Expecting? Try These Basic Prenatal Modifications for 5 Popular Exercises (2024)

Keeping active during pregnancy is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your baby. Not only is it safe to work out using pregnancy-approved movements, but science says it also helps reduce your stress levels, improves your baby’s growth and development in the womb, and is associated with shorter, easier labor and swifter healing after delivery.

During pregnancy, there are specific exercises to avoid, some to ensure you include, and others that need modifications to stay safe and effective. Because more than 85% of women will have children at some point in their lives, knowing how to adjust training for pregnancy is valuable information essential for staying safe and enjoying exercise.

5 Prenatal Exercise Modifications

Numerous exercises are considered safe during pregnancy. If your healthcare provider has given you the green light, you can choose from a wide range of strength training exercises that are safe and beneficial. Some examples include variations of squats, hinge movements, bridges, lunges, and loaded carries. Pulling exercises such as rows and pulldowns, presses, and core stabilizing and strengthening movements also have a place in any well-designed exercise program.

During pregnancy and postpartum, you can benefit most from hinging hip-dominant exercises, pulling rowing movements, and stabilizing core exercises. But these exercises should be adapted to your growing abdomen and the pressures it places on your muscles and joints. Here are five exercises you can adapt to pregnancy.

Front Plank Modification: Incline Front Plank

Front planks are a safe and effective core stability exercise you can do when trying to conceive, during the first trimester, and often at the beginning of the second trimester. However, you should stop doing front planks if you feel your belly is hanging or bulging since this can increase the separation of the abdominal wall (diastasis recti).

Instead, try performing your planks on an incline. The incline will reduce the load on the abdominal and back muscles. Here's how to perform the incline front plank.

1. Kneel in front of a bench.
2. Place your forearms against the edge.
3. Raise your hips and extend your legs one at a time behind you to come into a plank with your weight supported on your forearms.
4. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds, contracting your abdominals and breathing smoothly.
   

Glute Bridge Modification: Bodyweight Hip Thrust

Glute bridges are a hinging, hip-dominant movement that increase glute strength. They help protect your pelvis and back from the strains and pains of pregnancy. Bridges also increase awareness of your glute muscles, boosting muscle activation that can be lacking for many people who have anteriorly tilted pelvises and stretched hamstring muscles.

But it's not advisable to lay flat on your back after the first trimester. Switching to a hip thrust with your back elevated is a great substitution. Here is how to do a bodyweight hip thrust.

1. Sit on the ground with your back against a bench.
2. Lean your upper body onto the bench and raise your hips, rolling the tops of your shoulders and upper back onto the bench.
3. Keep your feet about hip-width apart, toes forward or slightly turned out if it's more comfortable.
4. Ensure alignment from your head to your upper back down to your pelvis with a neutral spine.
5. Lower your hips toward the floor, inhaling.
6. Maintain a straight line from head to pelvis throughout the movement.
7. Drive your feet into the floor, inhale, and push to raise your hips back up, squeezing your glutes at the top.

Barbell Squat Modification: Goblet Squat

Squats strengthen the spinal stabilizing muscles, quadriceps, pelvic floor, and pelvic opening while building functional strength essential for daily activities during pregnancy. Barbell or wider stance squats, while excellent for building general strength and core stability, can be tricky during the later months of pregnancy. You may feel a heaviness in the perineum or can leak urine.

To help with this, you can try loading the squat in the front and adopting a narrower squat using less weight. Here is how to do a goblet squat in pregnancy.

1. Position your feet about shoulder-width apart, slightly wider, and slightly turned out to whichever position is most comfortable.
2. Hold a dumbbell close to your chest, cupping underneath with your fingertips over the top.
3. Check your stance and ensure your chin is slightly tucked and your weight is evenly balanced on each side across your entire foot.
4. Inhale as you squat down, pushing/hinging your hips back (not bending forward) and bending your knees in the direction of your feet.
5. Exhale as you push through your feet to stand back up, focusing on controlled movement.
6. Maintain proper alignment throughout the squat with your head, chest, and pelvis in line, aiming to keep your chest up as much as possible.

Bent-Over Row Modification: Seated Row

Pulling and rowing movements are vital for pregnancy to help combat rounded shoulders and strained postural muscles. Building strength and stability in your back helps counteract the effects of your belly changing your center of gravity.

But bent-over rows can be too stressful on your lower back and can cause a heavy, bulging feeling in your abdomen. Instead, try seated rows, which safely work the same muscles without the strain. You can do these with resistance bands or a cable machine. Here's how.

1. Face the cable machine and grab the handles, palms facing inward.
2. Lean slightly forward to ensure the ribs align over the hips and sit on your sit bones rather than tucking under, maintaining good posture.
3. Root your feet into the ground for stability and support, and pull your shoulder blades back and down, ensuring they glide properly over the rib cage.
4. Focus on pulling with the back muscles rather than your arms, thinking of your hands as hooks. Your elbows should be in line with your shoulders.
5. Pull the handles toward your body with a controlled movement, keeping your palms facing in.
6. Stop once the handles reach your torso, contracting your shoulder blades before slowly reversing the motion.

Push-Up Modification: Band-Assisted Pushups

Pushups are an excellent chest-strengthening exercise that also help build core stability, shoulder strength, and mobility. But as you get heavier, especially in the front of your body, they can become too challenging and cause some low back strain. If this is the case, you can try using a resistance band to help you perform pushups, adding some assistance at the bottom. Here's how to do band-assisted pushups.

1. Loop a strength band around the top of a squat rack and kneel on the floor, holding the band.
2. Place the center of the band around your hips and your hands on the floor, under your shoulders.
3. Extend your legs back one at a time so you are in the top of a pushup position.
4. Maintain a neutral spine, squeeze your glutes, and engage your abdominals. This is the starting position.
5. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then push back to the starting position.