Your Strong, Sexy Pregnancy: A Yoga and Fitness Plan

Increase endurance and build strength

First trimester

Pointer Dog Pose

Benefits

This pose is great for core strength (TVA, obliques, lower back) and is also beneficial for balance training.

Feeling

This gives you a long line of energy extending in two directions (front and back), like the arrow on a compass.

Second trimester

Goddess Pose

Benefits

This pose strengthens the lower body with particular emphasis on the inner thigh and, like the Clock Squats, can help build strength in the core stabilizers (glutes, quads, hamstrings, abductors, inner thighs, abs, lower back, obliques, and TVA).

Feeling

If you are or were a ballerina at any time in your life, remember the feeling of grace that this movement has as your powerful legs carry you up and down. If you are not a dancer, think of the beautiful quiet strength that ballerinas and ice skaters have. The movement looks easy and beautiful on the outside, and that is a direct result of the power and strength on the inside.

Third trimester

Seated Side-to-Side Rock

Benefits

This movement mobilizes the muscles of the pelvic floor.

Feeling

Experience the feeling of mobility in the hips as though you were a child simply enjoying playtime with a beach ball. This is a valid form of exercise that has distinct benefits for pelvic mobility, but it’s also fun! Allow yourself to be playful and perhaps take a moment to think of all of the ways you can start to invite the spirit of play into your life. Soon you will be the mama of a little one who loves to play.