If you’re wondering whether you should be working out when you’re pregnant, you are not alone.
There are a lot of misconceptions about working out when you’re pregnant, and it’s hard to know what’s true and what’s a myth.
When my wife got pregnant, I wanted to learn everything I could so I could write her workouts that would be safe and effective for her and the baby.
In this article, you’ll learn:
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- The benefits of working out when you’re pregnant (of which there are way more than I thought!)
- How hard you should be working out while pregnant
- Practical guidelines for working out while pregnant
- Exercises you should and should not do when you’re pregnant
Let’s get started!
Is it safe to workout when you’re pregnant?
You might have heard conflicting advice on whether or not working out is safe when you’re pregnant.
Some people think you should stop doing anything strenuous when you’re pregnant, while others keep doing their normal activity right up until their due date.
So, who is right?
The answer is it depends.
For most healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies, exercise in general as well as working out is not only regarded as safe, but has a ton of positive benefits!
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists takes the following stance on exercise during pregnancy:
“Women with uncomplicated pregnancies should be encouraged to engage in aerobic and strength-conditioning exercises before, during, and after pregnancy.” (1)
However, you should always consult with your doctor before starting an exercise program if you’re pregnant. Everyone has a different situation, and you should get the green light from your doctor.
When you should NOT workout while pregnant
While everyone’s situation is different, there are some situations where working while pregnant are definitely not advised.
This is why it’s important to discuss strength training and exercise with your doctor! They will be able to give you guidelines based on your individual situation.
The benefits of working out when pregnant
I had always heard that exercise and strength training was good for women who were expecting, but I have to admit I had no idea just how many benefits there are until I started researching for this article!
Exercise in general and strength training before, during and after your pregnancy is like a superpower.
Below are some of the top benefits to working out during pregnancy.
Easier labor
If you’ve ever heard that stronger, fitter women have an easier time during labor, that’s not just an old wive’s tale.
There’s actual research to back it up!
In one study, 845 women were split into groups of low, moderate and high levels of exercise. Each exercise session included a combination of strength training and endurance training.
Women in the high exercise group had shorter hospital stays, lower rates of cesarean births, and healthier babies (2).
Another study looking at women who participated in a running or aerobics program found that frequent exercisers had shorter delivery times, healthier babies and lower instances of cesarean births (3).
Decreased risk of preeclampsia
Preeclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy. It’s caused by high blood pressure and can cause organs like the kidney and liver to function incorrectly.
When you become pregnant, new blood vessels develop to supply nutrients to the placenta.
In women with preeclampsia, these blood vessels don’t develop correctly and can lead to problems with blood circulation.
Fortunately, it appears that physical activity can lower your risk of developing preeclampsia.
In one study, women who exercised regularly had lower rates of preeclampsia, and the risk decreased as physical activity increased (4).
Another study found that women who engaged in any physical activity had a 35% lower risk of developing preeclampsia compared with women who did not exercise (5).
Lowered risk of gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes is when you develop high blood sugar during pregnancy.
A hormone called insulin is responsible for regulating our blood sugar levels. Typically, insulin will shuttle sugars in our bloodstream into our cells so our blood sugar levels don’t get too high.
However, when you’re pregnant, hormones produced by the placenta can interfere with your body’s ability to use insulin effectively. This can lead to high blood sugar levels.
Symptoms of gestational diabetes include nausea, fatigue and blurred vision.
Exercise has been shown to decrease the risk of gestational diabetes (6, 7, 8).
One study found that women who exercise during pregnancy have a 59% decreased risk of developing gestational diabetes compared to women who do not exercise! (9)
Another study also showed that in women who have gestational diabetes, resistance training helps to lower the amount of insulin needed to bring their blood sugar levels back to normal (10).
Reduced lower back pain
One of the most common problems pregnant women face is back pain. Up to 76% of women report having back pain at some point during their pregnancy! (11)
There are three main reasons women experience back pain during pregnancy:
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- An increase in the curvature of your spine during pregnancy
- More weight in the front of your body that stresses the spine
- The relaxation of the joints in the spine from hormones released during pregnancy
It appears that exercise can help alleviate some of the back pain you experience during pregnancy.
In one study, 212 pregnant women were split into two groups. One group exercised three days per week and the other group did not.
