Fit Pregnancy: Workouts for Each Trimester

I am currently almost 30 weeks along and am so thankful to have been able to acheive a fit pregnancy so far with my second little one. With 17lbs of weight gain, my workouts and clean eating habits have not fallen by the waist side. I have been asked countless times how do I stay motivated? Well, when you think about the health of your little one to be, it all just makes sense. Not to say it isn’t hard… because it is TOTALLY hard, but it is TOTALLY doable at the same time. It is all of a matter of how bad you want it.

I will share with you what I did for each trimester for fitness. Things honestly did not change very much since my pre-pregnancy days, but obviously some modifications had to be made. With this pregnancy, I actually developed my first and only prenatal fitness program because I realized that there was a lack of options out there for the ladies who were expecting when it came to physical fitness.

Most pregnant ladies are intimidated by the gym, but my home program and workouts offer a way to get fit without ever stepping foot inside a gym. That is RIGHT-you do not need a gym to get fit! I do all of my workouts from home and have maybe gone to the gym 3 times since giving birth to my first child. To see what I have in my personal home gym, click here.

Sorry to ramble on! Here are a few moves that I have done for each trimester and you can easily do them as well from the comfort of your own home.

First Trimester Fitness

Things honestly did not change a whole lot in the first trimester. Obviously, since I knew that there was a little life growing inside of me, I stopped doing any type of high-impact/risky activity such as participating in ball games or doing exercises that challenged my balance. I kept working out the same as I did prior to pregnancy, for the most part while making sure I got plenty of cardio in. What I should have done in my last pregnancy was focus more on cardio as I only did 15-20 minutes back then. This time around? 30 minutes at least! Why? Pregnancy is the time that your body will be signaling hormones to store that fat onto your belly, hips, thighs, and butt. My aim was to minimize that fat gain as much as I physically could because it’s just an inevitable part of pregnancy.

I mainly stuck with my usual form of cardio, weight training, and of course I began part one of my pregnancy workout series.

30 minutes of Incline Training at 3mph & 15% incline: 5 days per week
30 minutes of Weight Training (abs, upper body, lower body): 5 days per week
Part one of 12 Week Prenatal Home Workout Plan: 4 days per week

Second Trimester Fitness

When 12 weeks rolled around, I started making tiny tweaks in my workout routine. Firstly, I stopped doing so much work on my back. If I did, I made sure that the workouts or reps/sets weren’t too long. There’s a lot of arguement on whether or not exercises lying on your back are safe during pregnancy so I figured it would be best to just modify during this round. I also stopped doing crunches and planks this trimester because I wanted to decrease my chances of developing a condition called Diastasis Recti in which your ab muscles basically split into two halves-no thanks.

I stuck with my usual cardio and decreased my weights a bit this period. Instead, I opted for more yoga and stretching since the preggo pains (low back pain, round ligament pain) started kicking in full force. I paired all of this with my 12 week prenatal home program.

30 minutes of Incline Training at 3mph at 10% incline: 6 days per week
20 minutes of Weight Training (upper body & lower body): 5 days per week
Part two of 12 Week Prenatal Home Workout Plan: 4 days per week
Prenatal Yoga & Stretching: 3 days per week

Third Trimester Fitness

Hello, homestretch! During my 3rd trimester, I was experiencing quite a bit of discomfort, but still pushed through the cardio. After all, cardio was what helped to relieve all of my pains for the most part. I decreased my weights by another 5 minutes and instead I added in two more days of yoga & stretching to prepare for a better labor and delivery. I also started part 3 of my 12 week prenatal home program.

I will warn you about 3rd trimester cardio, though: you ~~might~~ will pee on yourself. It just happens due to your weakened pelvic floor muscles-and the growing baby you have pressing down on your bladder. This is why kegels are so important!! I dedicated 10 minutes per day to doing my Kegel exercises and boy it has helped so much.