Pregnant karate champion doesn't give in training - PHOTO+VIDEO

Pregnant Crystal Green's clients aren't the only ones kicking in her Muay Thai sessions as the karate champion, 31, hasn't let being eight months pregnant stop her running her all-female kickboxing bootcampCrystal, who runs the 'Foxy & Fierce' workouts from her Hollywood gym, fell pregnant in March while she was training for a body-transforming bikini contest, at first mistaking stalled weightloss for not training hard enough.The blonde was on a strict no salt, no sugar, no gluten, no dairy diet in preparation for the competition and explains: 'I knew something was different in my body... I wasn't losing weight and I just felt like my belly was in a bloated state. It wasn't flat and rock hard like it should have been.Crystal, who comes from a family of martial artists, took a pregnancy test 'on a whim' and was stunned by the result.'At first it was bittersweet,' she says. 'I had a lot planned for my summer. I was actually prepping my body for a fitness competition and I was training  with a coach to get on stage for a bikini competition. I was getting my body fat down and proportioning my body.'I was planning on committing to that competition and I think, because of my diet change and my fitness regiment, it just contributed to a healthier body that made me get pregnant easier.'It took about an hour to sink in. It was a happy accident. I'm a business owner and very motivated and driven, and sometimes you think there's no time to have a baby and it doesn't become a priority until it's too late. I just felt like no time would be the right time, so I'm glad that it's happening now.'Crystal may have put her fitness contests on the back burner, but one thing she won't give up is her kickboxing classOver 2,000 women have been put through their paces at the Foxy & Fierce sessions that Crystal and her husband Rashad have been running for the last three years.And her doctor has encouraged her to keep going.She says, 'I never had any morning sickness and I haven't had any complications, so I'm just free to exercise and everything is normal and good. Aside from gaining more weight than I wanted to, it has been a really good experience.'My doctor is a big advocate for fitness during pregnancy. He feels the more you can do the better. I'm not gonna go run a marathon, but my doctor encourages me to continue and to train.'I had to step back from my extreme core class recently because it's a lot of abdominal exercises and a lot of using your own body weight and I did develop a slight strain in my lower abdomen. I stopped teaching that class and the pain went away. That was one thing I had to modify.'And the mother-to-be, who is due on December 5, admits she likes showing off her growing stomach - and defying stereotypes about pregnant women. She explains, 'I am larger. I'm only 5ft 2ins and so I look bigger, but I think it's healthy for women to see a different body type. I'm active and healthy and fit.'Her beliefs and those of her doctor are shared by top U.S pregnancy expert Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, who appeared in actress and TV personality Ricki Lake's acclaimed documentary More Business of Being Born.She likes the idea of a new mum kickboxing her way through her pregnancy, because it defies stereotypes - and perhaps ruffles a few feathers.She explains: 'Images of strong, fit pregnant women are bound to stir lots of strong emotions from jealousy to horror to admiration. My observations from 13 years in private practice is that people often think of pregnant women as if they're public property and therefore they have the right to comment on our bodies. 'Some people seem to think that we aren't capable of making proper, decent decisions about what to do with, for example, our pregnant kickboxing bodies.'But women who are fit prior to pregnancy and remain so during pregnancy actually aren't compromising their health or the health of their pregnancy. In fact the evidence supports exercise during pregnancy.'The doctor adds, 'Kickboxing in a competition would be dangerous. Any sport or activity that has a risk of rough contact, or might require balance like bicycle riding, surfing, skiing, snowboarding or rollerblading in the late third trimester should be avoided as a fall or hit could cause serious damage.'But I've had many athletic patients, some professional and competitive, continue to exercise vigorously throughout the pregnancy with my approval... and one of my best homemade videos came from a proud patient doing multiple pull-ups at her gym when she was about 38 weeks pregnant. It was truly impressive.'And recently I  viewed a viral video showing a heavily pregnant woman doing very heavy weighted squats in her gym with her trainer. People online totally freaked out about this. I think it just does not jibe with our image of femininity and motherhood.'People also have been led to believe that raising the heart rate over 140 beats-per-minute isn't safe during pregnancy. Again, total hogwash and unsupported by the medical literature. I'll never forget one patient of mine who continued her daily five-mile run until the end and another who took a spin class the day she went into labour at term.'Meanwhile, Crystal maintains that her unborn son is a fan of her fitness habits.She beams: 'I think that he likes the music and I think it's important that he hears my voice; he gets to hear it a lot. When I stop and relax he starts to kick more.'She is planning to settle down in the next few weeks and then enjoy a relaxing holiday season as a first-time mother - but then she'll be back in action, working towards a goal of being 'amazing and superfit' again by this time next year, when she hopes to visit Thailand with her baby to train with the real Muay Thai masters.'I'm giving myself a year to get back into shape,' she says. 'I hear it takes about nine months and I'm giving myself an extra three months to tweak it perfectly, to get my body better than it was.'We're tentatively planning to go to Thailand to train Muay Thai in January, 2015, so that'll be a year. Thailand's kinda fun for the new year.'After that, there's karate championships, marathons to run and mountains to hike. While many mothers complain about the life a newborn drains out of you in the first year or so, it's pretty clear this new mum won't have any problems keeping up.(dailymail.co.uk) ANN.Az