Recently, someone tagged me in a post on Facebook to ask my opinion about a video where a woman who was quite visibly pregnant was performing burpees during her workout.
She had set it up so that she was still doing a full burpee on the ground, but her belly wouldn’t touch the floor.
So, what are my thoughts on this? 😉
For me, the most important thing when planning exercise programs for my pregnant gals is weighing the risks vs. benefits.
What are the benefits of a burpee? In my opinion, the only strong benefit would be that it is a conditioning exercise.
Ok. So, we’re using the burpee mainly as a tool to get the heart rate up?
What are the risks of burpees in pregnancy? In my opinion, it creates too much stress on the core and consequently, the pelvic floor.
The jumping, the pushup, the belly hanging towards the ground. It’s such a difficult exercise to keep good form during to begin with, but then add a pregnant body to the mix?
Not for my ladies!
We can choose far more effective, less risky exercises than this to get the heart rate up.
Today’s article talks about exactly this:
• How can we safely and effectively do conditioning exercises and full workouts in pregnancy?
• How hard can you work? How can you gauge intensity?
• What should your heart rate be?
• What are the best exercises to use?
Click here to read the FULL article, Safe and Effective Conditioning Workouts in Pregnancy.
And, remember, friends don’t let friends do burpees in pregnancy 🙂
JMG