While your body is incredibly smart — it makes all the pregnancy adaptations without you even asking of it — you should still modify your workouts for pregnancy. To answer all of your pregnancy exercise questions before beginning a prenatal exercise routine, download our Prenatal and Postnatal Exercise Guide.
You’ll love this 12-minute pregnancy arm workout from our pregnancy workouts. Do this circuit 1 or 2 times through. Rest for 60 seconds (or as much as you need!) in between circuits.
As with any workout routine, a proper warmup and a cool down are essential. The warmup serves to get the blood flowing, to slowly raise your heart rate, and to prime the body for exercise. You should always warm up with dynamic stretching and/or walking around for a few minutes before beginning any workout. Once the exertion section of the workout is over, you should always cool down using the same techniques you used to warm up your body.
The circuit below is just a sample of the loads of pregnancy-specific workouts available in the Moms Into Fitness Studio — and you can try them out for free!
Smart fitness for moms in any stage: bump, new baby, and beyond.
Warmup
Setup: Stand with your legs shoulder width apart, looking straight ahead.
Extend your arms out to the sides, keeping them as straight as possible, palms facing downward. Then, turn your palms to face the ceiling and bend your elbows in to touch your side. Your arms should make a 90-degree angle. Return your arms to the starting position, extend outward, palms facing down. Repeat this warmup, keeping your core engaged and tight throughout the warm up!
Do 20 reps.
Warmup
Setup: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, body facing forward. Hold a small towel tightly between your hands.
Bend your knees and lean forward, pushing your booty out behind you. As you bend your knees, raise the towel over your head, keeping your arms straight and pulling on the towel in order to engage your arm muscles. Lower the towel and stand up to the starting position.
Do 20 reps.
Tricep Kickback to Bicep Curl
Setup: Start by standing with your feet facing forward, shoulder width apart. Hold two small dumbbells in your hands, holding them up to your shoulders as if you were doing a chin up.
Bend your knees and lean your body forward, pushing your booty back and keeping your core muscles tight. As you lean forward, lower your dumbbells and bring them back behind you. Return to standing position as you raise your dumbbells forward and back to your shoulders.
Do 15 reps then take a quick break!
V Shoulder Raise
Setup: Stand with your feet facing forward, shoulder width apart. Hold one dumbbell in each hand with the dumbbells facing forward.
Raise the dumbbells diagonally, bringing your arms up as if you were going to give someone a hug. When the dumbbells reach shoulder height, lower them back down to your thighs.
Do 15 reps of this exercise to really strengthen those shoulders!
Back & Biceps Curl
Setup: Stand with your feet facing forward, shoulder width apart. Hold one dumbbell in each hand arms forward at a 90-degree angle.
Keep your elbows at your side and raise the dumbbell upward to your shoulders. Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position then, keeping your elbows at your side again, move the dumbbells out to the side. Return to the starting position.
Do 15 reps to help tone your back and biceps!
Shoulder Press to Triceps Extension
Setup: Begin by standing with your feet shoulder width apart, feet facing forward. Have one dumbbell in each hand and start with your arms raised straight over your head, arms locked, hands facing each other.
Start by bending your arms behind you, lowering the dumbbells behind you until your arms are at a 90-degree angle. Straighten your arms so that they are back above your head. Then, bend your knees, pushing your booty behind you, keeping your head centered and looking forward. As you bend, bring your arms down as well, almost touching your elbows to your knees. Stand up and raise your arms back to the starting position.
Do 15 reps of this exercise to help you strengthen your shoulders and triceps.
Moms Into Fitness offers the best online fitness, nutritional guidance, and recipes for moms. Get moving with 600+ scientifically backed workouts for all fitness levels in many different styles. Whether you’re easing back into exercise after birth or you’re a lifelong athlete, you will find a program that feels just right. At-home workouts are easily accessed from your computer or favorite streaming device. Try it for FREE.
Moms Into Fitness was founded by mom of three Lindsay Brin, BSE in exercise science and certified personal trainer. She is passionate about helping moms achieve optimal health without going to extremes — loving yourself from the inside out one day at a time.
