Supported Ball Squat Exercises for Pregnant Women

Video Transcript

"Alright we’re going to move on to lower body exercises. It’s very important to strengthen your quadriceps and your glutes throughout your pregnancy. The first exercise I’m going to show you is a supported ball squat. You do not want to do squats without support, you can do it on a machine, you can do it with a ball against a wall, but you do not want to do unsupported squats or lunges for that matter. As far as your knee flexion, you do not want to bring your knees and hips even or even past one another, so you’re definitely going to modify your squat for your pregnancy. Your hips are not going to come below your knees at all. The ball is going to come against the wall, abs tight, hands on your hips for just a little bit more balance. Go ahead and separate those feet at least hip width apart, keep your abs really tight and you’re going to inhale, come down keeping the knees over the ankles pushing through the heels and exhale as you extend. Try not to lock your knees; you’re just going to extend completely. Inhale and exhale. The farther along you get in your pregnancy, you’re not going to be able to go as low, that’s okay, you should listen to your body just as long as those knees remain over the ankles and you don’t bring your hips lower than your knees at any point in your pregnancy. Keep that working the glutes and in the quadriceps, inhale and exhale. Take your time, pace yourself very slow, very controlled. And exhale, inhale, good keep the abdominals tight. Inhale and exhale. You don’t want to hold weights while you’re doing this, you don’t want to use weights or any type of resistance tubes for that matter on your lower body during your pregnancy. That’s a definite no-no. So anything you do with your lower body, you’re not going to use weights, and you’re not going to use resistance tubes. It’s all about your body weight. Inhale and exhale. "