Why am I more prone to strains when I'm pregnant?

The hormone relaxin helps soften the connective tissues of the body - relaxing the pelvic joints, ripening the cervix, and preparing your body to deliver. The side effect of these important changes is that loose ligaments make it a lot more difficult to exercise, because they make you much more prone to strains and sprains. Remember, while ligaments need to have some flexibility to assist in joint movement, they also need to have some stability to help keep your joints in their proper places.

If you're not careful, there's the potential for a vicious cycle here: You find it difficult to exercise because of joint pain (or because you injured a joint during exercise), so you stop exercising. You stop exercising, and you lose strength in your supportive core muscles. You lose that support, and your body feels about as strong as a cotton ball. So you hurt, you ache, you slow down, and you definitely don't exercise. That's why I feel it's critical to maintain your fitness during pregnancy - safely and effectively.