Congratulations! Your new baby is here! Take some time to enjoy it and get used to having a new member in your family. It’s quite an adjustment. Don’t be in a huge rush to “get your body back”. Contrary to social media and celebrity comebacks, getting back in shape in the real world takes time and patience. It took 9 months for your body to prepare for your new bundle of joy. Allow it some time to come back to you. It needs time to recover and retract back to its original (or close to its original-some things are just never the same!) placement. This process can take anywhere from 6 months to 1 year, sometimes longer. It’s important to keep in mind some things may never go back exactly how they were before and that every person’s experience and body is different. Some people may bounce back or feel up to working out sooner, others may need more time.
Prior to beginning your exercise program again make sure you get the “OK” from your doctor.
Begin with walking
Post natal abdominal and pelvic floor exercises. You’re core and pelvic floor are going to be weakened since they’ve been stretched. You want to focus on strengthening them without stretching them further.
retrain breathing
focus on keeping core tight
do what you feel comfortable
Exercises that will help strengthen core and pelvic floor include:
Heel slides
Heel taps (Also known as knee folds)
Mini crunch
Superman’s
Squats
When you feel comfortable enough to begin a regular exercise program again, generally around 6-8 weeks for most, and after being cleared by your physician, start with a slow and low intensity. Gradually progress and build upon your intensity each week as you feel up to it. Workouts this early don’t always go as planned (welcome to parenthood!) so try to be flexible and creative in your workouts. If you train with us at IronPlate, or are considering a personal trainer during or after pregnancy, keep in mind you can bring your child to the studio with you. We are excellent baby whisperers. :-)
If getting out of the house is tricky, you can workout from home when you get a minute with IronPlate’s online personal training program. Your workouts will be laid out for you and monitored by one of our certified trainers, but you can complete it at a time that works for you. All at once, in sections, etc. OR workout from home and still get the benefits of working live with our certified personal trainers with FaceTime training.
If you want best of both, try Hybrid training. Meet with our personal trainers 1x per week in studio or on FaceTime and have the rest of your workouts for the week created and laid out for you to complete on your own time.
However you decide to restart your fitness journey, make sure you take things at a pace that is comfortable for you. Extreme dieting and over exercising will only make you more exhausted and unable to care for both yourself and your new child. Have patience and flexibility!