Pregnancy Fitness: How to Adapt Your Workouts During the Final Stretch
DISCLOSURE: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS, MEANING I GET A COMMISSION IF YOU DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE THROUGH MY LINKS, AT NO COST TO YOU. PLEASE READ MY DISCLAIMER FOR MORE INFO.
Table of Contents
Are you looking to stay strong and maintain an active pregnancy, but aren’t sure how to navigate that with your growing belly? I know first hand, as you get bigger, you’ll have to make some adaptations along the way, particularly in the third trimester (I’m writing this blog post at 38 weeks in my second pregnancy)! Whether you’re already committed to pregnancy workouts or just starting out, I hope this blog will help you adapt your routine for a fit, healthy pregnancy, keeping both you and your baby safe and comfortable along the way.
As a former athlete and self-proclaimed fitness fanatic, I knew in my first pregnancy I wanted to continue weightlifting and exercising throughout, but I wasn’t sure what was safe, or what adjustments I would have to make, and when. I knew I had the following goals:
Maintain as much strength as possible
Promote a healthy amount of weight gain
Keep myself and baby safe
Set myself up for success in postpartum recovery - I wanted to recover as quickly as possible so I could return to strength training as soon as possible, so I could start feeling like myself again!
I took this opportunity to spend time educating myself on strength training during pregnancy by reading, listening to podcasts, and learning from experts like personal trainers and pelvic floor physical therapists. In this post, I’ve distilled that research and combined it with my own experience from two pregnancies to share what to expect and the key things you need to know when approaching third-trimester workouts.
But first, take a sample my own pregnancy strength training routine!
I tracked all my workouts through both pregnancies and boiled it down to a FREE 2-WEEK PREGNANCY EXERCISE BLUEPRINT guide outlining my workout schedule
(lifting just 2-3 times/week).
Included are 3 sample full-body workouts, doable at any point in pregnancy. All workouts can be done at home or in a gym setting!
Each exercise has a linked video tutorial (all filmed during my 3rd trimester), so don’t worry if you’re unclear on exercise form.
Snag the FREE 2-week guide!
Exercise Modifications
Discuss your exercise plan and any exercise modifications with your doctor and physical therapist or certified trainer before incorporating into your routine.
Use a Wider Stance
As baby gets bigger, you may find it increasingly more comfortable to shift your feet out for squats or deadlifts, or approach with a sumo stance. This will allow your thighs to stay out of the way of your belly!
For me personally, I’ve never been a big fan of traditional sumo deadlifts, so I would just approach the barbell with a slightly wider stance but grip the bar with my hands between my knees instead of outside (as you would for a sumo deadlift). I found this position to be much more comfortable in third trimester.
Check out the video linked below on prenatal deadlift modifications to see the difference between a conventional deadlift (skip to 0:19) and sumo deadlift (0:48).
Adjust Range of Motion
Consider adjusting your range of motion for exercises like deadlifts and squats to find what’s more comfortable as baby grows.
To limit range of motion with squats, adjust to squatting to a bench or a plyo box.
When doing a barbell deadlift, instead of dropping the weight all the way to the ground, try dropping it to a platform on each side to limit range of motion. Skip to 0:37 in the video below to see how to modify by adding a platform/risers.
I don’t have risers like these at home, so if I was doing this I would drop the weight on top of stacked bumper plates, 2x4 pieces of wood, or whatever I have available!
Alternatively, you could do dumbbell deadlifts, dropping the weight to just below the knees, or whatever feels most comfortable while still feeling tension through the movement. Gina gives a great example of this at timestamp 0:56 in the video.
Lunge Variations
Lunges can become more uncomfortable as pregnancy progresses due to the growing belly shifting your center of gravity, which affects balance and stability. Additionally, the hormone relaxin loosens the ligaments and joints, which can make you feel less stable during movements like lunges, increasing discomfort. This combination of balance challenges, increased pressure, and joint instability often makes lunges more difficult and uncomfortable in the later stages of pregnancy.
During my pregnancies, what was comfortable for lunge movements could change day by day. If you start out an exercise with one type of lunge but find that it just isn’t feeling right, it’s OK to try something else!
There are so many lunge variations to play around with — walking lunges, reverse lunges, lateral lunges, and cossack squats are just a few.
You could also switch to other lunge-like movements, like Bulgarian split squats, or box/bench step ups.
BONUS: the hip movement with lateral box step ups acts kind of like “curb walking” (walking with one foot stepping on the curb and the other on the street) if you are late in pregnancy and trying to encourage labor to start.
