PICTURED: Arin Longfellow, still training at 38 weeks pregnant

Can you train jiu-jitsu while pregnant? Should you train jiu-jitsu while pregnant?

Every pregnant woman who loves the sport has probably found herself asking these questions. They are not easy questions to answer, because the answer is different for everyone.

But my answer is: if you’re healthy and experiencing a normal, not-high-risk pregnancy, you can continue to train with modifications.

My Jiu-Jitsu Pregnancy

I fell in love with jiu-jitsu in mid-August 2019. I was completely new to the sport, hadn’t done any martial arts since college, was the only woman in my class, and my husband did not take up the sport with me.

So, when I found out I was pregnant on Columbus Day 2019, it wasn’t under the most optimal conditions for continuing with the sport.

One thing I quickly realized was that women tend to have a very different attitude to this question than men do. Here are some answers from the male-dominated r/bjj [1]:

As a historian, I know that it’s not uncommon for women to take a more expansive view towards our own abilities and liberties than men do. That said, the (mostly) men who think you should immediately stop all training as soon as you know you’re pregnant aren’t exactly wrong. They’re just worried about injuring a baby and are erring on the side of caution.

PICTURED: Me, still training at the start of my third trimester

Nevertheless, quite a lot of women have continued training while pregnant, but with modifications. Myself included!

For my own part, here’s how I did things:

  • I told my coach and all-male teammates immediately. I tried to make sure everyone knew. I realize it’s conventional to not announce a pregnancy until close to the second trimester, in case of miscarriage, but I wanted them to know so that they could be careful with me, and so that they could opt out of working with me if they preferred (note: no one opted out).
  • I stopped positional sparring and sparring as soon as I knew. If I had known some of the guys longer and they were comfortable with it, or if there had been other women in my class, or if my husband trained with me, I would have been okay with some flow rolling. I did go to an evening class once where one of our female blue belts (who is also a Judo black belt) did a roll with me and it was great! I know of other women who have continued to cautiously roll while pregnant, it just wasn’t right for my situation.
  • I mostly stuck to drills and observed. We made some obvious modifications, like not doing knee-on-belly or takedowns on me. The guys also tended to not want to practice chokes on me. I didn’t think being briefly choked while pregnant was any cause for concern, but I never argued about it. My coach was very supportive and would sometimes come over and get choked or let my partner try the move on him in my place.
  • I worked with groups of 3 as much as possible so that, if I needed to sit out any part of having a technique tried on me, my partners could just work with each other and not have to do the move on me.
  • I normally wear an A2 belt. I bought an A4 for the pregnancy. My plan was to wear my gi top open when my belly got too big, but I never got to that point (see below). Under my gi I just wore maternity yoga clothes. Rash guards and spats can be stretchy, but I was afraid they wouldn’t bounce back after the pregnancy, and they’re too expensive to ruin.

I stuck with training all through the second trimester. I attended the 6 AM class three times per week and almost never missed a class. I also attended a seminar with Jefferson Moura in December 2019, after checking with my coach to make sure a limited slot wouldn’t be wasted on me. My coach gave me my second and third stripes on my white belt while I was pregnant.

PICTURED: Jennifer Moree, still training at 26 weeks pregnant

If you’re wondering what my OB-GYN thought, she is a fellow 6’0” woman and was initially enthusiastic about me continuing with jiu-jitsu (or so she said). Then sometime late in the second trimester, she said, “Wait, what exactly is jiu-jitsu, it’s not a contact sport, is it?” Gulp. I felt that, at that point, the medical objection ship had long sailed, so I just kept with it.

My plan was to switch to observation-only at the start of the third trimester and not even do drills. However, 1-2 weeks after the start of my third trimester, the COVID shut-downs started and our gym closed for nearly three months. “We were ALL pregnant for three months,” my coach joked.

My Postpartum Return

My gym closed due to COVID on March 16th and re-opened on June 8th. I began showing signs of preeclampsia late in my second trimester that continued through my third trimester. (Note: preeclampsia had happened in my first two pregnancies, but only in the final month. What can I say, geriatric pregnancies suck.) On May 17th, at 37+1, we induced labor and I gave birth to a 7 lb 15 oz little girl. She was hospitalized in the NICU for ten days due to breathing problems and has been perfectly healthy ever since.

I returned when the gym re-opened on June 8th, at three weeks postpartum, but did not roll or spar and sat out any move that was too exhausting for me. We were initially doing a lot of solo drills that were heavy on the cardio and I felt no guilt about saying “no” to certain things. I also only attended twice a week for a while.

I resumed complete sparring and rolling at six weeks postpartum.

Was It Worth It?

Some people wouldn’t want to continue training if it meant not sparring/rolling. And I agree, sparring/rolling is the best part, and I missed it a lot. But I still learned a lot doing just drills for ~6 months. I’m just waiting for my muscle memory to catch up to the knowledge in my head.

Final thought: I’ll spare you the TMI details, but this birth was my easiest. My oldest (age 14, 7 lbs 4 oz at birth) was a forceps delivery and my middle child (age 7, 9 lbs 5 oz and posterior at birth) was a vacuum extraction. This one came out unassisted in just a couple of pushes with minimal damage, despite weighing nearly 8 pounds.

I totally think the previous ~9 months of murder yoga helped a ton!

Baby Lyra age 3 months & me at my jiu-jitsu 1-year anniversary

———

Other Resources

[1] As an aside, I’m wondering how many of these guys who thought taking time off was “not a big deal” have agreed to take a year off due to COVID. I’m guessing they realize now that taking a year off from something you absolutely love is a VERY big deal!