Therese Johaug has announced on her Instagram that she and her husband, Nils Jakob Hoff, are expecting the birth of their first child. In an interview with NRK, the accomplished Norwegian skier says she is very excited about the future.

Read More: Therese Johaug Is Expecting A Baby

During the interview, Johaug stated that she would continue training and has been in contact with Marit Bjørgen to get some advice about training during pregnancy. 

“I have received some advice about what I can do and how I can train,” says Johaug.

Despite not competing at the highest level anymore, Therese Johaug is still training. This is like what Marit Bjørgen did back when she decided to take a break from competitions during the 2015/20216 season to have her first child.

While she was expecting, Marit kept training to compete the following season, despite changing her training regime. And then, after the birth of her first child, Marit returned to elite skiing, winning five medals in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.

How Did Marit Bjørgen Train During Pregnancy?

In several research articles written by Guro Strom Solli, it is possible to find the description of Marit Bjørgen’s training methods during most of her career. One article describes what kind of advice Marit Bjørgen might have told Therese Johaug to keep training while pregnant.

“Training Characteristics During Pregnancy and Postpartum in the World’s Most Successful Cross-Country Skier,” ¹ written by Guro Strom Solli and Oyvind Sandbakk, investigates Marit Bjoergen’s training characteristics, body composition, and physiological capacity during her 40-week pregnancy. 

The researchers found that Bjørgen trained 555 hours, distributed across 316 training sessions. This represents a weekly average of 14 hours of training and eight training sessions. During the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, the famous Norwegian skier reduced only 21% and 14% of her training load in the pre-pregnancy year. However, Marit dropped her training load by more than 50% when the third trimester arrived.

Regarding exercise modes, Bjørgen trained in skating style for 101 hours, classic style for 156 hours, running/walking for 244 hours, and she also did 5 hours of cycling. But what is worth mentioning is that during the third trimester, Marit stopped running.

And regarding intensity zones, total Low-Intensity training was 465 hours, and Moderate-Intensity training was 34 hours distributed across 46 sessions. High-Intensity training mode was done only three times during the first five weeks of pregnancy.

Finally, regarding speed and strength training, Marit focused on more training for the upper body, while the low focus was on the core and legs. The total speed training was 3 hours, done during the first and second trimesters.

Marit Bjørgen’s pregnancy training regime is, as far as we know, the highest training volume performed during pregnancy, something that the researchers explain by the varied training exercises that cross-country skiers do. This variation allows the body to recover more quickly from each training session. Another explanation might be the volume of training hours Bjørgen did pre-pregnancy, which made her body strong enough to handle a high training volume during pregnancy.

Endurance Training During Pregnancy

A growing number of athletes become pregnant and want to resume their sporting careers after pregnancy, and thus keep training during pregnancy. Therefore, they feel the need to balance the health of their own and the fetus. 

Another paper reviewed the literature on this topic and found that training during pregnancy is generally safe for both the mother and the fetus. But what Bo, K., Artal, R., Barakat, R., Brown, W. J., Davies, G. A. L., Dooley, M., et al. (2017a). Exercise and pregnancy in recreational and elite athletes: 2016/17 evidence summary from the IOC expert group meeting, Lausanne. Part 4-Recommendations for future research², recommend is that during the third trimester, athletes reduce their training load between 30-60%.

Furthermore, exercising at intensities above 90% maximum heart rate and altitude above 1500-2000 meters could lead the fetus to a hypoxic situation. Also, heavy strength training during pregnancy is an ongoing debate due to the intra-abdominal pressure that happens while muscles contract and can potentially harm the fetus.

The Example Of Anna Jönsson Haag

Anna Jönsson Haag, a former Swedish National Team cross-country skier that now races as a Pro Tour skier for Team Kaffebryggeriet, did the same as Marit Bjørgen. 

The Swedish athlete got pregnant after quitting her sporting career. But despite being pregnant, Jönsson Haag continued to train six to eight hours a week, with a lot of running, skiing, and strength training. She even took this further by competing at Engadin Ski Marathon when she was 14 weeks pregnant, despite feeling some nausea.

“I could train quite well during the whole pregnancy. I did some long-distance racing in the last ten weeks of the pregnancy. I did push during the races, but not so hard that I didn’t feel well. I did a swim run, a roller ski competition, and a three-day running competition. And I did intervals just the days before I gave birth. I didn’t train for any special reason more than feeling like myself, and I wanted to feel strong during but also after my child’s birth,” shares Anna.

And one year after giving birth to her first child, Anna got pregnant again. But this time, Anna was devoted to training for Ski Classics competitions. Unfortunately, she couldn’t train as much as during the first pregnancy due to feeling bad. However, the Swedish athlete found her way back to top shape through CrossFit, which made her feel stronger than before she was pregnant.

“I felt like when I was 21 or 22 years old. I could train well. Since the recommendation is not to push over 90% of the maximum heart rate, I was a bit careful to push too hard, but I still did intervals. After my first baby, I took it really slow, and I felt weak the first couple of weeks, so I started with many walks and strength. But after six weeks, I returned to more normal training with skiing, running, and strength. I remember doing my first intervals already after two-three weeks on my cross trainer because it felt nicer to the body than running or anything else. After my second baby, I felt stronger right away and could start working out more normally even if I was a bit careful with the running.”

Could Therese Be Thinking About A Comeback?

The mentioned study is essential because a growing number of elite women athletes want to resume their careers after birth, just like Bjørgen and Jönsson Haag did. Will Therese Johaug be thinking about a comeback after the birth of her first child?

Only Therese can reply to this question. But we know that, according to research, the successful Norwegian skier can maintain her shape if she follows the recommendations provided by science and by her friend and former teammate, Marit Bjørgen.

And could Therese keep being such a strong skier as before? According to Anna Jönsson Haag’s experience, it is possible. However, the Swedish skier believes that pregnancy and training are truly individual.

“I would say absolutely! But there are so many factors you need to take into account. Can you train during the pregnancy, the birth, and after giving birth? In other words, is he a sleeper or not? But if everything goes well (or at least as much as possible) and you have the mental strength to stay focused with all the distractions around you with a new baby, there are no limits! Our body is amazing, and I feel like I’m a better person since I had my kids. I’m more focused when I work out or race, but I can also relax more and don’t care much about my results. So, I would say yes. I would say – I could even be stronger than before!”

¹Solli GS, Sandbakk Ø. Training Characteristics During Pregnancy and Postpartum in the World’s Most Successful Cross Country Skier. Front Physiol. 2018 May 23;9:595. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.00595. PMID: 29875693; PMCID: PMC5974210.

²Bø K, Artal R, Barakat R, Brown WJ, Davies GAL, Dooley M, Evenson KR, Haakstad LAH, Kayser B, Kinnunen TI, Larsén K, Mottola MF, Nygaard I, van Poppel M, Stuge B, Khan KM; IOC Medical Commission. Exercise and pregnancy in recreational and elite athletes: 2016/17 evidence summary from the IOC Expert Group Meeting, Lausanne. Part 3-exercise in the postpartum period. Br J Sports Med. 2017 Nov;51(21):1516-1525. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2017-097964. Epub 2017 Jun 22. PMID: 28642221.