Written by

Gina Conley, MS

April 26, 2024

Weightlifting While Pregnant: Separating Fact from Fiction on C-Section Risks

Fitness, Pelvic Floor, Prenatal

You may have been told that if you lift weights throughout your pregnancy, your pelvic floor will be super tight, and your labor will be really long or you’ll need a c-section.

But is this true?? Surely, exercising throughout your pregnancy is beneficial–why would lifting weights impact your birth outcomes so dramatically?

First, this is not necessarily true–but it can be, which we will discuss in this blog. Your pelvic floor does not instantly tighten as soon as you pick up a weight–but there are things we do want to be considerate of as we are exercising to support our pregnancy and birth!

In this blog, we are going to break down why this is a myth and what you can do to ensure that your prenatal exercise is actually supporting your birth preparation, as well!

Want to learn more on how to use prenatal fitness to support a strong and pain-free pregnancy, plus exercises to release tension in the pelvic floor and open the pelvis for birth? We also break down how to use prenatal exercise and labor positions to support your baby’s position!

Pre-order our book Training for Two! This book includes 90+ exercises to build your confidence as you navigate fitness throughout your pregnancy and prep for birth, plus a whole chapter on early postpartum recovery!

Does Weightlifting = Tight Pelvic Floor??

I constantly hear birth workers complain when their clients/patients are into CrossFit or lifting weights–the common complaint is their pelvic floors are going to be so tight, and it will impact their birth! While this is not inherently true, there are some things we do want to consider.

This includes:

Prenatal Postural Tendencies: the way we stand and move can contribute towards pelvic floor tension, but this can be for everyone, not just athletes
Planes of Motion: what directions do your exercises predominately include? Are all of your exercises front-to-back, or does your programming also include side-to-side and rotational exercises?

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In this YouTube video, we break down these concepts in more detail if you’d prefer to listen/watch me explain why lifting weights does not mean you’ll have a c-section, but we do need to be considerate with how we are moving to support our birth preparation.

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1) Prenatal Posture: How This Impacts Pelvic Floor Tension

The first thing we need to consider when it comes to our pelvic floor tension is what is our common postural tendency–or how do you tend to stand and position yourself throughout the day. There is no one best posture, but we also don’t want to be “stuck” in one posture ALL the time. The best posture is your next one! We want to move and change positions, easily!

During pregnancy, we tend to favor external hip rotation (toes out) and an anterior pelvic tilt with spinal extension (arched back). This position tends to shorten the back half of the pelvic floor and lengthen the front half of the pelvic floor.

So, if we are in this posture often, it can impact the tension of our pelvic floor!

Why does this matter if you are an athlete?? This posture is also a power position–we tend to find this position when we are exercising! Think of the position you end up in when you finish your squat, your clean, your deadlift–your hips are in external rotation and your spine is slightly extended.

This means as an athlete, we are reinforcing this postural pattern with all of our main lifts. When we squat, we finish in this posture and reinforce it, and so on.

So, in addition to your lifts-–which are still important to keep you strong, and I recommend continuing to lift if it feels good for you—we also want to incorporate accessory work that helps you find the opposite positions:

Posterior Pelvic Tilt and Spinal Flexion: Rounding in the Back
Internal Hip Rotation: Closed Hip Positions and Toes In

1) Posterior Pelvic Tilt: Release Tension in the Lats and Hip Flexors

Think of elite CrossFit athletes (or just athletes in general) and consider what type of posture they tend to usually have–they tend to have their rib cage flared upwards or chest up, with more of an arch in their back. This is because they are really favoring that extended spine position with external hip rotation–it’s a power position, after all!

But, we need to consider how this impacts our ability to move our pelvis–which influences our pelvic floor tension AND the ability to create space in our pelvis for birth.

The pelvis is pulled into an anterior tilt (forward) by the lats and the hip flexors shortening. Targeting some of our mobility on lat and hip flexor releases can help you find a more rounded position.

We developed the MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit to release common areas of tension that can impact your ability to open your pelvis for birth and release tension in your pelvic floor. This circuit addresses the common prenatal posture of extension and external hip rotation–which as you know is also a reinforced position as an athlete.

Why does it matter if you can’t really find a rounded back position? Not only does this impact your pelvic floor tension (the back half will be a lot tighter and harder to release), it can impact your ability to create space in your pelvic for birth.

The top of the pelvis opens more with external hip rotation (which is generally easy to do during pregnancy) but also a posterior pelvic tilt. If you cannot find a posterior pelvic tilt, it decreases space in the top of the pelvis, which can make it harder for baby to enter or engage into the pelvis.

