Do you want the best third trimester pregnancy exercise routine with peace of mind that they are comfortable for your body whilst still providing an effective pregnancy core workout?
In this video, Uma, is 31 weeks pregnant and whilst this is a third trimester pregnancy exercise workout for strengthening your core, it’s ideal and suitable for the first and second trimesters too. Whilst, core exercises in pregnancy or a pregnancy abs workout may seem counterintuitive as your stomach expands, a pregnancy core workout helps:
- Reduce back pain.
- Manages abdominal separation, which occurs naturally during pregnancy but you don’t want to make it worse as it is a culprit of the ‘mommy/mummy tummy’.
- Improves your balance and reduces your risk of falling over.
- Keeps those pregnancy abs in great condition.
- Helps your abs. Recover faster after having your baby.
- Keeps your pelvic floor stronger.
The most fundamental and beneficial thing you can do to achieve all that; for your physical and mental health plus to help the health of your baby during pregnancy is proper pregnancy core training.
When we say ‘core training’, it is not what you may think of. The ‘traditional’ planks, crunches and sit ups is what often comes to mind when people think of core exercise or training their core.
The type of core training I’m talking about is not planks, crunches and sit ups. Those exercises are flexion movements, when you are bending forwards and target more the top muscles of your stomach as opposed to the deeper muscles we want to focus on to truly strengthen from the inside to then go more to the superficial, top layers of muscles.
Your foundations have to be strong before anything on top!
Core training has to be effective and efficient to target the deep core muscles of what we call the core cannister.
Your deep core muscles are;
- your breathing muscle, the diaphragm,
- your transverse abs,
- your multifidus and
- your pelvic floor.
These muscles work together in harmony or should, to help you:
- In the case of pregnancy, have the ability to push your baby out.
- better alignment and posture.
- better digestive health.
- stronger immunity.
- less aches and pains.
- less risk of prolapse, hernias.
The most fundamental and beneficial thing you can do for your physical and mental health and to help the health of your baby during pregnancy is proper core training, which means you have to make sure you are focusing on exercises which target those 4 deep muscles, always strengthening the connection between them, particularly after having a baby when this connection is lost or reduced:
The deep muscles of your core are:
- Your diaphragm
- Your transverse abdominis (TA)
- Your multifidus
- Your pelvic floor
Connection means mind and body and it’s not fluffy, trendy speak or something you can just ignore or think you don’t need to do.
You start with the 360 breathing method which ensures your diaphragm is connecting and working in synergy with your pelvic floor to keep both muscles healthy.
In pregnancy if these four deep muscles are strong, working in synergy and correctly functioning, it creates a healthier environment inside you for your baby to grow, plus you benefit from, the benefits we talked about before:
- Having better ability to push your baby out.
- Better muscular alignment, less imbalances and improved posture.
- Improved digestion.
- Having a stronger immunity to illness.
- More inside strength for less aches and pains.
- Reducing your risk of prolapse, hernias.
Gaining and establishing strength in the core canister is the first step to a healthy core. A healthy core is one that functions correctly to support your body to do daily activities such as carrying objects, picking things up off the floor, going up stairs, sitting, standing, walking and also during exercise.
In this prenatal ab workout for the third trimester video you have my full instruction for each exercise to give you the confidence you are doing the exercises correctly.
Watch the video here.
Let me know which is your favorite exercise and comment below the video on you tube.
