Staying physically active during pregnancy is actually a good thing. It helps reducing common discomforts(such as back pain), lowers the
risk of complications like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, reduces
stress, boosts energy, and improves sleep. Exercising can also help the body
prepare for and recover from childbirth.
But there are nuances. Since the body prepares to grow inside and give birth to another human being some adjustments should be made. The future mother should stay away form high intensity, the main focus should be "to get the blood flowing". The exercises listed further will work your whole body and especially strengthen back and pelvic muscles, which is very important to make pregnancy go easier. Don't go to maximum or submaximum effort. Do one set of each exercise(rest two to three minutes) and don't push yourself; you should start fresh and finish fresh. For cardio also do some daily low intensity exercises such as walking or swimming. As I stated earlier it's another ball game when you are pregnant so stay away form going beast mode until your postnatal recovery. Also as an alternative you can do some light yoga.
In the third trimester you can even reduce the number of exercises to one, listen to your body and do what's comfortable for you, if any exercise is causing you pain stop doing it immediately.
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1 - Bodyweight squat. When the belly is popping up already you can even hold on to something(like the back of the chair) to make an exercise easier and more comfortable. |
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2 - Glute bridge |
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3 - Australian pull ups |
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4 - Crab walk. Couple steps forwards, couple steps backwards and so on. |