♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi everybody, my name is Jordan.
So today instead of going through
an actual fitness video with you,
I'm going to instead just be talking to you
about pregnancy exercise do's and don'ts.
So these are things that I have learned
along my pregnancy journey being the near the end of it now,
as well as, so just practically what I have felt
and learned being a fitness professional,
and going through on this journey,
and then some things I've learned from other professionals
along the way as well.
So I wanted to start by talking about things
that we want to avoid, and this is just exercise specific.
So first and foremost,
I'm on an exercise ball today,
'cause this is a really great tool.
So if you don't have one of these,
this is a great thing if you have a office desk job,
when you get towards the end of your pregnancy to sit on.
So that's why I'm sitting on this today for demo purposes.
So again, starting with some don'ts.
So first of all, starting a brand new exercise program
when you find out you're pregnant is not a great idea.
So you can be as active as you were before pregnancy
during pregnancy.
So what I mean by that,
if you were a marathon runner before you got pregnant,
there's no reason you need to quit running,
but it's not a great time, say in your second trimester,
to pick up, you know, a Couch to 5k program.
So you can do whatever you were doing
before you found out you were pregnant.
So if you into strength training,
if you were into road biking, whatever it might be,
it's totally fine to continue those activities, okay?
One thing that you might want to change though,
is exercising to complete exhaustion.
So super important that you do a little talk test
with yourself every once in a while
when you are exercising,
making sure that you could hold a conversation
with a friend standing next to you.
So you might have to dial back on intensity a little bit,
but there's no reason that you can't keep doing
the things that you love to do.
And then I'm going to get more specific.
So that's just general overall, I guess, main ideas of it,
not starting something new and not going to exhaustion.
And then more specific like exercise-wise,
these are going to be more advice things
that are gonna be when you're further along
in your pregnancy, once you start to show,
or really when things start to become uncomfortable.
So first thing that might need to be taken out
is pushups and pull-ups.
So big thing is when we have excess pressure
on our abdominals,
that's not a good thing when we're pregnant,
so if you were used to doing pushups down on the ground,
on your toes,
you might need to take it to your knees for a little bit.
Now, when you get to the phase I'm in,
I can't even go to my knees because my belly
hits the ground, right?
So some things you can do in replacement
of just a standard traditional pushup
would be coming against a wall, okay?
So that would work just fine.
Same way that you did it before,
but you're elevated up off the ground,
or just finding a replacement exercise altogether
when it comes to those.
I ended up taking pushups out of my exercise routine
pretty early on like maybe about 20 to 25 weeks,
'cause I started to feel that intra-abdominal pressure.
So listen to your body.
The other thing you want to avoid
is laying down on your back and doing like actual core work.
Okay?
So like doing specific abs on your back is not a great idea,
especially once you're showing,
not such a big deal in the first trimester.
So something to keep in mind there.
And then this one's super obvious,
don't lay on your stomach, again, once you're showing,
so any exercises that involve being on your stomach
should be taken out.
And then the last tip that I have for you
under this don't category, are planks,
once they become uncomfortable and cause a lot of pressure.
So that's another thing I took out
around the same time as pushups.
Flying through that list,
moving on to things that you should focus on.
So squats are a great idea.
Hips become tight.
It's a great idea for a hip opener and strengthening,
but one thing you want to avoid is heavy front-loading.
And what I mean by that is picking up a big, heavy weight,
putting it out in front of your body, and then squatting.
Big reason why,
we already have a lot of weight out in front of us,
and that weight is going to tend to kind of pull us forward,
so either using just your own body weight,
or if you are using weight,
making sure that it's behind you, so like a back squat,
or some dumbbells thrown up on your shoulder
'cause that's going to force you to stay more upright,
and keep the extra weights, if you will,
towards the back of your body,
versus loading more on the front side.
So squats are a good idea,
but just be careful of how you're weighting those.
Let's see what else are some good things to do?
Bridges are a super great option.
Another thing for just strengthening
and opening up the hips, all that good stuff.
So a bridge,
I'm gonna demo those super quick for you guys here
if you're not familiar with those.
So those are done on your back,
feet are planted on the ground.
And with this one,
you're just lifting those hips up towards the ceiling,
lowering yourself back down,
you can do these as long as they continue
to stay comfortable for you, okay?
Some other nice things to do on a daily basis,
and this is something I've been doing
for the better part of my pregnancy,
especially after I started showing,
but any kind of hip opening.
Hip tightness is super common in pregnancy.
So there's a lot of different things you can do
and follow along with some of my other
prenatal exercise videos for more stretching ideas.
But anything to kind of open up those hips.
One of my favorite ones
is just sinking down throughout the day
and to what I kinda call a prying stretch.
So applying pressure on the inside of those knees
with the elbows.
If this is you can bring a back of a chair
in front of you to kind of help keep you up a little bit,
but that feels great for opening up the hips.
If you sit a lot during the day,
getting up frequently to do that.
And then I already mentioned in the first part of this video
to avoid a lot of planking or core work.
Some things that you could do instead
to still stay strong there would be bird dogs, I call them.
So with the bird dog,
you're lifting up opposite arm and leg,
and you're just alternating sides.
So as long as that stays comfortable,
that could be an alternative to a plank.
Another thing you can do,
this probably not so much as you get into the stage
that I'm in,
but I did this a lot earlier on in my second trimester,
but a bear crawl hold,
lifting those knees up off the ground a few inches
as long as that doesn't put too much pressure there.
Side planks are totally fine to do instead of a front plank.
You may find towards the end you need to modify them,
kind of to that point now as well.
So those are some just different ab exercises
you can do to replace some of your normal.
But outside of that, the big thing, keep exercising,
doing what you were doing before.
Taking time to slow things down,
focus in on your breathing as you are going through
your exercise,
but just know that pregnancy doesn't need to be a reason
to have to sit on the couch,
you can still keep doing what you're doing.
So keep up the good work, everybody.
And thanks for joining me today.