AKA Workouts During Week 12 of Pregnancy 

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was filled with holiday festivities including Theodora’s annual cookie swap and the annual holiday lunch with some of Bo’s best guy friends, many of whom I’ve now known for nine years! Thanks to a very rich, late lunch at Peter Luger’s yesterday, I was in bed by 7:45pm. This set me up well for an early morning Monday workout!

Since so many people have requested that I share my workouts throughout pregnancy, today is the return of my Weekly Workout Recaps. I will share these each Monday with not only links and class details but also any adjustments I made during class due to pregnancy. Since I’m still early in my pregnancy, just 13 weeks, there aren’t very many adjustments yet.

• Monday December 5th – After a long Monday I was craving a cardio sweat party, aka Soul Cycle class. While I don’t take Soul Cycle that often, I find that it can cure a bad mood better than almost any other workout. Joyce’s class was almost completely out of the saddle which is a change for me. If you take Soul Cycle classes regularly, would you say this is typical these days?
• Tuesday December 6th – You guys know I don’t have my rythym and therefore typically avoid dance workout classes. Thanks to Target‘s C9 brand and AKT Nomad I had the opportunity to try an AKT Happy Hour class bright and early Tuesday morning with Kayla, Theodora and other NYC influencers. The Happy Hour class is their signature dance-based interval class. The class alternated between choreographed dance cardio combinations and toning workouts including a VERY challenging glute series that left my glutes sore for two days. By the end of the class I’d let my inhibitions go and was having a blast even though I was always a step or two behind. I enjoyed this class SO much that I’d consider going to it again or even trying their AKTEASE class which is targeted towards beginners.
• Wednesday December 7th – Rest Day
• Thursday December 8th  – I received a cold weather running package from my friends at Brooks which inspired me to immediately try on the pieces and head out the door for an outside jog. I jogged for 30 minutes around the neighborhood, enjoying the holiday lights and festive decorations while trying to ignore the cold weather’s affect on my lungs.
• Friday December 9th – Since joining the Brooklyn (Dodge) YMCA this month, I’ve had the chance to get back into Body Pump. This was the first workout class I took when I started my fitness journey ten years ago. I used to take Body Pump three times a week at the gym near my apartment in Wayne, Pennsylvania but since moving to New York City haven’t been able to take it since it’s only offered in certain gyms. Friday evening I kicked off the weekend with a very sweaty, fast paced Body Pump Express class. I thought express meant it’d skip one track to result in a shorter class. Nope, it just meant you did 90% of the work in 75% of the time and most of the time was saved during transitions. I think I’ll stick to regular classes during my pregnancy as I found the pace a bit hard to keep up with at times.
• Saturday December 10th – I met my sister-in-law at the Brooklyn Heights Soul Cycle for a 60-minute Soul Survivor class led by the very energetic Eve. Her class included A LOT of time out of the saddle as well as Rihanna tunes. By the time class was over I was ready to get out of the hot, sticky room but during class I felt great.
• Sunday December 11th –  I returned to jogging with a 40-minute treadmill workout consisting of 5 minute walking intervals at 4.2 speed and 5.0 incline followed by 5 minute of jogging intervals at 5.7 speed and 1.0 incline.