How to Train Your Core During Pregnancy

Core training is incredibly important during pregnancy, but often misunderstood. I get a lot of questions about whether or not you can train your core during pregnancy. And the answer is yes! You can absolutely safely and effectively train your core during pregnancy with postural and breathing exercises. Since during pregnancy, your core and pelvic floor undergo significant changes and are faced with the ultimate challenge of carrying and delivering a baby, continuous core strength training over the course of pregnancy will reduce the occurrence of common pain syndromes and pelvic floor dysfunction. Core training during pregnancy will also prepare your entire body and pelvic floor for delivery (whether it’s vaginal or caesarean) and speed up post partum healing and recovery.

First, let’s talk about what not to do:

Women are commonly advised to just perform Kegels during pregnancy and to stop any other form of “core training”. This advise is outdated and can actually cause more harm than good. Performing only Kegels (without any other functional core training) can actually create pelvic floor muscle spasm and lead to pelvic floor dysfunction. This is because when the pelvic floor is continuously loaded overtime with increasing intra-abdominal pressure (which is exactly what happens during pregnancy), it actually gets tighter and can get stuck in a contraction, or Kegel. So performing too many Kegels during pregnancy can make this situation of high intra-abdominal pressure much worse. Instead, we want to ensure the pelvic floor is moving through its full range of motion in unison with the diaphragm and abdominal muscles so that intra-abdominal pressure is appropriately managed as baby grows. Check out last week’s blog about the importance of strengthening your pelvic floor during pregnancy.

Next, let’s understand the GOALS of Core Training During Pregnancy:

Understanding the WHY behind core training during pregnancy will make it easier to choose the right exercises that are safe and effective. Since your core changes so drastically during pregnancy, it’s important to choose exercises that strengthen (and not weaken) the connective tissue of your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles.

Here are the goals of core training during pregnancy:

• Lift and center your uterus to optimize blood flow to the baby and reduce pressure on your pelvic floor muscles

• Reduce the pressure in your abdomen to relieve the connective tissue of the pelvic floor and abdominal muscle

• Improve strength of spine, hips, abs and pelvic floor so that your body can most efficently carry your growing baby

• Decompress the spine

• Achieve full range of motion of the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles to improve their ability to stretch as baby grows, so that there is less stretching of the fascia of the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles.

• Optimize breathing mechanics and strengthen the respiratory muscles in order to reduce pressure in the abdomen

• Prevent diastasis post partum

• Prepare pelvic floor for delivery

• Optimize whole body circulation to prevent swelling and varicose veins

• Prevent common pain syndromes like back pain, pubic bone pain, hips pain, sciatica, pelvic pain and pubic symphysis pain

• Improve daily posture and breathing patterns to improve efficiency of uterine contractions during delivery

• Prevent bowel and bladder issues such as incontinence, urgency, frequency and constipation

• Improve cardiovascular capacity to best manage increased blood volume during pregnancy

• Improve post partum recovery, specifically pelvic floor function and waist line reduction.

What safe and effective core training looks like during pregnancy:

There are two core exercises I teach my clients during pregnancy. The foundation of these core exercises is BREATHING! If you follow me, I probably sound like a broken record by now, but I’ll say it again — the absolute best way to train the core (especially during pregnancy) is through breathwork!

Core Training during pregnancy needs to incorporate the whole body in order to make it functional and truly effective. It also absolutely must, focus on posture and breathing simultaneously. Hypopressive Training is the best method I know that achieves all of these aspects — it uses various postures and poses to reduce the pressure in the abdomen, incorporates strengthening of the fascial planes off the entire body and is centered around optimizing breathing mechanics.

During pregnancy, there are a few modifications that are made to hypopressive training. First, apnea is eliminated. Apnea is not recommended during pregnancy because it can deprive blood flow to the baby. Instead of apnea, the exhales are prolonged during decompression breathing. I also like to add in a a technique called belly pumping around 20 weeks to help the abdominal muscles maintain their full range of motion as they stretch.

Tips for Safe and Effective Core Training during Pregnancy:

• Make sure your spine is neutral (slight curve in the low back, slight roundness between shoulder blades)

• Align ears, shoulders, hips

• Keep waist long the whole time (lift rib cage up away from pelvis as much as you can)

• Maintain continual spinal elongation throughout the entire breath cycle

• Inhale through the nose, exhale out the mouth like you are fogging a mirror

• Listen to your body, and follow your intuition about exercises

   

Looking for a simple, safe, and effective exercise protocol for pregnancy?

You can learn more about the core during pregnancy through The Core Recovery Method® Online Program. The Core Recovery Method® provides a simple way to learn essential core breathing techniques and create a regular practice for yourself in the comfort of your own home. This program will empower you with the knowledge necessary to understand where core dysfunction comes from, how to heal it, and how to prevent it during pregnancy. You will learn therapeutic techniques that optimize core function during pregnancy and prepare your body for delivery. The Core Recovery Method® Online Program also guides you step by step through the post partum journey, and gives you all the tools necessary to safely and effectively rehab your core after pregnancy.