The idea behind curb walking is the uneven walking pattern encourages baby’s head to move deeper into the pelvis, putting increased pressure on the cervix, helping it to dilate and thin (efface) in preparation for delivery.
Pelvic Floor Relaxation
Less focus on core, more focus on pelvic floor relaxation!
Now is the time to sprinkle in more pelvic floor relaxation exercises as you prep your body for birth, especially as you are getting to weeks 34-36.
It’s important for the pelvic floor muscles to relax in order to help you deliver baby!
I recommend seeking help from a pelvic floor physical therapist (PT) in the third trimester to help guide pelvic floor relaxation techniques and learning how to effectively push.
I regretted not going to a pelvic floor PT with my first pregnancy so I made it a priority with my second, and I feel much more confident going into labor!
Lighten the Load
While you can certainly continue to lift weights, you may consider making some switches to lower the intensity on lifts, and/or reduce weight. During pregnancy and especially the third trimester, it’s no time to be a hero or need to prove yourself to anyone.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your workout wasn’t effective or was a waste of time just because you couldn’t lift as much as you did in earlier trimesters or pre-pregnancy.
Reducing intensity and load in the third trimester helps ensure you can control your breath and maintain good form through exercises to stay safe.
Remember, there are a lot of instances where you physically can do something, but should you?
Using resistance bands is a great strategy for this, offering a lower impact workout and less stress on the joints, while still providing plenty of resistance to maintain strength.
Click here to find the resistance bands I use in my home gym!
Use of a suspension trainer also allows for easy, quick adjustments to exercise difficulty.
Click here for the Amazon link to an affordable but quality suspension trainer!
Be Mindful of Abdominal Coning and Doming
But first… what is abdominal coning?
Abdominal coning occurs when the front of your belly forms a pointed, cone-like shape during movements like sitting up or lifting, caused by excessive pressure on the abdominal muscles.
This happens when the linea alba (the connective tissue between your abdominal muscles) is stretched and weakened during pregnancy to make room for baby, leading to diastasis recti (separation of the abs).
IMPORTANT: Diastasis recti is normal and expected during pregnancy! But, by minimizing coning, we can mitigate the extent to which the tissue stretches in order to prevent injury and prolonged postpartum core recovery.
Watch out for abdominal coning on bilateral exercises, and exercises with overhead movements like shoulder press.
For example, I had to switch from bilateral tricep push-downs to single-arm because I noticed the pressure of pushing my forearms down was causing coning.
Consider switching overhead movements like shoulder press to a seated position to give more support to your abdominal muscles.
Avoid getting up from a lying position using your core, as this almost always will cause coning. This applies to getting up from a bench press, incline press, the floor, or even your bed! Turn onto one side and press up using your arms.
The video linked below is not specific to pregnancy, but gives good examples of abdominal coning.
Switch to an Incline Position
Later in pregnancy, you may need to limit exercises where you are flat on your back, like a flat bench press.
You can still do these safely for short periods, but if you start to feel any dizziness, light-headedness, or discomfort, stop the exercise and switch to an incline position instead.
For exercises like push-ups where you are belly-down, opt for an incline push-up instead to limit excessive intra-abdominal pressure. I like to do incline push-ups on a bench, stairs, or on our barbell set up on our squat rack.
Breathe Through Exercises
On the same theme of managing intra-abdominal pressure, it's important to avoid holding your breath, bearing down (Valsalva maneuver), or bracing too hard during lifts. These actions not only increase intra-abdominal pressure unnecessarily but also reduce oxygen flow through the body, which can temporarily affect both you and your baby.
Focus instead on even, controlled breathing throughout each movement. Breathe out steadily during the hardest part of the lift, usually when you’re pushing or pulling the weight up.
Physical Changes: What to Expect
As your belly grows in the third trimester, some of the other physical changes become hard to ignore! Be patient with yourself—remember, this is temporary, and by staying active, you're doing a great job caring for both yourself and your baby.
Here are a few more general things with physical changes to be aware of as you approach fitness in the third trimester (non-exhaustive!):
Shortness of Breath
This tends to worsen as pregnancy progresses because your growing baby and uterus push upward against the diaphragm, the muscle that helps you breathe. As space in your abdomen becomes more limited, your lungs have less room to expand, making it harder to take deep breaths. Additionally, pregnancy hormones like progesterone can cause a faster respiratory rate, further contributing to the sensation of shortness of breath. This is normal and usually resolves after delivery when your organs return to their pre-pregnancy positions.
