Imagine waking up one morning and deciding to train a little differently for the next nine months. You decide that you will put on a weight vest, add a half-pound weight every one to two weeks, and never take it off. Imagine how it would feel to slowly challenge your muscles, tissues, and chemistry to handle a continuously increasing load for nine months. Now, imagine how strong you would feel later to finally remove that vest and its entire weight all at once…
A pregnant woman is in training like this for nine months, and by embracing the challenge and undergoing a training program designed to support her and her ever-changing body, she can emerge from the experience far stronger and more functional than ever before.
But the benefits of exercise during pregnancy extend beyond strength and function. Exercise during pregnancy is also an excellent way to prepare your body for labor and lower your risk of pregnancy complications and interventions.
Why Exercise is Important During Pregnancy
Here’s another scenario: imagine you decide to run your first marathon. An enormous, physical feat. The minimum training program is around 4-6 months and assumes some form of exercise every single day, but a lot of runners start training as early as a year before the big race. The components of a solid program include endurance training and strength training as a way to prepare the body and minimize the risk of injury. A marathon usually takes 5 hours for a first-timer.
Now, let’s consider childbirth. Another enormous, physical feat. However, the average first time labor is 12-24 hours long. That is 3-5 times longer than a marathon! The average woman will spend a handful of hours preparing their body for labor and delivery, most of which will be put towards reading about it. Would you run a marathon only after having read a book? Without proper training, physical and mental-emotional, the risk of challenges goes up.
The benefits of exercise during pregnancy are so much more than just being fit and toned. Moms who exercise during their pregnancy experience:
- Easier labors, with a full one-third less time spent in labor
- 35% decreased need for pain relief such as an epidural
- 50% decreased risk of non-surgical interventions such as labor induction
- 55% decreased risk of episiotomy
- 75% decrease risk of C-section or forceps
- Less weight gain
- Reduced likelihood of gestational diabetes
- Reduced likelihood of preeclampsia (Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension)
And last but certainly not least, fewer overall pregnancy discomforts. Pretty amazing, right?
But the benefits of exercising during pregnancy extend beyond mom to her baby. A strong mom who is physically prepared for childbirth sets herself and her baby up for the best possible experience.
Babies born to mothers who exercise during their pregnancy experience:
- Increased physical health scores
- Increased intelligence scores
- Fewer fetal interventions
- Fewer pregnancy complications
- Improved nutrient and waste exchange
- Reduced likelihood of Macrosomia (Excessive Birth Weight Babies)
Designing a Prenatal Exercise Program
As part of our Fit For Birth Pregnancy Safe Coach program, we teach a concept known in the fitness industry as Corrective Exercise. Think of the muscles that are affected by pregnancy – the ones that get stretched, lengthened, shortened, overused and underused. Muscles such as the diaphragm are often more underused than usual as the belly grows and it has less room to function. This causes the chest and scapular breathing muscles to step in to compensate, which puts serious strain on an already changing body. The pelvis shifts with the growing weight and change of mom’s center of gravity, and if the connecting muscles aren’t prepared to support it, issues such as low back pain and SI pain can flare up.
We focus prenatal exercise program design on 6 areas that we call the “Primary Three” and “Secondary Three” Corrections. They are:
PRIMARY THREE EXERCISES:
- Core Activation – When a pregnant woman uses her core properly, she immediately moves with greater ease, and makes joint pains disappear. Literally, as soon as she activates correctly – you can see it in your assessment. . This is what makes our Core Breathing Belly Pump® exercise so effective. This is also the critical first exercise for pregnant women who want to avoid diastasis recti.
- Glute Activation – If your client feels exercises such as squats or lunges in her knees, and often even in her quads, it’s usually because she is not properly activating her glutes. Proper glute activation is a critical first step to balancing the pregnant body, and is something that most people do not have access to, even before pregnancy.
