You may have heard to avoid all core exercises during pregnancy and given no clear guidance on how to reincorporate core work postpartum.
First, you absolutely can do core work during pregnancy and early postpartum.
But, we may need to reframe what we consider core exercises!
Core work is more than sit ups and crunches! Let’s explore exercises you can do throughout the perinatal period to build a strong and functional core!
Five Pre/Postnatal Safe Core Exercises
Core exercises are more than just sit ups and crunches. Those exercises may be what you think of when you think core exercises, but the truth is that the core function is much more than abdominal flexion!
Abdominal flexion and back extension focused exercises may cause more harm than good for the prenatal and early postnatal core. These exercises may cause coning, which could cause more damage to the abdominal connective tissue. Excessive coning could make healing diastasis more challenging postpartum.
When incorporating core exercises into our prenatal and early postnatal fitness programs, we want to focus on:
- Limiting or avoiding abdominal flexion and excessive back extension exercises
- Anti- core exercises aka resisting movement
- Rotational core exercises (yes, you can twist during pregnancy)
- Hip extension exercises
1. Farmer Carries: Anti-Lateral Flexion
Anti- focused movements, or exercises that resist movement, are great for pregnancy and postpartum core work!
Anti- focused exercises focus on training the core to maintain its position under demand, which is a key component of our core’s function!
The farmer carry is an anti-lateral flexion, so we are resisting side to side movement or side bending (leaning towards the weight or away) as you walk.
The farmer carry can be done in a number of ways to challenge the core in different ways such as:
- Suitcase carry aka carrying two weights
- Uneven carry or carrying two different weights or objects
- One sided carry
- Front rack carry (holding weights by your shoulders)
Movement Tips:
- Choose one of the carry options
- Walk or March in place (the higher the knees in the March, the harder the movement)
- Resist swaying side to side as you walk; you don’t need to be robotic though!
- Keep tension in the shoulders as you carry to prevent rounding in the back
Watch this breakdown video of how to do this exercise + modifications!
2. Bear Crawls
Another anti- focused movement is the bear crawl! This movement is also an anti-lateral flexion but also anti-extension (resisting arching the back).
Planks are commonly labeled as “unsafe” and “bad” for pregnancy. If you’ve ever seen a yes versus no core exercise list for pregnancy, you’ve likely seen planks listed on it.
The reason planks may be less optimal is that they can be TOO core intensive or cause compensation that then leads to coning.
If you are coning, then planks may no longer be optimal for you. If you are not experiencing coning, you can probably still do planks.
We can modify the plank to a bear position instead to still work on anti-extension core work but protect the core!
Similar to the farmer carry, there are a number of bear crawl options!
- Forward Bear Crawl
- Backward Bear Crawl
- Lateral Bear Crawl
- Dragging weight in any of the directions
- Holding dumbbells as you crawl in any direction
Movement Tips:
- In a table top position, hover the knees below the hips.
- Begin to crawl in one of the three directions (forward, backward, or laterally)
- Focus on keeping the hips level the entire time; imagine or place a block on your hips, it should not fall off as you crawl
- Keep the shins parallel to the floor as you crawl
Watch this breakdown video of how to do this exercise + modifications!
3. Upward Chops: Rotational Core Exercise
After our anti- focused exercises, we can incorporate rotational work!
Twists are safe AND necessary for pregnancy! We need our spine to move and maintain its mobility or we may have more issues, such as upper back, lower back, or hip pain!
Adding in rotational work can keep the spine moving and strengthen the obliques (side abs) to support the belly during pregnancy!
Postpartum strengthening the obliques with rotational work can help to reconnect the core after a C-section and heal Diastasis!
Movement Tips:
- Starting in the weight or band towards the floor, rotate the weight up to the opposite shoulder
- Avoid leaning backwards or arching in the back!
- Exhale to rotate
- Several stance variations such as half kneeling, split stance, or lunge to stand.
Watch this breakdown video of how to do this exercise + modifications!
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)
- Prenatal On-Demand with full-length workout videos that you follow along as you workout
4. Pallof Dumbbell Press with Banded Leg Adduction: Anterior Oblique Sling
Next up is strengthening the myofascial slings. Myofascial slings are a connection of muscles and tissues that support functional and dynamic movement!
Myofascial slings support things like walking, running, throwing, and so much more where we need opposite sides to function synchronized.
Myofascial slings also support the pelvic girdle! It’s a key component in our pelvic stability programming that we incorporate into ALL of our fitness programs, both prenatal and postnatal.
The pallof dumbbell press with banded leg resistance is one of my favorite anterior oblique sling exercises (front pelvic joint stability).
Movement Tips:
- Attach a band to a sturdy structure around knee level
- Start in a supine position with the weight in the outside hand and the band around the inside leg
- Exhale to press the weight up as you lift the inside leg
- You should feel that you are resisting a pull to the point of attachment
- You should feel a diagonally activation from the outside chest to the inside inner thigh
- Option to lower the band to the ankle for more of a challenge!
Watch this breakdown video of how to do this exercise + modifications!
5. Bird Dog Row: Posterior Oblique Sling
The backside myofascial sling is the posterior oblique sling. This sling supports the SI joint and lower back!
This sling is especially important to countering the increased weight on the front side of the body!
Core work is more than just the six pack abs: we need to think of the core as the entire core canister, which includes our abdominal wall, back, diaphragm, and pelvic floor.
The bird dog row focuses on the posterior oblique sling.
Movement Tips:
- Starting in a quadruped position, hold a weight in one hand and place the other on a yoga block or hold another weight.
- Exhale to row the weight up to a 90 degree angle as you extend the opposite foot back.
- Inhale to return to the starting position.
- As you extend, avoid arching in the back
Watch this breakdown video of how to do this exercise + modifications!
Strengthen Your Core Throughout Your Pregnancy and Postpartum
You can absolutely still do core exercises throughout pregnancy into the early postpartum!
There are exercises that may be less optimal, such as lots of abdominal flexion or back extension. Focusing on rotation, anti-, and the myofascial slings may be more appropriate for the perinatal period!
Join our prenatal and postnatal fitness programs for tons of “safe” core exercises, plus a progression back to traditional core work in our postpartum programs!