5 Best Pregnancy Exercises & Workouts for Women

by Shubhra Goyal Best Gynaecologist in Agra – Dr.Shubhra Goyal

Studies have shown that staying active while pregnant is good for both the mother and the unborn child's health. From promoting physical strength and endurance to raising mood and energy levels, enhancing sleep, and enhancing heart health and stamina. But keeping up a regular exercise regimen throughout pregnancy can be difficult, especially if you're unsure of how to alter and adapt workouts for pregnancy to accommodate your expanding bulge. We’re thrilled to share the top five exercises for each trimester of pregnancy with you.

1. Cross-sectional abdominal breathing:

The best core workout for all ladies is transverse abdominal breathing, aka TA breathing. For women who are pregnant or just gave birth, however, TA breathing is particularly crucial. Your transverse abdominal muscles are your deep abdominal muscles; they are the layer below your six-pack. Your rectus abdominus, or six-pack ab muscles, are the ones that might separate during pregnancy, leading to diastasis recti.

During pregnancy, you can avoid or decrease diastasis recti by strengthening the deep transverse abdominal muscles.

2. Weightlifting and strength training:

“What exercises are the best during pregnancy?”, people often ask me. Strength training undoubtedly, I say!

During pregnancy, especially during the second and third trimesters, I advise women to concentrate on strength training rather than high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts.

As a general rule, you should concentrate on preserving your strength and muscular mass during pregnancy. As your pregnancy advances and your body gains more weight, try to keep the weights you were using before getting pregnant and gradually reduce them.

My preferred pregnant strength training activities are:

1. A fantastic all-body exercise is a squat, a curl, and a press.

2. Sumo squats are excellent during pregnancy because they give your expanding baby bump more room.

3. Work on Balance:

Another question I’m often asked regarding exercise during pregnancy is “What are safe core workouts for pregnant women?”

I usually suggest focusing on a balanced workout to slowly engage the core muscles. This may go counter to what you read and see online about exercising during pregnancy. Numerous sites advise reducing balancing work because your centre of gravity is altered by your expanding bump. The joints and ligaments are usually more supple during pregnancy and may make you unsteady on your feet. However, in my opinion, not using it causes you to weaken it much more.

In order to keep your core strong throughout pregnancy, it's a fantastic idea to keep pushing yourself with exercises that have a balanced foundation. Unlike most standard core exercises, balance work stimulates your transverse abdominal muscles without constricting or endangering the space around your baby.

However, as your belly expands, your centre of gravity shifts a little. When combined with an increase in relaxing hormone, balance activities might get harder. As a result, I advise using a chair, tabletop, or counter as additional support as necessary.

My preferred balance-training workouts during pregnancy are:

1. Exercises for the Single Leg Deadlift

2. Lateral Lunge

3. Some mild cardio

4. Swimming:

The ideal pregnancy workout may just be swimming and water aerobics. Why? You will feel lighter and more agile in the water since you weigh less there than you do on land. A swim in the pool may also aid with nausea relief, sciatic pain relief, and ankle swelling. Additionally, because your baby is floating alongside you, it is easy on your joints and ligaments as they become more flexible due to pregnancy hormones in your body.

Just be cautious when stepping onto slick pool decks, and slide or step into the water rather than diving in. The bubbles that occur inside the body when you abruptly shift altitudes under the pressure of the water are too much for your developing baby to endure, which is why scuba diving is strongly discouraged.

5. Walking:

Walking during pregnancy is the easiest activity to integrate into your hectic schedule. And you can keep working out right up until the day of your delivery (or even on that day if you want to speed up the contractions). Furthermore, all you need is a pair of decent shoes and you can participate without any extra tools or a gym membership.

Remember that there are plenty of alternative methods to maintain your fitness while pregnant. Always confirm with your practitioner what is okay and what is not for you if you have any doubts about what is safe. When it comes to exercising, try not to be too hard on yourself, and don't forget to have fun because becoming a mother is an experience to cherish for a lifetime!

Read more on gynaecology related topics from Dr. Shubra Goyal. You can also call on +91 8979559333 to fix appointments with her.