Gym training during pregnancy: a safe guide for expectant mothers

Can you train at the gym while pregnant? Yes, you can — and in principle it's even recommended. Both international and Finnish physical activity guidelines support moderate-intensity training in a normal pregnancy, and exercise does not increase the risk of miscarriage, preterm birth, or low birth weight (ACOG 2020; UKK Institute 2021).

Moderate-intensity exercise is therefore safe throughout pregnancy. Of course, it's always worth checking that there are no contraindications and that your doctor or maternity clinic has given you the go-ahead to exercise.

This article covers what to keep in mind with gym training during the different stages of pregnancy, which exercises are suitable for expectant mothers, and in which situations training should be scaled back or avoided. The text is intended for expectant mothers who want to continue strength training (or start it), and it serves the experienced gym-goer just as well as someone planning their very first session.

Why is exercise worthwhile during pregnancy?

The research evidence on the benefits of exercise during pregnancy is strong and consistent. Regular exercise reduces the risk of gestational diabetes, helps with weight management, relieves back problems, and improves mood. In addition, good muscular fitness can ease the birth itself and speed up recovery from it (ACOG 2020; DiPietro et al. 2019). Exercise — and strength training in particular — therefore has a clearly broader significance during pregnancy than simply maintaining fitness.

Continuing to train is also considerably easier after pregnancy when you've aimed to preserve your results as well as possible during pregnancy. Pregnancy lasts nine months, after all, which would be a long time to stop training entirely.

Looking more closely, exercise affects many things at once.

Exercise during pregnancy prevents excessive weight gain. Exercise prevents excessive weight gain during pregnancy even in expectant mothers whose starting weight is higher than average.
Exercise during pregnancy improves glucose metabolism. The effect is most clearly seen in the prevention and management of gestational diabetes.
Exercise during pregnancy improves the mother's mood and well-being. Exercise reduces the occurrence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy by up to 67%.
Exercise during pregnancy improves the mother's mood and sleep quality. Better sleep supports recovery and coping with everyday life.
Exercise during pregnancy improves the mother's physical fitness. Good fitness feels good on the stairs, when carrying grocery bags, and later when carrying the baby.
The mother's exercise improves the baby's oxygen and glucose supply. Reviews have also found indications of a reduced risk of fetal overgrowth (macrosomia).
Exercise during pregnancy speeds up the return to your previous weight after birth. Even so, it's worth taking your return to training slowly.

During pregnancy, gym training has one particular advantage over other forms of exercise: the load is easy to adjust. Weights, sets, and exercises can be modified to match exactly how you feel, which makes strength training a manageable way to be active even when your body is changing week by week. Strength training supports the back, the pelvis, and core control, and strong legs help carry the growing uterus all the way to the end of pregnancy.

Gym training is therefore highly recommended while pregnant, provided there are no contraindications. Pregnancy does, of course, bring certain priorities to training that are worth keeping in mind: strengthening the pelvic floor muscles in particular is important during pregnancy, because the pelvic floor supports a growing load for months. Training these muscles is worth starting as early as the first trimester, when the technique is easy to learn at a relaxed pace.

The gym isn't the only option, of course. Suitable forms of exercise during pregnancy include walking and swimming. Walking, for example, complements gym training nicely on a lighter day, and in swimming the water supports part of your weight, which eases how you feel in late pregnancy. In an ideal situation, your training consists of a varied mix of gym training and other forms of exercise.

When is exercise not safe during pregnancy?

Exercise during pregnancy is not recommended in certain situations and requires, at a minimum, careful examination together with your care provider. Absolute contraindications include, among others, placenta previa in late pregnancy, threatened preterm birth, cervical insufficiency, pre-eclampsia, and certain heart and lung conditions. In these situations, a doctor always makes the decision about training.

Severe anemia, poorly controlled diabetes, and unexplained bleeding are also among the situations in which exercise is agreed on separately with your care provider. Below is a further list of situations in which training should be stopped immediately and you should contact your maternity clinic or doctor:

bleeding from the vagina
contractions or strong lower abdominal pain
strong dizziness or a feeling of faintness
shortness of breath at rest or during light exertion
chest pain or abnormal heart palpitations
headache or visual disturbances
rupture of the amniotic sac (waters breaking)

These are, of course, rather rare situations. Still, it's good to be aware of them in case symptoms were to arise.

Rather than rare complications, it's more common that training simply needs to be scaled back as pregnancy progresses, along with making changes to the exercises. Scaling back training still doesn't mean the same thing as stopping it. Often it's enough to lower the load a little and swap exercises for variations that let you keep training safely onward. If a particular symptom keeps recurring in the same exercises, it's worth writing down in which situation it appears and how long it lasts. That information helps the maternity clinic and physiotherapist assess what in the program needs changing and what can stay the same.