The group that exercised showed a significant decrease in the amount of back pain they experienced, while the group that did not showed an increase in back pain! (12)
Better fetal development
Working out when you’re pregnant doesn’t just benefit you.. It can also benefit your growing baby!
One study showed that women who participated in strength training during pregnancy had longer babies with more lean body mass than women who did not strength train (13). Simply put, mothers who exercised during pregnancy had leaner babies with more muscle mass than mothers who didn’t exercise!
Another study looked at the developmental skills of children birthed from mothers who exercised during pregnancy and those who did not. The study found that the children of mothers who exercised during pregnancy did better on developmental intelligence tests than the children of mothers who did not exercise (14).
The reason?
Regular exercise helps increase blood flow to the placenta, which delivers nutrients to your growing baby.
How hard should you be working out when you’re pregnant?
You and your baby’s safety should be your number one priority when planning out your workouts.
However, you’re also not a fragile piece of glass and you don’t need to lay around doing nothing when you’re pregnant, either!
How hard you push yourself during your workouts when you’re pregnant is going to depend on how long you’ve been working out, what type of workout you’re doing, and how you’re feeling.
How long you’ve been working out
If you’ve been working out for a long time and you’re used to training at a high intensity, the research seems to show you’re probably okay to keep doing so as long as you feel up for it.
One study followed 42 women through pregnancy who followed either a high intensity or low intensity exercise program. At the end of the study, there were no adverse effects to either the mothers or babies (15).
Another study had pregnant women exercise at 80-90% of their maximum heart rate, with no negative effects to either the mother or baby (16).
However, if you’re just starting an exercise program for the first time during pregnancy, you need to be conservative! You won’t have the body awareness to know your limits, so proceeding with extra caution is a good idea.
What type of workout you’re doing
How hard you can push yourself when you’re pregnant is also going to depend on what workouts you are doing.
When you’re strength training, you should always have at least a few reps left in the tank when you finish a set of an exercise. Your pregnancy is not a time to be maxing out in the gym or trying to set lifting personal records.
If you’re going to be doing HIIT workouts, you should be aware of how hard you’re pushing yourself.
In the past, it was recommended to not let your heart rate rise above 140 beats per minute when you’re pregnant.
Now, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not recommend a specific heart rate when exercising (1).
Instead, they recommend following the Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale.
Another way to gauge intensity is through the “talk test”. You should be able to carry on a conversation while working out. If you’re having trouble finishing your sentences and can’t get your words out, you’re probably pushing it too hard.
How you’re feeling
It’s important to listen to your body when you’re working out and tweak your routine if you need to.
Just because you have a workout scheduled doesn’t mean you have to do it!
Maybe you have a strength training workout planned but you’ve been nauseous all morning and the thought of lifting weights makes you feel like running to the bathroom.
It’s okay to adjust on the fly and just go for a walk instead.
Nobody knows your body as well as you do, and you need to listen to it.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends stopping exercise if you experience any of the following symptoms:
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- Vaginal bleeding
- Abdominal pain
- Regular painful contractions
- Amniotic fluid leakage
- Shortness of breath before exertion
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Chest pain
- Muscle weakness that affects balance
- Calf pain or swelling
Special considerations
There are some things you need to pay special attention to when it comes to working out when you’re pregnant.
Your body is changing, and your workouts should look a bit different than someone who isn’t pregnant.
Here are some special considerations to take into account when planning your workouts:
Pelvic floor strengthening
Your pelvic floor muscles are particularly important when you’re pregnant.
They support your growing baby burning pregnancy and stretch during delivery. Keeping them strong and knowing how to contract and relax them is going to be important during your pregnancy.
While strength training exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges and core exercises are going to work the muscles in your pelvic floor, it’s going to be helpful to do some exercises to specifically target those muscles.
Something to help you learn how to contract and relax the muscles of the pelvic floor is called the connection breath.
While the muscles of the pelvic floor are already anatomically connected to your body, the connection breath helps you understand what’s going on down there.
I learned about the connection breath from Girls Gone Strong, which is a women’s coaching company that specializes in working with pregnant women.
Here are the women at Girls Gone Strong to teach the connection breath:
The connection breath is something you can practice every day throughout your pregnancy.
