Martial Arts while 7 mos pregnant?

[bntamin]

Are there any martial arts mamas out there?

Is there any reason I shouldn't start a martial arts class? I consider myself pretty fit, I've exercised regularly throughout pregnancy. I've taken martial arts before, but stopped for a year or two. It's my fourth pregnancy and fortunately I have had no problems with this one.

I was pregnant before while taking tae kwon do classes, so I'm kind of familiar with what I should avoid. So long as I keep it low impact and no contact, do you think there's any reason I shouldn't start up? It's a little late to start something new at 7 mos, but a bunch of my friends are starting a class together, which is motivating me to get back into it.

Any tips or advice would be great!

[sk8boarder15]

I'm a tkd black belt and quit class at five months due to joint pain and not being able to do a lot of the kicks. If you were to start I would focus on forms and take it very very easy when it comes to kicks and such as even non-pregnant new participants tend to injure themselves.

[somegirl99]

I'm a kenpo black belt, still going to class at 7+ months but mostly instructing (with a little demonstration). I agree with sk8boarder15.

[stik]

I trained through most of my second pregnancy.

The art I practice involves a lot of throwing and falling. I moved over to rolling with the beginners around 14 weeks, because they had a less crowded mat, and I could control my pace and my spacing better. I stopped taking falls early on (and my partners were really nervous about the idea of throwing me). By the end, I was focusing a lot on forms and weapons - throwing shuriken, practicing sword draws, very gentle things. I think with friends, with some familiarity with the art, and with a good sense of your own limitations, you can make it work.

[aikigypsy]

Hmm. I have been practicing aikido for many years, but not so much since shortly before I got pregnant with DD a bit over 3 years ago (I had been out with an injury for a few months before I got pregnant). With both this pregnancy and that one, I found that I just didn't feel like practicing after about 5 months, and certainly had no interest in picking up a new art, new forms, etc. Also, I find it very frustrating not being able to take falls, which is about half of our usual practice. People will accommodate those who can't fall, but it's just not as much fun. I feel like I should still be doing weapons practice (mostly forms) still.

If you have the energy and the interest, I suppose you could give it a try, but be careful not to over-stretch. Relaxin can make you feel like you can stretch further than you really should, and I've heard of women causing themselves permanent ligament damage by over-stretching while pregnant.

[CherryBomb]

I used to take TKD and we had a woman who got pregnant. Our instructor told her she could continue as long as she wanted, she would just have her skip the sparring. I haven't done TKD while pregnant myself, but our training was pretty intense and I can't imagine I would have wanted to continue much beyond 5 months. I miss it, though, I was in awesome shape!

[broodymama]

I continued karate up through the first couple weeks of my 3rd trimester with this pregnancy. I was already training, though, so it wasn't something new to my body. I just listened very carefully to my body and made adjustments as necessary (stopped sparring, no leaping rolls, jumping kicks, etc.). I also made sure to stay very well hydrated during class. At the end I could tell when my body was ready for me to stop - I got tired much easier, my center of balance was changing almost from class to class and I was looking forward more to the end of class than the class itself.

I'm looking forward to starting training again once the baby is a couple months old, though!

[lotusma]

keep in mind your body is much more susceptible to joint/muscle injury due to the Relaxin hormone that's currently in your system, who's very function is to "relax" and loosen up your joints/bones/muscles in preparation for labor.

that said, and coming from a martial arts family, i personally wouldn't trust any fast moving body w/in a 2 foot radius of my pregnant body.

[bntamin]

Thanks everybody for the great info and experiences. I'm thinking maybe I should go slow and try it out, or maybe just wait until after the baby comes. I might just go to a few classes to get a feel and try to do the forms without putting any force into it.
The stretching is a good point--I'm definitely prone to over-stretching and have been sore and tender for days after some of my prenatal workouts because I think I stretch too much.
Thanks again! You guys are great.

[mediumcrunch]

Sparring, no, at least after the first trimester. But I think forms would be just fine and good for you. I'd watch certain kicks once your center of gravity starts changing just because you might be more apt to fall and or overstretch.
My kids TKD instructor has 7 children, I should ask her what she did.