Shruti had been working out since 2012 with Nasir (age 26 at that time) on a regular basis with the focus of gaining strength & getting rid of her knee related issues those stemmed from excessive running. She mentioned to us that “Despite having trained regularly before with various trainers, I saw improvement in muscle mass and definition, balance and flexibility under his guidance within 6 months itself. And so, our fitness journey continued over the years into the time when I got pregnant with my first child in 2017.”

In India, the general consensus is that pregnancy exercise should be limited to walking, swimming and maybe some yoga. However, since she had a healthy pregnancy (with no issues) and had worked out regularly for years with Nasir at an 8/10 fitness level, there was no real reason for her to give up exercising. Leaving the “how” and “what” upto Nasir, they continued exercising up until the day she had the delivery contractions. The exercises, of course, were toned down – free weights were substituted with therabands. The focus was of gaining flexibility and maintaining strength as well as balance.

Given below is the trimester wise workouts summary:

• First trimester: Workouts continued but on a 6/10 scale. Cardio is scaled down and no more jumping moves were done and not even core workouts were performed.
• Second trimester: Push ups were performed at an angle, with the upper body much higher than the feet. All exercises in which one must lie on the back were stopped. Workouts were more pilates/yoga based and floor work lying on the side was increased.
• Third trimester: Workouts gained more focus in opening up the pelvis (however, this can be different depending on doctor’s recommendations / concerns) and maintaining strength in glute and leg muscles.