If you have specific issues like incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse, you should speak with a physical therapist who specializes in pelvic floor health. Your doctor should be able to make a recommendation.
Laying on your back for prolonged periods of time
It’s been recommended that pregnant women avoid laying on their back for prolonged periods of time from the second trimester onwards.
The reason is that lying on your back puts a lot of pressure on the blood vessels that carry blood and oxygen to the placenta.
When these blood vessels are compressed for prolonged amounts of time, the amount of blood and oxygen that reaches the baby is limited. This can lead to the baby’s heart rate slowing down.
If you’re laying down for too long, you might start to feel dizzy and lightheaded as your blood pressure drops.
So, should you avoid exercises in the supine position during your workouts when you’re pregnant?
One study found that while laying down, blood flow was restricted to the uterus at rest and during exercise, but the restriction was only half as much during exercise as it was during rest (17).
A systematic review, which is an analysis of multiple studies on one subject, didn’t find enough evidence to determine whether or not exercises in the supine position should be avoided during pregnancy (18).
Doing a few sets of an exercise where you’re in the supine position for less than a minute at a time is probably not going to hurt you or the baby. You can also monitor how you feel and if you start to experience any dizziness or lightheadedness, you can stop and change positions right away.
If you’re concerned about doing exercises in the supine position after your second trimester, you can simply do the same exercises at a slight incline or avoid them altogether.
Diastasis Recti
During pregnancy, your body goes through a lot of changes to accommodate your baby.
One change that most women will observe is something called Diastasis Recti.
Diastasis Recti occurs when the abdominal muscles separate and the linea alba, or the connective tissue between your abdominal muscles, stretches out.
It should be pretty easy to spot Diastasis Recti. It will look like a ridge running between your abdominal muscles.
Most pregnant women will experience some degree of abdominal separation during pregnancy (19).
While exercising, keep an eye on your midsection and look out for any signs of bulging between your abdominals. If you notice that certain exercises create a bulge in your midsection and make your Diastasis Recti worse, you can swap those exercises out.
As your pregnancy progresses, it’s completely normal for your core muscles to feel weaker. Your body releases hormones that relax your body to allow it to stretch and allow room for your baby. You might find that you need to cut back or eliminate core exercises toward the end of your pregnancy.
Overheating
During pregnancy, it’s dangerous to let your temperature rise too high.
When you’re working out, wear loose-fitting clothing, drink plenty of water, and try to avoid working out in extremely hot conditions.
Use common sense here.. It’s probably not wise to be training for a marathon in late July on a sunny day at high noon when you’re pregnant!
Risky exercises
There are some things you should avoid doing in your when you’re pregnant, just for the sake of avoiding injury.
Things like contact sports, sprinting, plyometrics and olympic lifting are probably things you should avoid because they have a high risk of injury.
Olympic lifting can be an exception if you’ve been doing it for a long time and are already good at the exercises. In my opinion, your pregnancy is not a great time to learn these exercises if you’ve never done them.
The Valsalva Maneuver
If you’ve ever attempted to lift a heavy weight before, or strained to move something heavy, you’ve probably performed the Valsalva Maneuver.
The Valsalva Maneuver is when you exhale against your closed airway. It’s a protective mechanism that increases pressure in your core to protect your spine.
Performing the Valsalva Maneuver temporarily increases blood pressure and heart rate, which can reduce blood flow to your uterus. This decrease in blood flow can limit the amount of oxygen and nutrients that reaches your growing baby.
However, when straining to lift a heavy weight, you’re not going to be holding your breath for longer than a few seconds.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists doesn’t take a stand on using the Valsalva Maneuver, and doesn’t have any specific recommendations.
In one study looking at women who lifted heavy weights during pregnancy, 679 women filled out a questionnaire regarding their weightlifting history. The women had to have lifted at least 80% of their one-rep max during pregnancy to be included in the study. The authors of the study concluded:
“Individuals who engaged in heavy prenatal resistance training had typical perinatal and pelvic floor health outcomes that were not altered whether they engaged in, or avoided Olympic lifting, Valsalva or supine weightlifting.” (20)
Also, if holding your breath and straining for short period of time was truly dangerous, than giving birth should probably be avoided as well 😉
If you’re worried about the effects of the Valsalva Maneuver, then you can reduce the load you’re lifting so you don’t need to use it.
