Do’s and Dont’s with Lifting

Hi! I just found out I’m pregnant and looking to resume lifting to prepare me for the ultimate fitness challenge of birth and parenting. I’m 36 years old, and overall slim. I have worked out on and off and at home I am looking to get into a lifting routine.

I read somewhere that you are not supposed to do exercises on your back. Typically my workouts include either squats and/or deadlifts hip thrusts, and a push and pull.

Do I have to give up chest press and hip thrust?! What exercises are recommended?

in fitpregnancyby Select-Pangolin2158

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Wucksy

Hip thrust - yes, eventually the belly gets too big to lay a bar across your hips. Switch to cable pull through if you want the hip thrust movement. I just did deadlifts, squats, kettlebell swings to work the glutes.

Chest presses - this will depend on you. About 10% of women will experience dizziness/faint when they lay on their back due to the weight of the baby on your nerves blocking blood flow. I never experienced this and can do chest/floor presses at 38 weeks. If it is an issue for you, doing presses at incline likely solves that issue.

Upstairs-Ad7424

Anything I would have done on a bench I just switched to incline bench.

design_guru_

I do a workout program for pregnant women and their modification for chest press is to do it off the side of the bench in a bridge position. You then get some core and glute work along with it! But typically, like mentioned, you can do these exercises on your back until it feels uncomfortable for you!

Geo_logizing

I only gave up hip thrusting once my belly got in the way and instead did B stance dumbbell hip thrust or cable pull through.

Also avoided hamstring curls once I hit 2nd trimester and modified core workouts to avoid coning.

oopsie20

16 weeks here - no, you don’t have to give up hip thrusting. Make sure your barbell is on your quads though to keep baby safe!! You may want to do half reps (top portion) as going low and full range of motion won’t be too comfortable as belly grows. Another option is doing dumbbell & banded single leg hip thrust (put on the band first and then add the dumbbell on one side and rotate). Another option is doing pull throughs.

As far as chest press goes, I’m still doing it but not going heavy. This way I don’t put too much pressure on my abs. Thinking of switching to chest press machine which is sitting down in the next few weeks.

didigk

I see you want to resume lifting. Keep in mind that the recommended amount of working out is "similar to before getting pregnant". So if your plan is to start lifting weights after a period of not doing it, I would ask the doctor first.

Squeakersquirrel

I was doing flat bench press up until 28 weeks. Didn’t experience any dizziness for lightheadedness personally but it very much can be a thing for people. Switched to seated machine press more for comfort as belly grows bigger.

Would also agree to talk to a doctor if these exercises were not something you were typically doing previously. General advice I have gotten is do whatever you were doing prior to pregnancy. Kudos for wanting to exercise because I do think it’s so important during pregnancy but you want to make sure you’re doing right by your body.

Tltc2022

I'm 30w and still doing exercises on my back, but I'm also sleeping on my back as it currently does not bother me all that much. I stopped doing hip thrusts pretty early on once the bump formed. Just recently stopped planking due to feeling..... More pressure and discomfort.

Other than the ab workout modifications, I had also read to stop doing hanging exercises I think due to potential pelvic floor pressure. and then also for me certain single leg movements were really really hard on my pelvic floor. I think most people are able to do single leg movements but for me, it wasn't until I hurt myself (pretty bad) on Bulgarian split squats that I looked it up and apparently it happens to some women.

I'd also just add that it's pretty individualized so I would recommend you keep experimenting, but don't overdo it. If it starts hurting or you feel a lot of pressure, particularly later on in your second and third trimester, it's just really not worth it to push through and risk hurting yourself... particularly your pelvic floor because that can be super painful and cause issues with even basic things like walking etc

Scary-Watercress2585

I'm 23 weeks and still benching on my back, doing dead bugs when I feel like it etc. If it's ever uncomfortable I just switch to cable chest press or floor press :) I don't hip thrust because I find it too hard to control my coning and breathing but this is not unusual for me, I have quite bad diastasis recti and did with my prev pregnancy