Pregnancy, Strength, and Osteopathy: Why Your Body Deserves More Support, Not Less

Pregnancy is not a time to minimize your movement, fear exercise, or pull back on challenging your body.
It’s a time to train smarter, move intentionally, and prepare your body for one of the most physically demanding events of your life: labour, delivery, and postpartum recovery.

We wouldn’t expect an athlete to run a marathon without training, and yet women are often told to “slow down,” “be careful”, “avoid lifting” and “be gentle in a season” during pregnancy.
But the truth is, pregnancy asks more of your body than almost any other life stage. Preparing for that demand is one of the most empowering things you can do, and women are resilient beings built to do incredible things.

Two of the most valuable tools a mother can have to support her to adjust to the rapid changes and demands of pregnancy and postpartum are:

Strength training & Osteopathic manual treatment

Relaxin is released to help the body make space for birth, and support the physiological demands that accompany it:

• Softens ligaments

• Increases tissue laxity needed for growth

• Allows the ribs to expand to accommodate the growing fetus

• Supports placental growth

• Helps cardiovascular and renal systems meet increased demands of pregnancy

• Prevents early contractions leading to premature delivery

• Prepares the pelvis and cervix for delivery when the time is right

When ligaments loosen, the muscles must take over the job of stabilizing. That means:

• More muscular demand

• More fatigue

• More compensation

• More opportunity for discomfort or overuse

This is one reason strength training during pregnancy is so important. As your abdomen grows, your entire orientation to gravity changes: your ribcage, pelvis, spine, and diaphragm all reorganize themselves to accommodate the baby. As a result, its like learning a brand-new movement pattern every few weeks.

Your muscles must work at new lengths, under new loads, and with new coordination demands. This is metabolically taxing and physically demanding… which is why training in varied positions is so important to promote muscular adaptations during pregnancy. Strength training during pregnancy helps you:

• maintain muscle mass

• improve postural support

• adapt to new loading demands

• keep your nervous system familiar with a wide range of movement options

• prepare you for birth

We encourage getting as much rest as possible because postpartum is a season of:

• long feeding sessions and broken up sleep

• awkward rotations loading carriers into car seats and transferring newborns out of bassinets from your bed

• lifting strollers, carriers, and carrying diaper bags

• supporting heavier breast tissue

• thousands of repetitions of bending, carrying, rocking, and holding

Pregnancy training isn’t just about pregnancy. It’s about all that while maintaining enough in the tank to ensure postpartum resilience. Building strength while pregnant helps you:

• better tolerate the demands of early motherhood

• avoid injury from awkward, repetitive lifting

• maintain functional capacity through sleep deprivation

• feel more confident returning to exercise

When energy is limited, training smarter & more efficiently, and avoiding injury & pain becomes that much more important. This is where osteopathy becomes incredibly valuable.

Osteopathic treatment helps maintain proper movement mechanics and mobility in:

• the rib cage

• diaphragm

• thoracolumbar junction

• abdominal fascia

• pelvis and sacrum

Better movement mechanics here means:

• easier breathing

• improved pelvic floor coordination

• better pressure management

• reduced incontinence

• reduced prolapse risk

• better pushing mechanics in labour

Strength training builds capacity so your body is strong enough to handle increased load and instability. Osteopathy reduces restrictions, manages tension, and supports smoother adaptation as your body changes.

Together they support:

✔️ better alignment under load
✔️ improved breath mechanics
✔️ more stable pelvic and abdominal function
✔️ less pain and strain
✔️ smoother postpartum recovery
✔️ confidence in your changing body

Training is pregnancy is not about perfection. It’s about support, adaptability, and giving your body the inputs it needs to thrive during an incredibly demanding season. Strength training empowers your muscles. Osteopathy supports your structure. Together, they help you feel more capable, more confident, and more connected to your body before, during, and after delivery.