Prenatal fitness: safety, benefits, and optimizing for birth
It seems like there is a myriad of conflicting advice when it comes to prenatal fitness in 2025. Between social media, fitness influencers, and health trends, it seems like the guidelines are constantly changing. However, I would argue that safe and beneficial prenatal fitness is fairly straightforward. I hope to use this blog post as a crash course in what you should prioritize when it comes to prenatal fitness, why, and what the research says. So let’s jump in!
The fitness industry is constantly fear-mongering pregnant women. Honestly? I get it. When I took my first group fitness certification in 2018, I was terrified a pregnant woman would show up to my class and I wouldn’t know how to safely support her. In the years since, I have learned more about pregnancy, birth, and movement, and now know there is nothing to fear when it comes to moving while pregnant. In fact, prenatal exercise has many benefits. After experiencing my first pregnancy (as well as working out 4x a week through my entire pregnancy!) and taking a comprehensive prenatal and postnatal fitness training, I want to shed light on how we as pregnant women and fitness instructors, can move safely and evidence-based.
Safety:
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that pregnant women get 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic exercise. This can include walking, stationary biking, swimming, strength training, yoga, pilates, or barre. They recommend that women who are used to doing higher intensity exercises before pregnancy may continue with their doctor’s approval. Women who are not used to exercising before pregnancy should start slowly and build up to 30 minutes a day of exercise to reach their guideline fitness goals.
ACOG also states that pregnant women should not:
Do exercises that can increase the risk of fall, such as biking, basketball, soccer, or football
Exercise in a heated environment
Do suppine exercises for longer than 5 minutes (or if discomfort occurs)
I think it’s also important to note that many of the popular guidelines for exercise, such as not lying on the stomach or back during exercise, are based more on the comfort of mom than being unsafe for mom or baby.
I fully believe prenatal exercise, as with birth, is best when your motherly intuition is involved. If you’re used to doing a particular exercise that no longer feels right in your body, permit yourself to scale back on weight, intensity, or simply choose a different method of exercise. I preferred pilates during my pregnancy, instead of my typical strength training routine.
Benefits:
The benefits of prenatal exercise are well-known at this point. They include things such as easier birth, easier recovery, and managed weight gain. Below I will list out the updated research of the lesser-known prenatal fitness benefits:
Reduces anxiety and depression
Reduces back, sacroiliac, and hip pain
Promotes a healthy baby birth weight
Strengthens the cardiovascular system and reduces the risk of swelling
Decreases the risk of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes
Aids in managing constipation
Reduces risk of pelvic floor and core related issues such as diastasis recti and incontinence
Optimizing for birth:
While some exercise programs may be perfectly safe for pregnancy, they aren’t optimal for preparing to give birth. Some programs remove things that may be unsafe or uncomfortable for a pregnant woman without considering what specific areas need mobility or strength, for an efficient birth and postpartum recovery process. I believe all movement and exercise can be beneficial while pregnant, especially if it’s movement vs being sedentary. I do, however, believe certain forms of exercise are more essential during the perinatal period to reap the benefits in full.
An example of an exercise that is safe, but not ideal, is stationary biking. Many pregnant women spend their days with their hips flexed due to our largely sedentary lives, such as driving, office work, and Netflix binging, typical of our modern era. A pregnant woman who aims to be more active through stationary biking will continue to perpetuate this flexed hip movement. When preparing for pregnancy, giving the pelvis more mobility and the opportunity to move in new ways, through walking, stretching, strengthening, and targeted exercises, would be more beneficial for an easier labor.
When creating programming for perinatal women, it’s important to look at the whole of their lives and how they’re moving in general. As a standard, most pregnant women would benefit from exercises that target:
Upper body mobility, because the upper body and hips are linked
Pelvic floor strengthening and release to avoid incontinence
Hip mobility and, specifically, accessing internal rotation for birth
Upper body strengthening, to support added weight from the bump and later breastfeeding and baby carrying
Hip and leg strengthening to handle added weight, manage pain, and
Breathe work to manage added internal pressure from baby and avoid prolonged diastasis
Accessing a proper hip hinge to improve pelvic mobility, stability, and alignment
Many of these movements can be targeted through strength training, walking, mobility work, and pilates.
