Safe Exercises During Pregnancy for Beginners | Doctor-Approved Moves to Stay Fit and Recommended Routines for a Successful Delivery (What to Do & What to Avoid)

Pregnancy isn’t a time to stop moving, but it’s rather a time to move smart. Many think exercise during pregnancy is unsafe, but the truth is that not moving can be riskier. Surprised? You’re not alone. In fact, staying active supports a healthy pregnancy and can even lead to a smoother delivery.

Now, this is where safe exercises during pregnancy for beginners come in, and as an expecting mom, you might ask: Is it really okay to work out now? Or which moves are safe for someone just starting out? These are real concerns, and yes, safety comes first, but don’t worry because you’re not expected to run marathons. All you just need are gentle, guided movements that help you feel strong, flexible, and calm.

And with more expert doctors today recommending prenatal exercise, you’re not going against advice, but you’re following it.  In this article, you’ll find beginner-safe, doctor-approved exercises. We’ll cover what to do, what to avoid, and how to build a weekly routine that fits your body and growing baby.

Let’s take care of your health, one safe step at a time.

About Pregnancy and Exercise

Staying active and physically fit while you’re pregnant can make it easier for your body to adjust to changes in shape and the extra weight you gain. It can also prepare you better for handling labour.

Try to continue doing your usual daily activities or exercises, whether that’s sports, jogging, yoga, dancing, or simply walking to and from the store, as long as it still feels okay for you.

Working out does not put your baby at risk. In fact, research shows that women who stay active during pregnancy often face fewer complications in the later stages and during childbirth.

There are many possible health advantages for pregnant women who stay active, such as managing weight more effectively, feeling more emotionally balanced, and keeping up their fitness.

Staying physically active can also help lower the chances of facing certain pregnancy-related health issues like high blood pressure during pregnancy and pre-eclampsia.

Before you begin or continue with exercise while pregnant, it’s important to speak with your doctor, a physiotherapist, or another healthcare provider.

If you didn’t have a regular workout routine before becoming pregnant, you may need to adjust your current activities or find new, safer options.

Why Exercise During Pregnancy is Helpful

Doing regular physical activity while pregnant can benefit both the body and mind. Exercise may ease certain pregnancy symptoms and give you a sense of well-being because you’re making a healthy choice for yourself and your baby.

Some of the many benefits of exercising while expecting include:

• making the experience enjoyable
• boosting your energy levels
• keeping your body fit
• lessening pelvic and back pain
• lowering the chances of problems like pre-eclampsia and high blood pressure
• helping your body get ready for labor
• reducing the likelihood of delivery complications
• helping you recover more quickly after childbirth
• helping control and reduce urinary leaks
• improving your body’s posture
• encouraging better blood flow
• managing your weight
• easing stress
• lowering chances of anxiety and depression
• helping you sleep better and cope with insomnia
• making it easier to handle the physical demands of being a new mother.

How Pregnancy Affects Exercise

During pregnancy, your body changes in many ways, and some of these changes can impact your ability to work out. You might need to modify your fitness routine for safety and comfort, including:

• Pregnancy hormones like relaxin can loosen your joints and ligaments, making you more likely to sprain or injure them.
• As your baby grows, you will gain weight and your body shape will change. This shifts your center of gravity forward, which may affect your balance and coordination.
• Your resting heart rate will increase, so instead of relying on a target heart rate to measure exercise intensity, you should use something called the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE). This helps you figure out how hard your body feels like it’s working.
• During the second trimester, your blood pressure can drop. This means you should avoid quick position changes (like getting up too fast) to prevent dizziness.

Starting to Exercise During Pregnancy

Before beginning any exercise plan, it’s important to go through a pre-exercise screening.

This step helps figure out if any medical conditions could make it risky for you to be physically active. It acts as a kind of safety check to see if the benefits of exercise will outweigh the risks.

Make sure to complete the pre-exercise screening checklist before starting a new fitness routine.

If You Were Active Before Pregnancy and Have Been Cleared to Exercise:

• Try to do at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week, if not daily.
• Pay attention to how your body feels. You’re probably at the right level if you can talk while exercising but can’t sing, and you’re not getting tired too quickly.
• As long as you feel fine and aren’t having pregnancy issues, keep up with your workout routine throughout your pregnancy, or until it feels too difficult to continue.
• Always follow the advice of your doctor, physiotherapist, or healthcare provider.

