Fitness
The Best Maternity Workout Clothes, According To Fitness Pro Moms
There are many benefits to moving your body while pregnant. Finding quality exercise clothes that fit properly and are made to move and grow with you can be hard though, especially when you hit the second trimester. The best maternity workout clothes are comfortable, supportive, stylish, breathable and adjustable to accommodate an expanding belly and changing body.
The best maternity workout clothes adapt to your changing body and help you feel supported and … [+]
“Regardless of the workout, pregnant women should look for stretchy, high-waisted leggings along with a supportive sports bra,” says Heidi Loiacono, a women’s fitness specialist with the personal trainer service Gymguyz. When it comes to workout tops, she recommends opting for something loose and long. “If you prefer a more fitted look, be sure it’s not too tight and allows for ease of movement.”
Just remember that every pregnancy and every pregnant body is different. “What’s comfortable for one mom might be incredibly uncomfortable for another,” points out Kim Perry, a fit pregnancy coach who is currently expecting. We interviewed an impressive roster of fitness expert moms to find the best places to buy maternity workout clothes, and to learn about the workout pieces they loved during pregnancy and beyond.
Why Trust Forbes Vetted
While pregnancy may be uncomfortable, as parents ourselves, we strongly believe your maternity clothes shouldn’t. Our team is composed of many moms who have not only tested the best maternity workout clothes firsthand, but have extensively researched all the top brands, collected countless recommendations from fellow pregnant parents, and read through hundreds of reviews to gauge what activewear is worth investing in and what’s not.
For a story like this, we consult multiple fitness professionals specializing in pre and postnatal fitness to learn what types of clothes pregnant women should be working out in from a comfort, quality and health/safety perspective. We asked our experts about the activewear brands they know and love and the pieces they can’t live without.
How We Chose The Best Maternity Workout Clothes
While we used our own personal experience owning and wearing many of the brands included on this list, we leaned in to the expertise and product suggestions of seven highly-respected fitness professionals, many of whom are either currently expecting or moms themselves, to curate our list. These experts include the founder of leading pre and postnatal fitness app The Bloom Method, the former CEO of fan-fave women’s activewear brand Beyond Yoga, and a fit pregnancy coach with a sizable following on Instagram, and a deep core exercise specialist just to name a few.
All of these women live in workout wear (literally) and have tried countless maternity activewear tops, sports bras, compression shorts and over and under-the-bump leggings.
What To Look For In The Best Maternity Workout Clothes
There’s no one brand or style fits all when it comes to the best maternity workout clothes. “Choosing workout wear is such an individualized experience and is usually based not only on the activity being done but also the desired fit and feel of each individual,” says Cates. Whether you’re hitting the treadmill or the yoga mat, here are some key factors to consider prior to stocking up.
Fit And Feel
Newly-postpartum mom Hannah Eden, a certified Girls Gone Strong pre and postnatal coach, iFIT and Nordictrack trainer, recommends opting for maternity workout clothes that feel comfy, but not too tight. “From personal experience, the changes in our bodies can often affect our self-esteem, so it’s important to feel confident in the clothes you choose,” she says. “Don’t try to fit into pre-pregnancy clothing; this can leave us feeling pretty low.”
Michelle Wahler, co-founder and former CEO of Beyond Yoga, agrees. “Treat yourself to quality clothing that celebrates your body during your new chapter. Paying attention to fit and fabrics you like and enjoy being in is key.”
Adjustability
While you don’t want to be constantly adjusting leggings or pulling up your pants, workout wear that can adjust to grow with you is important. “Get gear with elastic waistbands and drawstrings,” advises Eden.
Fabric
Do you prefer a buttery-soft organic legging you can rock around the clock, something loose, lightweight and breathable, or compression apparel for running? “Moisture-wicking materials like polyester or nylon will help keep you feeling cool and dry, while lycra, spandex and elastane blends offer a softer material,” explains Perry.
