Squat—Great Exercise for Pregnant Women

There’s no doubt that staying in shape during pregnancy is tough. The last thing you might feel like doing is working out, especially as you get bigger and movement becomes more awkward. But exercise during pregnancy is extremely important for so many reasons—your baby’s health, your health, labor preparation, your post-baby bod, etc.

 In those moments you do feel inspired there is one exercise you should definitely work in—squats. 

When done correctly, squats engage your:

• Pelvic floor muscles
• Glute muscles
• Abdominal muscles

These not only help stabilize your pelvis as hormones relax the ligaments, but having these muscles in shape will also help with you delivery.

All this being said, Dr. Husband is adamant that your squat be done correctly. To quote him:

"If you don’t perform squats correctly, it’s not a matter of if you’ll get hurt, it’s a matter of when.”

Squat Technique

Every person’s structure is unique, but you probably want your feet a little wider than shoulder width and your toes pointed out a bit (not straight ahead).

Knees should stay over the foot, not inside and not too far in front of the toes.

As you squat down, you want to keep your back in a neutral position, meaning you don’t want it flexed or extended too much. For example, if you put a yard stick from your pelvis to between your shoulder blades, you’d want it to stay in contact with you back throughout the entire movement.

Finally, the key to a squat is that it is a butt muscle exercise, so if you’re not feeling contraction or activity in your butt muscles—if only in your quads—you’re not doing it correctly.

The number of reps and sets you do should depend on how many you can do correctly. If your form starts to break down, you need to stop.