How to workout when you’re pregnant
When thinking about planning out your workouts, you need to make sure they fit your lifestyle and you’re able to do them consistently.
If you’ve never worked out before your pregnancy, it’s probably not a good idea to start working out 7 days per week, just because you’re excited about all the benefits of exercising for you and your baby.
How often you workout and what kinds of workouts you do are going to depend on how long you’ve been working out, what stage of pregnancy you’re in, and what kind of workouts you actually enjoy doing.
It’s going to be a good idea to include a combination of strength training, cardio, and some mobility and flexibility in your pregnancy workout plan.
Strength training
During your first trimester, your body is going through a ton of changes.
You’re producing hormones to accommodate your brand new fetus, and you might have all the classic symptoms like nausea, fatigue, and crazy food cravings (my wife could not get enough pickles during her first trimester).
Even though you might not be feeling your best, your strength training routine shouldn’t look all that different than anyone else’s during your first trimester.
If you haven’t already, it might be a good time to start doing full body strength training. You want to avoid allowing blood to accumulate in one part of your body, and by doing full body workouts you’ll keep blood flowing around your body.
You’ll probably start to reduce the weight you’re lifting, especially if you were used to lifting pretty heavy before you got pregnant.
The first trimester is also a good time to put an emphasis on your core training. Make sure you’re training your core every workout, and performing a variety of different exercises! Check out my YouTube channel for some core exercise ideas.
After your first trimester, you’ll want to start to limit the amount of exercises you do while laying down. While doing a few sets of bench press or core exercises on the ground is probably okay, you want to avoid laying down for very long periods of time.
You’ll also want to avoid doing exercises where you’re crunching or twisting at your torso after the first trimester. These are exercises like crunches, sit-ups, and Russian twists.
Instead, stick to anti core exercises. These are exercises where your core remains stable, but your arms and legs are moving.
Here are some examples:
As your belly grows, certain exercises just won’t be practical anymore.
Things like push-ups, chest supported exercises or any other exercises where you would lay on your belly are going to start to get uncomfortable.
You also might notice that your core is getting weaker as your pregnancy progresses. Remember that this is normal, and it’s a result of your hormones relaxing your body so your baby can grow!
Cardio
Early on in your pregnancy is a good time to start experimenting with different ways to do your cardio.
If you’re used to running, trying out the exercise bike, incline walking or even swimming might be a good idea because you might not want to be running or jogging as much later in pregnancy.
If you enjoy doing HIIT style workouts, start to think about ways to make them more pregnancy friendly. Stick to low impact exercises that don’t have a high risk of falling or getting hurt.
Make sure you aren’t pushing yourself so hard that you start to experience any of the symptoms the American College of Gynecologists recommends looking out for.
Also, make sure you wear loose fitting clothing and you don’t overheat!
Mobility and flexibility
If you’ve been doing yoga, pilates, or any other forms of mobility and flexibility workouts, you can definitely keep doing them during your first trimester, with a few modifications.
Hot yoga should be avoided because you don’t want your body temperature to get too high. Now would also be a good time to look for someone who specializes in prenatal yoga, so you can avoid going into positions that could be potentially harmful.
A recent meta-analysis, which is the examination of all relevant studies on a particular topic, found that yoga has positive effects on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, mode of birth and duration of labor in pregnant women (21).
Wrapping up
I really hope you found this article helpful, and you feel more confident knowing the benefits of working out when you’re pregnant.
As a final tip, just remember to use common sense.
Talk to your doctor, because at the end of the day, I’m a personal trainer who helps people with their fitness. I don’t know you or your unique situation, and you should run your workout plan by your doctor to make sure it’s right for you.
If something doesn’t feel right, you probably shouldn’t be doing it! My wife and I have had to make several adjustments to her pregnancy workout plan on days she doesn’t feel great. Don’t be afraid to change your plan if you need to.
Lastly, enjoy your workouts!
I know you’re not always going to want to workout when you’re pregnant, but you shouldn’t dread doing them, either. Make sure you’re still doing workouts you enjoy.
Thanks for reading and if you have any comments, leave them below!