At the gym in Limuru, Jane Kabogo goes about her daily workout routine with ease, a sight to behold given her physical condition. The studio hall is quiet and almost empty.
I sit on a wooden jump box in the far corner and watch Jane work up a sweat. She is dedicated to an intense regimen to designed to address a specific issue.
She catches the attention of the handful of people in the studio as she loads a 20-kilo barbell and executes the snatch workout effortlessly. I count ten reps.
“Depending on my mood and my current condition, the most I can lift with snatches is 60 kilos. I am due next month; my pregnancy is at 33 weeks and three days,” she tells me while panting for breath.
Before the snatches, she had completed five rounds of 200-metre runs with her husband, Mureithi Kabogo, who is a software engineer.
She then began the gym session with 10 chest bar pull-ups to warm up, followed by 100 skips on the rope and push-ups with a 40-kilo load, just to get her body ready.
“I am a CrossFitter, and as you may know, our sessions involve a lot of functional movements at high intensity, like snatches, squats, deadlifts, and cardio movements, where the running bit comes in. Because I am pregnant, I am not as quick. I run at a slow pace, but of course, it’s much quicker for a pregnant woman. In this condition, I do the five rounds in two minutes, but when I am not pregnant, I complete the five rounds in one minute.”
This is her second pregnancy, and, like her first, the mother of a three-year-old daughter plans to continue training until her water breaks.
Jane Kabogo performs a burpee box jump workout at Kaizen Warriors Gym in Limuru Town.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
‘Stop her’
“During our first pregnancy, she trained until the very end. The water broke while we were doing basic exercises at home. I remember her saying, ‘I think the baby is here.’ I rushed her to a nearby hospital and had a normal, safe delivery. She didn’t struggle with labour pain as much,” Kabogo recounts.
Despite this being their second pregnancy and having trained at this gym before, the couple — who fell in love during their time at university — continue to attract glances, even from their colleagues who witnessed the process three years ago.
“Many people are shocked when they see us training. Men have come to me and asked why I let my wife exercise while pregnant and if I’m not afraid she’ll hurt the baby. One time during the early days of the pregnancy, my wife was executing a handstand pose. Two men came to me and asked me to make her stop. You could tell they were scared and concerned. But to us, it’s normal; we’ve been doing this for a while. I always find it to be one of the best ways to bond and spend time with my wife.”
A handstand pose is when you balance your body in an inverted vertical position on your hands – literary standing with your hands.
Jane is quick to add: “That’s why I prefer working out early in the morning, between 8 am and 10 am. During those hours, the gym is empty, so it’s just the two of us. That means there are fewer stares, so I can concentrate and avoid distractions that might make me feel uncomfortable or lose focus, which can easily lead to tripping or falling and hurt not only the baby but myself too.”
But for a pregnant woman who trains five times a week, you would be excused to ask why the intensity and the heavy loads?
“When we go for the clinics, the doctor always encourages us to move our bodies as much as we can because that not only helps with the development of the baby but also eases up the hustle when you go into labour.”
Muriithi Kabogo and his wife Jane perform a dumbbell snatch at the Kaizen Warriors Gym in Limuru Town, Kiambu on June 11, 2025.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
How much weight can you safely lift during pregnancy?
According Hopkins Medicine and Baby Centre journals, there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
It depends on your stage of pregnancy, how often you lift and what you are lifting. It also depends on how strong your muscles are and whether you are using the correct technique.
To ensure her safety, Jane says she did a lot of online research on pregnancy-safe lifting techniques.
“I learned that whenever I am lifting, I should exercise with the right form. This is very important. Also, I ensure I maximise the bend from the knees. Keeping your back straight when lifting is also very crucial because during pregnancy, your ligaments loosen and your joints become less stable, making it easy to injure yourself. As your belly grows, your centre of gravity shifts forward. This puts more pressure on your lower back, making it vulnerable to strain, particularly when lifting something heavy,” she explains.
“Exhaling while I am lifting is another technique I employ, and also ensuring that I carry the load closer to my body. But my caution to pregnant women is that if the load causes any form of strain, please don’t carry it.”
Safety techniques
Jane says she has also modified workouts to ensure she keeps herself and the pregnancy safe.
“For example, instead of doing box jumps, I step onto the box, descend onto the other side, do a kneeling push-up, then climb back onto the box, descend onto the other side, and repeat the push-up. Ideally, I should be jumping to perform the push-ups. It’s not that I can’t jump in my condition, but to avoid any chance of tripping and falling, I avoid the jump altogether.”
She has also applied this principle to certain techniques.
“For example, when doing snatches, I open my legs wide when coming down into the squat position to create enough room for my belly to sink into that wide space, ensuring that I don’t squeeze the baby. I also don’t do any core workouts, some gymnastics, and generally heavy lifting.”
Jane Kabogo performs an overhead squat during her workout session.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
For anyone who might argue that she is overtraining, Jane maintains she carefully listens to her body and only trains when she feels energetic enough to. But even so, the concept of CrossFit is always to test your body to its limits.
“I don’t think I am overtraining because I make sure I get enough rest. After my two-hour gym session, I spend most of my time sleeping and eating organic food. I think I sleep more than the recommended seven hours, which allows my body to recover quickly before my next workout. I also take long walks in the field as a form of active rest.”
While it’s normal to gain weight during pregnancy, given the intense regimen she has subjected her body to, the weight gain has been minimal, with most of it showing on her face.
“It’s just that you can’t spot-train, and you can’t train your face either. But it’s normal; the weight will come off faster once I deliver. I’m also following this cautious, intense regime because I want my body to snap back immediately after having the baby.”
