Exercise during early pregnancy doesn’t look like exercise at any other point in your life, and can’t understand it until you’re in it. And then when you’re in it, it feels too late to try and figure it out — the first trimester is such a rollercoaster. This is my second time training through pregnancy, and I feel so thankful to my past self for developing 26 weeks of pregnancy-safe workouts. I’ve been loving them this time around!

I want to walk you through exactly how I modify my own workouts — as both a trainer and as a woman who has experience it personally.

Why Early Pregnancy Throws Everything Off

Before I get into what I actually did, I want to explain why early pregnancy hits your workouts the way it does — because understanding the “why” made it so much easier for me to let go of guilt around modifying.

As early as the first trimester, hormonal shifts start impacting joint stability. On top of that, rising fatigue and nausea change how your body responds to physical activity almost overnight. It’s not weakness or lack of discipline — it’s biology. Your body is quite literally building a human, and it’s reallocating resources accordingly.

I also want to normalize something I hear from so many women I train: many of us don’t get our energy back until around week 13 (but remember, everyone is different). If you’re in the thick of the first trimester and wondering why a workout that used to feel easy now feels like climbing a mountain, that’s incredibly normal.

How I Actually Approach My Workouts

My biggest adjustment? Timing. I found that I had to work out earlier in the day — ideally before noon — or it just wasn’t happening. My energy and motivation reaches 0% by early afternoon, and I stopped fighting it.

Beyond timing, my approach came down to one core principle: consistency over intensity. Some weeks my energy was high and I could get through a full strength session. Other weeks, I focused on breath and mobility only. Both are great choices.

The Specific Modifications I Made

Here’s what modifying my workouts actually looked like in practice during those early weeks:

1. I scaled back intensity. It feels so good to focus on form and practice breathing instead of lifting heavier week over week.
2. Prioritize stretching and mobility. It makes the biggest difference for me day to day when I take time to stretch and breath. I also prioritize taking walks in our neighborhood and incline walking on the treadmill when I’m up for it.
3. I paid much closer attention to my core and pelvic floor. Traditional ab work like crunches was off the table, but I didn’t stop training my core — I just changed how. Moves like bird dogs, pelvic tilts, and cat-cow became staples, since they support the abdominal wall and pelvic floor without unnecessary strain.
4. Swap, not skip. My pregnancy guide has tons of moves that you can swap into your workouts that won’t deplete you or stress your body.
5. I listened to discomfort, dizziness, and shortness of breath immediately. Any time one of those showed up, I stopped and reassessed rather than pushing through — a habit I’d urge every pregnant woman to build early, regardless of fitness background.

Why I Built the GOOD // SWEAT Pregnancy Guide

I’m so thankful to have my pregnancy guide to follow this time around. 26 weeks of workouts built specifically for the second and third trimesters, designed with flexibility in mind — structured, but flexible enough to meet you where you are.

Inside, you’ll find exercise modifications for every stage, pelvic floor education and guidance from my own pelvic floor physical therapist, core-safe movement guidance to help prevent diastasis recti, and prenatal nutrition insight from me as a dietitian. It’s everything I wish I’d had spelled out for me in one place during my own pregnancy.

The Biggest Lesson From My Early Pregnancy Workouts

If there’s one thing I want you to take from my experience, it’s this: modifying your workouts during early pregnancy isn’t a failure or a step backward. It’s the smartest, most supportive thing you can do for your body and your baby.

Some days will look like a full strength session. Other days will look like a walk and a stretch. And if you want a plan that takes the guesswork out of it entirely, my Pregnancy Guide was built to walk beside you through exactly this.

Sending so much love to every mom-to-be figuring this out in real time — you’re doing better than you think.