To limit exposure to PFAS (forever chemicals), found in many sweat-wicking, water-repellent pieces like leggings and sports bras, always check labels and shop sustainably-made styles in organic and natural fabrics where possible.
“Most workout wear is not PFAS free but it is becoming more common,” says Cates. “I also tell women that while wearing intentionally-made clothing that isn’t full of harmful chemicals is important, you don’t have to throw away all your favorite leggings that might not be that ‘clean.’” Instead, she recommends prioritizing underwear with natural fabrics, because they have the most contact with your most intimate parts.
Cates says there are some amazing companies making really clean and innovative underwear for women, “some even fused with zinc that can help to prevent yeast infections and UTI’s.” Esme, Pact and Huha are her top favorites in this category. We also recommend the Bodily All-In Panty, which tops our list of the best postpartum underwear.
Support Vs. Stretch
“Higher impact exercises like running and crossfit will require more support, while activities like yoga, pilates and barre will need more stretch,” says Perry.
Cates adds that a higher waist band is ideal for expecting women to help to create a “holding the belly” type of sensation. “While some women love maternity leggings with higher waist bands designed specifically for pregnant women, some non-maternity designs also prove to support women throughout pregnancy and beyond.” A belly band can offer extra support for pregnant women who need it too.
What Should I Wear To The Gym During Pregnancy?
According to Wahler, “whatever makes you feel good and supported!” Everyone and every body is so different. “The key is being good to your body and allowing your body to be in whatever form it wants to be, and it might be different each day. Don’t try to cram yourself into something from your past. Don’t focus on size or numbers. Look for clothes that will grow and evolve with you and through your new stages of life.”
A good place to start is a with a great pair of maternity leggings (like our top pick from Beyond Yoga), a supportive and soft sports bra (like the Vuori Yosemite Bra) and a maternity tank top (like this one from Fitglam). Depending on the weather, you can add layers or swap leggings for shorts.
“Also, as women progress through their pregnancy, they may want to consider compression shorts or leggings,” says Loiacono. “This type of fitness apparel offers just the right amount of compression for the abdominal, back and pelvic floor muscles, allowing for more support as those muscles become overstretched.”
How Many Months Pregnant Do You Start Wearing Maternity Clothes?
This can vary from woman to woman and pregnancy to pregnancy. “I’ve had mothers tell me they began wearing our Beyond the Bump line as early as two months pregnant, all the way through one year postpartum and beyond,” says Wahler. “The most important thing is that you’re creating a safe space for yourself and your baby to feel supported, comfortable and safe throughout the pregnancy.”
For maternity workout wear that can go the distance, Cates recommends looking for versatile pieces and styles that are flattering and work well from workout to lunch with girlfriends or bustling kids to and from after-school activities. “Women want leggings they can live in, workout in, and feel great in, and if they stretch beyond the pregnancy period they often get extra points.”
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Fitness
'We need to be really concerned': How fitness influencers are creating 'a false sense of the world' for young boys
“Alright dumba**, welcome to lesson two here at fat f*** university.”
So begins one of the countless fleshy blurs of locally-produced fitness content pumped algorithmically into the feeds of Australian Instagram, TikTok and Facebook users.
It’s the sort of engagement-baiting approach that yields viewers and followers — designed to push men out of some apparent masculine malaise and into retaking control of their body and masculinity, usually via paid workout programs, products or supplements.
It’s also the type of content increasingly filtering into the phones of teenage boys.
While there is a more developed conversation about idealised images on social media and body image pressures on young girls, experts say research is less advanced when it comes to boys.
“I think boys are now objectifying themselves like never before and we do need to be really concerned,” said Danielle Rowland, Head of Prevention at national eating disorder charity the Butterfly Foundation.
“The intensity of training advice, nutrition and misinformation is greater than ever.”
Feeds serving up different diet
When Anthony Lee started high school in regional Victoria six years ago, social media had a different feel to it.
