10-Minute Arm Workout That's Safe For Pregnancy

If you're pregnant, you'll soon be carrying a baby in one arm and a car seat in the other, so it's critical you strengthen your arms and shoulders now. Today, Sophia Ruiz is here to show us her favorite upper body strengthening workout. Hi, I'm here with Z and Julianne to these are the prenatal upper body work outs. Perfect, so grab a ball to sit on or a chair, and grab whatever weight you feel comfortable with, and as always remember to check with your doctor before engaging in any pregnancy workout. Let's get started. Let's go. Go ahead and slide your feet up so you have enough space in between the ball here. What you wanna do is bring your arms up like wings and squeeze the shoulder blades together like you're pinching something. Go ahead inhale and exhale. Now, of course the bigger your belly, the less you can kind of bend down. To you right. So, you can stay forward if you can't fully get the weights under your legs. You can also go from the sides here. Keep it going. Upper back is really important to have during pregnancy. You wanna be really strong and flexible here. Important after. Probably more important too. Right. Going to breastfeeding. Those shoulders are going to round. Move forward. You want to be able to keep on track naturally. Keep breathing. Keep it going. We're gonna go 20 more seconds here. Great. And sitting on an exercise ball is great for stability. It actually works your core in sort of a non-strenuous way. Right. Good. Keep it going. Nice and wide. Good. 10 more seconds. I can already feel my heart beating fast. Here we go. Squeeze those shoulder blades together. Three, two, and one. Good. Now we're going to go ahead and go into the shoulder press. Go ahead and hold these 90 degrees here. Push up and together. Bring it down. Squeeze. And here you really want keep the neutral spine. It's for a key. So, support yourself, your abdominal. Mind your back. Jillian, how are you doing? Good. Feeling good? I'm glad I'm on a chair. Good. Your body's gonna naturally push itself forward, because of the belly, so what you wanna do is create strength in the shoulders. Keep them back. Keep breathing. Good. Almost done here. Keep going. Perfect. Guys doing ok? Yeah. Great. Good. Blow out. Good. Feeling that shoulder burn? Yeah. Good. Keep going. Almost there. Five more seconds. Hold it together. Hold those abs in two. Perfect. And good. Nice. All right. Let's go ahead and turn the palms out. We're gonna go for some bicep curls here for a couple minutes. Great. So here we go. We're gonna curl up, squeeze that bicep, and down. Good. Make sure your palms are facing outward on these. Draw the belly in and breathe. You want nice, strong arms to hold that baby Nice and easy. Go down. [xx] to your right. Right. Good. Yes. Feeling OK? Yup. Feeling good. Keep squeezing. There you go. You're not only engaging your biceps here, you're also working through your back through your core to stabilize. Good. Hold those shoulders back. Squeeze up biceps. Keep breathing. There you go. Almost there. Then we're gonna do an alteration here. Five more seconds here. Keep breathing. Good. Now we're gonna twist. Twist it in and bring it up. Twist. Bring it up. Good. Feeling the triceps a little bit too? Yes. Good. I like this twisted. It will help define your biceps too for t-shirts in warmer weather. Yeah. You're gonna be doing a lot of lifting with that baby so you want the strongest arms you can get. Start now. Keep breathing. There you go. You guys feeling alright? Feeling great. Good. If you're wearing a heart-rate monitor, make sure to check it. Don't wanna get too high. Here you go. Almost there. Keep going. Draw the belly in. Good. Get a nice burn here. I'm feeling it but I easily. Feeling it. A few more seconds. My entire arm. Keep those elbows in tight. Good. Squeeze. There you go. Good, about five more seconds, and perfect, good. Alright, lets go ahead and stand up, feet about hip width apart toes are nice and straight on these. What you're going to do is lean slightly forward, and you're going to bring the arms out front. Roll the arms up, keeping the elbows nice and close. good. You want to pinch that upper back. And breathe. Draw the belly in. It's going to be really important, especially if you're going to be breast-feeding. Your shoulders are going to be rolling forward a lot. You want to keep those shoulders back. Train them now good. Keep breathing. Pay attention to those muscles right in between your shoulder blades. You almost want to feel like you could put a pencil in between those muscle that as we squeeze you could hold it there. That's how tight you should be feeling it. Good. You're gonna need this posture. Your belly's gonna pull you forward. You wanna stand up as straight as you can to avoid back pain. Good. Keep going. Good. You guys are doing great. Keep breathing. Good. great. And really pull through your core to protect your lower back. 