What does the evidence actually support?
Recent research supports the inclusion of appropriately adapted resistance training within physical activity during an uncomplicated pregnancy. It does not establish one ideal pregnancy load, repetition range, progression rate or trimester-by-trimester programme.
That limitation matters because most pregnancy resistance-training research has used multicomponent programmes, and the reporting of sets, repetitions, load and progression has often been incomplete. Research can support the broad decision to include strength training without prescribing the exact session for the woman standing in front of us.
It also cannot justify promising that one strength programme will prevent complications, shorten labour, protect the pelvic floor or cause a faster postpartum recovery. Those outcomes belong to a much wider clinical and personal context.
The practical answer is not to become vague. It is to combine the evidence boundary with a coaching system capable of making specific training decisions.
Pregnancy does not automatically mean light weights
Heavy is relative to the woman, the outcome and the day.
A challenging load for a beginner may be an acclimatisation load for an experienced lifter. A familiar weight that moved well last month may not fit today if balance, symptoms, recovery, breathing comfort or healthcare advice has changed.
In ordinary Evolved strength programming, productive working loads commonly develop towards approximately 70% to 85% of a reliable one-repetition maximum, or a true six-to-twelve repetition maximum. That is a training framework, not a pregnancy prescription and not a target every pregnant woman must reach.
When a reliable one-repetition maximum does not exist, we can use recorded repetitions, RPE and movement quality to judge the load. RPE tells us how demanding the set felt; PRIME tells us whether posture, range, intention, movement and execution still support the purpose of the exercise.
Pregnancy may change the route to an effective stimulus. A coach might reduce the range, provide more support, reduce volume, extend rest, remove impact or choose a more stable variation while preserving useful effort.
The aim is the most meaningful work the woman can perform well and recover from inside her current advice. It is neither the heaviest load she can survive nor the lightest load that merely looks cautious.
Starting during pregnancy is different from continuing
A woman beginning strength training during pregnancy needs a different entry point from an experienced lifter continuing an established programme. Neither woman should be handed a generic pregnancy workout.
For a beginner, the early result is often rapid improvement in setup, coordination, confidence and movement skill. A true one-repetition maximum is usually unnecessary because the first priority is learning how to repeat quality work and judge effort accurately.
At The Evolved, we generally expect the strength-learning phase to take one or two 13-week programmes, approximately 12 to 24 weeks. Six months is often the end of the beginning: the point at which a woman has developed enough skill and knowledge to start working more consistently near her real capacity.
Pregnancy does not justify rushing that learning horizon. The coach still needs to choose exercises the woman can learn, establish a repeatable range and build training tolerance progressively.
An experienced lifter brings valuable history. Previous loads, exercises and RPE records give the coach more information, but experience does not make yesterday’s programme automatically appropriate throughout pregnancy.
The better question for both women is: what can we train productively now, and what evidence will tell us what to do next?
What should change inside a pregnancy strength session?
The programme on the page is only the starting proposal. Preparation and acclimatisation help determine whether the planned work fits the woman that day.
At The Evolved, a session begins with dynamic movement, mobility and activation selected for the work ahead. The main lift is then introduced progressively so the coach can observe posture, range, comfort and the likely limiting factor before working sets begin.
That acclimatisation is not filler. It is an information-gathering step.
If the intended work fits, it can proceed. If it does not, PRIME guides a practical sequence: improve the setup, reduce the range, reduce the load or volume, extend recovery, remove impact, use a more stable variation, substitute the pattern or pause the affected work.
The work actually performed is recorded, including the exercise, range, sets, repetitions, load and RPE. The next session is then based on evidence rather than memory or a pregnancy label alone.
This is how personalisation becomes more than “listen to your body.” The woman’s response changes a defined training decision.
For exercise-by-exercise examples, read Strength Training During Pregnancy: The Best and Worst Exercises.
A pregnancy programme should also change across weeks
Daily adjustments matter, but a good programme also controls how training stress develops over time.
The Evolved loading wave normally moves through Accumulation, Intensification and Realisation before a reduced-load Deload and Testing week. Repetitions generally reduce as load rises, allowing a woman to develop movement skill and working capacity before expressing heavier strength.
Pregnancy does not require every woman to move through that wave at the same rate. One woman may continue progressing, while another may need longer at a phase, a different exercise, an earlier deload or a different way to test progress.
This is why “heavy and low reps only” is incomplete advice. Lower-repetition work can be valuable, but it sits inside a programme that develops skill, muscular endurance, tolerance and recovery rather than replacing them.
Testing also does not have to mean a maximal one-repetition attempt. A repeatable load, improved range, better RPE at the same work or stronger PRIME-quality repetitions can all provide useful evidence for the next block.
What belongs to the coach, and what belongs to the healthcare team?
A strength coach should not contradict a woman’s obstetric, medical or allied-health professional. Diagnosis, treatment, clinical restrictions and rehabilitation remain with the relevant clinician.
The coach owns the decisions that remain inside qualified strength and fitness coaching: exercise selection, range, load, sets, repetitions, rest, frequency, regression, progression and the accurate recording of what was performed.
Clear, dated instructions reported by the member can guide training when the coach can apply them without inventing a clinical interpretation. Direct communication with the clinician is preferable when advice is material, changing, ambiguous or easy to misremember, provided the woman has created the necessary two-way privacy permission.
If a warning sign appears, the member feels acutely unwell or the exercise conflicts with current advice, the affected work stops. Urgent symptoms require urgent clinical or emergency action; non-urgent uncertainty needs clarification before the affected progression resumes.
A restriction on one activity does not automatically mean all training must stop. A capable coach clarifies the boundary, preserves what remains useful and does not guess beyond her scope.
When pregnancy ends, the decision changes from adapting training during pregnancy to establishing a current return point. Continue with Postpartum Strength Training: How to Return Without Starting From Zero.
What should you ask a pregnancy strength coach?
Ask how the coach:
- records and applies healthcare advice;
- chooses a starting load without automatically making everything light;
- uses preparation and acclimatisation to make daily decisions;
- measures effort and movement quality;
- changes range, volume, impact and exercise stability;
- records what you actually completed; and
- decides when to progress, consolidate, pause or refer.
A provider should be able to explain the system and its limits, not simply produce a list of supposedly safe exercises.
At The Evolved, we programme exercise so the relevant movement patterns are challenged with an appropriate intensity across the training week using the Evolved Method. During pregnancy, that means preserving purposeful strength training while changing the variables the woman, the day and her healthcare advice require.
If you want help finding your appropriate starting point, explore The Evolved and join the Priority List.
Continue with Nutrition and Fuelling
Pregnancy nutrition needs useful direction without pretending that every trimester or woman needs the same prescription. Read how to eat to support strength training during pregnancy, including energy, protein and tolerable pre-training options.
For the complete map across strength, nutrition, sleep and recovery, and mindset and confidence, use The Complete Guide to Women’s Strength and Transformation Across Every Life Stage.
About Megan Brown
Megan Brown is co-owner and head coach at The Evolved All Female Gym in West End, Brisbane. She has coached women since 2013 and holds a Certificate IV in Fitness, including pregnancy training, and a Certified Metabolic Nutritionist qualification.
Research and scope
- 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of resistance training during pregnancy
- 2026 systematic review of pregnancy resistance-training variables and reporting
- Supervised moderate-to-vigorous resistance exercise during pregnancy
- Systematic review of vigorous-intensity exercise during pregnancy
This article provides general strength-training education, not an individual medical prescription. The research describes groups; the Evolved Method sections describe our coaching and programming practice.
