Lindsay Baumgren demonstrates five safe exercise categories for the second and third trimesters: TA breathing to prevent diastasis recti, strength moves like dumbbell squats with lighter weights, balance work through single-leg deadlifts, low-impact cardio with kettlebell swings, and hip-opening stretches to prepare for labor.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Lindsay Baumgren of Nourishment and today I'm sharing five exercises I add to my routine when I'm pregnant. I'm currently in my third trimester of pregnancy and these are great exercises to add in in your second and third trimester. The first is transverse abdominal breathing. Now I have a whole post or a whole video about transverse abdominal breathing on the blog and I'll link out to it below. But transverse abdominal breathing is your deep muscles. So TA breathing, your deep abdominal muscles. So not your six pack muscles, but the layer underneath that which is used to hold baby nice and tight and also what you want to focus on. So your six pack muscles or your rectus abdominis are the ones that can split during pregnancy causing diastasis recti, which I did come into this pregnancy with a one to two finger separation. So TA breathing is even more important for those recovering from Dr. Diastasis Recti. So I'm just going to show you. We'll just go to a nice seated position here so you can kind of see me from the side. Inhale, belly expands, exhale, Pull belly in. Pull baby in nice and tight so you can see everything comes nice and tight. Inhale, belly expands. Exhale, Comes in nice and tight. And so to find your transverse abdominals, take two fingers. I'll come up onto my knees so you can see a little bit better. Take two fingers and just go slightly inside your hips, this right here. So inhale, belly expands, exhale. You should feel right here, right inside your hip bones. Get nice and tight. And now you want to try and hold this. Transverse abdominal breathing. Hold it nice and tight. Working on that for the length of time, like holding for four seconds, you'll start to feel these muscles get kind of wobbly and shaky. Okay, so that's exercise number one. For more on TA breathing, be sure to check out the full video I have on that. Exercise number two is more strength training versus HIIT training. I love strength training during pregnancy. We're not necessarily trying to build muscle mass and break down muscle mass to gain muscle, but more so in maintenance mode. So I tend to go down to lighter weights. But more reps is what I tend to do during pregnancy. Two of my favorite strength training moves during pregnancy, just grab a good old set of dumbbells, a squat pro press. So you come up, go a little bit wider, make room for babe. Give me a squat, a bicep curl, overhead shoulder press, down, down. This is a staple move I do during pregnancy. Another good one. I Love going down to one dumbbell. Or you can get two sumo squats. Heels in, toes out, weight at down and up, knees go out, pull. The inner thighs in sumo squats just feel so awesome for me during pregnancy, especially in that third trimester when lunges can start to get a little bit funky. A lot of pressure down there. So I love a good sumo squat. Those are awesome moves for strength training during pregnancy. Number three is balance and core work. So I know balance can get a little bit tricky as your belly grows. You can always grab a tabletop or a counter. But balance is really great to continue to work on throughout pregnancy. Even as that relaxant sets in, your ligaments and muscles start to loosen up a little bit. Bar is really great for this as well as a couple of my favorite moves require one dumbbell or two dumbbells. A single leg deadlift. So I'm going to be balancing on one leg here and I'm going to hinge hand change forward and pull up. Working on my hamstrings and glutes, but also working on my balance and core, hinging forward and pulling up. A good old single leg deadlift. I also love a lateral lunge and press. So lateral lunge to the balance. If you can find that balance, I'm going to show you again. See, it's tricky during pregnancy. Lateral lunge. Find your balance. Push that dumbbell overhead, down and up. So adding this knee lift here and finding this balance, that's actually some of the best core work you can do. Much better than crunches will ever serve you. And then fourth is low impact, specifically going low impact for cardio as well. I have a lot of great low impact workouts on the blog. In my second trimester, I'm usually still jumping. But one of my favorite way to monitor my heart rate and take up some impact is an example squat jumps. So instead of just doing squat jumps for 30 seconds, I do two air squats. One, two. And then on the third one I add a jump. So one, two, third one, add a jump. So it's just alternating low impact with a little bit of high impact. If you want to take impact out completely, there's still a lot of great exercises you can do that are going to raise your heart rate. One being dumbbell or kettlebell swing, hinge swing. Grab a nice heavy dumbbell or kettlebell hands just hinging your hips back, driving straight forward. This is engaging the legs but also going to raise your heart rate naturally, right? And then if I'm trying to raise my heart rate in a cardio way. I love some kickboxing moves, some punches, stuff like that. I actually have a 15 minute low impact cardio hiit workout that I'm shooting and I'll share with you guys so lots of great low impact ways so you get your heart rate up. As you can tell, my heart rate's up. Trying to catch my breath as I talk to you. Finally, number five is hip open exercises and stretches. You don't want to overstretch during pregnancy, but as I prepare for labor opening those hips is really important. I like adding a yoga block to my routine so I'll come sit on a yoga block here in a nice low yogi squat. Push my elbows into my inner thighs. This is a great hip opening exercise, a great way to prepare for labor. One of my favorite ones. I also have more hip opening exercises on the blog but another favorite is a low runner's lunge. You can be down here, you can come up to your knee right here and then push on some edge of your foot. It's another awesome hip opening exercises. I have some good prenatal yoga on the blog as well that focuses on opening your hips so be sure to check those out. So those are five moves I add to my fitness routine when I am pregnant and moves that you can add too. And I also have a lot of pregnancy friendly and pregnancy day workouts@nourishmovelove.com be sure to check them out.
