Best Online Prenatal Home Fitness Classes: Obé Review
Being pregnant can be an exciting and overwhelming time. There are many changes, both emotionally and physically. Preparing for a baby is time-consuming and it can be hard to find time to work out. Depending on how you are feeling, it might be the last thing on your mind. That is totally fine! However, if you are feeling up to it, I highly recommend putting aside a little time for fitness. It can help improve your mood and prepare you for birth. Obé is one of my favorite online pregnancy fitness classes. If you aren’t familiar with their class offering you might be interested in checking out my Obé in-depth review first. Not only does Obé have fantastic overall classes, after becoming pregnant I found out they have an incredible number and variety of prenatal classes.
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When to start prenatal fitness classes
Always consult your doctor before beginning a workout regiment, particularly when pregnant. The best time to take prenatal fitness classes is a personal choice. It can depend on where you are emotionally and physically. For many people, the first trimester can be the hardest. Morning sickness can lead to all-day nausea or throwing up. Others might feel fatigued or not themselves. Fitness might be on the back burner. If you are feeling up to it, even getting in a quick workout can elevate your mood and make you feel better physically and emotionally.
The second trimester for many women is often when they feel their best. Morning sickness usually goes away and you are not too uncomfortably large. Now is the time to get those classes in! Take a variety of prenatal classes to keep things exciting and remember not to push yourself.
The third trimester can be challenging for workouts depending on how you are feeling physically. As your stomach gets larger, you will likely need to make form adjustments to make sure you are safe and healthy. It is extremely important to take prenatal classes to ensure you are not putting yourself in any precarious positions.
What is Obé and what types of prenatal workout classes do they offer?
Obé is a premium fitness network and community offering daily live and on-demand fitness classes. They have some of the widest variety of online fitness classes I’ve seen, and are well produced with charismatic, personable, and knowledgeable instructors.
However, the best prenatal workout class is the one you enjoy doing. It is a gift to yourself to do any movement when pregnant! Here are some of my favorite Obé prenatal classes that I would encourage every pregnant woman to try:
- Strength: Strength is probably my favorite Obé prenatal class. It’s a class that is truly useful for when your baby is born and you need to carry him/her. Classes tended to be at a slower pace. Personally, this helped me be very mindful of my form and I enjoyed lifting heavier weights.
- Sculpt: My second favorite prenatal class on Obé is sculpt. Using light weights and repetitive movements to work your muscles (think barre but without a barre) it is a surprisingly effective workout. I loved these when I did not feel like sweating or moving around much, but still wanted a decent workout.
- Yoga: Yoga is one of my favorite workouts in general. I am a huge yoga fan and doing yoga while pregnant was no different. I learned that it is extremely important to take prenatal yoga classes because many positions are not safe when you are pregnant or can cause undue stress. I was also very surprised some of my easy positions were extremely challenging when pregnant.
- Power: Power is an amped up version of a strength class: moderate to heavy weights with more intensity. In non-prenatal classes it can be high impact, but for prenatal they make adjustments to make sure you are safe. I would not take these classes if you are not feeling physically fit, but if you are and want a challenge, they are great.
- Prenatal focus: such as pelvic floor, hip opener, etc.: I took a few of these prenatal focus classes, which tended to be shorter, and they were great. I loved the prenatal references and found they really “worked” problem areas I was feeling.
The instructors offer modifications and personal anecdotes that make the classes fun. If you are interested in giving one of them a try there is a free 7 day trial. After that, with BLISS50 promo code you will get 50% off your first month of monthly membership.
Obé Pregnancy Workout Tips
The best way to check out the variety of prenatal classes from Obé is by using their app. Simply filter to fitness level > prenatal to see all of them listed. Clicking on each class gives you a detailed explanation of what it will cover.
Obé also introduced a feature allowing you to save workouts into a collection. Definitely make your own prenatal collection! Tap the bookmark in the corner to create and save to a collection. My prenatal collection has easily over 50 videos.
They also have premade collections including a Prenatal Hub, one for the entire family (“All in the Fam”), and a Postnatal Hub for after you give birth.
Make sure to choose a variety of classes, that is the main benefit of Obé! There are plenty of short classes too if you are short on time or just don’t feel like committing to a 30 minute or longer class.
Obé vs Peloton prenatal classes
I am a huge fan of both Peloton and Obé, but for different reasons. Peloton has best-in-class spin bikes and spin instructors: they make cardio fun. However while they have tried to offer a variety of other classes, for example pilates and barre, it is still nowhere near what they excel in. I had no clue what the prenatal class offering was in each service until I was looking for it myself, and was pleasantly surprised.
Obé is the clear winner in terms of prenatal variety, as I listed above. Peloton does not offer as many prenatal options, although their head instructor Robin Arzon did a series of classes while pregnant. There are not many pregnancy-targeted spin offerings, but many strength and yoga classes. You can find them under Collections > Strong as a Mother (Pre/Postnatal collection). My favorite part of prenatal classes with Peloton are their yoga classes. They have pre and post natal, and for prenatal they sometimes specify the trimester. It is so important to avoid certain yoga positions when pregnant, and these classes did a fantastic job at making me feel safe.
If you think obé might be for you, try it out for free. You get a free 7 day trial, and then after that, with BLISS50 promo code you will get 50% off your first month of monthly membership.
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What type of prenatal workouts are you interested in? If you try any of these would love to hear your thoughts!