Can you exercise while pregnant? How one woman trained through three pregnancies

I have lifted weights continuously since I was a 14-year-old high school athlete, so it was inconceivable that I would suddenly stop in pregnancy. As a health coach, I also knew that maintaining muscular strength and function would be essential for a healthy pregnancy and strategic for an easier post-partum. And yes, as a three-time ‘geriatric’ mum, I knew that keeping my body in tip-top physical shape would be my best protection against potential age-related complications in pregnancy.

I’ll never forget the look on my Singaporean Chinese mother-in-law’s face the first time she saw me pull a heavy barbell off the floor with a big pregnant belly! But I think a lot of the reactivity to pregnant bodies in motion is from curiosity rather than outright disapproval. I was lucky never to receive cruel or ignorant comments to the posts I put on social media about staying strong and active in pregnancy, but I know those are still common.

Staying active afforded me the concrete physical benefits of increased muscle mass, improved cardiovascular fitness (you get a VO2 max spike during pregnancy if you train for it!), and fewer aches and pains. But perhaps the biggest benefits were to my mental health. Exercise in pregnancy made me calmer, feel more in control, and reassured me that I could do hard things.

I built resilience and developed a mindset of what author Brad Stulberg calls ‘rugged flexibility’, both of which served me directly in my post-partum journey as well.

We all feel that instinctive fear of ‘what if something goes wrong’. It’s normal. The protective, ‘mama bear’ urge lives in all of our brains. But what also lives in our brains is logic, and the intellectual reassurance that not only is exercise safe, protective, and broadly recommended by all major obstetric and gynaecological associations, it is the opposite – sedentary behaviour and inactivity –that’s more associated with complications and metabolic conditions.

Reframe exercise as preventive healthcare for you and your unborn child, and something that you are doing in the care of your baby – and in the defence of your own long-term future health.

Amanda Lim is a perinatal expert, metabolic health coach, and director of Lift Clinic. She’s also the co-host of The Forties Formula, an award-winning women’s wellness podcast.