First trimester exercise: gentle movement for the early weeks

Check with your OB or midwife before you start. They know your pregnancy and your history, and they can tell you whether anything means you should hold back.

The first trimester can be a strange stretch. From the outside nothing seems to have changed, while on the inside you may feel more tired than you have ever felt, queasy for much of the day, and unsure what is still okay to do. This page covers the gentle, general guidance that is widely shared. It is not medical advice. If you would like company through these weeks, prenatal lessons from the early weeks keep things gentle, once your OB or midwife is happy for you to move.

Tiredness and nausea come first

Many people find these early weeks the hardest for energy. Fatigue can arrive suddenly, and nausea can make the thought of a workout feel impossible.

That is fine. Exercise in the first trimester does not need to look like your old routine. On a low day, five minutes of slow breathing on the floor, a gentle stretch before bed, or a short walk in cool air all count. On a better day, you may manage more. Letting the day decide is part of the practice now, not a failure of it.

A few things can make moving easier:

• Eat a little first. A small snack before you move can settle the stomach for some people.
• Keep water close and sip through the practice.
• Move in a cool room. Overheating is something to avoid in pregnancy, so skip hot yoga and heated studios.
• Keep it short. Ten minutes that feels good is better than half an hour that leaves you drained.
• Pick a quiet time of day. If mornings are the worst for nausea, move later.

What gentle movement can look like

If your OB or midwife has cleared you, these are the kinds of movement commonly suggested in the early weeks:

• Walking at a pace where you can still talk comfortably.
• Slow, adapted yoga, with plenty of rest between shapes.
• Easy stretching to a mild point, not your furthest point.
• Breathing practice, sitting on a cushion with your back against a wall.

In yoga, shapes such as a gentle Cat-Cow, a wide-kneed Child’s Pose, a cross-legged seat in Easy Pose and Mountain Pose with the feet apart are commonly offered from early on. The guide to prenatal yoga poses by trimester shows how the choices change later.

What is usually changed or left out

Even early on, the general advice is to:

• Skip lying on your belly.
• Keep twists gentle and open, rather than deep twists that squeeze the abdomen.
• Leave out strong core work and deep backbends.
• Keep the breath smooth, with no breath holding or forceful breathing.
• Avoid hot rooms and anything that leaves you very out of breath.
• Leave new inversions and high-impact moves for another time.

If you exercised or practised yoga before pregnancy, you may be able to keep more of your routine with changes. That is a conversation for your OB or midwife, not a general rule.

A note on worry

Many people in early pregnancy worry that moving might harm the pregnancy, or that not moving might. This page cannot answer that for you, and no general guide should. Your OB or midwife can talk it through with you, and it is always fine to ask. Writing your questions down before an appointment helps, because early check-ups can feel short and it is easy to forget what you meant to say.

Stop and call your OB or midwife if

Stop straight away and contact your OB or midwife if you notice any of these:

• Bleeding from the vagina
• Fluid leaking from the vagina
• Cramping or pain in the belly that does not ease
• Dizziness or feeling faint
• Chest pain
• Pain or swelling in one calf

If it feels severe or you cannot reach them, call emergency services or go to the nearest hospital.

If you would like support

I am certified in prenatal and postnatal (postpartum) yoga through Doula School International. In a private prenatal yoga lesson in the first trimester, we keep things gentle and short on effort, work inside what your OB or midwife has said, and rest whenever you need to.