Every pregnancy is different. Before starting or continuing any exercise, check with your gynaecologist — especially if you have any complications.
Why stay active in pregnancy?
For most healthy pregnancies, regular moderate activity is encouraged. Health guidelines suggest around 150 minutes a week — for example 30 minutes on five days — of activity like brisk walking. It can help with back pain, sleep, energy, mood and healthy weight gain, and prepares your body for delivery.
Common aches — and what helps
- Lower back pain: posture changes as your bump grows. Gentle exercise, good sitting posture and a supportive pillow at night help.
- Pelvic girdle pain (at the back of the pelvis or over the pubic bone): keep knees together when getting in and out of bed or a car, take smaller steps, and avoid standing on one leg to dress.
- Leaking a little urine when you cough or sneeze: pelvic floor exercises help, during pregnancy and after.
- Leg cramps and swelling: gentle calf stretches, ankle movements, and resting with feet raised.
Generally safe exercises
- Walking — the simplest and one of the best.
- Pelvic floor exercises: squeeze and lift the muscles you would use to stop passing urine, hold for a few seconds, then relax fully. Build up to 10 repetitions, a few times a day.
- Pelvic tilts on hands and knees to ease back ache.
- Gentle stretching and prenatal yoga, avoiding deep twists and over-stretching.
- Stationary cycling or swimming, if you enjoy them.
Things to avoid
- Contact sports and activities with a risk of falling
- Lying flat on your back for long periods in later pregnancy
- Heavy lifting and holding your breath while straining
- Exercising in heat until you are overheated or very breathless
Stop exercising and contact your doctor straight away if you have:
- Vaginal bleeding or fluid leaking
- Regular, painful tightenings or contractions
- Dizziness, chest pain, or a bad headache with blurred vision
- Pain or swelling in one calf
- Your baby moving less than usual
After delivery
The first weeks
Rest as much as you can, but get up and walk gently. Start pelvic floor exercises and deep, relaxed breathing early, as your doctor advises. After a caesarean, support your tummy with a pillow when you cough, and avoid lifting anything heavier than your baby until your doctor says it is fine.
Looking after your back
Feeding, bathing and carrying a baby means bending and lifting all day. Sit with your back supported and bring the baby up to you with a pillow while feeding, rather than leaning down. Change nappies at a comfortable height.
Tummy muscle separation
It is normal for the tummy muscles to separate during pregnancy (diastasis recti). For most women the gap reduces in the weeks after delivery, helped by the right gentle exercises. A physiotherapist can check it and guide you.
Returning to exercise
More structured exercise usually starts after your six-week check-up, or later after a caesarean — when your doctor agrees. Build up gradually, and start with core and pelvic floor strength before running or jumping.
At Nisarg, Dr. Hemal Gondkar and her team help women before and after delivery with safe exercise, posture care and pre- and post-natal massage. See our pregnancy and post-natal physiotherapy.
Book an assessment with Dr. Hemal
Call or WhatsApp us — we’ll find a time that suits you. No referral needed.
This article is general information. It is not a substitute for advice from your gynaecologist or a personal assessment by a physiotherapist.