Safe First Trimester Pregnancy Workout Plan
Curious how to exercise in the first trimester? Want to learn WHY you should exercise throughout your pregnancy and WHY you should really start now before you get bigger? Want to check out a safe first trimester workout plan built specifically for pregnant women? Then this is the post for you!
Exercise in the First Trimester of Pregnancy
Exercising in the first trimester is easy on some levels and extremely difficult on others. You will be tired. You will be so tired it will amaze you.
It looks like nothing is happening, you’re not even showing. But your energy will be depleted and is funneled into creating a tiny little human inside you from scratch!
And you more than likely will have bouts of nausea.
Hopefully, they are bouts that give you a break throughout some of the day and are not all the time. For these reasons, you might have to really pull yourself up off the couch to force yourself to get a workout in most days.
The study of epigenetics during pregnancy has proven in studies again and again that you are benefiting (or the opposite) your baby through their entire lives by the choices you make now. If you haven’t heard too much about that yet, check out the benefits of exercising while pregnant.
How much should you exercise while pregnant?
You don’t have to hit the gym for an hour a day to benefit your baby’s genetics and your physical health and comfort while pregnant. You can make 10 or 20 minutes each day to work out. Or maybe 45 minutes twice or thrice a week works better for you.
Maybe you like working out early, so you don’t have a chance to postpone it with excuses. Maybe you have the most energy right before dinner. Whenever is your best time, save that for a workout.
Aim for around 120-150 minutes a week. You can break it up however you want! Even in 5 minute windows as you have the energy is still beneficial! Plus it will help give you more energy throughout the day and help you sleep better at night.
During the first trimester with your doctors ok you should be virtually fine to continue with whatever forms of exercise you were doing already. If you are just starting or just getting back into exercising you are doing it at the perfect time!
Though you are tired and nauseous not too much has changed physically.
This is the perfect time to build up your strength for the changes your body will be making every day for the next nine plus months!
The Most Safe First Trimester Workout Plan
There is this AMAZING prenatal workout plan that follows you perfectly through your gestation that I highly recommend checking out. It is a full 40 week plan that focuses on every week of pregnancy specifically. Strengtheing the parts of your body that are about to become strained due to pregnancy BEFORE they are.
It’s revolutionary and will help you have so many less pregnancy aches and pains, strengthens your pelvic floor (which makes pregnancy more comfortable, labor easier, and postpartum recovery easier too), and has so many more benefits!
The Perfect Pregnancy Fitness Plan is specifically designed for keeping you strong while pregnant and making your recovery postpartum easier too.
All the workouts are laid out for you. Targeting exactly what you need to focus on in the first trimester (and beyond). Strengthening your core, pelvic floor, and more and utilizing the strength your body has now prior to the upcoming hormonal change that involves relaxin.
Eliminating your balance being severely impaired, and a lot of weight on your hips. You will work on strengthening your butt, hips, and back as well. You are able to pick and choose which workout you do each day in The Perfect Pregnancy Fitness Plan… it really is “perfect”.
Perhaps you are drained and nauseous and all you can physically do is yoga. Go ahead and pick that routine. Perhaps you are feeling sluggish and looking for an energy boost, pick a cardio + strength routine. Most of the struggle of exercising in the first trimester relates to finding the motivation to workout.
So many of the tips this trimester of the fitness plan are targeted specifically to that.
Want to try a workout from the first trimester section of the “PPP?” Here it is!
Tips to Get Your Workouts in During the First Trimester
It can be hard to get your exercise in during the first trimester due to exhaustion and nausea. These tips can make it easier… remember 20 minutes a day is plenty!
Sleep In Your Workout Clothes
This one might sound a little silly but it’s actually really helpful when planning on working out in the morning or if you know the following morning is going to be a busy one! Sleeping in your workout garb will set you up for workout success! I bet you’ll be surprised what a difference it can make in your commitment to exercise.
Get new Gear
If you have nothing but oversized ratty t shirts and your pajama sweats to workout in, your motivation immediately dwindles. Pick up some cute stretchy (because you’ll be growing soon!) exercise clothes that make you feel great.
Picking up new workout equipment can be fun and helpful too. When you make the ability to exercise easy for yourself, you are more likely to get it done! Resistance bands, exercise balls, yoga mats, and kettlebells are all very affordable and versatile pieces that don’t take up much space either.
Create A Rockin’ Music Playlist
Once again, this trimester is all about motivation! Getting into your prenatal workout groove. Beginning good habits so it is easy to continue them. It can be seriously difficult to work out with any vigor without an inspiring song playing in your ear. You will easily be motivated to push twice as hard and squeeze in those few extra repetitions that is so important to muscle growth!
Find a Workout Partner
You’re not the only person struggling with how to get motivated to workout! Chances are tons of your friends or family would love accountability and motivation to exercise as much as you. Find a friend who is aspiring to better their own health and wellness and tackle that journey together!
Make sure to exercise the recommended amount or MORE!
Pregnant women benefit from up to 30 minutes of activity each day through each trimester of pregnancy. It is recommended that at least 100 to 150 minutes of that is moderate exercise. This trimester while your body hasn’t changed much is the ideal time to strengthen your cardio, get your inner core and pelvic floor strength tight, lose excess fat if you need to, and strengthen your balance all in preparation for the months to come. Take advantage of these 3 months!
There are so many fun forms of exercise! Learn about how to do and what is safe from this selection!
- Pilates During Pregnancy
- HIIT During Pregnancy
- Yoga in the First Trimester of Pregnancy
- Yoga in the Second Trimester of Pregnancy
- Yoga in the Third Trimester of Pregnancy
Change up your routine often!
Reason being, pregnancy is exhausting. Especially the first trimester! In the first trimester with my third baby I could sleep 10 hours and then was ready for a nap after 2 more. With lots of different types of routines to choose from you are a lot more likely to get in your workout despite your energy level. Each routine provided in the Perfect Pregnancy Plan for the first trimester is very different from the next.
Either working a different body part, using a different form of fitness, or utilizing different pieces of workout equipment. When you are dragging or unmotivated in the first trimester, switch up your routine to what feels or sounds the best that day. It takes out the excuses and gets the workout done.
Use Youtube and Fitness Channels!
Pregnancy can zap your energy and motivation, to say the least. It’s really important to have a few favorite YouTube channels on hand. You will stay fit and healthy simply following the routines in this program, but sometimes you may need something different. Maybe you would find a dance fitness routine or advanced yoga to your liking that day. And that is ok! It’s about getting those workouts in every week regardless.
Always work your core and pelvic floor!
If you are getting in a 20-minute workout, at least 5 minutes should be devoted to pregnancy-safe core strengthening or pelvic floor strengthening. Adding these components to each of your prenatal workouts is vitally important. Your entire body is going to go through changes, strain, and stress throughout pregnancy; but none compares to what your core and pelvic floor will go through. Add in kegel exercises as well as pelvic floor restoring exercises before, after, or within any exercise routine you do.
It is especially important to adequately strengthen the core and specifically the transverse abdominis during the first trimester. To be honest, the best and easiest exercises to first begin strengthening that area are performed lying on your back, which becomes a no-no later in pregnancy. If you strengthen that muscle now, you will be better able to locate and activate it in different positions as pregnancy progresses.
Remember the Whys.
Lastly, remember these workouts you are doing are going to lower your child’s risk of ever contracting diabetes, heart disease, or a metabolic disorder. These workouts are improving your baby’s cognitive abilities! Your exercising now is directly benefiting the genetic expression of your offspring!
