Week One
On December 30th I started my journey to a more fit pregnancy, by deciding to take on the 30 Day Pregnancy Workout at Nourish Move Love. This link takes you to Lindsey's YouTube Channel with all the related workouts. Checkout my original blog post, Thirty Days to a Fit Pregnancy to get the schedule of workouts and see what inspired me to go for this goal and how I found this amazing routine. Here we go.
Day 1: Full Body Prenatal Strength Workout
The Day 1 Nourish Move Love workout on YouTube is titled Advanced Pregnancy Workout- 30 Minute Full Body Pregnancy Strength. The "advanced" title had me a bit nervous, but I was feeling ready for a fresh start, so jumped right in anyhow. To begin you need a chair and dumbbells, I used 5 lbs. It starts with a 5 minute, low impact, warm up, then goes into 4 circuits. Each circuit contains 3 exercises, that you go through twice, focusing on both strength and cardio. The workout ends with a small ab and stretching cool down. I LOVED this 30 minute workout, although I was feeling tired afterwards for sure, and my baby was really kicking throughout the exercises, probably saying it's about time you did some exercise mom.
Day 2- Low Impact HIIT & Prenatal Core
The Day 2 workout consisted of the 15 minute Low Impact HIIT Cardio Workout followed by the 10 minute Pregnancy Core Workout, for a 25 minute total workout time.
My legs were feeling a bit sore from the day before, but only when really using them such as walking up stairs, so I made sure to stretch a bit more before starting the videos this time. The HIIT workout consisted of another short warm up, followed by 10 cardio exercises done for about 30 seconds each, then repeated. I found this workout a bit easier than yesterdays, however my heart rate was higher as it moves at a quicker pace with the cardio focus. I took a short water break after this then started the 10 minute ab workout, which moved at a much slower pace and focused a lot on breathing and keeping your heart rate calm.
I also wanted to note that the comments on YouTube for these workouts are filled with tons of non pregnant people of all ages using and loving these routines! So, if you aren't one for working out alone, ask a non pregnant friend or family member to join you, and I bet they'll get a great workout in too!
Day 3- Lower Body Strength
The Day 3 workout was a 30 Minute Lower Body Workout for Women.
My legs were pretty sore from the first two days of working out, so I wasn't feeling quite as optimistic about a full leg workout. I made it through the warm up, but my legs were already feeling it and my heart was pumping. The workout than ran through several exercises, all focused on the lower body. Some of them weren't too bad, but I was feeling the burn for most of them and my balance was definitely a little off with my baby on board.
Luckily, Lindsey gives many forms of modification for each exercise, so I tried my best to keep those 5 lb dumb bells, but ended up putting them down several times and using my body weight, which was hard enough. So far, I think this one was the hardest workout for me, but I also went into it sore already, and luckily I had the Day 4 recovery day to motivate me to get through it.
Day 4- Rest or Recovery Yoga
Day 4 is a rest day, but also gives you the option to do a 10 Minute Active Recovery Yoga. I really thought about taking the day off completely, but I ended up convincing myself to do the recovery yoga, after all, it was only 10 minutes, and I was so glad I did!
The workout helped stretch out my sore muscles and was super short and very easy. I was actually a little sad when it ended and found myself wishing it had been longer. This is definitely a great video to throw in on a non workout day, a day you just don't have time to get to your regular workout, or if you are really feeling sore and don't want to over do it. It also has a lot of great stretches to help your baby get into position, if you are nearing the end of your pregnancy.
Day 5- Upper Body Strength
The Day 5 workout, was a 30 Minute Dumbbell Arm Workout. Like the lower body leg workout, this video too featured a warm up, then ran through circuits. We did 4 circuits, each with 3 exercises that we repeated twice. Circuit 1 about killed me, as it jumped right into push ups, and I have incredibly week arms and little upper body strength, but there's not much better motivation than a baby on the way, so I powered through it. Luckily Lindsey's goal was to get the hardest exercise (those scary push ups) over with, and circuits 2-4 were much better, but still burned.
Day 6- Cardio Barre
Day 6 was a 20 Minute at Home Barre Workout. For those of you unfamiliar with Barre, it is a ballet and yoga inspired cardio workout that targets multiple muscle areas and is great for toning as well. This video did exactly that and had my heart pumping. I think I was the most tired after this one, as again it was a lot of cardio and at a quick pace.
Day 7- Rest Day
Well, I officially completed one week of the 30 Day Pregnancy Workout from Nourish Move Love, and boy does the Day 7 rest day feel well deserved, and gave me some time to hit the grocery store for some meal prep supply shopping. Being back to work after the holiday break, will pose a challenge for the upcoming weeks, but hopefully I can stick with it as well as I did the first week. I will say that not only do I feel proud and accomplished, but I've had a lot more energy, which is huge, since I can't say I've been sleeping the best between this growing belly and bathroom breaks.
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Trying the workouts for yourself? How are they going? Comment below and let us know. We'd love to hear about it.
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