Of course with exercise, muscles require more oxygen to produce energy. To meet this demand, the body responds by increasing breathing rate (bringing in more oxygen) and heart rate (to deliver oxygen-rich blood to muscles faster). As you can imagine, this is only more pronounced in pregnancy. Anticipate that you’ll likely require longer rest times than usual between sets and exercises to recover your breath.
Fatigue
Fatigue is one of those annoying pregnancy symptoms that varied a lot for me on a day to day basis. I had a lot of fatigue in first trimester, then rallied in the second trimester, and it returned with a vengeance in third trimester.
Trust me, I get it. Feeling tired despite getting adequate sleep and eating well can be extremely frustrating, and makes it difficult to stay motivated to do any type of workout. In my third trimester, especially the later weeks, I aimed for just 2-3 strength training workouts per week, about 30-40 minutes each, and trying to walk 20-30 minutes on off days (could be broken up throughout the day).
Round Ligament Pain
The round ligament is a pair of cord-like structures that connect the uterus to the groin area, helping to support the uterus as it grows during pregnancy. As your belly expands, these ligaments stretch, which can sometimes cause sharp, sudden pain, especially with quick movements, known as round ligament pain.
In my third trimester with both pregnancies, I would notice round ligament pain especially with walking. However, it didn’t happen all the time! If I started on a walk and felt good with no pain, I would keep going! But if I started a walk and immediately or soon after began feeling round ligament pain, I would just stop and try again later—maybe opting for some stretching for movement instead.
Sometimes if I went out for a walk and noticed round ligament pain, just slowing down or taking a break for a couple minutes would help.
Using a support band for your belly can also help relieve pain by reducing the strain on the ligament! Try this band from Motif that I used during some of my workouts in third trimester.
Swelling in Legs and Feet
Swelling in the legs and feet during pregnancy, also known as edema, occurs due to several factors. As the uterus grows, it puts pressure on veins in the pelvis and legs, slowing blood flow and causing fluid to pool in the lower body.
Additionally, pregnancy increases the body's blood volume and fluid retention to support both you and your baby, which can lead to excess fluid collecting in tissues, especially in the lower extremities.
This swelling is common, particularly later in pregnancy, and can worsen after standing for long periods or in hot weather.
Although this doesn’t affect exercise so much, it is something to be aware of.
If you ever notice sudden or severe swelling, or see that one leg is significantly more swollen than the other, it’s important to seek medical attention immediately as this could be a sign of a blood clot in the leg known as a deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. Other signs and symptoms of a DVT include warmth, redness, pain, and/or tenderness in the affected leg.
Here are some strategies to reduce foot swelling during pregnancy:
Elevate your feet: Raise your feet above heart level when resting to help improve circulation and reduce fluid buildup. This is what worked best for me, and it didn’t take long to see improvement (maybe 15-20 minutes?)
Move regularly: Walking and stretching improves circulation, preventing blood and fluid from pooling in the lower body.
Avoid standing for long periods: Take breaks to sit or lie down (and put your feet up!), especially if you’re on your feet a lot during the day.
Compression socks: These can help improve blood flow and reduce swelling in the feet and legs. Try these compression socks from Comrad!
Main Takeaways
If you're feeling uncertain about continuing weightlifting and exercise during the third trimester of pregnancy, know that you're not alone. Many moms-to-be wonder how to balance staying strong with ensuring their baby's safety.
Overall, listen to your body—you know your body best. Be patient with yourself. You have permission to slow things down, take more breaks, and take it easier. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. Now is not the time to be a hero or push yourself to PRs. There will be time for goal setting and pushing yourself after you have recovered postpartum. This phase is about taking care of you and baby first and foremost, while setting yourself up for success later!
Get started towards a strong pregnancy and better postpartum recovery by downloading the 2-week exercise blueprint!
Do the full body strength training workouts 2-3 times per week and repeat as often as needed!
Get the Free 2-Week
Exercise Guide
If you enjoyed this blog and want more tips on fitness, wellness, and motherhood, be sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok for daily updates and inspiration. Signing up for the 2-week exercise guide also subscribes you to my email newsletter for exclusive content and recommendations delivered right to your inbox! Don’t worry, I hate spam too and will not be blowing up your inbox with needless information.
I also have an awesome resource library where you can find the tried & true fitness resources and products I have used time and again to keep me on track with my fitness goals. Click here to check it out!
