Quick and Easy Prenatal Round Ligament Relief Exercises

Birth Preparation, Fitness, Prenatal

Round ligament pain is a common discomfort during pregnancy–and it can start as early as the first trimester!

Why does it happen?? The round ligaments attach from the uterus to the labia. As the uterus is rapidly growing in the early parts of pregnancy, the round ligaments are being stretched and stretched very quickly!

What does round ligament pain feel like? Usually, it feels like a sudden sharp pain in the lower abdomen towards one side. This can happen when you stand up suddenly or with hip extension. It has also been referred to as lightning crotch, as it can feel like an electric feeling in the vagina (remember, the round ligaments do attach to the labia).

What helps to relieve round ligament pain, aka lightning crotch?? You can stretch the round ligament area by targeting the hip flexors AND strengthening the abdominal wall to better support the uterus.

Scroll down to see a full-length workout video on our YouTube channel!

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10-Minute Round Ligament Release Workout

In this workout, we will be stretching the hip flexor area for relief and the abdominal wall to support the uterus.

3 rounds, 30 seconds per side or 10 reps per side:

Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Release with Side Body Opener
90/90 Side Camel
Bird Dog:
- Options to place a Pilates ball under the knee and/or banded pull to make it more challenging.

These exercises are what I am currently doing in my fourth pregnancy to find relief from round ligament pain! The round ligament pain has definitely started much earlier this pregnancy (probably because its baby number four), so I have been incorporating these exercises into my daily mobility routine for relief!

Mamastefit: the number one thing I recommend to all my pregnant friends. I did the prenatal fitness program via team builder app and the childbirth education classes. Both were highly valuable, but the fitness program is what my husband and I attribute to my really fast and smooth postpartum recovery. The fitness program allowed me to feel limber and strong in my pregnant body. The program allows you to go at your own pace, your own chosen weights, and the ability to shorten/lengthen the workout day depending on how your body is feeling that day. The exercises were also great ones that I would not have thought of to do on my own. The childbirth education classes had a lot of great information and I was able to implement many of the labor movements and breathing exercises during labor. 10/10 would recommend and will absolutely be using their program again and again!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your incredible content! I used your childbirth edu and prenatal fitness programs during my pregnancy and felt empowered to take on an unplanned induction. As a pelvic PT, I knew I wanted education that covered physiology and hospital birth interventions in a lot more specific detail and I felt the mamastefit program was comprehensive and easy to digest with the format you have. I will definitely use the prenatal fitness plan again for a future pregnancy and will totally recommend it to patients as well!

I had my final postnatal appointment and my midwife says she has never seen such a healthy postpartum pelvic floor, in fact if she didn't know better she would have guessed that I hadn't had any children. The whole team was amazed at my overall physical recovery which I attribute to your programming and the nutritional guidelines from Lily Nichols. They are recommending your program to more of their clients because of my great results. Thank you!

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!
Prenatal Yoga Classes:
- If you want prenatal yoga, join our prenatal yoga program! This also syncs to your current trimester.