In multiple pregnancies and other high-risk pregnancies, exercise is always agreed on separately with your own doctor. Even a fit expectant mother who trained a great deal before pregnancy needs a doctor's permission if the pregnancy is atypical.

It's also worth noting that pregnancy raises the resting heart rate and the heart's stroke volume. A familiar workout may therefore feel clearly harder than before pregnancy, even if the loads stay exactly the same. This is a normal change and not a problem in any way. So it's good to remember that a higher sense of exertion is not in itself a sign of any problem.

Training during the different stages of pregnancy

Pregnancy is not just one single, stable phase; the body changes significantly over the nine months. Gym training should be adapted as pregnancy progresses, which is why the program too needs to evolve along with it.

First trimester (weeks 1–12)

In early pregnancy, you can usually continue training much as before, if your condition allows. There's no need to change any exercises or weights simply because of the pregnancy. The biggest challenge is usually nausea and fatigue, which can take away the desire to train entirely. That's completely normal, and there's no reason to worry about missed workouts. A coaching solution tailored to you helps here too. That way you can be sure your training is developing you and that recovery is taken care of.

It's also worth remembering a varied diet that supports the body's recovery and the progress of the pregnancy.

Second trimester (weeks 13–27)

For many expectant mothers, the second trimester is the best training period. Nausea has usually eased and energy levels are back up. The growing belly does, however, start to affect balance and the way exercises are performed, so ranges of motion should be reviewed again.

The most significant change concerns exercises done lying on your back. The heavy uterus can press on the large vena cava when you're lying supine. For this reason, from around week 16 onward it's worth avoiding prolonged time lying on your back if it causes dizziness or faintness (Mottola et al. 2019).

In practice this means, for example, swapping the bench press for an incline press or a seated chest press. Exercises that load the rectus abdominis muscles, such as crunches, should also be dropped at the latest when abdominal separation (diastasis recti) starts to develop.

Third trimester (weeks 28–40)

In late pregnancy, the goal of training changes. You're no longer aiming for progress but for maintenance and feeling good. Pregnancy shifts the body's center of gravity forward, so it makes sense to replace free-weight exercises that require balance with machine training, or to choose free-weight exercises that are safe to perform. If you feel there's any risk that your technique on an exercise might fail at this point in pregnancy, it's best to simply swap it for something easier, such as a machine-based exercise.

Gym machines support your position and reduce the risk of losing balance. For many, they're therefore a natural choice for the final months. On a machine it's also easier to stop a set partway through if you suddenly start to feel off.

The hormone relaxin, secreted by the placenta, loosens ligaments and joints. This change shows up in joint control and can cause pain in the pelvic area. During pregnancy you should avoid jumping and contact sports, and for the same reason rapid changes of direction are dropped in late pregnancy.

Pelvic floor exercises are especially valuable at this stage, since they support both late pregnancy and recovery from birth. As a rule of thumb throughout pregnancy: listen to your body, and if an exercise feels uncomfortable, you don't have to do it. There's always an alternative.

Which exercises are suitable for gym training during pregnancy?

Most basic gym exercises suit expectant mothers well. Strength training is permitted during pregnancy, as long as you listen to your body and keep the loads moderate. Safe choices throughout pregnancy include, for example, the following exercises:

Leg press on a machine
Lat pulldown and seated cable row
Chest press on a machine, seated or at a light incline
Lateral raises and other dumbbell exercises with light weights
Seated leg extension and leg curl
Exercises requiring pelvic floor and core stability

Technique matters more during pregnancy than the amount of weight, so focus on quality repetitions and let the muscles do the work. It's worth concentrating especially on exercises familiar to you, so that the technique feels safe.

Requiring caution are heavy deadlifts and squats with large weights, exercises done lying on your back for prolonged periods, and exercises that require strong breath-holding under a heavy load. This kind of straining while holding your breath (the so-called Valsalva maneuver) momentarily raises blood pressure and intra-abdominal pressure.

Especially in the later part of pregnancy, it makes sense to avoid exercises that increase intra-abdominal pressure, such as the deadlifts and squats mentioned above. Safe technique for these requires tight breath-holding for the duration of the repetition, and holding your breath throughout a repetition is worth starting to avoid in late pregnancy — which is why these exercises may not necessarily be advisable.

The aim, however, is not to scare you into giving up on exercises. Safe training during pregnancy means choosing suitable exercises and sensibly dosing the load — not stopping training.

Regular exercise throughout pregnancy: how often and how hard?

The recommendations of the UKK Institute and ACOG are in line with each other. The recommendation for exercise during pregnancy is 150 minutes per week. Pregnant women are advised to be active for 150 minutes per week at moderate intensity, and exercise should be divided into portions done on at least three days a week.

Strength training should be done at least twice a week. During pregnancy, strength training at least twice a week is recommended even during those weeks when other exercise stays light.

