If you want to stay strong throughout your pregnancy, this is the guide for you! Thanks to training in-person prenatal and postnatal fitness clients, we have been able to develop a LOT of modifications for all sorts of bodies and athletes for pregnancy.
Here is an overview of our trimester-by-trimester prenatal lifting guidelines + a breakdown of each main lift!
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Trimester-By-Trimester Lifting Guidance
When you need to modify will vary from person to person and even pregnancy to pregnancy! There is no set timeline for modifications, but in general, most of us will need to modify at a certain point.
It is important to approach your prenatal workouts one day at a time–one day you may feel super energized and ready to crush some gains, and other days you may be exhausted and just want to sleep.
It’s important to honor all the days and adjust based on your daily needs.
Prenatal fitness is about the process of letting go–of our ego and our expectations for how things SHOULD be and accepting how they are in reality. This carries over well into labor, where we cannot always predict or plan exactly how it will go.
We can use our workouts as an opportunity to let go and accept each moment with an open heart.
1st Trimester Lifting Guidance
During the first trimester, our general recommendations include:
- 70-80% effort level (or lower) for your workouts
- Adjusted based on your energy levels: if you are fatigued, it’s okay to rest!
- Accommodate for nausea. You may find exercising makes nausea better, or it may make it worse.
During the first trimester, there are usually not a lot of physical modifications in our exercises. Most exercises look fairly similar to pre-pregnancy, but we likely need to adjust based on energy levels and nausea.
During the first trimester, we want to lower our overall intensity level to 70-80%. This means that you should feel like you have more left in the tank, or you could do a few more reps.
Why 70-80% Intensity Level?
70-80% is a moderate intensity level, and can usually be maintained for longer periods of time. This moderate intensity also ensures that you are able to lift with optimal form.
Throughout pregnancy, increased relaxin levels could contribute to more joint laxity. Poor movement patterns are more likely to cause issues during pregnancy!
You may notice that during pregnancy you have more pelvic pain or low back pain. This increased pain could be due to a multitude of factors, such as postural habits, muscular coordination and balance, and pelvic positioning.
When we lift weights, we want to ensure that we are lifting with optimal form to minimize discomfort or pain with lifting, and decrease the risk of injury that may be higher during pregnancy.
Another reason to maintain optimal form is to reduce the occurrence of abdominal coning!
Abdominal coning is when the tissue along the center of the abdomen pushes out further than the rest of the abdominal wall.
Abdominal coning with exercise could damage the connective tissue of the abdominal wall, and make diastasis recti (DRA or abdominal separation) harder to heal in the postpartum period.
Coning is more prevalent with movement compensations, such as:
- Arching in the back to press weight overhead or pull weight down
- Poor breathing strategies with lifts
If we can maintain optimal form during our lifts, we can prevent or minimize coning and protect our core!
In addition, lowering our intensity levels can also protect our pelvic floor! When we move at a lower intensity level, we can better coordinate our breath to movement.
When we coordinate our breath to movement, we use pressure management to stabilize the spine and increase muscular activation to counter the pressure increase with exertion.
Quick Overview of Breath Coordination:
- Inhale while moving WITH gravity
- Inhale as you lower the weight to the ground
- Inhale as you lower in a squat or lunge
- Exhale while moving AGAINST gravity or with the hard part of the exercise
- Exhale as you stand up from the bottom of a squat
- Exhale as you row a weight to your chest
- Exhale as you pull down
Watch our YouTube video to have a better understanding of how to coordinate your breath to movement! This type of coordination is key to protecting our pelvic floor and core while we are lifting weights during pregnancy (and all other phases of life).
2nd Trimester Lifting Guidance
As we navigate into the second trimester, we will need to start modifying exercises to accommodate our pregnancy!
Lifting and exercise intensity is still around 70-80% effort level; you may find that you have a LOT more energy in the second trimester and can push your workouts a little more too.
Common modifications we need to start incorporating at some point during the second trimester, include:
- Widening the stance in lower body movements to make space for the belly
- Sumo stance deadlifts
- Widening the stance in squats
- Widening the stance in lungers
- Decreasing the range of motion for comfort and making space for your belly
- Elevating barbell on boxes for hip thrusts or deadlifts
- Modifying exercises that cause abdominal coning, such as:
- Pull-ups
- Core-flexion-focused exercises such as sit-ups or crunches
- Anti-extension exercises such as planks
Energy levels are still high in the second trimester (usually), so we can maintain a 70-80% effort level but may need to start modifying our lifts to accommodate our pregnancy!
If you want more of a breakdown of WHAT to do throughout your prenatal workouts, check out our prenatal fitness programs! We offer it in two formats:
- 40-Week Prenatal Strength in the Teambuildr App (traditional delivery format)
- 40-Week Prenatal MINI Strength Program in the Teambuildr App are condensed workouts! Workouts are 15-20 minutes compared to the 45-75 minutes of our full program.
- Prenatal On-Demand with full-length workout videos that you follow along as you workout
3rd Trimester Lifting Guidance
As we navigate into the final trimester, energy levels can really fluctuate each day! Overall intensity level may lower to 50-70% effort levels.
