Can Exercise During Pregnancy Make Labor Harder?

Today we’re exploring if there is such a thing as too much exercise during pregnancy. It’s common knowledge that you should stay active while expecting. Walking, swimming, and doing prenatal yoga can all be super helpful, but what about barre, CrossFit, and weightlifting? Deb Flashenberg has answers. Check it out!

What we talked about:

• The benefits of exercising during pregnancy
• What about the idea that “if you were doing it before, you can continue doing it?”
• How does exercising (too much) during pregnancy make labor more difficult?
• The difference between a tight muscle and a toned muscle
• Focusing on a balanced pelvis
• Releasing the psoas and tight butt muscles
• Checking to see if your perineum is too tight, or too loose
• What about if your perineum is too tight?
• Your “Goldilocks” pelvic floor and diaphragmatic breathing
• What about Kegels? Squats? Weightlifting?
• Diastasis and prolapses
• A mindful postpartum recovery
• “Listening to your body, not your ego”
• Bodywork therapies to supplement your balance and recovery

Related resources*:

• SpinningBabies.com
• Leslie Howard’s Pelvic Floor Yoga
• Directory of Pelvic Health Professionals, from Pelvic Guru
• Yoga | Birth | Babies podcast
• The Webster Technique, from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association
• The Psoas Muscle, by Liz Koch
• Sciatica During Pregnancy: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments, from Health Line (with stretches for the piriformis)
• Dr. Susie Gronski – “P.T. for your privates”

Related Birthful episodes:

• Baby’s Position and Labor Flow, with Gail Tully
• Protecting Your Perineum, with Rachel Reed
• Talking Pelvic Health with a PT, with Sara Reardon
• Diastasis and Tummy Fitness, with Bethany Learn
• You Pelvic Floor, with Lisa Gillispie
• Vaginal Rehab, with Susi Hately

Courtesy of Deb Flashenberg

About Deb Flashenberg

Deb Flashenberg is the founder and director of NYC’s Prenatal Yoga Center. She’s been teaching yoga for the last 19 years and spent the last 18 dedicated to the pre and postnatal communities. Deb also leads an 85 hr Yoga Alliance certified Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training in NYC and around the country. Recently, Deb has released an online course, Who’s Afraid of the Pregnant Yogi, aimed to help yoga teachers adapt an open level yoga class for the pregnant person. Deb’s latest projects is her podcast Yoga | Birth | Babies.  In addition to teaching yoga she is a DONA certified doula and Lamaze certified childbirth educator. She is the proud (and tired!) mother of her son Shay and her daughter Sage.

Learn more at the Prenatal Yoga Center website.