Pregnancy Workouts for Every Stage

If you're pregnant and not sure what kind of workout you should be doing, celebrity fitness trainer Tracy Anderson, creator of the Tracy Anderson Perfect Design Series, is here to guide us through some exercises that are right for each stage of your pregnancy.

Anderson says when you're pregnant, the most important thing to remember is to listen to your body because everyone is different.

"Some people can work out through their entire pregnancy, but others like me, felt like everything hurt, so listen to what your body is telling you," she said. "Most importantly, there are different kinds of exercises that are safe during the different stages of your pregnancy."

EXERCISES FOR VARIOUS PREGNANCY STAGES:

First trimester -- During your first trimester, Anderson says there are a lot of exercises that you can do at this stage.

"You can really still do ab exercises so you should concentrate on that area while you still can do these exercises," she said.

Ab exercises:
Attitude Ab Lift:
Lean back on elbows. Legs start straight out in front of you. Lift one leg to 90 degrees in an attitude position. Slightly bent and turned out. Then return to the ground. Do 10 on the right then 10 on the left.

Frog pull alternating passé ab lift:
Lean back on elbows legs straight out in front of you pull them into your chest knees open feet stay together. Return for a beat then lift one leg straight and the other to a passé. Legs out and switch.

Second trimester -- Anderson says you should do exercises that target your butt and thighs. She added, "I also try to do a lot of exercises on all fours as that helps to ease some of the pressure on your back."

Leg and butt exercises:
Diagonal cross lift:
Kneel on all fours start with one leg straight out to the side knee forward lift across back with a slight bend. At the end of the movement stretch the leg straight across at an upward diagonal.

Inverted butt lift with outer thigh raise:
Kneel of all fours begin with right leg bent and knee facing inward with foot out to the side. Keeping the inverted position raise the foot to the ceiling. When you bring the foot down add an outer thigh lift keeping the knee bent raise knee to the side.

Third trimester -- At this point, Anderson says, most women don't want to show off anything except their arms, so I have my clients do exercises that target their arms.

Arm exercises:
Twisting bicep press: Using three-pound weights, raise right arm slightly bent from hip to above head as you lean into the left hip. When you bring it back down rotate to palm facing ceiling. Keeping this rotation press arm to the ceiling.

"T" arm pull back: Using three-pound weights, hold arms out to the side in a "T" position palms face back, pull elbow back.