Incorporating a variety of movements and exercises into your prenatal fitness routine is crucial for preparing your body for the demands of childbirth. This workout focuses on enhancing hip mobility, glute strength, and pelvic floor function, all of which are essential for a smoother and more comfortable birth experience. Let’s dive into why each exercise in this workout is beneficial for prenatal fitness and birth preparation.
You can prepare for birth by including exercises in your prenatal routine that prepare you to open each pelvic level! The pelvis has three main levels:
- The Inlet: The top of the pelvis where your baby will enter or engage during pregnancy or labor
- The Midpelvis: the middle of the pelvis where your baby will rotate through from the top to bottom during labor
- The Outlet: the bottom of the pelvis where your baby will extend under the pubic bone to be born.
Because each pelvic level opens with different movement patterns, we need to incorporate different movements into our daily prenatal routine to ensure we can open each pelvic level!
- The top of the pelvis opens more with external hip rotation with abduction (wide knees) and pelvic tilting from front to back.
- The middle of the pelvis opens more with asymmetrical or side-to-side movements. Alternating from open to closed hip positions can help to open this space.
- The bottom of the pelvis opens more with internal hip rotation and adduction (knees in, ankles out).
You can include exercises in your prenatal workout routine that include bilateral (both sides) external hip rotation with abduction, such as squats, bilateral internal hip rotation with adduction, such as deadlifts or hinges, and one-sided open and closed hip positions. This will help you prepare to open the pelvis for birth!
18-Minute Prenatal Fitness and Birth Preparation Workout
This 18-minute workout includes:
- Strengthening the glute muscles through different planes of motion (sagittal, lateral, and transverse).
- Enhancing hip mobility with targeted exercises.
- Releasing tension in the pelvic floor and creating space within the pelvis.
Equipment Needed
- One weight for staggered stance Romanian deadlift and lateral hip shifts
- A resistance band for abduction and adduction exercises
- A small ball or pillow for standing CARs (Controlled Articular Rotations)
- A yoga block for the mobility portion
Strength Portion
Staggered Stance Romanian Deadlift (RDL)
- Benefit: This exercise targets the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, helping to build strength and stability in the posterior chain. The staggered stance also mimics the asymmetrical positions often adopted during labor, enhancing your body’s ability to maintain balance and support.
- How it helps for birth: Strong glutes and hamstrings can aid in supporting the weight of the growing belly, reducing lower back pain, and providing a stable base for various labor positions.
Banded Abduction and Adduction
- Benefit: These movements strengthen the hip abductors and adductors, which are essential for maintaining pelvic stability and preventing hip pain. Using a resistance band adds intensity, ensuring the muscles are effectively engaged.
- How it helps for birth: Strengthening these muscles helps keep the pelvis aligned and stable, which can be crucial for optimal fetal positioning and reducing discomfort during pregnancy and labor.
Standing Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs)
- Benefit: CARs improve hip mobility and joint health by moving the hip through its full range of motion. This exercise helps in maintaining flexibility and reducing stiffness.
- How it helps for birth: Enhanced hip mobility allows for greater ease in adopting different labor positions and can help in creating more space in the pelvis for the baby to descend.
Lateral Hip Shifts
- Benefit: This exercise engages the glutes, quads, and inner thighs while promoting lateral hip mobility. The added upper body rotation helps in improving overall body coordination.
- How it helps for birth: Lateral movements help open the sides of the pelvis, creating more room for the baby to move into the optimal birthing position.
Mobility and Pelvic Floor Work
Deep Squat with External Hip Rotation
- Benefit: Deep squats enhance hip and pelvic floor mobility, while the external rotation targets the gluteus medius and minimus. Using a yoga block provides support and ensures proper alignment.
- How it helps for birth: Squatting positions are beneficial during labor as they can help in opening the pelvis and allowing gravity to assist in the baby’s descent.
One-Leg External Hip Rotation
- Benefit: This exercise isolates the external rotators of the hip, helping to improve flexibility and strength in the upper mid-pelvis area.
- How it helps for birth: Targeting the upper mid-pelvis can facilitate better movement and positioning of the baby, especially during the early stages of labor.
Adductor Rock Back
- Benefit: This exercise stretches and strengthens the adductor muscles, which are often tight during pregnancy. The added twist engages the obliques and improves spinal mobility.
- How it helps for birth: Strong and flexible adductors support the pelvis and can help in reducing discomfort and enhancing mobility during labor.
All Fours Hip Shift
- Benefit: This exercise promotes internal hip rotation and pelvic tilting, helping to mobilize the pelvis and reduce tension in the lower back and hips.
- How it helps for birth: Internal hip rotation is crucial for creating space in the lower pelvis, which can assist in the baby’s descent during the later stages of labor.
Seated Internal Rotation
- Benefit: This seated position focuses on internal rotation of the hips, which can be tight during pregnancy. It helps in maintaining flexibility and mobility in the hip joints.
- How it helps for birth: Improving internal rotation can facilitate easier movement and positioning during labor, making it easier to adopt various birthing positions.
Prepare for Your Birth with MamasteFit Prenatal Fitness Programs
If you want more daily workouts to support a strong pregnancy as you prepare for birth, join our online prenatal fitness programs!
MamasteFit is unique in that we are one of the ONLY prenatal/postnatal training facilities in the United States. We develop our workout programs from our experience of working with in-person pre/postnatal fitness clients and work closely with physical therapists to refine our programming. In addition, we are birth workers, so we combine our experience as perinatal fitness trainers and birth professionals to ensure that our programs actually support your birth preparation and recovery!
Our prenatal fitness programs are offered in several formats:
- 40-Week Prenatal Strength Program in the Teambuildr App:
- This program is a self-paced workout with shorter demo videos. This is ideal if you like to workout in a gym setting and prefer a traditional workout delivery format.
- This program syncs to your current week of pregnancy, so you can start anytime, with one-time payment or month-to-month payment options.
- This program has a full and mini version, depending on how much time you have to dedicate to workouts!
- Prenatal On-Demand Fitness Program:
- If you prefer to follow a video as you workout at the same time, this workout program will be the best option!
- This program syncs to your current trimester, so you can grab the trimesters you need!
- Birth Prep Workout Program:
- If you already have a workout routine or you only want birth prep-focused workouts, check out this program!
- This program includes full-length workout videos to follow as you workout at the same time.
- Prenatal Yoga Classes:
- If you want prenatal yoga, join our prenatal yoga program! This also syncs to your current trimester.
Learn the science of pregnancy and birth to take the mystery of labor away! Understand why you are feeling what you feel, and learn strategies to confidently move through pregnancy and birth!
- 9h+ of Video
- Support Group
- Close Captioning
- 5 Workouts/Week
- Gym Workouts
- Self-Paced
Instructor
GINA
Workout on-demand with our prenatal fitness workout videos! Each workout is 30-40 minutes to follow along as you exercise at the same time!
- Birth Prep
- All Trimesters
- Mobility Work
Instructor
GINA
Find comfort and relief from pelvic girdle pain throughout your pregnancy and postpartum period! This program incorporates myofascial sling focused exercises to stabilize across the pelvic girdle joints.
- 3 Weeks
- On Demand Workout Videos to Follow