Doing sit-ups during pregnancy is recommended, and very important for pregnant women. Working out your abs while pregnant helps prevent back pain by helping to maintain good posture. Developing the deep muscles of the abdominals, such as the transverse and obliques, will help you with the delivery of a baby for childbirth. Note: Before doing sit-ups during pregnancy, always ask your midwife or doctor for advice.

You can do sit-ups throughout pregnancy, but not just any old way. Engage from deeper muscles to superficial muscles. You will need proper breathing. Pregnant abs need to be firm to maintain good posture and prevent back pain. And flexible at the same time to let the tummy stretch as the baby grows.

Trick: consider adopting different positions depending on the stage of your pregnancy. For example, avoid lying down for too long. It compresses the vena cava with the risk of hypotension.

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that the abs can work on their own. If we have correct posture, breathing, and bowel movements, we don’t need to do specific exercises to engage them.

Indeed in these conditions, the abdominals are constantly solicited. They are composed of a superficial layer, the rectus, obliques, and a deep layer, the transverse muscle which forms a broad belt.

This deep muscle is used during breathing on expiration, and during the expulsion phase during childbirth, hence its importance. In addition, in its lower, more fibrous part, it supports the uterus and the viscera. At the end of the day or at the end of pregnancy, pregnant, you feel in this area that it weighs.

Improper use of the abdominals can cause contractions and compress baby, such as when you lie down during a medical exam. Each time your belly points forwards by the sole solicitation of the rectus abdominis (chocolate bar), and not that of the transverse muscle which makes the belly retract.

Contraction of the transverse during breathing does not compress baby. If there is no uterine contraction, the baby isolated in his water chamber has room. The abdominals should be done with the breath, stretching the rectus abdominis under the ribs and the breastbone. By moving the chest away from the pubis. It is much more pleasant and natural for you and for the baby.

“The abdominals must remain firm, but especially flexible during pregnancy. Too tight abdominals create stress on the white line and can increase the risk of rectus abdominis. It will become increasingly important during pregnancy to find a balance that allows the abdominals to be strong enough to maintain good posture and protect the back, and at the same time to be flexible enough to be stretched during pregnancy. ” – Mélanie Chevarie, midwife and yoga teacher.

To avoid a risk of diastasis (separation of the rectus abdominis on the white line), your abdominals must be firm while having the ability to stretch. For effective muscle building, exercise the abdominals in the following order:

• Work on the transverse abdomen, the deepest muscle in the abdominals. It participates in every breath as you breathe out.
• Then apply the internal and external obliques, located on each side of the straight lines (chocolate bar). They shape the waist.
• The famous chocolate bar, the great rights are worked gently with the help of the transverse. Imagine them as suspenders over the deep muscles.

Important: never shorten the rectus abdominis and / or try to stretch them during pregnancy.

Pregnant abs exercise

• Lie on your back near a wall;
• put your feet on the wall, thighs brought towards the stomach;
• place hands on knees, elbows bent upward and fingers pointing to stomach;
• exhale (breathe out) completely while leaning on your knees, without pushing on the arms to stretch them;
• raise your elbows well like wings;
• try to push back the ground with your whole back up to the nape of the neck, chin tucked in without raising your head;
• well placed, you will see a hollow under your chest, at the level of the stomach;
• it is as if you were doing your back round on all fours, but you are on your back;
• repeat as many times as you feel able to.

Note: the position of the neck is very important, the head must remain on the ground, the chin well tucked in.

This exercise will be of great help to you during childbirth. You can work your transverses every day in this way without risking diastasis. You will thus avoid always asking for your great rights and excluding them too much.

This exercise of pregnant abs to avoid diastasis during pregnancy, will also help you in daily actions such as: turning up on the floor or in bed to sit, get up, pick up objects, grab things high up.

The yoga plank, or sheathing

This posture is ideal for strengthening the back and abdominals during pregnancy. It stimulates the immune system and tones the body. The board or pregnant sheathing can be practiced on the hands for the more athletic, shoulders above the wrists. Or on the forearms, shoulders above the elbows.

• Stand on all fours on the forearms or on the hands, depending on the choice above;
• lean on your toes and lift your knees off the ground, for the more athletic;
• get on your knees if you are a beginner;
• contract the buttocks to tilt the pubis towards the ground and protect the lower back;
• on an exhalation, keep the navel retracted;
• you do a plank with your body, keep the posture without slouching. Move your chest away from your navel as if you were lengthening your body;
• slide the shoulder blades towards the middle of the back;
• maintain 3 to 10 breathing cycles (inhale + exhale = 1 cycle) depending on your abilities;
• the breath is under your ribs, as if you were trying to move them apart on the inspiration.

Muscles worked: Great rights, transverse and stabilizing muscles of the spine.

The more advanced the pregnancy stage, the more difficult it will be for you to maintain the posture. You can then practice it on all fours on the forearms, resting on the knees. Stay present in the posture, especially in the 4rd trimester, to listen to your feelings. Keep the pelvis tilt with pubis towards the ground, to avoid too much arch in the back. Never round your back.

Breathing is life. If you watch a dog or a cat breathe, you will see that on inspiration the belly swells, and on the expiration the belly naturally retracts. It’s the same for us men. This natural movement keeps the abs toned because it works them with each breath.

Breathing depends on posture. To breathe well, you must first correct your posture. An overly arched posture or hunched back prevents breathing.

Exercise to strengthen your pregnant abdominals by breathing

• Stand on all fours with your body weight slightly back, not on your hands.
• relax your back, imagine your column as a thread between 2 stakes. Above all, do not round your back, and relax your pelvis;
• blow naturally without forcing, as if to blow soap bubbles, or as if you were swimming while blowing in water. Just let the air come out of the mouth;
• go as far as possible in the exhalation without rounding the back;
• then open your mouth and let the air in as if you are sticking your head out of the water while swimming to catch your breath.

You feel your stomach pull in, your navel move closer to your back, and your entire core tighten. When you catch your breath, air enters your lungs and your belly relaxes.

It is a very powerful exercise to strengthen your abdominals during pregnancy. It is a good way to play sports when you are pregnant smoothly, while relaxing. In addition there is no risk of diastasis, and it prepares you for a smooth childbirth thanks to the work of breathing.

• sit on a chair or on a swiss ball;
• stand on your sit bones (the 2 bones of the buttocks);
• feet flat on the ground, hip width apart;
• keep the spine stretched, back straight, but not rigid;
• move the chest away from the navel;
• inhale and lean on the right side, right armpit approaching the right hip;
• breathe out and return to the starting position;
• start again on the left side.

Repeat the exercise 5 to 10 times on each side depending on how you feel.

This exercise works mainly the obliques, but also the transverse ones thanks to the breathing. On the Swiss ball, the deep muscles of the body are used much more.

Natural breathing in a correct posture (back neither arched nor hunched), allows you to work on your abs on a daily basis while pregnant, and to avoid back pain during pregnancy.