The Perfect 20-Minute Prenatal Workout

If you’re experiencing backaches, swollen feet, and low energy during pregnancy, it may seem like the perfect time to take it easy. Unless you’re experiencing complications, however, being a couch potato likely won’t do you any good. In fact, physical activity is important for both you and your baby.

That said, always check with your healthcare provider before you begin any exercise program. Although working out while pregnant is generally safe, your doctor might advise against it if you suffer from certain medical conditions, such as heart disease, or if you experience persistent vaginal bleeding during the second or third trimester.

According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), regular exercise during pregnancy reduces your risk of excessive weight gain, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia (dangerously high blood pressure). It does not increase your risk of having a miscarriage, a low birth weight baby, or preterm delivery.

Plus, breaking a sweat can also soothe some of the less-than-ideal side effects of pregnancy, including constipation, bloating, swelling, and backaches, while improving your energy, posture, and sleep quality, says UCLA Health.

What’s more, working out while pregnant may offer big benefits for your labor and delivery. Exercise during pregnancy helps you “train both mentally and physically for the birth marathon,” says pre- and postnatal corrective exercise specialist Brooke Cates, CEO and founder of The Bloom Method and Studio Bloom.

Specifically, Cates notes that certain core, pelvic floor, and muscle-fatiguing exercises can mimic contractions, prepping your mind and body for the rigors of labor. “The benefits of training for birth are quite profound and provide women with an unparalleled level of empowerment and an ‘I can do this’ attitude when it comes to their birth,” Cates says.

To get you started, Cates has created this 20-minute workout that’s perfectly safe to do during an uncomplicated, healthy pregnancy as well as in the postpartum period.

Do each of the exercises listed below for two rounds, resting 45 seconds between each circuit.

“If you experience any type of pelvic pain with single-leg exercises, try to narrow your stance and maintain core and pelvic floor engagement to provide more pelvic stability,” Cates says.

Move 1: Bird Dog With Hold

Time: 1 minute 30 seconds

Region: Core

Goal: Prenatal and Postpartum

1. Position yourself on all fours with joints aligned.
2. Exhale and engage your deep core as you extend the opposite arm and leg straight out.
3. Inhale as you return to the starting position.
4. Repeat on the opposite side, and continue alternating sides for 1 minute.
5. At the end of the minute, again extend the opposite arm and leg straight out, but hold for 15 seconds, maintaining deep core engagement as you would in a plank.
6. Repeat on the opposite side.

Move 2: Lunge and Biceps Curl With Pulses

Time: 1 minute 15 seconds per side

Region: Full Body

1. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, stand tall with a neutral spine.
2. Step back into a reverse lunge, getting as close to a 90-degree bend in the front leg as possible, keeping the knee stacked above your ankle.
3. As you lunge down, curl the weights up toward your shoulders into a biceps curl.
4. Drive through the front heel to rise and extend your arms down.
5. Continue for 1 minute.
6. On the last rep, stay in a low lunge, pulsing slowly up and down for 15 seconds.
7. Then, hold a static lunge right above 90 degrees for a second before returning to the starting position.
8. Repeat on the right leg.

Move 3: Banded Single-Leg Deadlift

Time: 1 minute on each side

Region: Lower Body

1. Stand and loop a light resistance band around your left foot, grabbing the other end with both hands.
2. With a slight bend in the knees and the chest up, hinge forward at the hips to get your torso parallel to the floor.
3. Begin to drive against the resistance and stand up, squeezing your glutes at the top (the toes of the right foot can press gently into the ground for extra stability).
4. Repeat on the right leg.

You should feel this in your glutes and hamstrings, not your lower back.

Move 4: Rocket Squats With Curl and Press

Time: 1 minute total

Region: Full Body

1. Holding a pair of dumbbells with your arms by your side, lower your hips back and sit down into a squat.
2. As you drive up through the heels to rise, shift your weight to your toes and come up to a calf raise.
3. As you come out of the squat, curl the weights toward your shoulders, then push up into a shoulder press as you shift to straight legs on the balls of your feet.
4. Return to the starting position.

Move 5: Side Plank

Time: 30 seconds each side (1 minute total)

Region: Core

1. Lie on the floor on your side with your feet together and one forearm directly below your shoulder.
2. Engage your core and pelvic floor as you lift your hips until your body is in a straight line from head to feet.
3. Hold the position for 30 seconds while maintaining your core engagement and without letting your hips drop.
4. Repeat on the right side.

If this move is too challenging, you can modify it by dropping down to your knees instead.

Move 6: Bear Raises

Time: 1 minute

Region: Core

1. Position yourself on all fours, joints stacked. Roll your shoulders down your back and engage your deep core (including the pelvic floor).
2. With your core engaged, lift your knees 1 to 2 inches off the floor while curling your toes under (the closer your knees are to the floor, the harder it’ll be).
3. Hold for 1 to 2 seconds, then guide the knees back to the floor and continue for 60 seconds.

Given all the benefits, it’s no wonder the ACOG recommends women with uncomplicated pregnancies aim to do at least 20 to 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise daily. If you’ve been inactive for a while, start slowly (for example, one round for 10 minutes a day) and gradually build up to two or three rounds (or 20 to 30 minutes), the Mayo Clinic recommends.

For highly active moms-to-be, you can continue to work out as often as you like as long as you feel good and your doctor gives you the green light. That said, you’ll likely need to modify some of your regular movements as your pregnancy progresses.

“When it comes to changing up the way you move during pregnancy, most women simply need to adjust the way they recruit their deep core muscles and pelvic floor in both exercise and daily movements,” Cates says. She recommends working with a professional who can educate you on how to scale back on certain exercises or how to replace certain moves with more supportive ones.

For instance, Cates suggests swapping out traditional core exercises like planks and crunches for deep core and pelvic floor techniques and shifting from high-impact exercises like jump squats and jumping jacks to more pelvic floor–supported, low-impact moves.

According to the Mayo Clinic, you should keep high-impact, high-intensity workouts to a minimum while pregnant because they increase oxygen and blood flow to your muscles and away from your uterus.

If you’re a cardio enthusiast, challenge yourself with low-impact compound exercises, such as single-leg reverse lunges with a knee drive and biceps curl, that work multiple muscles, Cates says.

And if pull-ups are your thing, you can keep them in your weekly workouts, too. Just tweak the traditional pull-up by standing on a resistance band for support (the bigger your belly grows, the heavier the resistance should be).

“Supported pull-ups are a great option for women who don’t want to lose their pull-up strength and form, but also want to do their best in preventing injury-based diastasis recti (a separation of the rectus abdominal muscles) or pelvic floor injuries like incontinence,” Cates says.