For the vast majority of pregnant women in Dubai there should be no issues with training and exercising within moderation during their first trimester.

In fact exercise is seen by professionals as being beneficial to both mother and baby.

There are of course restrictions on the type of exercise and workout routines that women should do and all should be done with caution.

Exercising and keeping fit from the first trimester is a great way to ensure mothers-to-be stay fit, healthy and in shape during their entire pregnancy.

We asked a professional female pre natal personal trainer in Dubai for advice on safe and beneficial exercises to do during the first trimester.

Pre Pregnancy Fitness Levels Count

What exercises a pregnant woman can do in her first trimester solely depends on how she feels and her fitness level pre-pregancy.

If she feels great and is used to exercising, she won’t need to make any adjustments to her training.

Apart from maybe lowering the training intensity on days when she feels more tired.

I usually recommend pregnant women in Dubai to stay away from high-intense interval training.

A general rule is to only work out at about 70% of your maximal capacity during pregnancy.

I highly recommend that pregnant women start doing core exercises and pelvic floor exercises as early as possible in their pregnancy.

Types of exercise & workouts for prenatal women in the UAE

In the first trimester there are few types of exercises, workouts or specific exercise positions to avoid in general.

If you feel any discomfort in an exercise, I recommend that you stop immediately and avoid that exercise if it continues to cause discomfort.

I recommend avoiding deep stretches. Exercises in hot conditions (including hot yoga), heavy standing exercises where the legs don’t move. Back bends and ab exercises such as crunches and sit ups should also be avoided.

Back bends and sit ups are not unsafe in the first trimester, but I generally take them out from the beginning to practice pregnancy-safe core exercises and avoid unnecessary stretching of the linea alba.

If a client in Dubai didn’t exercise before her pregnancy, I generally avoid high intense training, jumping and running.

This is mainly because the levels of the hormone relaxin in the body considerably rises during pregnancy.

Relaxin helps with vaginal delivery, but in the mean time, the ligaments in the body will all become more elastic and less stable, increasing the risk of injury.