If You Were Not Active Before Pregnancy and Have Been Cleared to Exercise:

• Begin with easy activities like walking or swimming, then slowly increase your activity level.
• Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days. You can begin with two 15-minute sessions and slowly increase the time as you go.
• Let your body lead the way. You’re exercising at a good pace if you can speak comfortably (but not sing) and don’t feel overly tired.
• If you’re feeling well and have no complications, continue being active until it starts to feel uncomfortable.
• Always take advice from your doctor, physiotherapist, or another healthcare expert.

Recommended Physical Activities During Pregnancy

Many exercises are usually considered safe to do while pregnant, even if you are just starting. These include:

• Taking regular walks
• Swimming or water walking
• Riding a bike, either outside or using a stationary bike
• Light jogging
• Strength exercises, such as those that target the pelvic floor
• Gentle water workouts like aquarobics
• Stretching, yoga, and floor routines
• Pilates
• Prenatal fitness classes.

Exercise Safety Tips for Pregnancy

Although most types of workouts are safe, some movements or positions can cause discomfort or even harm to pregnant women. Always take advice from your doctor or physiotherapist, but here are some general safety tips:

• Keep your body temperature within a safe range, avoid soaking in hot tubs or pushing yourself until you sweat heavily. When it’s hot or humid, lower your activity level and drink plenty of water.
• Don’t push yourself to the point of complete tiredness.
• Always warm up before exercising, and cool down afterwards.
• Try to keep active daily, as 30 minutes of walking each day can be enough, but if you cannot manage that, any amount is better than nothing
• If you’re lifting weights, use lighter ones with more repetitions. Avoid heavy lifting.
• Stretch gently and don’t go beyond your comfort zone.
• Skip exercising if you’re feeling sick or have a fever.
• If your body is telling you to rest, take a break from exercising that day. It’s important not to overuse your energy.
• Do not increase how hard you work out while pregnant. Keep your effort below 75% of your maximum heart rate.
• If you get sick or face a pregnancy-related issue, consult your doctor or midwife before starting or continuing your exercise routine.
• Drink plenty of water and other fluids.
• If you go to exercise classes, make sure your teacher is properly qualified and knows that you’re pregnant, as well as how many weeks pregnant you are.
• You might like to try swimming because the water will support your increased weight, and some local swimming pools provide aqua-natal classes with qualified instructors.
• Exercises that have a risk of falling, such as horse riding, downhill skiing, ice hockey, gymnastics and cycling, should only be done with caution, because falls carry a risk of damage to your baby.

As a general rule, you should be able to hold a conversation as you exercise when pregnant. If you become breathless as you talk, then you’re probably exercising too strenuously.

If you were not active before you got pregnant, do not suddenly take up strenuous exercise. If you start an aerobic exercise programme (such as running, swimming, cycling or aerobics classes), tell the instructor that you’re pregnant.

Remember that exercise does not have to be strenuous to be beneficial.

Exercises to Steer Clear of During Pregnancy

While pregnant, try to stay away from sports and activities that have higher risks, especially those that include:

• Pressure or impact on the belly, such as heavy weightlifting,
• Contact or high-risk sports like football, basketball, or martial arts,
• Fast-moving objects or sports with bats, like cricket, softball, or hockey,
• A high chance of falling, activities like skiing, horseback riding, or skating,
• Sports needing extreme balance or quick moves, like gymnastics,
• Big shifts in pressure, such as in scuba diving [scuba diving is not safe because the baby has no protection against decompression sickness and gas embolism (gas bubbles in the bloodstream)],
• Lifting heavy objects,
• High-altitude training above 2000 meters (if you exercise at heights over 2,000m above sea level, you and your baby are at risk of altitude sickness)
• Exercises done lying flat on your back, this position can slow the return of blood to your heart due to the baby’s weight; instead, try lying on your side,
• Deep squats or wide lunges.

Do not lie flat on your back for long periods, particularly after 16 weeks, because the weight of your bump presses on the main blood vessel bringing blood back to your heart and this can make you feel faint

If you’re ever uncertain about whether an exercise is safe, speak to your healthcare provider for advice.

Exercises for a Fit Pregnancy

If you are pregnant, try to fit the exercises listed in this section into your daily routine. These types of exercise will strengthen your muscles to help you carry the extra weight of pregnancy. They’ll also make your joints stronger, improve circulation, ease backache, and generally help you feel well.

