Fitness coach Meg Gallagher recently opened up about squatting 225 pounds on her due date—something she never would have attempted during her first pregnancy.
Her second pregnancy brought dramatic changes in approach, confidence, and mental outlook.
From supplementing with creatine to joining a CrossFit gym for mental health support, Gallagher’s journey reveals how experience and knowledge reshape prenatal fitness.
Here’s what changed between baby number one and baby number two.
Jump to:
- Creatine Supplementation: Weighing Unknown Risks Against Emerging Benefits
- Training Intensity: From Conservative to Confident
- Coning and Doming: Less Neurotic, More Nuanced
- Mental Health and Community Support
- Running Returns: Pelvic Floor Confidence
- Targeted Adductor Work for Lightning Crotch Prevention
- Key Takeaways for Prenatal Training
Creatine Supplementation: Weighing Unknown Risks Against Emerging Benefits
Perhaps the most controversial change Gallagher made was supplementing with creatine throughout her second pregnancy—5 grams daily from conception to delivery.
She acknowledges upfront that creatine hasn’t been officially evaluated in human pregnancy. The safety profile remains unclear for pregnant individuals specifically.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
However, animal studies involving spiny mice revealed something remarkable: creatine appeared to offer protective benefits during birth complications, particularly for brain development.
The research seems really interesting and maybe even promising. It might be on the way to eventually suggesting that pregnant people take creatine much in the way that we take folate to prevent neural tube defects.
Gallagher emphasizes we might be decades away from official recommendations.
During her first pregnancy in 2021, she chose differently. Back then, the research wasn’t as developed, and she felt uncomfortable taking supplements not explicitly recommended by her doctor.
Understanding Maternal Autonomy and Risk Assessment
Fitness YouTuber Greg Doucette responded to her initial decision not to supplement, essentially arguing that crossing the street posed more risk than taking creatine during pregnancy.
His comment highlighted an important distinction: known risk versus unknown risk.
Gallagher explains that pregnancy, especially after experiencing miscarriage, carries intense psychological weight. Every decision feels monumentally important.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Being pregnant, especially with your first baby, is extremely stressful. Pregnant women often carry this very intense stress that comes with being responsible, 100% responsible for a human life.
In her first pregnancy, creatine presented unknown risks with unknown benefits. By her second pregnancy, new research revealed unknown risks but known potential benefits.
That shift changed her calculation entirely.
Training Intensity: From Conservative to Confident
Gallagher trained significantly harder throughout her second pregnancy, maintaining barbell movements right up until delivery day.
During her first pregnancy, she switched to lighter kettlebell and dumbbell work throughout the entire third trimester. She knew she could handle more but played it conservative.
Several factors contributed to her increased intensity the second time around:
- Chasing a toddler: Already being a mom meant staying strong wasn’t optional
- Mental and physical craving: She wanted to push herself and go heavy
- Pelvic floor confidence: Postpartum rehab gave her tools to recognize warning signs
- Advanced certifications: Pre and postnatal fitness coaching plus pregnancy corrective exercise specialist credentials deepened her understanding
She holds certifications as both a pre and postnatal fitness coach and pregnancy and postpartum corrective exercise specialist. This education revealed crucial nuance about individual variation.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
If I walked into a training session and I felt good, I just trained as hard as I felt like doing that day. Pregnancy is hard, but pregnancy while getting weaker and while losing strength is even harder.
This philosophy led her to create Plus One Pregnancy, a barbell-based program specifically for lifters who want to maintain strength throughout pregnancy and postpartum.
Coning and Doming: Less Neurotic, More Nuanced
Gallagher adopted a dramatically different approach to abdominal coning and doming during her second pregnancy.
What Are Coning and Doming?
Coning appears as a visible ridge or line down the abdomen, showing intra-abdominal pressure pushing against the linea alba—the connective tissue between rectus abdominis muscles.
Doming represents muscle activation patterns. The rectus abdominis fires outward while the transverse abdominis (TVA)—the deep corset-like muscle—doesn’t engage properly to draw everything inward.