“In Year 7, it was just basically a way to keep up with your mates,” he said.
By the time he finished Year 12 last year, the feeds of his classmates had changed. So too, the surrounding culture.
“There is a growing problem with men having that feed of perfect body content,” he said.
“There are people who will see influencers on social media and say, ‘I’ve got to have bigger arms, toned legs, I got to have calves the size of mountains’.”
Linger on one Instagram reel showing off a set of dumbbell exercises, and you’ll likely get five more videos zeroing in on how to get “boulder shoulders”, or some protein-heavy diet advice from a shirtless influencer.
Josh Ward travels to schools in Sydney and around regional NSW, hearing from young boys as part of his work as a facilitator for men’s mental health organisation Tomorrow Man.
“There’s been a huge jump in the last two to three years in the amount of boys opening up in workshops around their body,” he said.
Mr Ward believes there’s no coincidence it’s occurred alongside a “big spike” in the amount of fitness and gym influencer content turning up in their feeds.
“If someone was in school walking around with a fitness mag in their pocket, bringing it out every recess or lunch, you’d think ‘that is some strange behaviour’. But that’s what [teenage boys] are celebrating now,” he said.
“The danger for young people is they don’t realise they’re actually the pioneer generation in terms of that exposure.
“In the last five years there’s been a crazy amount of fitness content, but that’s just what they’ve always been exposed to, so they don’t realise how strange it is.”
‘It creates a false sense of the world’
For many teenage boys on the path through puberty, working out in gyms has long represented an accelerated part of the journey into manhood.
Images of muscle-ripped celebrities and athletes serving as aesthetic inspiration, if not an unattainable physical ideal, is nothing new either.
But it’s the nature of that exposure — the type of content and the saturation of it — that has experts concerned.
“It’s that ‘in-your-face, all-the-time’ aspect of it,” said Associate Professor Ivanka Prichard from Flinders University.
“It’s seeing something on Instagram when we’re perhaps not in that frame of mind, making a comparison to this really fit person and have that influence the way we might feel about ourselves.
“We’re fed a whole range of things through those algorithms that we would never have had exposure to before and would never have sought out.”
Multiple experts the ABC spoke to reported seeing digitally-altered and even AI-generated images of supposedly naturally-fit bodies on social media.
Ms Prichard, a former fitness instructor whose research sits at the intersection of psychology, social media and exercise science, believes the constant barrage of perfectly sculpted bodies could destabilise the mental health of some teenage boys.
“For young people shaping their identity, it creates a false sense of the world,” she said.
Of the estimated 1.1 million Australians who had an eating disorder last year, one in three were male, according to the Butterfly Foundation.
For over a decade, Scott Griffiths has studied body image and psychological disorders, with a recent focus on male eating disorders, body dysmorphia and particularly, muscle dysmorphia.
“Muscle dysmorphia is a psychological disorder. It’s not just being a gym junkie,” said Mr Griffiths, an associate professor and lead of the Physical Appearance Research Team at the University of Melbourne.
“It’s a preoccupation. You are always thinking about food, training, your appearance. It’s on your mind all the time.”
According to the Butterfly Foundation, people aged between 15 and 19 are 2.7 times more likely to experience an eating disorder. It makes social media an animating and potentially potent driver.
“It can reinforce in your mind that your worth is very closely tied to, if not wholly dependent upon, your appearance, which is not the basis for healthy self-esteem,” Dr Griffiths said.
“[TikTok and Instagram] are more likely to feature influencer bodies you are extremely unlikely to be able to achieve without performance enhancement, or a level of commitment to dieting and exercise that would overcome most people.”
Blurred lines at the gym
Joshie Glover, 27, has seen just how profoundly positive a gym environment can be for young boys.
In his work at young men’s mental health charity Man Cave, he estimates he’s facilitated over 170 school workshops of more than 5,550 students.
