Hi, I'm Elisa All with PregnancyToday. I'm here with Shaina Young a prenatal fitness expert who is also a new mom she's going to talk to us about the importance of strength training during pregnancy welcome. Thanks. Well Shaina I remember when I was pregnant I just felt big a little awkward about exercise but can you tell us why its important for moms to exercise, strength train during pregnancy. Absolutely your going to build strength endurance increase your stamina all of that strength is going to transfer to the delivery room your going to feel better and more in tune with your body. So can you show us some exercises?
Absolutely I would love to, so why don't you hold onto that band this is a back row a back row is really important in building the strength in your back helping to keep the chest open you keep a good posture after you have that baby. So I am going to take a staggered stance my partner is going to engage the abs so this is a good partner exercise just squeeze the shoulder blades together as I row back and release as I row forward and as I row back again your going to resist that. Oh so whoever is doing this with you gets a little work out to. Absolutely. Ok good so how many repetitions. I would say 10 to 15 repetitions for two sets so I'm done with my set I feel free for my partner to take a chance for your repetition and you can go to. Alright how about for our lower body? Squats excellent overall for lower body as well as overall body. I'm going to have you stand with your feet about foot length apart if your further along in your pregnancy you might need to stand with your feet a little bit wider then a foot apart hands are going to come out for a counter balance and then go ahead and squat down with your hips moving back about two to three inches right there and come right back up. And then if you're a little bit earlier in your pregnancy you can cross your hands for a little bit more intensity and come down just a little bit lower. Now is there anything we shouldn't do during pregnancy? Just a couple of things to keep in mind while your pregnant and working our most things are okay. You can maintain a similar intensity as you did prior to your pregnancy as long as it feels okay to you feel free to modify anything as you go along. Two main things to avoid after the first trimester don't do any exercising lying flat on your back and avoid any weighted rotations or any exaggerated rotations other than that you should be pretty safe and strong. Alright well it sounds really good thanks for sharing your tips and we will see you next time on pregnancy today.
