If you’re pregnant, your fitness journey doesn’t have to come to a halt. In fact, plenty of New York City’s most popular exercise studios offer prenatal fitness classes to keep you—and baby—healthy!
Staying healthy while pregnant is one of the best things you can do for your baby and yourself. After confirming what’s OK with your doctor, check out our top prenatal workouts in NYC, including prenatal yoga, prenatal pilates, cycling in and out of the pool and barre work. Added plus? You can do all of these classes post-baby as well to keep your workout streak going strong. For more fitness spots, head on over to our roundup of New York City gyms with childcare, take a look at our favorite kid-friendly hikes in and near NYC, and our top NYC stroller hikes if you already have a kid in tow. And, although the past few years of the pandemic have been hard on exercise studios, a positive change has been the uptick in fitness providers now offering all kinds of virtual options, including on-demand classes and live online sessions. Whatever your prenatal fitness need is, an NYC studio will meet it!
BYKlyn
Indoor cycling studio BYKlyn uses Silent Disco/Sound Off headphones for a fun, club-like atmosphere, and top instructors from studios throughout NYC each bring their own style and music to classes. All classes are Real Ride, with hills, speed work and intervals—just like a real bike ride. Pregnant riders are welcome, and can adjust the intensity of a ride as needed. Choose from 30 classes throughout the week.
Moms love: The inclusive and fun atmosphere. All levels and body types are welcome—you don't need to be a perfect pro to ride here.
Ballet Beautiful is a great workout to take advantage of stretches and targeted exercises inspired by classical ballet training. (Fans include Maggie Gyllenhaal and Tracee Ellis Ross.) Classes offered combine barre, mat, and light cardio, and are designed to help sculpt and tone your body. Ballet Beautiful's Soho studio is currently closed due to the pandemic, but there are lots of ways to access classes online: via purchasing individual workouts to stream, joining as a member for access to all trainings, or by booking a private individual or group class. Don't worry, no matter how you take a class, no tutu or previous dance training required!
Moms love: The targeted prenatal and postnatal workouts specifically designed for women preparing for and recovering from childbirth.
Created by a former marketing executive and mom-to-be when she found prenatal exercise options contradictory and lacking, Pronatal Fitness trains expecting moms for pregnancy, birth and motherhood like athletes prepping for a major sporting event. The online workouts are specifically designed to prep moms for the physical, and physiological, demands of all three wonderful, but challenging times. Pronatal Fitness also offers post-natal workouts (with or without baby) to help you get back into the swing of things. For those struggling with diastasis recti (or ab separation), new moms can have a consultation and receive an individualized program.
Moms love: The total body workout designed to help moms of all stages and postpartum workouts for recovery.
Moms-to-be can practice yoga postures, breathing exercises and enhance awareness of their ever-changing bodies at the Prenatal Yoga Center. Positions will strengthen pelvic muscles, improve circulation, and exercise the spine. Instructors at the Prenatal Yoga Center interweave childbirth education and therapeutic application for common aches and pains into specialized yoga classes. After baby arrives, post-natal classes address concerns and body changes, and new moms can bring babies along.
Moms love: Classes specifically-designed for the journey of pregnancy.
Want to preserve those long, lean gorgeous muscles throughout your pregnancy (or at least try to find them again)? Barre classes are some of the best workout classes for pregnant women due to the controlled movements and seamless modifications. PureBarre and Physique57 are two of the most popular barre workout studios, and both offer classes that combine light cardio, strength training and stretching to work your arms, thighs, seat and abs of during and after pregnancy.
Moms Love: These two studios offer barre classes that make us feel like we’re never taking the exact same class twice given their variety of instructors and class types. The moves allow for small bursts that fatigue muscles to exhaustion for ultimate toning. At Pure Barre, new moms can workout and bond with their newborn at the “Babies on Board” class, a fun, postnatal-friendly workout.
Compare notes with other expecting moms in the moderately- paced, 90-minute prenatal yoga class at Yoga Vida. Each class begins and ends with a restorative pose to connect with baby, relax the body, and de-stress the mind. But we promise it’s no nap fest! Basic yoga asana allows you to strengthen the body and increase stamina required for labor (kegels anyone?). After baby, check out their postnatal classes; babies 18 months and up are invited to join you for a 90-minute class designed to heal and rejuvenate the body following childbirth.
Moms Love: Pigeon pose: it opens the hips (making more room for baby) and stretches the back, butt and thigh muscles in all the right spots.
Lengthen muscles, loosen joints, and relieve muscle tension with Village Gyrotonic prenatal class. The studio is currently open for one-on-one sessions, and you can join live classes online. Gyrotonic improves overall flexibility by strengthening and stretching major muscle groups and joints while enhancing your range of motion, balance and coordination. Based on principles from yoga, tai chi, gymnastics, and dance, the exercises are performed on equipment designed to give the human body complete freedom of movement.
Moms love: Gyrotonic exercises help to create a strong, flexible, pelvic floor while strengthening and toning abdominal muscles, buttocks, hips and thighs.
Good news SoulCycle addicts: just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you need to stop tapping it back like a rock star. Assuming cycling has been a part of your life pre-pregnancy and you and your doctor agree it's okay, SoulCycle encourages riders to continue riding through pregnancy with personal adjustments taken when needed. While there are no set “prenatal” classes, regular Soul classes shouldn’t be an issue with your bump.
Moms love: It's a 45-minute dance party on a bike. What's not to love?
Exhale is a mom-to-be’s ideal destination for prenatal workouts. Specializing in barre, yoga, cardio and spa treatments, this inclusive facility is ready to make working out an awesome experience. If you’re already active in both barre and yoga classes, you are encouraged to take classes right up to the day you give birth if you like. Exhale's barre and yoga classes vary by intensity, and their dedication to guests’ health requires expecting moms to provide a note from their OBGYN before taking classes. While classes aren’t called out as prenatal, teachers are prepared to offer proper modifications throughout class to ensure a moms-to-be a great workout. Added plus? Exhale offers prenatal facials and massages (after the second trimester) to help guests relax and relieve stress.
Moms love: Scheduling back-to-back classes and spa treatment. What better way to motivate for a class than a spa treatment afterward? We’re in.
