When to stop doing crunches while pregnant

Sit-ups are a go-to exercise for strengthening our core muscles and tightening up our tums, but you may be unsure whether it's safe to do them while you're pregnant.

“It’s important to clarify that whilst sit-ups are not necessarily the best thing to do in pregnancy they are "safe", they pose no actual threat to you or your baby,” says Charlie Barker, founder of pre and postnatal online fitness studio, Bumps and Burpees.

Although classed as ‘safe’ Charlie says there are many reasons why sits up may not be recommended during pregnancy: “Sit-ups or crunches largely target the external core muscles - the ones that make up the six pack that we can see from the outside - and these are not the core muscles that we need to work on throughout pregnancy.

In fact, as we progress through our pregnancy these muscles will be stretching apart with the growing bump so sit-ups are largely unhelpful as we are growing our baby and our tummies are stretching.

“Instead we want to work on strengthening our deep core muscles that work to stabil

can you do sit ups when 5 weeks pregnant

can you do sit ups if pregnant