Pregnancy Workouts that Will Get You Lean, Strong, and Labor-Ready
It can be hard to maintain a pregnancy fitness routine, especially when you’re in your first trimester and feeling beyond awful. But staying fit and doing pregnancy workouts throughout the duration of your pregnancy is so beneficial for your energy levels, your changing body, your mood, your confidence, and the most precious thing: your baby.
I did yoga during my last pregnancy, and while I think prenatal yoga is phenomenal, I definitely wasn’t doing it the right way. I attended an in-person class, but didn’t go regularly enough. I also did YouTube prenatal yoga, but looking back on it, I don’t think the instructors I chose were knowledgeable enough about safe and effective prenatal yoga.
So for this pregnancy (I’m 18 weeks), I decided to make a change. And I totally hit the jackpot when I stumbled upon an amazing set of pregnancy workouts.
Get Into the Best Shape of Your Life with this Pregnancy Fitness Plan
I didn’t intend to end up with a sculpted bum and long lean legs in pregnancy — I just wanted to stay healthy — but I got these things anyway!
That’s because I’ve been doing the prenatal program and pregnancy workouts designed by Ashley Keller of GlowBodyPT on YouTube.
First, let me say that this post is NOT sponsored and that I do not know Ashley personally. I just love her and her workouts.
I am not a huge fan of working out. I don’t like “punishing” exercises, I don’t like hardcore mentalities, I don’t like competition. I do, however, like to be active (walking, hiking, yoga), I like to feel strong, and I like to challenge myself (in a way that’s nurturing, not debilitating).
Ashley’s exercises tick all the boxes of what I do like when it comes to fitness. Her pregnancy workouts don’t kill me and aren’t painful, but they are definitely challenging and work your body really well. They also work your body efficiently. Her videos are typically between 10 and 30 minutes (some are even shorter!), and you can just tell that your muscles and your heart are getting a great workout and being engaged the right way.
Ashley's credentials
Even though I don’t know Ashley, I trust her. Ashley is a Certified Personal Trainer and a Prenatal & Postnatal Exercise Specialist. She won’t lead you astray, and if you follow her guidance, you will not get injured. In fact, you and your baby will thrive!!
She is also has a mother of 4, so she has some serious first-hand experience.
The Program and Prenatal Exercises at a Glance
All of the prenatal exercises I’ve done with Ashley are mat-based, in-home exercises that you can easily fit into your day, even if you have littles at home! In fact, her own littles often make an appearance in her videos. I absolutely love this. It just goes to show you that, yes, you can exercise even if your kids are awake and at home.
During breaks between sets, she even encourages you to help your kiddos if they need something. This helps make working out sooo much more realistic. It’s not about “no excuses,” it’s about “here’s how you can realistically integrate workouts into your life so you can stay healthy and balanced.”
Related Read: Get Fit Fast with These Fun 10-Minute HIIT Exercises
Types of pregnancy workouts
So, onto the types of pregnancy exercises and activities she offers. Almost all of the videos have an interval component and work on a particular muscle group if it’s a strength-training focused video.
- Cardio (but make it not soul-sucking)
- Body-weight strength-training
- Free-weight strength-training (I have a set of 3 kg, or 6.5-lb, weights I use)
- Exercise-ball training (I still need to get one!)
- Running while pregnant (not floor-based, obviously)
- Pilates (one of my faves)
- Stretching (I love doing these at night after my son go to bed; they've helped my hip pain so much!)
She breaks down the exercises clearly and efficiently, explaining how to maintain good form as well as other tips and tricks. I especially love that she explains the science-backed, physiological reasons WHY certain exercises are beneficial; for example, this one opens your pelvis in preparation for childbirth, or, we train the obliques because we don’t want to overtrain the abs and exacerbate diastasis recti, etc. This is so helpful in terms of visualizing how our pregnant bodies function, and how we can help them function optimally.
Ashley provides a prenatal plan that guides you through each week of pregnancy, from week 8 to 40, and tells you which exercises to do on which days. This is very helpful for those of us who need a little guidance. It also ensures that you’re working out in a well-rounded way and not focusing too much on, say, shoulder strength or cardio. You can follow it to a T or adapt it to fit your own needs and schedule.
Oh, and it’s free — as are the exercises. You can download it directly from her website.
Below I've included a video of one of her recent cardio pregnancy workouts that are safe for the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.
The Results: My Body is Lean, Strong, and... Super Hot?
Remember how I said my butt is looking super sculpted? It’s true. It honestly looks better now than it did this summer, pre-pregnancy, when I was doing yoga every day and walking an insane amount.
It makes me laugh just thinking about it, because this certainly wasn’t my goal! But Ashley’s exercises are just THAT effective. They’re also pretty fun, or at least enjoyable, and so I don’t dread doing them. She doesn’t have loud, obnoxious music blaring in the background (though there is often some music) and she also talks about her life and offers anecdotes throughout the workout, which I really like. She's fun, easy-going, smiley, and motivating without being over-the-top. (She is also serious hair goals!)
But it’s not just my butt that’s looking good. It's my whole body. I feel lean and strong. I feel great, physically and mentally. Which brings me to my next point…
A Pregnancy Fitness Program that Prepares You for Labor
In addition to keeping you and baby fit and healthy, Ashley’s prenatal exercises and pregnancy workouts are designed to prepare your body for labor and delivery. She’s a certified personal trainer with expertise in prenatal and postpartum exercise. She knows her stuff, and she cites research studies and offers a vast wealth of technical knowledge to prove it.
Her program focuses on opening up and strengthing your pelvis, conditioning all the right muscles, increasing your overall mobility and flexibility, and nurturing your cardiovascular strength. As a result, she will help you get your body ready to push that big ole baby out through the vaginal canal.
Pregnancy workouts can mitigate difficult labors
Ashley explains that her first childbirth experience was really difficult and that she ended up needing an epidural. She attributes a lot of this difficulty to the fact that she wasn’t focused on preparing her body for labor during that first pregnancy, something she changed with her subsequent pregnancies, and with great success!
I also had a very arduous and prolonged first labor (and ended up getting an epidural AND pitocin AND a deep and sudden episiotomy). I don’t want that to happen again, that’s why I’m trying to be as proactive as I can be.
Even if you do not have a vaginal delivery, Ashely's program will still help immensely by keeping you and baby healthy during pregnancy and by aiding in the postpartum recovery process. Ashley is super inclusive and realistic. We cannot control everything that happens in pregnancy, labor, and delivery, but one thing we can see to is our prenatal health through exercise (and nutrition!).
I’ll follow back up in this same post after I give birth to my second child in a few months to let you know how the labor and delivery go. I am so excited!! I think Ashley’s exercises are going to be a huge help.
In the meantime, I highly encourage you to get started on your exercise journey. Please go check out Ashley and her pregnancy workouts (and more) over on YouTube at GlowBodyPT.
Related Read: Get Fit Fast with These Fun 10-Minute HIIT Exercises