At the gym, this means in practice two or three workouts a week at moderate intensity, with the remaining minutes accumulating from walking, swimming, and everyday chores. During pregnancy, 150 minutes of exercise per week is recommended, so alongside the gym you usually also need lighter everyday activity.

A suitable intensity level on a scale of 1–10 is around 5–7. Maximum efforts and personal-record attempts are not done during pregnancy, but training still doesn't have to be light to be safe.

As pregnancy progresses you'll usually have to drop your working weights a little, and this is nothing to fret about too much. You'll get back to the same working weights once you've recovered from pregnancy, and training during pregnancy speeds up that process. During pregnancy it may make more sense to favor slightly longer sets, so that technique is easier to maintain and intra-abdominal pressure doesn't rise too high. Suitable rep ranges average between 8–15 reps — but that figure is a guideline, not a ready-made program for everyone.

Sets, loads, and exercises should always be individualized for each person, and for this it's worth using, for example, a science-based training app that handles it. You can also talk with your doctor, maternity clinic, and, if needed, a physiotherapist if you want to know more precisely about your own limitations. If you haven't trained before pregnancy, start gently. For example, 1–2 gym workouts a week is already a really good amount even for someone starting out entirely apart from pregnancy. For endurance, 15 minutes at a time two or three times a week is a good start, and you can extend the workout toward 30 minutes as long as you keep feeling good.

Nutrition, recovery, and returning to the gym after birth

During pregnancy, energy needs increase especially from the second trimester onward, and you should not aim for a calorie deficit at any stage of pregnancy. For a training expectant mother, adequate protein intake and good hydration are especially important, since blood volume increases considerably during pregnancy. For more specific nutrition questions, the best place to turn is your own maternity clinic or a licensed dietitian.

Recovery is worth taking care of just as carefully as the training itself. Sleep, light walks, and calm breathing exercises do you good even when you don't have the energy to go to the gym. Mood is part of recovery just as much as the muscles are, and exercise during pregnancy reduces the risk of depressive symptoms by up to 67%.

Regular exercise often supports sleep, but a workout done too late or too hard may, for some people, disrupt falling asleep. The timing of your workout is therefore worth experimenting with at a relaxed pace.

The time needed to return to the gym depends on the type of delivery and how recovery goes. After a vaginal birth, light exercise is often possible within a few weeks, whereas after a cesarean section recovery typically takes six to eight weeks. Light pelvic floor exercises can be started early on, and you progress to strength training gradually after that. The final go-ahead is always given by a doctor at your postpartum checkup.

How does AITOFIT support training during pregnancy?

The AITOFIT app, built by exercise scientists, always individualizes training for each person and takes care of a suitable load level. For every exercise there's a wide range of alternatives, so exercises are easy to swap based on what suits you best. The app automatically adjusts things like volume and working weights, which is especially useful during pregnancy, because how you feel and how you're coping can vary from week to week.

To be clear: no app or coaching can replace the instructions of a doctor or maternity clinic during pregnancy. AITOFIT does, however, help keep training structured so that every workout has a clear plan and the load stays under control. You can try the app free for 9 days, so you can take your time to see how AITOFIT would work for you. The app also has a chat where professionals answer any questions on your mind, including those related to pregnancy.

Frequently asked questions

Can you lift weights while pregnant?

Yes, with moderate loading. Maximal loads are avoided and you listen to your body.

When do you have to stop gym training?

There's no general weekly cutoff, and many train right up to the final weeks. Training is stopped if a doctor advises so, or if warning symptoms appear, such as bleeding, contractions, or strong dizziness.

Can you start gym training only during pregnancy?

Yes. It's also safe for those who were previously inactive to start moderate exercise during pregnancy (ACOG 2020). You start gently and increase the load gradually. At this stage it's important to find a coaching solution that individualizes training to suit you.

Is training the abdominal muscles safe while pregnant?

Training the pelvic floor and abdominal muscles is recommended throughout pregnancy. Exercises that load the rectus abdominis muscles, such as crunches, are dropped at the latest when separation (diastasis recti) starts to develop, typically toward the end of the second trimester.

How soon after birth can you return to the gym?

It depends on the type of delivery and on recovery. After a vaginal birth, light exercise may be possible within a few weeks; after a cesarean section, recovery typically takes 6–8 weeks. It's always worth agreeing on your return with a doctor or maternity clinic.

Sources: ACOG (2020). Physical Activity and Exercise During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804. Obstetrics & Gynecology 135:e178–188. UKK Institute (2021). Physical activity recommendation for pregnant women. DiPietro L, Evenson KR, Bloodgood B et al. (2019). Benefits of physical activity during pregnancy and postpartum: An umbrella review. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 51:1292–1302. Mottola MF, Nagpal TS, Bgeginski R et al. (2019). Is supine exercise associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes? A systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine 53:82–89.