How to workout during your pregnancy?

Leslie Abraham

By Leslie Abraham

Hi Ladies! Below is a video from our Youtube Channel. I talk about how you should workout during your pregnancy to accurately prepare you for childbirth.

You can find the transcript below. Happy watching!

How to workout during pregnancy:

Transcript:

Are you sure you’re working out the right way since you’re pregnant?

Prenatal workouts are trending right now but unfortunately it’s not because it’s trending that it is always taught the right way. As you know, your body is changing a lot throughout this pregnancy and your workout should as well.

So the first rule is to adapt your workout to what stage of your pregnancy you’re in. Let me explain. If you start working out in your last trimester you will definitely not work out the same way as you will do in your first trimester. You have to define goals for each stage. Maybe you just want to do any kind of birth prep or work on strengthening to avoid muscle loss. Think about what you’re trying to achieve throughout your training and define steps for each outcome.

Let me give you an example: let’s say you want to keep your muscle mass. I will focus on lifting weight, without straining my body, with a medium number of reps like 8 to 10. I will then pick exercises that will allow me to do that and plan for the number of weeks I am willing to work on building up muscles or toning up my body (more maintaining muscle mass let’s be honest)

The second rule, and it’s linked to the first one, is to plan a progression and evolution of your workouts throughout your pregnancy: in the first two  trimesters you will lay out the basis of your training and focus on strength building and then moving on to your last trimester, you will want to spend a little more time prepping yourself for the demand of childbirth. Does that make sense?

 

Basically you’re planning your training regimen like you will prep yourself for an athletic event, with different phases in your workout plan.

Bottom line for those 2 rules, you can’t train yourself the same way you worked out before your pregnancy. There has to be some sort of structure and plan to ensure you’ll have an easier childbirth and you’ll be prepared for the new demands of motherhood.

The third rule is to understand what kind of moves you want to stay away from. Let’s go through them:

  • Planks: they bring too much pressure  on your abdominal wall muscles and increase intra abdominal pressure
  • Any downward facing moves for the same reason like push ups
  • Crunches and sit ups as well
  • Twisting and flexion of the spine: russian twists, ab cycling are to be avoided
  • Lying on your back is to be avoided as well as it could place a compression of the big arteries and veins and trigger hypotension, use incline: bench, pillows or moving up and down like bridges
  • Jumping: i’m not a huge fan of jumping during your pregnancy as it places  more stress on your pelvic floor muscles that are already under more stress and compression than usual. Give them a rest, and actually your can work on them by practicing kegels
  • Holding your breath while exercising or not focusing enough on breathing out: it is a staple! Mastering breathing will not only train you for childbirth but it will also allow for proper core activation and avoid abs separation or diastasis recti
  • Overstretching is also an issue: you want to modify some of the stretches you were used to. If you were doing yoga, switch for prenatal yoga as the postures have been studied to suit your changing body
  • Bad posture: your body is changing and so is your posture. Focusing on keeping a healthy posture will allow you to stay away from a lot of pregnancy-related pain and symptoms

Last rule, let me walk you through some modifications you can use to still benefit from these moves:

  • Plank on an incline are still a go: use a table, chair, bench or even a wall: go with whatever works for you
  • Push ups are still doable on an incline as well or even from your knees or on a wall
  • Hip bridges are still a good option, progress them by doing them with your back on a couch or bench
  • For core exercise, focus on breathing, side planks from your knees, and combining core activation with more complex moves like squat and pushing a weight right forward.

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