Should You Stop Lifting When You Get Pregnant? New Research Says Maybe Not
- Rebecca Brown
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
For years, pregnancy exercise advice has sounded a bit like this:
“Keep moving… but maybe don’t lift heavy… just in case.”
Resistance training is widely recommended during pregnancy, but when it comes to heavy lifting, the guidance has often been cautious and vague—largely because research in this area has been limited. That’s why a new 2026 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise is genuinely exciting. It’s the first study to specifically describe how people who already lift heavy train in the first trimester, including what they modify (if anything), plus pelvic floor and pregnancy-related factors.
The study was led by Dr Christina Prevett (pelvic floor physiotherapist) and Professor Margie Davenport (exercise physiologist and pregnancy exercise researcher), bringing together expertise in pelvic health, strength training, and pregnancy care.
And the results are reassuring.
Why the First Trimester Is a Big Deal
The first trimester is often when symptoms like nausea and fatigue are most intense, and it’s also the period when miscarriage risk is highest. Because of this, many people feel unsure about continuing higher-intensity training, even if they were lifting regularly before pregnancy.
The problem is that most pregnancy resistance training research has historically focused on low-load training or mixed exercise programs, which makes it hard to give evidence-based guidance specifically about high-load lifting early in pregnancy. Until now, we simply haven’t had good data describing what actually happens in the real world.
What This Study Looked At:
This was a retrospective survey study. Researchers surveyed 359 people who were in their first 20 weeks of pregnancy and had been regularly doing resistance training before conceiving. Many came from strength and power sports like functional fitness, weightlifting and powerlifting, and on average they had been training for nearly a decade.
Participants answered questions about:
How they trained before and during early pregnancy
Whether they changed loads, exercises, or techniques
Pelvic floor symptoms (like leaking with lifting or impact)
Pregnancy history, including miscarriage
First-trimester symptoms like nausea and fatigue
A smaller group also shared their actual training logs from three months before pregnancy through to 12 weeks, giving rare insight into what people were really lifting—not just what they remembered.
Did People Actually Keep Lifting?
Yes—most people kept training, but with some natural adjustments.
On average, training frequency dropped slightly from about 4.8 days per week before pregnancy to 4.0 days per week in the first trimester.
When it came to load:
About 7% increased their weights
About 47% stayed roughly the same
About 46% reduced their weights
In the group who shared training logs, average loads stayed around 75–80% of pre-pregnancy one-rep max across the first trimester, with no clear drop-off from week 4 to week 12.
When people did reduce their load, the most common reasons were fatigue, nausea, or simply that training “didn’t feel good” on the day. In other words, changes were mostly driven by symptoms, not fear or blanket rules.
Did People Change What Exercises They Did?
Interestingly, most people didn’t dramatically overhaul their training.
Many continued Olympic lifts if they had been doing them before pregnancy
Most continued core training and exercises performed on their back
Only about 11% reported removing breath-holding or bracing strategies, usually because a coach or health professional told them to
Overall, the pattern wasn’t “everything must change,” but rather small, individual adjustments based on comfort and how someone was feeling.
What Happened to Pelvic Floor Symptoms?
This is one of the most interesting findings.
Before pregnancy, about 1 in 4 participants reported leaking during resistance training. In the first trimester, that dropped to less than 1 in 10. Even more interestingly, this improvement happened whether people reduced load or kept lifting heavier.
The authors suggest a few possible explanations. Early pregnancy doesn’t yet place much mechanical strain on the pelvic floor compared to later stages, and rising oestrogen levels in early pregnancy may have a protective effect on pelvic tissues. We also know from other research that pelvic floor symptoms tend to become more common later in pregnancy, not necessarily in the first trimester.
The Question Everyone Asks: What About Miscarriage?
In this study, miscarriage rates were similar to what we’d expect in the general population.
About 3% of participants experienced a miscarriage during the study period, and around 23% reported having experienced a miscarriage at some point in the past—both figures in line with population estimates.
This doesn’t prove that heavy lifting is “risk-free,” but it does challenge the idea that continuing high-load resistance training in early pregnancy is inherently dangerous for people who were already doing it.
One important (and concerning) side note: most people who had previously experienced a miscarriage reported receiving no guidance at all about how to approach exercise afterwards. That’s a big gap in care—and one this kind of research helps highlight.
So… Should You Stop Lifting When You Get Pregnant?
This study doesn’t say everyone should lift heavy during pregnancy. But it does suggest that if you were already lifting heavy before pregnancy, you don’t automatically need to stop in the first trimester.
Most people naturally adjust their training based on symptoms like fatigue and nausea, and a one-size-fits-all set of restrictions doesn’t reflect what’s actually happening in real life. This is where exercise physiologists play a key role—helping tailor training to your medical history, training background, symptoms, and goals, while keeping both performance and safety in mind.
In other words, your program shouldn’t be driven by fear-based rules, but by individualised, evidence-informed decision making.
The Big Takeaway
This new research shows that many trained lifters continue high-load resistance training in the first trimester, often at relatively high intensities, without obvious increases in pelvic floor symptoms or miscarriage rates compared to the general population.
It challenges outdated, one-size-fits-all rules and supports what good clinicians already aim for: individualised, evidence-informed care.
Prevett, C., & Davenport, M. H. (2026). High-Load Resistance Training in the First Trimester, a Retrospective Survey: Implications for Exercise Professionals and Obstetrical Providers. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003956. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000003956
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