For sure the first thing a pregnant woman is worried about is for her baby to be healthy. The second thing she is worried about, and I believe the majority of you agree with me, is how her body will change, and how much weight will she gain.
I have seen women who never exercised in their lives, wanting to start exercising as soon as they found out they were pregnant. This is a mistake because pregnancy itself is already a big stress for the body. Adding exercise which is something completely new for the body is a second stress, added to the pregnancy.
Now if you have been exercising regularly prior to being pregnant, then you can continue to exercise during pregnancy, with moderation of course.
However, if you never exercised in your life, but still want to do some type of exercise during pregnancy, don’t worry, I have your back.
Next, I will give you easy exercises you can do during pregnancy, to relief the body from the stress of the extra weight, especially pain in the lower back which is a very common side effect of pregnancy.
Of course don’t forget to check out with your doctor first, and get his permission to exercise, because each pregnancy is different, and in some cases, exercise is forbidden.
Ok, so once you have the doctor’s permission to exercise, put on your comfortable clothes and let’s get started.
In the exercises where you need to use weights, I wouldn’t recommend using more than a 2kg dumbbell, unless you are used to lifting more before pregnancy.
1. Bicep Curls
Stand with your feet about hip width apart. Bend your knees just slightly, this prevents you from feeling tension in your lower back.
Holding a small weight in each hand, start with your arms straight. Now bend your elbows and perform a bicep curl. Repeat 20 times. Don’t lift the weights all the way up to touch your shoulders. Just keep it a bit lower. Your elbows should be relaxing by your sides, no need to squeeze them on your side, and don’t move them forward and back. They should be at the same spot all the time.
This exercise strengthens the biceps, which is the front of the arms.
2. One Arm Dumbbell Row
Go to your kitchen bench and put your left elbow on the bench, holding the weight in your right hand. Take a step back with the right leg, and lift your butt up towards the ceiling, so your torso is straight, not hunched forward. Now start with your right arm hanging down, and pull the elbow up towards the ceiling and back down.
Remember not to raise your hand towards your shoulder because this is not a bicep exercise, but rather, think of lifting the elbow up and backwards.
This exercise strengthens the upper back, and especially the lats. Do 10-20 repetitions on each side.
3. Overhead Tricep Extension
Hold one weight with two hands like in the photo. Now bend your elbows and take the weight behind your head, then straight up again.
Important tip is to keep your elbows parallel, close to your ears, do not open out to the sides.
This exercise strengthens the triceps, which is the back of the arm. Perform 20 repetitions
4. Wall Pushups
Put your hands on a wall, at shoulders’ height, and slightly wider than the shoulders. Palms facing up. Take a step backwards so that you are slightly leaning towards the wall.
Now bend your elbows and perform a pushup, then straight again. Your elbows should be at 90 degrees when you bend them. Perform 20 repetitions.
This exercise strengthens the arms, shoulders, chest and back.
5. Squats
Spread your feet so that they are a bit wider than the hips, with the toes slightly turned out. Now imagine you have a chair behind you and you do the movement as if you would sit on the chair, but at the last moment you change your mind and you get up again. If you never tried doing squats before you can actually start with a chair behind you in case you lose your balance and go backwards, then remove it as you feel comfortable with the exercise.
To give a few more details, when you go down, your knees should be over the toes, not further forward. Also, you should feel that your weight is on your heels, not your toes.
Perform 20 repetitions. This exercise strengthens the legs, and the butt as well.
6. The Bridge
In my opinion, this is the most important of all the exercises, or as I like to call it, the ‘magic exercise for the lower back’. Especially important during pregnancy, because lower back pain is very common as all the muscles and skin around your waist stretch to fit the baby.
Grab your exercise mat and lay on your back. Bend the knees and bring your heels a little closer to your butt. Relax your arms by your sides. Inhale first, and then squeeze the butt and start lifting up towards the ceiling as you exhale.
Try to lift the back as well and have a straight line from shoulders to knees. This means you need to lift the entire back as well. If it is too hard at the beginning to go all the way up, then go as far as it feels comfortable and slowly work your way up. Inhale as you lower back down slowly, softly tap the bottom to the ground and go back up again.
If you are at the last trimester of your pregnancy and you have some difficulty in breathing at this position, then perform fewer repetitions, or try with a pillow behind your head so you are at a slight incline position.
Keep your movements slow and smooth, not sharp. Perform 20 repetitions.
7. Inner Thighs
Lay on your side, either on your elbow or all the way down, and step the top leg back so that it gets out of the way. Now lift the bottom leg up and down, making sure that the toes are facing forward, not up.
Perform 20-40 repetitions on each side.
8. Outer Thighs
Lay on your side as in the previous exercise, but all the way down. Bend and relax the bottom leg, and extend the top leg so that is in one line with the torso. The knee should be straight and you should feel the front of the leg, the quads, strong and engaged.
Now perform 20-40 repetitions up and down. Switch sides and repeat.
9. Opposite Arm-Leg Raise
Go onto your knees in table-top position. That is putting your hands and knees down, so your body looks like a table. You need to have a straight back so engage your abdominals a bit and lift your butt back and up slightly. Your eyes should be facing down so you won’t put any stress on the neck.
From here inhale first, and as you exhale slowly lift right hand and left leg (opposite arm and leg). Inhale as you go back down and switch. Your arm and leg should be at the same height as your torso. If you feel like you are out of balance, then maybe one of the two parts (arm or leg), or both, are at the wrong height.
Alternate 20 repetitions.
10. Cat Stretch
This stretch will relieve the stress and pain from your lower back and neck as well. No need to over do it with the stretching, because the belly is overstretched anyway to fit the baby, just go up to the point it feels comfortable.
Inhale as you face up, and exhale as you face down towards your navel.
When you change from facing up to facing down and vice versa, do it slowly and have the feeling that you are rolling one vertebra at a time in a slow rolling motion.
Repeat a few times.
11. Child’s Pose
This is a great pose to start and finish your exercises. It releases the tension on the lower back and relaxes the mind and body. Take the bottom towards your heels and spread the knees a bit to make space for the belly to relax between the knees. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to release the stress of the day. Hold if for about a minute.
You might have noticed I haven’t included any exercises for the belly. Many fitness experts support that abdominals should be exercising as well during pregnancy, and I’m not saying is wrong. However, I will go with my own experience on this one. On both of my pregnancies, I found it quite difficult to breathe whenever I was trying to perform abdominal exercises. Plus, and this is only my personal opinion, others might disagree, I was thinking I was putting pressure on the baby whenever my abdominals were engaged in. So I leave it up to you if you want to try doing abdominals during pregnancy or not.
I hope you find the above exercises helpful and use them throughout your whole pregnancy, and keep doing them even after you deliver. After giving birth, you should add some abdominal work in your schedule, to help strengthen your abdominals and help them return to their pre-pregnancy position. But most of all, be happy and enjoy your pregnancy.