Welcome to The Series, a new segment on The Chill Times designed to bring focused exercises straight to your home. With the guidance of Thea Hughes, a functional strength coach at SESSION and creative marketing consultant, we’ll be providing at-home workouts for all the areas you really care about. Check back every other Monday for a new workout, and follow Thea to connect further about questions or concerns.

To all the mamas, and soon to be mamas, we got you! Being strong during and after pregnancy is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Building lean muscle mass helps you to not only move better, but it combats postural changes, aids labor, and develops a strong foundation to recover better with. Women are already incredible – mothers are superwomen.

To prep yourself for movement, start off with these three warm-up exercises. Repeat 8 reps of each and repeat 2x. 

Cat/Cow

Pelvic Tilts

Alternating reverse lunges

Circuit 1 

x12-15 Back Elevated Hip Thrust + Banded Abductions

x10 Lateral Raise 

x10/10 Half Stance Deadlift + Single Arm Bent Over Row

Complete the above moves with 20-30 seconds of rest in between each. Once complete, repeat the entire circuit for  4 rounds total before moving on to Circuit 2

Circuit 2

x10 Tricep Kick-Back (2 counts up, 1 count hold, 1 count to lower, repeat)

X10 Bent Over Presses (2 counts up, 2 counts to lower, repeat)

Complete the above moves with limited rest in between. Once completed, repeat the entire circuit for 3 rounds total before moving on to Circuit 3

Circuit 3

X10-12 Squat to Overhead Press

Note: Keep the ribcage tight!

X8 Deadlift to Alternating Reverse Lunges (deadlift + right lunge + left lunge = 1 rep)

:20/:20 Heavy Carry (keeping the torso straight, fighting the urge to lean to one side)

Complete the above moves with 30 seconds rest in between. Once completed, repeat the entire circuit for 3 rounds total before cooling down!