Stomach-strengthening Exercises

As your baby gets bigger, you may find that the hollow in your lower back increases, and this can give you a backache. These exercises strengthen stomach (abdominal) muscles and may ease backache, which can be a problem in pregnancy:

• Start in a box position (on all 4s) with knees under hips, hands under shoulders, with fingers facing forward, and abdominals lifted to keep your back straight.
• Pull in your stomach muscles and raise your back towards the ceiling, curling your trunk and allowing your head to relax gently forward. Do not let your elbows lock.
• Hold for a few seconds, then slowly return to the box position.
• Take care not to hollow your back; it should always return to a straight/neutral position.
• Do this slowly and rhythmically 10 times, making your muscles work hard and moving your back carefully.
• Only move your back as far as you can comfortably.

Pelvic Tilt Exercises

• Stand with your shoulders and bottom against a wall.
• Keep your knees soft.
• Pull your tummy button towards your spine, so that your back flattens against the wall, and hold for 4 seconds, then release.
• Repeat up to 10 times.

Pelvic Floor Exercises 

Pelvic floor exercises help to strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor, which come under great strain in pregnancy and childbirth. The pelvic floor consists of layers of muscles that stretch like a supportive hammock from the pubic bone (in front) to the end of the backbone (spine).

If your pelvic floor muscles are weak, you may find that you leak urine when you cough, sneeze, or strain. This is quite common, and there is no reason to feel embarrassed. It’s known as stress incontinence, and it can continue after pregnancy.

You can strengthen these muscles by doing pelvic floor exercises. This helps to reduce or avoid stress incontinence after pregnancy. All pregnant women should do pelvic floor exercises, even if they’re young and not suffering from stress incontinence now.

How to do pelvic floor exercises:

• Make yourself comfortable by sitting or lying down with your knees bent
• Squeeze in and tighten the muscles around your back passage as if you were trying to stop yourself peeing and farting, then relax the muscles,
• Breathe normally while doing pelvic floor exercises,
• At first, try to do this exercise quickly,
• Then do it slowly, holding the squeezes for as long as you can before you relax: try to count to 10,
• Try to do 3 sets of 8 squeezes every day: to help you remember, you could do a set at each meal.

As well as these exercises, practice tightening the pelvic floor muscles before and during coughing and sneezing.

During pregnancy and after a vaginal birth, the pelvic floor muscles become weaker, and that’s why it’s very important to start training these muscles early in your pregnancy.

A physiotherapist can help you learn the correct exercises, keep doing them throughout your pregnancy, and begin again after giving birth whenever you feel ready.

Abdominal Exercises

Having strong abdominal muscles plays a key role in supporting your back. The deep core muscles, along with the pelvic floor muscles, work like a built-in “corset,” helping to protect both the lower back and the pelvis.

When pregnant, many women develop a condition called diastasis recti abdominis. This is when the abdominal muscles separate down the middle. It doesn’t usually cause pain, but traditional exercises like sit-ups or crunches can make it worse and don’t usually help much during pregnancy.

It’s better to do safe and gentle core exercises while pregnant to build strength in the abdominal area. A simple example is:

• Focus on pulling your belly button gently inwards toward your spine.
• Breathe out as you pull your tummy in.
• Hold that position and count slowly to 10, then relax and breathe in again.
• Try to repeat this movement 10 times and do it a few times throughout the day.
• This can be done while sitting, standing, or on your hands and knees.

Signs to Stop Exercise While Pregnant

If you feel any of the symptoms below during or after exercise, stop right away and contact your doctor:

• Headache,
• feeling dizzy or about to faint,
• fast or irregular heartbeat,
• pain in the chest,
• swelling in your hands, face, or feet,
• pain or swelling in your calf,
• bleeding from the vagina,
• contractions,
• strong pain in your lower back, pelvis, or pubic area,
• cramps in the lower belly,
• trouble walking,
• sudden change in how your baby moves,
• leaking amniotic fluid,
• breathing that feels too difficult,
• feeling very tired,
• and weak muscles.

Where You Can Get Help

• Your general doctor (GP)
• A midwife
• A physiotherapist
• National Continence Helpline: 1800 33 00 66
• Bicycle Network: (03) 8376 8888 – for advice about riding a bike while pregnant.

Final Words from Bornfertilelady

Safe exercises during pregnancy for beginners are more than just workouts, because they are your body’s best support system during this big journey.

With the right movements, you build strength, lower stress, sleep better, and yes, you even prepare for an easier birth. That’s why doctors today don’t just allow exercise during pregnancy, but they strongly recommend it.

You don’t need heavy weights or fast routines. You only need to move with care, consistency, and joy. Also, walking, gentle stretching, and breathing can go a long way. But always listen to your body, talk to your doctor before starting anything new, and avoid anything that feels wrong.

Start small, and pick one or two beginner routines and do them weekly. Build from there, because strong moms don’t just carry babies, they carry confidence, too.