My 3 Training Pillars During Pregnancy

There is so much about pregnancy, labor, baby’s position, and delivery that simply isn’t within my control. But there are things I can continue working on throughout pregnancy: maintaining strength and physical capacity, keeping my body moving well through a variety of positions, and becoming better at both creating and releasing tension.

I'm not looking at pregnancy as a time to stop training hard altogether, nor am I approaching birth preparation as a reason to replace strength work with stretching and mobility exercises.

Instead, there are three main pillars I shape all of my training around:

Maintain strength and fitness.

Maintain mobility and movement variability.

Practice both creating tension and releasing tension.

1. Maintain Strength and Fitness

My first priority has been maintaining as much of my existing strength and fitness as I reasonably can.

That doesn't mean my training looks exactly like it did before pregnancy.

Loads, ranges of motion, exercise selection, stance, training volume and even the way an exercise feels can all change as pregnancy progresses. An exercise that felt great a month ago may suddenly need to be modified or replaced.

But the underlying movement patterns are still there.

I still want to squat, hinge, push, pull and carry. I still want to train my glutes, hamstrings, quads, adductors, back, shoulders and arms. I still want to walk, condition and maintain my cardiovascular fitness.

The goal has simply shifted from building toward new performance goals to maintaining the strength and capacity I've already built while adapting to the body I have right now.

One area I've thought about quite a bit is the balance between strength and mobility around the pelvis.

When we talk about preparing for birth, there's often a lot of emphasis on "opening the hips" or loosening the muscles surrounding the pelvis. But I don't necessarily want my adductors, glutes, hamstrings and deep hip rotators to simply become more flexible.

I want them to remain strong through comfortable ranges of motion.

These muscles contribute to hip and pelvic stability throughout pregnancy, and strength through a variety of positions gives me more options as my body continues to change.

2. Maintain Mobility and Movement Variability

My second priority is maintaining the ability to move my body through as many comfortable positions and planes of motion as possible.

This is slightly different from simply trying to become more flexible.

I'm not chasing maximum range of motion or trying to make my pelvis as "open" as possible. Instead, I want to maintain the ability to access all movement options.

That means moving forward and backward, laterally and rotationally. It means continuing to use different stances, working through hip internal and external rotation, and allowing my pelvis, hips, spine and rib cage to move rather than spending all of my time in the same positions.

For my hips and pelvis, that can look like 90/90 variations, adductor rock-backs, hip rotations, quadruped hip circles, lateral movement, wide-stance squats and hinges, or pelvic mobility drills.

A wide-stance squat or seated good morning, for example, allows me to continue loading my lower body while moving through a larger range at the hips and adductors. A lateral lunge trains strength while also getting me into the frontal plane. A split stance introduces an entirely different position than a bilateral squat.

I'm applying the same idea above the pelvis too.

As my belly grows and my posture naturally changes, I want to maintain thoracic and rib-cage mobility. Open books, quadruped rotations, cat-cow variations and other rotational movements help me continue moving my trunk in directions that can easily disappear if I'm only training straight forward and backward.

I'm also not overly concerned with maintaining one "perfect" pregnancy posture throughout the day.

I'd rather change positions often.

Sit. Stand. Walk. Rotate. Hinge. Squat. Get on the floor. Move side to side.

The goal isn't perfect positioning. It's maintaining a body that is comfortable adapting to different positions.

I think that becomes particularly valuable as I look ahead toward labor. I don't know whether I'll want to squat, kneel, stand, lean forward, lie on my side, get on hands and knees or use an asymmetric position.

Rather than trying to predict which position will be best, I'd rather maintain as many comfortable movement options as I can.

3. Practice Creating Tension AND Releasing It

This is the pillar I've become most intentional about as pregnancy progresses.

I'm very comfortable creating tension.

Strength training teaches us to brace, stabilize, contract and produce force. When I pick up a heavy weight, I know how to create tension and use my body to produce force efficiently.

Those are valuable skills, and I want to maintain them.

But, I don't only want a pelvic floor that can contract. I want one that can contract and support me when necessary but also lengthen and relax.

That becomes especially relevant during birth, when the pelvic floor needs to be able to lengthen and yield as baby descends.

So rather than thinking about pelvic-floor function simply as "strengthening the pelvic floor," I'm practicing the ability to:

Contract → lengthen → relax.

One of the simplest ways I'm working on this is through 360° breathing.

On an inhale, I allow my lower ribs to expand forward, sideways and backward. My belly expands naturally rather than being held in, and I think about allowing the pelvic floor to gently soften and lengthen.

On the exhale, I allow everything to naturally recoil.

I'm also practicing the opposite skill during training: coordinating my breath with deep-core engagement and creating appropriate tension when an exercise demands it.

I don't think the goal is to spend pregnancy constantly relaxed any more than it is to spend pregnancy constantly braced.

I want access to both ends of that spectrum.

Create tension when I need stability and force. Release tension when I don't.

The Pillars Stay the Same, Even as Training Changes

What I like about these three pillars is that they don't require my training to look the same throughout all nine months.

The priorities can stay relatively consistent even while the way I apply them changes.

Early in pregnancy, maintaining strength and fitness looked much more similar to my normal training, with adjustments largely based on energy and symptoms.

As my belly has grown, I've modified exercises and ranges of motion while becoming more intentional about movement variability, breathing and pressure management.

As I move into the third trimester, I expect the balance to shift again. I'll continue strength training and conditioning at whatever level feels appropriate while spending a little more time on mobility, pelvic-floor relaxation and movements or positions that may eventually be useful during labor.

The exercises aren't really the point.

The principles are.

Maintain the strength and fitness I've spent years building.

Keep my body moving through different ranges, planes and positions.

Continue practicing how to create tension while also getting better at letting it go.

Preparing for What I Can, Letting Go of What I Can't

I don't believe doing any of this guarantees me an easier labor.

I can't control exactly how baby will be positioned. I can't control how long labor will last, how delivery will unfold or whether the birth I experience looks anything like the one I imagine.

But my goal is to continue preparing the body I will bring into that experience.

Throughout the rest of pregnancy, I can continue building and maintaining a body that is strong, adaptable and capable of both producing force and letting go.