For years, pregnancy training came with a script. This exercise by trimester two. This RPE by trimester three. It felt structured, safe, easy to hand out. And honestly, it’s still how a lot of pregnancy education is structured. It’s a narrative you’ll still see all over social media and in general guidance.

But every pregnancy is different. Two people at the same week, in the same trimester, can be managing completely different things. One person feels strong and stable at a 9 RPE well into the third trimester. Another is struggling to manage pressure at a 6. A fixed number was never actually measuring what mattered.

Blanket rules also imply that if you go past them, something’s going wrong. That’s not true, and it’s not a helpful thing to carry into training this late in pregnancy.

What’s Actually True

None of this means load and effort stay constant right through to birth. For most people, training load does naturally decrease as pregnancy progresses, especially closer to birth. That part isn’t controversial.

What’s different is that there’s no universal point where that has to happen, and no RPE number that applies to everyone at the same stage. For some people, that shift starts early in the third trimester. For others, it’s the final few weeks. For some, it’s barely noticeable until birth is close. It’s shaped by how the pregnancy is going, how the body is managing pressure, energy levels, sleep, and a dozen other individual factors, not by a date on the calendar.

I also used to think maxing out lifts in pregnancy was off the table entirely — too risky, and strength gains just weren’t the goal. I’ve since coached women to new deadlift PRs while deep into their third trimester, with great postpartum outcomes. That rule was never really a rule. It was an assumption I hadn’t questioned.

This is why a framework is more useful than a protocol. A protocol tells you what to do at a fixed point. A framework teaches you what to pay attention to, so you can make that call for your own body, in real time, rather than following a rule that was written for someone else.

What Deserves More Attention Instead

If dropping to a specific RPE isn’t the point, what should you actually be paying attention to in the third trimester?

Releasing tension deserves a key spot throughout pregnancy, especially through the pelvic floor. As pregnancy progresses, a lot of women hold more tension through the pelvic floor and surrounding muscles, often without realising it. That tension can affect how well pressure moves through the body during training, regardless of how heavy or light the load is. Working on releasing that tension through breath, positioning, and deliberate downtraining often does more for how training feels than adjusting reps or load ever will.

This doesn’t replace load management. It sits alongside it. But it’s a key consideration rather than defaulting to “just make things lighter.”

Signs You’re Struggling to Manage Pressure (or Experiencing Pain)

Instead of watching a number, this is what’s actually worth paying attention to. None of these mean something has gone wrong or that you need to stop training. They’re signals to check in with how you’re managing pressure and adjust from there.

• Coning or doming through the abdominal wall that doesn’t ease with a change in breath or position. Although it’s important to note there is so much nuance here, and I wouldn’t immediately label this as a red flag or poor pressure management. It’s expected tissue behaviour.
• A sense of heaviness, dragging, or pressure through the pelvic floor during or after training
• Leaking during exercises
• Bearing down or gripping through the belly to get through a rep, rather than breathing through it
• Pain that’s sharp, localised, or doesn’t settle with rest, as opposed to general fatigue or effort
• Feeling like you’re holding your breath or straining hard just to complete a set

Noticing one of these doesn’t mean dropping load altogether. It usually means the specific exercise, position, or breath pattern needs adjusting, and that adjustment is individual. What works for one person’s pressure management won’t be the same for someone else’s.

Individual Exercise Adjustments

Some exercises might need adjusting in the third trimester, but which ones, and how, is individual. It’s not a fixed list of “avoid these by trimester three.”

For one person, that might mean changing position on core-loaded movements. For another, it might mean adjusting grip or bracing strategy on overhead work, or changing tempo on something that used to feel straightforward. What needs adjusting depends on what that person’s body is telling them, using the signs above as the guide, not the exercise itself or the week of pregnancy.

This is also why generic “safe list” and “avoid list” content falls short. It answers the wrong question. The more useful question isn’t which exercises are okay in trimester three? It’s how is this person managing pressure right now, in this exercise?

This is exactly the kind of thinking Strong in Pregnancy is built around. Instead of handing you a script of exercises and RPE targets by week, the program teaches you how to read your own body, manage pressure, and adjust training as things change, right through to birth.

If you want training that actually adapts with you, rather than a generic set of trimester rules, that’s where to start. Try 7 days free on the LWE app.