Prenatal Fitness Guidance
How should you approach prenatal fitness during pregnancy? Unfortunately, there isn’t a set “Yes v. No” list nor a strict timeline of when to do what, but there is general guidance we can provide! Here are our tips on how to approach prenatal fitness!
1. Do what you enjoy
First, it’s important to enjoy your exercise. If you love swimming, continue to swim. If you love lifting, continue to lift. There may be some modifications required as pregnancy progresses, but we want to enjoy how we choose to exercise throughout pregnancy This will help you maintain a fitness routine!
2. Aim for at least 150 min per week at a moderate intensity level
ACOG and CDC both recommend at least 150min per week of exercise, for both pregnant people and the everyday average joe. ACOG now recommends resistance training, in addition to aerobic activity!
But, what is moderate intensity?? We like to use the talk test as our measure of moderate intensity.
Easy effort: can easily hold a conversation or speak full paragraphs before getting winded. Usually 40-50% effort level.
Moderate effort: can speak short sentences before getting winded; usually around 70% effort
If lifting weights, you should feel that you can do all repetitions without needing to bail, maintain optimal form, and manage pressure/breathing throughout all repetitions. But you should still feel challenged.
Hard effort: can speak only a few words, if any, before getting winded. We generally want to avoid exercising in this level of intensity for prolonged periods of time. Usually 90% effort or higher.
We usually recommend trying to aim to workout at least 3+ times per week, but if you are planning to do shorter sessions focus on at least 150 minutes for the entire week.
3. Honor the process
Pregnancy fluctuates daily. One day you feel energized and can lift all the weights, and then the very next you can barely get out of bed from fatigue. And that is okay. We may go to the gym with a plan to do our entire workout but find that we can only manage about half of what we planned. And that is okay.
We can use prenatal workouts as an opportunity to prepare our mindset for birth! Our workout (or birth) may not always go as we planned; we may need more rest between sets, or need to modify a movement completely. Flexibility is important during prenatal fitness (and birth), so honing this mindset now can help tremendously during birth!
But, some days it may go perfectly! We may hit all our lifts, and complete all our reps! Preparing for birth is not about expecting defeat or adversary, but rather being okay with navigating challenges we encounter.
4. Incorporate Resistance Training
Resistance training can help you maintain or build strength throughout pregnancy. This is important because there are a lot of musculoskeletal changes that are occurring that influence your postural tendencies, movement patterns, and even bone density. Resistance training, or lifting weights, helps you be able to counter these shifts.
Our focus is on the posterior chain, or the back side (back, glutes, hamstrings), since most of the weight is on the front side. If our backs are stronger, it can help us stay upright, and manage the shift in our center of gravity. Read this blog for more guidance on how to approach lifting throughout pregnancy.
In short, being stronger can help you stay more comfortable throughout pregnancy, as we will discuss in the next section!
5. Pelvic Stability Considerations
Our joints have more laxity during pregnancy. This is important for birth; we want our pelvic joints to move more than usual to accommodate the descent, rotation, and expulsion of a big ole baby head. But this extra movement can result in instability if there is not strength to support it.
Pelvic girdle pain can be pain in the pubic symphysis or SI joints (or both), and may be from an uneven torque or pulling in these joints. It may also be from the increased laxity, and instability, caused by relaxin.
This is where strength training can be helpful! If we can strengthen the myofascial slings, or muscles, fascia, and tissues, that cross and support these joints, we may find a lot of relief! We incorporate pelvic stability focused exercises in our pelvic stability accessory program, prenatal fitness programming, and in our postpartum return to fitness programs.
6. Stamina: Cardio Considerations
In addition to strength, we need stamina. This is where cardio becomes really helpful! We need endurance to support us during labor. Labor can be a marathon (or ultramarathon that lasts days), and we need the endurance capacity to endure a prolonged expenditure of energy.
Cardio can range from running, walking, swimming, to stationary machines, such as the rower or bike. However, as pregnancy progresses, we recommend shifting towards low impact cardio exercises. This may mean omitting running or other jumping/high impact activities.
We make this recommendation based on the following factors:
increased joint laxity
changes in force distribution due to postural adaptations, center of gravity, and increase in mass
and increased load on the pelvic floor.
These factors can all increase the risk of injury, or prolonged healing/dysfunction in the postpartum period. The benefit of continuing to run does not seem to outweigh the potential risks, and likely discomfort while running, as there are plenty of other cardio options that achieve the same results: cardiovascular improvement.
7. Complications
There are some signs that what you are doing should be stopped immediately or avoided completely. These include:
Any bleeding. Contact your provider immediately and seek guidance on next steps.
Dizziness, lightheadedness, blurred vision. Recommend finding a rest position, or lying on your left side until symptoms subside. This may occur from standing up too quickly, or prolonged exercise or rest flat on your back.
Extreme nausea or fatigue. If you cannot eat because you are too nausea, or you are exhausted, it may be better to rest than exert more energy/calories exercising. It is okay to take extra rest days.
Prenatal complication that your provider recommends bed rest, pelvic rest, or to not exercise, such as placenta previa. Please follow your providers guidance if you are a high risk patient.
Please note this is not an exhaustive list; there may be other reasons to stop exercising.
Now, let’s go over some reasons to modify or adjust what you are doing, that are not emergent.
Coning: if you experience any coning, you may not be managing pressure correctly, doing a movement that is exceeding your capability, or need to adjust your core activation technique.
Downward Pressure/Bearing Down: if you feel that you are increasing pressure downward on your pelvic floor during exhalation or exertion, we may need to readjust how we breathe and sync our pelvic floors movement.
Discomfort or pain: we do not need to ever exercise and be in pain, at any point in our lives. If you are experiencing pain during exercise, please modify to find a method that supports your ability to move but also comfort. Focus on what the goal or purpose of an exercise is, and you will likely find another that supports that same focus but without pain.
These are our general guidelines how prenatal fitness, and there is so much more that we could discuss in each of these sections!
We breakdown how to approach prenatal fitness in more depth in our education course that accompanies our prenatal fitness programming.
We offer prenatal fitness programming in both a one time purchase (lifetime access for this and future pregnancies) and in a monthly subscription (cancel anytime).
Our program is synced to your week of pregnancy, so you can begin them at any time! Local? Work with us in person!