If you’ve been pregnant, you know how open everyone is to giving you advice, and really just giving you their unwarranted opinion on things you should and shouldn’t do with YOUR BODY.

As good as the intention may be for most people, they usually aren’t even giving you an EDUCATED opinion, regardless of the fact that it’s still just an opinion and one you didn’t ask for.

Even a large portion of medical doctors will still give you uneducated advice on pregnancy and exercise because they’re not up to speed on the research behind pregnancy and training. They’re of the mindset “better safe than sorry” which is understandable – but if you know the research then you know it’s also SAFE.

So here are three of the most common things I hear when it comes to pregnancy and training that make me want to rip my hair out.

1. “Don’t lift over 10lbs.”

You. have. got. to. be. kidding. me. You better PRAY you don’t have a 10lb baby because that’s going to be ROUGH. The general recommendation is never to lift over 75-80% of your max for any given lift. So unless your max is 12.5lbs, then you can and absolutely SHOULD be lifting more than 10lbs.

2. “Don’t let your heart rate get over 140BPM.”

This only applies to you if you’re 70 years old…

Pregnant women are on average around 30 years old which means that a HR of 140bpm is only 75% of their max, and while it is advised that no pregnant women do HIIT (High intensity INTERVAL training), and only advanced athletes who are used to doing HIT (High Intensity Training) get their heart rate in the range of 90% or above of max- you are absolutely encouraged to push above the 75% range, if that is comfortable for you.

3. “You’re eating for two!”

Now this one made me a little sad, because I was excited to eat for two, however, I hate to inform you that even in the last trimester where you’ll be expending the most energy – you only need about 300 extra calories. This is a general recommendation and should be adjusted based on your personal needs. You and your healthcare provider should be monitoring your weight gain to ensure healthy progress.

I’d love to hear what you’ve been told during pregnancy that was either unwanted advice or advice that you knew to be untrue!