Both are huge buzzwords in prenatal fitness circles. Common advice suggests avoiding exercises that cause these presentations to prevent excessive linea alba stretching.
Gallagher’s first-pregnancy approach? Swap exercises immediately upon seeing any coning, particularly with lat pulldowns and pull-ups.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Her second-pregnancy strategy? Use coning and doming as feedback rather than hard stop signals.
We don’t need to at all costs avoid seeing any coning and any doming throughout the entirety of pregnancy. I think a better approach is that we should know what to look for and then what to do about it.
She points to CrossFit athlete Tia-Clair Toomey, who posted workout videos showing both coning and doming during pregnancy. Research doesn’t definitively prove these presentations guarantee negative outcomes.
Individual strength levels, tissue resilience, and recovery capacity all factor into what’s appropriate for each person.
Mental Health and Community Support
Gallagher experienced significant depression during her second pregnancy—something she’s never publicly shared before.
Depression and anxiety plagued her first and second trimesters. A personal and business crisis in her third trimester threw her into an anxious spiral.
The statistics are sobering: maternal mental health disorders impact one in five US women. Rates jumped from 9.4% in 2010 to 19% in 2021.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Disorders range from depression and anxiety to OCD, bipolar disorder, and psychosis.
I felt like I rocked my first pregnancy. And when my second came around, I just did not have that same scenario.
As nausea subsided and she felt ready to train again, Gallagher joined a CrossFit gym—primarily for community connection rather than programming specifics.
Being around people while working out became a crucial coping mechanism. The classes added dynamic movement and variety she craved mentally.
She emphasizes that training partners or gym communities don’t need to be CrossFit-specific. Finding people who understand and support you matters most.
Running Returns: Pelvic Floor Confidence
Gallagher ran regularly during her second pregnancy, including as part of CrossFit workouts.
Running presents higher impact and more repetition than lifting, potentially worsening pelvic floor symptoms. She stopped completely during her first pregnancy out of concern her pelvic floor couldn’t handle it.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
After completing postpartum rehabilitation protocols, she felt dramatically stronger and more confident. Understanding warning signs for pelvic floor fatigue gave her tools to monitor herself.
Research supports pelvic floor training benefits. A 2024 systematic review of 65 studies involving over 21,000 participants found that pelvic floor muscle training reduced postpartum urinary incontinence odds by 37%.
Continuous pelvic floor training since her first pregnancy built the foundation for safe running during her second.
Targeted Adductor Work for Lightning Crotch Prevention
Gallagher significantly increased direct adductor exercises connected with breath work during her second pregnancy.
“Lightning crotch”—stabbing pelvic pain—occurs as hormones soften the pelvis in preparation for birth. This pelvic girdle pain responds well to specific strengthening exercises.
Recommended movements include:
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
- Clamshells
- Side-lying leg lifts
- Copenhagen planks (if strength allows)
Gallagher emphasizes connecting these movements with pelvic floor contractions and proper breathing patterns.
She recommends building Copenhagen plank proficiency during the trying-to-conceive phase as preventive preparation.
I think this work and kind of ramping it up in my trying to conceive phase definitely helped me avoid some of that lightning crotch pain.
Key Takeaways for Prenatal Training
Gallagher’s experience reveals several important principles for pregnancy fitness:
- No universal rules exist: Safe weight limits and perfect modifications vary individually
- Body literacy matters: Understanding breath, pelvic floor connection, and pain signals enables informed decisions
- Scaling back is okay: Conservative choices during late pregnancy won’t derail long-term progress
- Scaling back isn’t elimination: Reducing intensity doesn’t mean removing all training stimulus
- Every pregnancy differs: What worked once may not work again, and vice versa
- Mental health deserves attention: Community support and movement can be crucial coping tools
Her journey from conservative first-time mom to confident second-time lifter illustrates how knowledge, experience, and self-awareness transform prenatal fitness approaches.
Whether choosing creatine supplementation, maintaining heavy barbell work, or joining a gym for mental health support, autonomy and individual circumstances should guide decisions.
