I thought I'd posted this yesterday but I don't see it. My apologies if it did end up floating around here somewhere.
Hi. :) I'm new here although I've been popping in and out for a couple of months to read various discussions. I am a 28 year-old female who has been swimming competitively for most of her life. I'm doing low-mileage masters now to complement my running and lifting activities and quite enjoy it.
Last week my husband and I found out that we are expecting our first child. Now that it's sunk in, I realize that my routines will have to change a bit. I think my swim practices should be easy to modify. However, I had just signed up for a local summer competition league when we found out. There are six SCY meets total with short events (longest being IM & 100 fr), and the first is this Thursday.
Based on reading I've done online and a call to my health insurance Nurse Help line, it appears that I probably should not do dive starts from the deck even as early as I am now at 5 weeks. Has anyone else heard of this or heard differently? I'm going to call my ob/gyn doctor tomorrow to verify but there really seems to be a limited understanding in the medical community of competitive swimming.
I'm especially curious about this because we're trying to keep the pregnancy a secret for a couple of months to make sure it sticks and avoid news spreading too soon to my company. In-water starts will certainly raise eyebrows so I might need to pull out of the competition league and just stick with practices if I can't dive.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!
Parents
Former Member
Breaststroke felt good, still strong, but I'm going to keep an eye on the legs as my joints soften. Backstroke felt good, too, and fly felt normal. It was mostly my free that suffered.
For me being distance free and fly swimmer I always worked harder on the free and we always did free-heavy sets, so if your sessions are anything like mine were you'll feel it more in free than other strokes. Plus I suddenly realised that I swam freestyle with my arms, back, side and stomach when pregnant (duh!!) see I never really thought what muscles I used until they were otherwise occupied!
Breaststroke is very good for stretching the pelvis in preparation for the birth, but don't stretch too far!
Breaststroke felt good, still strong, but I'm going to keep an eye on the legs as my joints soften. Backstroke felt good, too, and fly felt normal. It was mostly my free that suffered.
For me being distance free and fly swimmer I always worked harder on the free and we always did free-heavy sets, so if your sessions are anything like mine were you'll feel it more in free than other strokes. Plus I suddenly realised that I swam freestyle with my arms, back, side and stomach when pregnant (duh!!) see I never really thought what muscles I used until they were otherwise occupied!
Breaststroke is very good for stretching the pelvis in preparation for the birth, but don't stretch too far!
