Lindsey Bomgren, in her third trimester with a history of diastasis recti, shows five exercises to skip during pregnancy and safe swaps for each: down-dog instead of up-dog, lat pulldowns for pull-ups, wide-stance core work for crunches, modified planks for toe planks, and bird-dog for stomach-lying moves.
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Hi, I'm Lindsey Bombgren of Nourish Move Love, and today I am sharing five exercises I avoid during pregnancy and safe modifications you can take during pregnancy for these exercises. As you can see, I'm in my third trimester of pregnancy, so these are exercises I typically avoid in my second and third trimester as my belly grows. So the first of these exercises that I avoid is up dog. If I'm taking a yoga class, I'll avoid doing up dog because I just don't want to over stretch my abdomen. And also, I came into this pregnancy with diastasis recti, which is separation of the abdominal muscles. And doing moves like up dog or overextension of your abdomen can put additional pressure on diastasis recti or worsen it. So I avoid that. If I'm taking any yoga class, I won't do up dog. Instead, I might just transition straight back into a down dog. That's option A. Or instead of doing updog, I could always just drop to a tabletop and perform a cat where I look at babe and pull my belly in using my transverse abdominal wall. The other option is to take a modified plank from your knees. Again, working on that transverse abdominal wall, avoiding doming in the stomach and pressure on the abdomen. So that's move number one I avoid. Move number two I avoid is pull ups. I love doing pull ups for strength training when I'm not pregnant, but when I am pregnant, the extra weight of my belly as well as the core engagement required for pull ups, something I avoid. Additionally, when you do pull ups, you often tend to hold your breath or bear down because you're like, right. It's a tough exercise and you really want to avoid bearing down and holding your breath. So instead of doing pull ups, there's still a lot of great ways you can strengthen your back. You can use the lat pulldown machine at the gym. You could use TRX straps for rows. Or if you just have dumbbells like I have here, you can simply perform a back fly like this. You perform a back row this way, a reverse grip row, palms out, elbows high to the sky, back towards the hip. So there's a lot of great exercises you can do with just dumbbells to strengthen your back. Move number three is crunching or twisting. So you just want to avoid basic crunches. There's no reason to squish or compress babe. You want to make sure there's always plenty of space for babe. That said, there's a lot of great ways you can still work your Core one way. Specifically, if you're kind of looking in the crunch space, take a nice wide stance with my feet here, I engage my transverse abdominals, my deep abdominal muscles. So inhale, release, exhale, pull the in tight from here slightly sit back. You could always take a Pilates sponge ball and place that behind your back. Or a kid's toy ball for additional support. I put my arms out here and I just go down an inch, up an inch, down an inch, up an inch. That's a great way to still engage your core and transverse abdominals while avoiding cracking, crunching, or twisting. Move number four I avoid is plank on my toes. Now, in my first pregnancy, I did a lot more planking on my toes throughout my pregnancy. But I came into this pregnancy with diastasis recti, which is abdominal separation. And planking now causes doming of my stomach. So I drop to my knees a lot sooner in planks or also renegade rows. So if you're doing a row from a plank position, push ups, all those exercises that are similar to planking, I either go to a modified plank on my knees, on my forearms. Again, again, really important to focus on transverse abdominal engagement here to avoid doming of the belly. I have a whole video on transverse abdominal breathing and doming of your belly, which I'll reference in this blog post. So you can do a modified plank. You can also just come into tabletop and perform that cat exercise again, pulling in, looking at your baby, performing cat, that's a great option. And then for side planks, I still can do those, but I just drop to that inside knee right here. Option to lift that outside leg, option to keep it down on the ground. Had some hip lifts. This belly's getting heavier and heavier, so those are getting harder, but something that are still safe to perform during pregnancy. And then finally, move number five, I avoid lying on my stomach, right? You just never want to smoosh, babe. And so exercises like cobra or Superman, those are exercises you want to avoid. A simple, simple switch for those is the good old bird dog. So you come into tabletop position and you can reach opposite arm, opposite leg up. You can pulse it, you can hold it, you can do some knee taps right here, set it down, swing. That's the easiest move to transition. You're still going to get that back extension and back engagement as well as core engagement in that exercise. So those are some great pregnancy modifications. Of course, there's a couple other things I modify. As my belly grows, my squat stance widens, forward folds. I take a nice wide stance, avoiding that chair pose with my knees nice and tight, and making sure there's always plenty of room for babe. But I dive deeper into each of these exercises, why I avoid them, and the safe modifications you can make in the blog post associated with this video. So be sure to check that out and check out more Pregnancy Friendly and Pregnancy Safe workouts at nourishmovelove. Com.