On the flip side, the bottom half of the pelvis opens more with internal hip rotation and a posterior pelvic tilt. If you cannot find either of those, it will make it harder for your baby to finish their rotation under the pubic bone and may cause a late labor stall where your labor seems to stop progressing around 8 cm or you push for a prolonged period of time.

You can incorporate the forward lat release to release tension in the lats and the half kneeling hip flexor release from the MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit to help you find more of a posterior pelvic tilt!

2) Internal Hip and Pelvic Rotation: Hip Shifted Exercises

Additionally, our circuit includes exercises that emphasize internal hip/pelvic rotation with hip shifts! Hip shifts help to release tension in the posterior pelvic floor.

Learning how to hip shift is crucial to helping to improve your pelvic mobility. And, as we discussed before, internal hip rotation is important to open the lower half of the pelvis! Here are the two hip shift exercises from the MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit.

To overcome our prenatal postural tendencies that are reinforced by our athlete movement patterns, we want to be sure to incorporate mobility exercises that improve our ability to change our spine and pelvic positions! The MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit is an easy way to support balance in your pelvis as you prepare for birth. I currently use it as a part of my warm-up routine in my fourth pregnancy.

2) Programming Preferences: Movement Patterns in Your Workouts

Next, we need to take a look at what type of exercises are incorporated into our normal workout routine. Are all of the exercises in your program primarily bilateral movements (two legs or two arms working at the same time) in the sagittal plane (front-to-back)? If so, you are likely just continuing to reinforce that posture = tighter back half of your pelvic floor and limited pelvic mobility.

We want to ensure that our prenatal workout program also includes exercises that are in the frontal plane (side-to-side) and transverse plane (rotational). And yes, you can twist during pregnancy, and we highly recommend it.

1) Frontal Plane Exercises: Side-to-Side Movements

The frontal plane includes movements that go side to side, such as lateral band walks. These exercises tend to strengthen the outer glute with abduction and the inner thigh with adduction. Most of these exercises will be accessory work, but should still be included in your prenatal workout routine to help balance your hips out.

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.

In addition to strengthening exercises in the frontal plane, we also can look to include even more mobility exercises that target the frontal plane as well. This could include side body openers for lateral thoracic mobility (commonly neglected in the thoracic mobility routines).

One of my favorite ones to do side-body opening is in a 90/90 position–this includes both thoracic and hip mobility. I like to add a little more internal hip rotation by placing a yoga block under my back ankle.

2) Transverse Plane Exercises: Rotational

Next, we need to include exercises that involve rotation, particularly of the hips! We want to find BOTH external and internal hip rotation–which is easy to do with single-leg exercises, such as lunges and split squats.

In the lunge, you can emphasize the frontal plane by incorporating a resistance band (see the video for more of an explanation).

As you lower in the lunge (or single-leg movement), rotate the belly to the thigh to find internal hip rotation. You will feel more of a stretch in the glute and hamstring area. Then extend in the hip to rotate to an open hip position at the top of the movement.

Check out these two rotational exercises that incorporate internal rotation!

Remember, if finding internal hip rotation is difficult it can cause issues during your labor–it can cause a labor stall or prolong your pushing because baby will have a harder time finishing their rotation under the pubic bone for birth.

3) Hip Internal Rotation: Creating Space in the Lower Pelvis

Another way to incorporate internal hip rotation is with the staggered stance RDL. The hamstrings and adductors play a large role in PULLING the pelvis into internal rotation–which again, is important to creating more space in the bottom of the pelvis.

In the staggered stance RDL, we can find internal rotation at the bottom, similar to the previous exercises in this section.

In addition, you can incorporate adductor strengthening exercises, such as Copenhagen plank, to support opening the lower pelvis.

Lifting Weights Does NOT Equal C-Section or Hard Labor!

Lifting weights during your pregnancy does not automatically mean you’ll have issues with your birth or need a c-section. The common misunderstanding is that if you lift weights, your pelvic floor will be too tight. However, this is not necessarily true! Just touching weights does not suddenly make your pelvic floor tight.

However, there are common positions that you may find yourself in when lifting weights that could impact your pelvic floor tension (and thus the ability to open your pelvis for birth) and your program may be limited in the types of exercises it includes to support overall strengthening and balance.

If you can incorporate exercises that release these common areas of tension, such as with the MamasteFit Birth Prep Circuit, to make it easier for you to find different positions, and ensure that your programming includes exercises in all three planes of motion–your pelvic floor will be happier and your workouts will support your birth preparation, as well.