Some days you may be closer to 70% and other days you may be closer to the 50% effort level.
We may also be moving away from the barbell and using more free weights or resistance bands.
In the third trimester, common modifications could include:
- Lowering overall weights to 50-70%
- Modifying from using weights to bands:
- barbell hip thrust to banded hip thrust
- Adjusting set up from supine or belly down to more upright or inclined
- Flat bench press to incline bench press or standing chest press
- Hip thrust to kneeling hip thrust (cable or band)
- Increasing rest between sets
- Increasing support during lifts:
- Box squats
- Lowering weights to box in between bent over rows
- Holding onto rings for lunges
- Split stance lunges instead of walking lunges
In the third trimester, we also need to focus on our preparation for birth! You can incorporate preparation for birth starting in the first trimester, but most will really emphasize their focus in the third trimester.
Things that you could include as you prep for birth in the third trimester (that we include in our prenatal programming):
- Pelvic Floor Preparation:
- Learn to LENGTHEN and RELAX the pelvic floor, not only contract or shorten it (kegels are not the answer)
- Thoracic and pelvic mobility to support pelvic positioning
- Pelvic opening exercises:
- Ensure you have the movement capability to open each pelvic level, especially the lower midpelvis
- Labor Prep Workouts:
- Practicing labor positions, comfort techniques, and relaxation techniques with your partner or solo!
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- Watch on Mobile Device
Prenatal Lifting Modifications
In this portion of the guide, we will be breaking down our modifications for each main lift! We have developed these modifications from working with in-person prenatal clients at our gym location in Aberdeen, North Carolina. Working with in-person perinatal clients has helped us become the go-to pre/postnatal fitness experts!
You can absolutely continue to lift throughout your pregnancy, but our movements may look different than pre-pregnancy!
Squat Modifications
The squat is a foundational movement! It can support opening the top of the pelvis and strengthens the quads, inner thighs, and glutes. The squat is fairly easy to modify throughout pregnancy. When you will need to modify your squat will vary from person to person! Generally, we see modifications needed at some point in the second half of pregnancy.
Common modifications could include:
- Back Squats: front squats tend to put too much strain on the front abdominal wall
- Widening the stance
- Adding support with a box
- Adjusting from barbell to free weights or bodyweight movements
- Adding support by holding onto rings or a support beam
Watch our Youtube video for a breakdown of each squat modification for pregnancy!
Deadlifts
Deadlifts are another foundational lift! Deadlifts strengthen the hamstrings, glutes, adductors, and lats.
Deadlifts can strengthen the posterior chain, which helps to counter the shift forward of our center of gravity during pregnancy. This means that deadlifting could actually help with back pain during pregnancy!
The common reason we need to modify deadlifts is to make space for belly! Usually, hip flexion, or bending in the hip, causes the belly to hit the thighs. This can be pretty uncomfortable!
Common deadlift prenatal lifting modifications include:
- Conventional to sumo stance deadlifts
- Elevating barbell on blocks or plates to decrease overall range of motion
- Barbell to free weights such as kettlebell or dumbbells
- Also option to modify to using a resistance band with good mornings
Watch our Youtube video for a breakdown of each deadlift modification for pregnancy!
Bench Press
The bench press strengthens the chest! The ability to push is a foundational movement, as well! The bench press usually needs to be modified in the second trimester, but you could bench press all the way to your due date!
Common bench press prenatal lifting modifications include:
- Feet up on bench to limit strain in low back and belly
- Modifying to a floor press from bench for more support
- Incline the bench if supine positions are uncomfortable
- Standing chest press if supine positions are uncomfortable
Watch our Youtube video for a breakdown of each bench press modification for pregnancy!
Overhead Press
There are some myths that pressing weight overhead will cause complications in your pregnancy. This is definitely a myth and not founded on research or truth.
The biggest issue with overhead pressing is that it could cause coning if you move with movement compensation. As we press the weight overhead, if the weight is too heavy, you have shoulder mobility issues, or you are not positioned well, you may arch as you press.
This extended spine position could cause coning. Coning could occur because the abdominal wall tissue is more stretched and easily manipulated by pressure in this extended position.
Common prenatal lifting modifications for overhead pressing movements:
- Increase support by adjusting from a standing to seated or half-kneeling position
- Modify from a barbell to free weights to limit backward sway as you press overhead
- Modify to a landmine or banded incline press to adjust shoulder pressing angle
Watch our Youtube video for a breakdown of each overhead press modification for pregnancy!
Rows
Horizontal pulls, or rowing movements, are a great back-strengthening exercise. In bent-over rows, we can use a barbell or dumbbells, but you may find that dumbbells are easier to use in the third trimester.
Common prenatal lifting modifications fo the bent-over row include:
- Barbell to safety straps for more support in between reps
- Dumbbells to elevated surface for more support between reps
- Single arm row from two arm row
- Incline bench or yoga block support for support hand to increase angle of torso with rows
- Bent over position to seated position for more comfort
Watch our Youtube video for a breakdown of each bent over row modification for pregnancy!