- Pelvic Tucking – The vast majority of pregnant people need to counterbalance their growing belly by activating lower abdominals and glutes to tuck their pelvis.
SECONDARY THREE EXERCISES:
- Oblique Activation – Ability to move correctly through the torso is so critical during pregnancy, as well as for preventing Diastasis Recti. The fact is that trunk rotation is something that pregnant people do when getting out of bed, when checking the toddler in the back seat of the car, and even with every step they take. Learning to do it correctly – rather than avoiding it – is what makes an exercise truly “Pregnancy Safe.”
- Scapular Activation – Tension in the neck and shoulders can be indicative of the upper traps compensating for the scapular muscles, a condition often exaggerated during pregnancy. As the pregnant belly grows, spinal curvatures are magnified, which commonly shifts postural tension away from the scapular adductors and inappropriately into the upper trapezius and neck muscles.
- Chest Activation – Activating the pectoral muscles, in an exercise like push-ups, is another way to ensure that your client’s spinal posture is maintained during pregnancy. When your clients feel their push-up exercise in their front shoulders (and “arms”) it is typically a sign that they’ve not activated their chest muscles in proper alignment.
Our program design starts with these 6 activations in mind, with the goal of strengthening, balancing and preparing our clients’ bodies for a healthy and strong pregnancy and postpartum recovery.
Exercises You Can Use for Your Pregnant Clients
So how can you or your pregnant clients best prepare your bodies for pregnancy, labor, delivery and recovery? Try doing these 6 exercises WITH THE CORRECT ACTIVATIONS to improve your client’s health and the health of their unborn baby.
- Core Breathing Belly Pump® (CBBP) – As often through the day that she can remember, return to this kind of breathing: Inhale to fill the sides of her ribs and lower back (and into the tummy, depending on her trimester and current level of function). Then Exhale to “Corset” her tummy while activating her pelvic floor muscles. This exercise should also be done periodically during an exercise session, in a variety of positions.
- Squats or Lunges – So long as your client feels these in her glutes primarily, and uses her CBBP.
- Pelvic Tucking – Ask your client to exhale as she “tucks her tail under.” Make sure she is capable of doing this in a variety of positions, including standing, split kneeling, supine and prone.
- Kneeling Rotational Holds – Ask your client to kneel (or sit) comfortably (this will lock her pelvis into place, and allow most clients to have greater access to their oblique muscles.) Instruct her to “Exhale as you rotate one direction. Hold at the end range and repeat the CBBP a time or two, while she attempts to feel her obliques & abdominals burn (get tired). Repeat on the other side, and with as many reps on each side as your program calls for.
- Hip-Hinging Scapular Activations – Ask your client to assume a deadlift-like position, combined with a “Cobra” hold for her shoulder blades. Hold this position (feeling the burn in her glutes and shoulder blade muscles) while gently, slowly and repeatedly: (a) bringing shoulder blades together, (b) externally rotating her shoulders, and (c) drawing her shoulders down away from the ears (to de-activate the upper traps).
- Push Ups – Start by making sure your client can hold a push up position (on knees or feet) while feeling the pressure & “tiredness” in her chest muscles mostly. If so, instruct her to lower her chest downward so long as she can keep the tension in her chest, and repeat & progress according to her ability and your program design.
Change Lives with Pre and Postnatal Corrective Exercise
With all the changes that occur during pregnancy, it’s the perfect time to focus on balancing and strengthening the body. Focus on these primary 6 activations in your assessment with clients and you will undoubtedly uncover areas of improvement. As a fitness professional, you have the opportunity to empower your clients to train for pregnancy, labor, delivery, and recovery in a way that helps set themselves and their baby up for the healthiest life possible.
Become a Fit For Birth Pregnancy Safe Coach today and learn the fundamentals of pre and postnatal corrective exercise as well as how to mitigate, manage and heal nine of the most common aches and pains women face during pregnancy and postpartum. Check out a free preview of our course HERE!