Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Always talk to your OB-GYN or midwife before starting or changing an exercise routine during pregnancy.
5 Things That Can Happen When You Skip Exercise During Pregnancy (According to the Research)
"Just take it easy" is some of the most common — and, according to the data, most misguided — advice given to pregnant women. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has recommended regular exercise throughout pregnancy since 2015, yet fewer than 1 in 4 pregnant women in the U.S. actually meet that activity guideline.
That gap matters. Below are five research-backed consequences of prolonged inactivity during pregnancy — and why "resting for two" isn't the protective move it's often assumed to be.
1. Higher Risk of Gestational Diabetes and Excessive Weight Gain
Sedentary behavior is one of the clearest, most consistently studied risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Multiple reviews have found that low physical activity — especially when paired with high sedentary time — is linked to a greater likelihood of developing GDM, and that structured exercise programs help reduce both GDM risk and excessive gestational weight gain. One study found that a steep drop in physical activity from pre-pregnancy levels was itself an independent risk factor for gaining more weight than recommended.
GDM isn't just a pregnancy footnote — it raises the risk of a larger-than-average baby, delivery complications, and the mother's own risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
2. Weaker Core and Pelvic Floor Function
The abdominal wall and pelvic floor take on enormous load during pregnancy, and inactivity doesn't protect them — it leaves them undertrained for the job. Research on diastasis recti (the separation of the abdominal muscles) and pelvic floor dysfunction shows that a weak, untrained core-pelvic floor system is associated with more abdominal pain, higher rates of pelvic floor dysfunction, and a harder postpartum recovery. Encouragingly, randomized trials have shown that a supervised abdominal and pelvic floor exercise program does not worsen diastasis recti and can meaningfully improve pelvic floor muscle strength and symptom severity after birth — directly contradicting the old myth that pregnant women should avoid core work altogether.
3. More Severe Low Back and Pelvic Girdle Pain
Low back pain affects more than half of pregnant women, and 10–65% experience pelvic girdle pain — making it the most common musculoskeletal complaint of pregnancy. A systematic review and meta-analysis of over 52,000 pregnant women found that while exercise doesn't necessarily prevent this pain from occurring, women who exercised during pregnancy experienced significantly less severe pain than those who didn't. That's a meaningful difference in day-to-day quality of life — and it matters beyond comfort: one study found postpartum depressive symptoms were three times more common in women who dealt with unmanaged low back and pelvic pain during pregnancy.
4. Increased Risk of Prenatal and Postpartum Mood Symptoms
Physical activity is one of the few modifiable factors shown to influence maternal mental health during and after pregnancy. Meta-analyses have found that moderate-intensity activity during pregnancy is associated with a decreased risk of postpartum depression, and supervised exercise programs have shown measurable reductions in prenatal depressive symptoms. A 2025 randomized controlled trial found that women who did regular aerobic exercise during pregnancy had significantly lower rates of elevated postpartum depression screening scores at three months than those who didn't exercise. Inactivity, in other words, isn't a neutral choice for mental health — it removes one of the more accessible protective tools available.
5. Longer Recovery and Higher Cesarean Risk
ACOG's own clinical guidance points to real delivery-related benefits of staying active: women who exercise during pregnancy tend to have lower rates of cesarean delivery, shorter postpartum recovery time, and reduced risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia. Inactivity doesn't just fail to offer these protections — deconditioning during pregnancy means the body is less prepared for the physical demands of labor and the recovery that follows.
The Real Issue Isn't Willpower — It's a Missing Plan
Most women aren't skipping exercise out of laziness. They're skipping it because they don't know what's safe, they're afraid of hurting the baby, or they simply don't have a program built for a pregnant body — one that accounts for a shifting center of gravity, a stretching core, relaxin-loosened joints, and changing energy and nutrition needs trimester by trimester.
That's the gap we built our 26-Week Pregnancy Workout Guide to close — combining safe, trimester-appropriate strength and mobility programming with the nutrition guidance many pregnancy fitness plans leave out entirely. It was developed with input from a pelvic floor physical therapist, built on a registered dietitian's nutrition framework, and tested in real life during a real pregnancy. If any of the five risks above hit close to home, it might be worth a look.
Sources
- ACOG — Exercise During Pregnancy
- ACOG — Physical Activity and Exercise During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period
- HHS/ODPHP — Promoting Physical Activity During and After Pregnancy
- Physical Activity and Risk of Gestational Diabetes: A Meta-Review — MDPI, 2024
- Decreased Physical Activity and Excessive Gestational Weight Gain — IJERPH, 2021
- Abdominal/Pelvic Floor Exercise and Diastasis Recti RCT — ScienceDirect, 2024
- Impact of Exercising on Pelvic Symptom Severity Postpartum — Physical Therapy Journal, Oxford Academic, 2024
- Exercise for Prevention of Low Back and Pelvic Girdle Pain — European Journal of Pain, meta-analysis
- Therapeutic Exercise and Pregnancy-Related Low Back/Pelvic Girdle Pain — Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine
- Exercise in Pregnancy and Risk of Postpartum Depression RCT — PMC, 2025
- Physical Activity Intervention and Perinatal Depression — ScienceDirect, meta-analysis