In that time, Mr Glover has witnessed countless examples of the physical and mental health benefits that a gym can provide, as well as the connection between mates working out.
It’s when those workouts veer toward the obsessive that problems emerged.
“With gym habits, it’s very blurred lines, which is why it’s quite insidious,” he said.
In Man Cave workshops, boys often speak about being bullied over their weight, only to reframe it as a positive.
“A lot of them will say, ‘I’m actually really grateful that I’ve been teased about how [fat] I was, because it motivated me to get to go to the gym and get big’,” Mr Glover said.
“The line of when it goes from a positive social thing, motivating each other, doing something physically, to slipping into a pressured, coercive kind of motivation by ridicule, it’s really blurred.”
Andrew Tate and the problem with ‘discipline’
Another online fixation that routinely comes up in workshops is Andrew Tate, the disgraced misogynist content creator currently awaiting a criminal trial on allegations of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
Mr Glover said there was an uneasy through line between the much-discussed appeal of Tate, who used to be a professional kickboxer, and the growing obsession with social media gym culture.
“Many boys are so confused as to what it means to be a man, who are the role models?” he said.
“One thing they’ve really latched onto is that a man is disciplined. Whenever you ask, ‘what’s the good bits about Andrew Tate?’, they’ll say, ‘he’s disciplined’.
“The main way that discipline can play out is attending to your physical body. There’s not really much desire for discipline in schoolwork or discipline in any other areas, it’s manifested in the gym.”
The irony that past generations have decried a lack of discipline in today’s kids is not lost on Mr Glover — but he said the dangers lie in its interpretation.
“The toxic, maybe unhealthy, part of it is that there are so many different kinds of bodies that a teenage boy would have, and they’re all being channelled into this one kind of mould of what the body of a disciplined person looks like,” he said.
The influencer credibility gap
Where parents and teachers may try, often in vain, to ward young boys away from specific individuals like Tate, telling them to ignore an entire social media ecosystem is even harder.
Fitness influencers and gym content creators have argued they are merely promoting healthy physical habits and dieting advice.
Some accounts function almost as communities of collective support for people trying to reach their goals, while many frame workout content through the lens of positive mental health.
Recent studies co-authored by Associate Professor Ivanka Prichard have analysed the content and credibility of fitness accounts on Instagram and TikTok.
The research found two-thirds of the accounts audited on Instagram “lacked credibility or contained potentially harmful or unhealthy content”, while exercise and diet advice promoted on TikTok was often at odds with national health guidelines.
In late 2022, US fitness content creator Brian “Liver King” Johnston suffered an ignominious fall from grace after admitting to spending tens of thousands of dollars on steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.
The Liver King had previously maintained his improbable physique was the result of hard workouts and eating raw meat, and that others should aspire to do the same.
Ms Prichard recommended seeking out content creators with relevant qualifications or failing that, the accounts of athletes and those who emphasise physical performance over aesthetics.
“From a user perspective, red flags are anything that has quite a lot of skin on display, is sexualised or is hyper-focussed on the appearance of the body,” she said.
“I would definitely encourage parents to also just talk to young people about what they are viewing on social media.”
At a recent barbecue, Danni Rowlands bent an ear toward a conversation her 10-year-old son was having with a few boys his age.
“They were looking at each other’s calves and deciding who had the veins popping out,” she said.
“They ranged from 10 to 12. One was saying ‘here’s my six-pack’.”
Ms Rowlands, who played netball at an elite level and has her own lived experience with eating disorders, knows an obsessive focus on physique can affect mental health, school participation and relationships with friends and family.
“I think it gets minimised and oversimplified — that it’s just a teenage thing — but there’s a real danger for a young person’s self-esteem, their identity, their mental health,” she said.
“It’s not wrong to want to take care of ourselves, but the pursuit of perfection, because we think that is the answer to all of our problems, is really setting ourselves up in a negative way to move through adulthood.”
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