High Impact and Climbing During the First Trimester

For many of us, after we get a positive pregnancy test...there are a flood of emotions, a state of shock, and then it finally hits us, 'what about my climbing?'

This post will address climbing during early pregnancy, and provide you with information regarding high impact exercise during the first trimester of pregnancy. 

Trigger Warning: this post will discuss pregnancy loss prior to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

I firmly believe that providing information such as this is as important as information that is much easier to share.

As a woman who has been through three losses myself, this is information that I would have found highly informative while I was going through my TTC journey.

Remember, this information is meant to help you make decisions for yourself, not information meant to make a decision for you, or scare you whatsoever.

Stay curious, talk to your providers, and always remember - you're not an eggshell, you're pregnant. 

So you know you're pregnant; and here's what most likely happened...you got a positive test, freak out a little bit (in a good way), and then it slowly dawns on you....what do I need to do about climbing? 

Can I go like normal?  Am I not supposed to fall, like at all?  Should I not boulder...what about lead climbing?

You may feel a little bit like this, no matter how long you've been climbing....

Reminder, a positive pregnancy test does not take away years of experience, knowledge, and strength as a climber - it just means that there are a few more things that you need to know.

There is now overwhelming evidence that shows us exercise is good for both you, and your baby.  Exercise has been shown to decrease rates of depression, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes by 40–67% without increasing the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage, preterm delivery or small for gestational age baby (1).

This is a big deal. 

 We continue to learn more and more of the benefits of continuing to remain physically active, for both Mom and baby; with current ACOG guidelines recommended that pregnant women participate in at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of exercise per week (2).

So what about rock climbing?

Okay, here is where things are going to get a little more 'wordy' and I'm going to quote a lot of research.  Hang with me, I promise that I will tie it all together for you. 

The aspect of climbing that we need to really dig into here is impact.  Climbing, as in the actual movement, pulling, body positions, skill, etc are not inherently dangerous whatsoever during pregnancy.

When it comes to sport during pregnancy, climbing is classified as an activity that one should avoid, due to its high risk of falling. 

Let's dive into this a bit more: 

There is falling, as we would think of in the traditional sense...and then there is impact.  

They are a bit like a venn diagram - as there are parts of falling and high impact that are the same, and then there are parts that are different. 

 The reason I am bringing your attention to this is because the research that we will focus on in this blog post is on high impact, not falling.  

For clarity, high impact sports tend to involve one or more of the following: 

• Contact - frequent collisions or physical contact between players; e.g. football, rugby, hockey, and martial arts
• Intensity - explosive movements, quick changes in direction, rapid acceleration and deceleration; e.g. basketball, soccer, tennis 
• Repetitive Motion - motion done in a repetitive nature that can place significant stress on joints and muscles over time; e.g. running, gymnastics, some weight lifting 
• Gravity - activities performed against gravity, such as jumping or landing, these activities can place increased stress on the body's musculoskeletal system, with emphasis on the joints.

To summarize, high impact activities often requires high levels of strength, agility, and endurance, and they carry a greater risk of acute injuries and long-term wear and tear on the body.

When we put this in the context of climbing, I believe that we can make that argument that climbing is both high impact, and low impact, depending on the discipline, as well as how the discipline is practiced.

Bouldering can be high impact, if we are taking bigger falls, more aggressive falls, or generally climbing without regard to falling; i.e. 'going for it' without taking into account potential fall risks.

Bouldering can certainly be low impact as well, given that the climber down climbs, softy jumps down or lets go from the boulder with control, and is climbing within a limit that they are confident they will not fall.

The same logic can follow for lead climbing; with top roping being generally seen as low impact (in my opinion).

I am going to present data from ONE study to you - which provides some data around pregnancy loss and high impact activity during the first trimester. 

Please keep in mind that this is ONE study - and there are MANY others that provide evidence that contradicts these findings. But in the spirit of full transparency, I do feel that it is important to acknowledge research such as this, as it can be used to equip climbers with information that they may choose to empower their decisions. 

A 2007 Research Paper investigated the hazard ratio (HR) of miscarriage according to type of exercise most often performed, with non exercisers as the reference (3). The study found that, during weeks 11-14 of pregnancy participants who participated in high impact activities (which the study classified as jogging, ball games, and racket sports) for 75-269 minutes/week (1.2 - 4.5 hours/week) showed the largest hazard ratios, or likelihood of a loss occurring when compared to the group of non-exercisers. 

The data presented showed, 'high-impact exercise fort 75-269 minutes/week was associated with an increased risk of miscarriage showing HR up to 4.7 (95% CI 3.3-5.3) (3).'

Let's break this down: 

My stats class was a long time ago, so if you need a refresher along with me, keep reading: 

Hazards Ratio (HR): this measure is a calculation of how much more likely an event is to happen in one group compared to another over time; the HR of 4.7 suggests that there is 4.7 times higher risk of the event (loss) occurring in the high-impact group vs the non-exerciser group.

95% Confidence Interval (CI): this tells us a range of values that is reasonably confident to assume that HR lies; in other words, there is a 95% confidence interval that the true HR lies between 3.3 and 5.3.

Let's Bring It Full Circle.... 

 As I have said multiple times, this is ONE study, but it is important to acknowledge the findings. Here are the takeaways that I feel are most important for climbers: 

1. For Bouldering: during weeks 11-14, it may be beneficial to limit repetitive, aggressive, and forceful drops and or falls from boulders. Due to the nature of bouldering, most pregnant women will choose to not be overly dynamic or 'go for' moves that might risk falling, but perhaps even looking at falls that are low down, yet create more impact (such as falling onto your hips off of a low start, falling onto your back from low height) etc  

2. For Lead Climbing: during weeks 11-14, it may be beneficial to limit lead falls that have the potential of creating high impact forces; these falls could be thought of as falls on more vertical terrain, where the climber does not receive a soft catch, falls caught by a belayer without significant expercience in giving a soft catch, as well as falls that may create a pendulum effect with the climber coming into contact with the wall. 

I want this information to help you to feel more empowered; it is not meant to scare or discourage you, rather help you to make empowered decisions around climbing and training during your pregnancy. 

Make sure to reach out if you have questions, we're all in this together! 

Always remember, you got this! 

Love and Muscles,

Joy 

References: 

1. Davenport MH, Kathol AJ, Mottola MF, et al. Prenatal exercise is not associated with fetal mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med 2019; 53: 108–115.

2. Physical activity and exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Obstet Gynecol 2020;135:e178–88.

3. Madsen M, Jørgensen T, Jensen ML, Juhl M, Olsen J, Andersen PK, Nybo Andersen AM. Leisure time physical exercise during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage: a study within the Danish National Birth Cohort. BJOG. 2007 Nov;114(11):1419-26. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2007.01496.x. Epub 2007 Sep 17. PMID: 17877774; PMCID: PMC2366024.