The squat is a common exercise in fitness programming and is a common exercise in our prenatal, postpartum, and beyond fitness programs. The squat is a compound lower body strengthening exercise that strengthens the glutes, hamstrings, and quads and challenges the upper body to maintain its position. The squat is also a core exercise! You may not think of the squat as a core exercise, but any exercise that requires you to maintain your torso position is a core exercise!
The squat can be utilized as part of your birth preparation, as squats can be a great labor position when the baby is higher in the pelvis to create more space for the baby to engage for birth.
Let’s break down three of my favorite exercises to use to prepare for a squat workout! These three movements focus on connecting with your core and maintaining your torso and pelvic position as you move.
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Gina's Favorite Squat Warm Up Routine
My favorite squat warm-up routine incorporates exercises that help you:
- Connect with your breath. Breathing is the foundation of our stabilization, so I like to start my workouts by intentionally connecting with my breathing and coordinating my pelvic floor with my breath.
- Activate “weaker” muscles to prevent hip shift and maintain my pelvic position. We have common postural tendencies that are normal, but with these postural tendencies, we may have some muscular imbalance that we can address before a heavy lifting workout.
- Add movement with breath coordination. The goal of core stability is to maintain our torso position as our arms and legs move. I like to incorporate a core activation exercise that involves maintaining my torso position as my arms and legs move.
Here is a sample:
1) Breath Connection: Supported Standing Hip Shift
Why this movement?
- Connects with your core and pelvic floor
- Releases tension in the posterior pelvic floor
- Releases tension in the lats
The supported standing hip shift is a common exercise in our fitness programs. The hip-shifted breathing drill incorporates an asymmetrical pelvic position to release common areas of tension, such as the posterior pelvic floor and lats.
In the supported standing hip shift, focus on inhaling to feel your BACK and the back half of your pelvic floor lengthen and stretch. Then exhale to pull the ribs and pelvis closer together on the front side of the body. In this drill, you should feel a big stretch in the hamstring, glute, and opposite lat as you inhale and shift your weight toward the elevated side.
In this breathing drill, I tend to focus on having my left leg elevated and propped into internal rotation at the hip, as my left posterior pelvic floor tends to be shortened (and it is for most of us). But you can do it on both sides!
Aim for 10-15 full breath cycles per side as a part of your warm-up. Watch the video for a break down of how to do this breathing drill.
The supported standing hip shift is a part of the MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit to prepare your body for birth! This circuit’s focus is to target common areas of tension and restriction so that you can navigate your birth with more ease. These common areas of tension tend to result in restricted movement in opening the various pelvic level!
Grab our free PDF download of the birth prep circuit or watch our YouTube playlist for a breakdown of each exercise.
2) Breath to Movement Connection: Deadbug with Overhead Resistance
Why this movement?
- Advances on the breathing drill to add movement
- Coordinates breath to movement: foundation of stabilization
- Upper body maintains position (similar to squat) as legs move
The next step of our warm-up is to focus on coordinating that breath to movement. Core stabilization is when our torso can maintain its position as our arms and legs move. We want to minimize movement in the spine under load with the squat, so integrating exercises in our warm-up that emphasize leg movement with core stability is incredibly helpful!
In the dead bug with overhead resistance, grab a band overhead and you should feel a resistance towards your point of attachment. This activation of the upper body is forcing you to keep your rib cage pull DOWN as your legs extend.
Exhale to extend and bend one leg at a time. Then inhale to reset, and repeat on the other side as you exhale. As you inhale, focus on expanding in the BACK. There is a tendency to inhale to the belly (it’s usually the point of least resistance) but our lungs are in our rib cage, so it is important that when we inhale our BACK expands.
Aim for 10-15 repetitions per side! Watch the breakdown video for more on how to do this exercise. In our postpartum fitness programs, we incorporate a series of core activation exercises before every workout. The series advances over 16 weeks to continue to challenge you as you prepare for each workout.
Exercising during the perinatal period supports a healthy pregnancy and easier recovery after birth so you can meet the demands of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. Our prenatal and postnatal fitness programs are intentionally designed to support this time of life.
All of our prenatal and postnatal fitness programs have been tested and refined by our in-person training clients, used by us personally to support our pre/postnatal journey, and approved by midwives, OBs, and physical therapists for their patients!
We exclusively train prenatal and postnatal fitness clients in-person at our gym in Aberdeen NC and online! This means that we have developed the expertise in this supporting the fitness of this demographic!
Join our prenatal and postnatal fitness programs and know that you can trust our expertise as perinatal fitness trainers and birth workers to support your motherhood journey.
3) Squat Prep with Pelvic Stability: Goblet Squat with Lateral Resistance
Why this movement?
- Similar movement pattern as the squat
- Asymmetrical loading activates "weaker" sides
- Focus is on pelvic stability to prevent hip shift in a squat
The final component of my lower body warm-up for squats is focused on squat prep by using a similar movement pattern and pelvic stability. In this movement, I am focusing on keeping my pelvis in its position as I squat.
But the band is not the same on both sides! For most of us, the left adductor (inner thigh) and hamstring are weaker than the right side. And the right glute med and quad are weaker than the left side. We can use the isometric hold with the band to activate or turn on the “weaker” side as we prep for our workout!
In this movement, we place the band around the LEFT leg so that it is pulling OUT. This will emphasize adduction, or turning on the inner thigh of the left leg. As I squat down and stand up, I am trying to keep my knee stacked OVER my ankle. I don’t want the knee to move in or out!
Then, when we switch sides, we stay facing the same direction but step both legs into the leg so that the right leg is resisting a pull IN. This will emphasize abduction, or turning on the outer glute to resist that pull in. As I squat down, similar to the other side, I am trying to keep my knee stacked over my ankle.
It is a hard concept to accept! Most of the time we want to do BOTH sides exactly the same, but we are not symmetrical so doing completely symmetrical warm-ups is not always necessary. But, if mentally it makes you feel better to do both sides, feel free!
Aim for 5-10 repetitions per side!
I usually do 2-3 rounds of all three movements as a part of my warm-up (and it is typically programmed as three rounds in our programming).
Stay Strong for Motherhood!
Lifting weights is beneficial to support meeting the demands of motherhood! We need to pick up kids, carry all the things, and move with ease as we navigate our pregnancy, birth, and motherhood journey.
Try incorporating these warm-up exercises to support your workouts! You may find it makes it easier to lift your weights and minimize discomfort if we have a solid warm up prior to our workout!
If you like what you’re seeing in this blog, join our fitness programs! There is a lot of information out there on what is safe or unsafe, or what is best or not optimal when it comes to perinatal fitness. We take the guesswork out of your workouts, and have helped thousands of athletes stay strong and meet the demands of motherhood with our fitness programs!