'Cause you're leaning forward here so there's a lot of weight on your back with your belly. Good . Engage your core. The good way to be stressed too. Really? Work those muscles. Yeah. The more relaxed the muscles are, the better. You want to work them and then stretch them out real good after. Tire them out. Anything for the baby, right? Especially during labor. You're gonna need these muscles. Good. Keep working. Think of it as endurance training, right? Right, that's right. Good. Keep pinching. You guys feeling okay? I'm good. Almost there. Remember to breathe. Nice, calm, steady breath, too. Elbows in tight that belly and don't forget. Weight training during pregnancy is really important too, for so many reasons. For strength, flexibility, endurance, even building your bones. Great. Five more seconds, guys. Breathe. Perfect. Good. Relax. Now we're going to go standing tricep extension. So go ahead and lean forward just like the row. Bring the elbows up. What you wanna do is extend out, keeping the elbows by your sides. Keep them high. Good. And breathe out. Perfect. Now you really want to squeeze through your triceps. Focus your energy on that part of your arm. Mark with that muscle there. I'm glad I did these while I was pregnant. My baby was nine pounds. That's a lot. Wow. Keep breathing. Now, this is something you can do when you're traveling or at home. If you don't have weights, you can use a resistance band. Tie it to a door or a chair. Make sure it's stable though and it won't move. And then you can do the same thing, do a triceps extension. Right. You can even use water bottles, you can use anything. Good. Keep breathing. Draw the belly in. Are you guys feeling okay? Yeah, feeling good. Perfect. Keep breathing. Good. Keep your head up. Shoulders back as well. Now that burn in there. Good. Now, we're gonna go into a row tricep extension. Good. There you go. Push the chest out. Extend. Great. So, here we're using multiple muscles. to get a great, full upper body workout. There you go. Push those shoulders back. Remember, I could walk up to you now, put a pencil in between those shoulder blades and it won't fall out. That's how hard I want you to be squeezing. Okay, I want you give a little flip and the triceps extension. Up. Flip. Good. Up. Flip. Good. Bring it down. Good, get really deep in there. 20 more seconds, ladies. Let's go. Bring it up. You should be feeling your heart rate. Good. Getting a little bit faster. And we're burning more calories. Here we go. Just awesome. Perfect. Keep it going. Two, one and relax. Good, Alright, Lets get into some active stretching, loosen up those arms. You're going to do a windmill Here we go. Go forward. Feel the glutes in the back up. We just worked it so hard. Keep it going. Nice and wide. You don't want to twist. Stay nice andHere we go. It's a great way to wind down the workout. Right. But you're still doing some activity, mimicking swimming, which is so great during pregnancy, too. You feel that in your back? I love it. Stay loose. It's really important. You're gonna go get a lot of knots in your back during pregnancy from leaning forward so much. Weightlifting is Keep stretching. Good. Let's go backwards. Bring it back. Feel the chest open up. Reach as high as you can. Good. Glut on the sides too. I love that. Perfect. Get nice and wide. Make sure to smile. Good. 10 more seconds. I can hear my bones creaking. That's right. Get all those creaks out. Good. Alright let's go and do a triceps stretch. Bring it up and back. You want to pull this elbow as far as you can. Not too far. You want to avoid over-stretching. You're gonna make sure your elbow is close to your head on this. Here you go. You're directly up. Good. You want to keep that upper body nice and loose. Make sure to keep breathing. Stretch These need a workout too. Good, 5 more seconds, hold it. There you go. Good. Let's switch to the other side. Bring it up and back. And pull. There you go. And kind of a little fun trick that I do is that if you hook your arm, your upper arm, behind your head. You can almost use your head to push back on your arm a little bit if you're not able to pull back on your upper arm. You can feel it in your shoulder blades a little bit too. Really good. Loosen up. There you go. Keep holding, you're almost there. Five more seconds. Just let your hand hang. This should feel really good. Breathe into it. Good. I'm breathing. Remember to always be safe and steady while doing a workout pregnant, and stay hydrated and have fun! Thanks so much, Sophia. You're welcome. We'll see you next time on Fit Sugar t.v. Bye! Bye!