier weights. In fact, this is the strategy I’ve used for at least 8 months, and I’ve PR’d at 350 on the bench and 240 on the press (with 250 in reach, methinks, but I’m currently focusing on the push-press).

Ascending sets will let you hit a higher weight on the third set, yet it should be done systematically. I suggest using 10 pound jumps as it will allow for more weight on the third compared to only increasing by 5 pounds (15 would be too large, especially on press). If you have a weak press, 10 pounds would be a greater percentage of your lift, so you could always use 7 or 5 pound jumps. I also like 10 pound jumps on the ascending 3×3.

The good thing about this set up is that every 5 or 7 weeks you could always single on up. It’s a way to test the 1RM (if you want), but it also provides an extremely high percentage stress that usually resonates well when going back to the regular press sets. I never systematically used singles; whenever I got into PR territory with the top triple or set of five, I would try a single. Earlier this year I was only hitting around 215 for a triple, and then I used it for a set of five before attempting the 240 press (previous PR was 230). I typically pressed Monday, benched Wednesday, and use weighted dips on Friday (after sn/cj, or something like that).

I write more about this method in the Texas Method: Part 2 e-book that is almost done (I finished writing the last chapter yesterday), so be on the lookout for that.

EVERYONE asks:

What silly things are all of you doing to raise money for Movember?

Dear EVERYONE,

Several of us will be doing something to raise money and reach our goal of $5,000. I will be doing one clean and jerk for every $50 raised (starting with the total on Wednesday morning) at the end of the month, Stroup is going to be deadlifting or something fucking stupid, Cloud is going to be abiding, and Paul Sousa is gonna be watching Twilight (I would never agree to that shit). I really don’t know the specifics despite the fact that Stroup, Cloud, Brent, Briskin, and I chatted for two hours the other night. Tomorrow I’ll put up a post clarifying what we’ll be doing so you know where your donation money is going.

Mark Motherfucking Marotta asks via telepathy:

I’ve been thinking about using snatch grip for my DE Deadlifts for the increased R.O.M. Is this stupid, smart or are you indifferent?

Dear the Mark,

I know that you are a powerlifter, so the first thing that comes to mind is, “How will these benefit you more than regular speed deadlifts?” You’ll use less weight with abnormal mechanics. The good thing with how I would normally program someone with intermediate deadlifting programming is that they pull a full ROM deadlift 3 times a month (with the other week being rack pulls, most likely) and that’s accomplished with speed pulling — more on this in Texas Method Part 2 e-book.

If you are keen to try it, then let me know how it goes. If I were coaching you I’d have you work with regular speed pulls, emphasizing the fast lockout (after the knees) as it’s more applicable. I’d consider snatch grip stuff worthy of a try for a powerlifter later in their advancement, if at all. This doesn’t mean they won’t be beneficial, but after my analysis, I’d rather you use conventional style.

All right, that’s good for today. I’ll see you guys on the field.

I’m in a hurry today, so this will be quick. Lately there has been more “dicking around” posts because I’ve been juggling various projects. If you e-mailed be about a consultation, I’ll get to you soon, but these projects won’t get done if I keep pushing them back. In the mean time, let’s watch some random vids:

My friend Jake from Chicago sent me this Kazmaier video. I have no idea what the context is, but I know it’s part of a film/documentary called “Tom Magee: Man of Iron”. This is the only part that Kazmaier is in. He seems kind of like a dickhead in this, but he obviously doesn’t act like that anymore. It’s still funny.


Here’s a vid from Robbie that is just…just…perfect.


Follow the jump for some weightlifting videos. Continue reading →

This is a list of people already on the 70’s Big Movember Team who are yet to raise any doll hairs:

Will Cook, Wayne Reeder, Ryan Buck, Ryan Berube, Pete Townley, Neil Sater, Luke Smith, Kevin Diaz, Justin Coons, Jeremy Shepard, Jay Stadtfeld and Jake Golovchuk (my homies, c’mon!), J.T. Matherly, Iman Crawford, Foster Scott Devine, Eli Weber, David Sharp, David Hagrety, Daniel Villava, Craig Kilgo, BJ Fox, Bill Clark, Ben Urich, Andrew Swisher, and Aamir Syed.

Gentlemen, if you do your part in raising some doll hairs, it will help 70’s Big reach its goal of $5,000. I challenge each one of you to raise $100.

Women Can Join the Fundraising Team
This isn’t solely a guys-only thing. Women, you can join the 70’s Big Movember Team and help raise money as well. No, you don’t need a friggin’ mustache and I prefer that you don’t have facial hair. If you’re a fan of dicks, cocks, or penises (or the utility thereof), then help us raise money for the cause. This won’t be the first 70’s Big fundraiser, so we’ll scratch your back (although most of us supported breast cancer awareness). I’m sure the few women who join the team will undoubtedly be better at this fundraising stuff than the majority of guys on the team.
Edit: What I mean by this is that women can create a profile just like the guys have. I believe the site calls it being a “MoSista” whereas guys are “MoBros”. You then could join the team like anyone else, and then have people donate to you specifically. When you are a part of the team, that total would go to the team as well. And you could win the money/book/t-shirt prize too.

What Do you Want
Do you want silly stuff? I’ve got silly stuff for you. Here’s a video of me hitting a mob. There’s no relevance whatsoever, other than I do it with a mustache, but maybe it will give you an idea of the lengths we’re willing to go to raise money. Or something.



Lift-a-thons?
Patrick Stroup, Jacob Cloud, and I have already stated that we’re willing to do some kind of lift-a-thon. Jacob does some deadlifts in THIS VIDEO, and Stroup is going to do squats and yell whatever obscenities that you submit with your donation. Instead, I’ll do clean and jerks. I’m thinking that for every $50 raised to the team from this point on (current total is $2,683, we’ll round it to 2,700 to keep it even). If you want a phrase shouted with the weight overhead, then include that in your donation (regardless of the person you donate it to). I’m sure Stroup and Cloud will join back in the fun for lift-a-thons. It’s your chance to kill us.

14 Days of Movember Left
We only have two weeks. In the first two weeks we raised a bit over $2,500, so the goal is to raise $5,000. I’m killing my dignity (see video above) and willing to do up to fifty reps on the clean and jerk. Let’s get it done.

I didn’t watch most of the Men’s weightlifting. While the lighter weight classes are impressive, I’m just not that interested in watching the smaller guys. I don’t understand why there’s even a 56k class, but the fact that this lightest weight class lifts about the same as me doesn’t help my self-esteem. Besides, the Chinese took gold all those classes. In fact, the damn Chinese had 7 of the top 3 spots in the 56, 62, 69, and 77 weight classes (7 of 12 spots combined). The only close gold battle seems to be in the 62k class, where gold and silver finished with 321 and 320 respectively. The next closest was the 77k class which was separated by 3 kilos, and then the other classes at least had a 5kg discrepancy between gold and silver.

I didn’t watch the 85k class either, and I make not apology. The best total in the 77k class would have placed 4th in the 85 class. The best snatch in the 85s (173) was only 3k more than the best in the 77s (170). Same thing with the clean and jerk, but a 4k difference (209 to 205), and that puts the best total was within 7k. Here’s the 85k clean and jerk session (English TV version).

This post will be full of pics and vids, so… Continue reading →