The Professional’s Guide To Starting Exercise After Birth.

No two women are the same, just as no two births are the same, so when you’re getting into postnatal exercise, it’s important you acknowledge where your body is post birth. 

You need to give yourself time to recover before getting back into pre-pregnancy exercise. It’s also important you don’t compare yourself to others and recognise you’re on your own and unique post-birth journey.

New mums heal and recover at different stages, and this depends on a number of contributing factors:

• Fitness levels prior to pregnancy.
• Fitness levels during pregnancy.
• The type of birth.
• The baby itself, i.e. size of baby during delivery, baby’s sleeping habits (and thus mother’s ability to sleep).
• Whether a mother chooses to breast or bottle feed.
• Mother’s mental health.
• Level of family support.
• Amount of sleep mother is receiving.
• Abdominal Separation.
• Potential uterus prolapse.

It’s vital you have a real grasp on these factors when getting back into exercise. 

For some, it won’t take long before they’re able to do what they were doing pre-pregnancy, but for others - it will take time. 

• Listen to what your body is telling you.
• Don’t add any extra pressure on yourself.
• Try to enjoy gentle postnatal exercise. Embrace working out at a lesser intensity (it’s not for long).

In fact, in taking a slower approach, you’re more likely to get your energy, strength and fitness back faster as you minimise the risk of injury or burn out. Sometimes in life, it really does pay to be the tortoise and not the hare!

Amelia is wearing the 'Smoothie Crop Bra' in confetti/white, the ‘Casual Tank’ in blush and the 'Classic Maternity Leggings - Full Length' in black. Nikki is also wearing the 'Classic Maternity Leggings - Full Length' in black, as well as a 'Casual Tank.'

The best piece of advice I can give any new mum is to concentrate on a recovery program, rather than an ‘exercise’ one. Your body has been through (most likely) its biggest physical challenge ever, so it needs some downtime to heal effectively. 

I recommend you speak with a trusted professional who specialises in women’s health and post-natal recovery/exercise before getting stuck in. There are a lot of cowgirls and boys out there who can do more harm than good…beware.

In saying all of this though, you can probably start exercising sooner than you think. The most important thing you need to focus on initially is healing. You need to strengthen your ‘foundations’ in order to push harder later on in the piece.

Exercise Guidelines For the First Days After Birth:

1. Start with your core by working on your pelvic floor muscles. Do this when you’re feeling relaxed, i.e. in the shower, or when feeding. Simply lift your pelvic floor muscles and contract, repeat. Do this for as long as you can during each session, and several times daily.

2. Next, you can focus on your transverse abdominal muscles (front and side abdominals). Sit down (a swiss ball is a good idea if you have one, otherwise a chair or sofa is fine), and with your hands on your hips, pull in your belly button, then let go. Do this repetitively during each session, and several times daily also.

3. You may not even realise, but you probably need to get your breathing back in check. It’s been severely compromised during pregnancy and your brain may have ‘forgotten’ how to do it. To do this, you need to strengthen your diaphragm (the diaphragm is an important part of your core). This can be done by placing your hands either side of your ribcage, keep your shoulders relaxed, and breathe in by slightly expanding your ribcage, and then breathe out gently. The idea is to make sure your ribcage doesn’t move too much, and your shoulders shouldn’t be moving up too much either.

4. And finally, check your posture. This has also been altered during pregnancy, so the best thing you can do is to see how your posture looks now by going side on to a mirror. If you’re all out of whack, you need to then try and keep your shoulders, ribcage and hips stacked nicely on top of each other. Remind your brain how you’re supposed to stand now you’re no longer carrying that heavy load!

Four exercises for the first few days after birth

Exercise Guidelines For the First Weeks After Birth:

2 weeks postpartum: It’s now probably safe to add some gentle walking to your routine, while continuing to strengthen your core as above. Take it slowly and listen to your body. I wouldn’t recommend doing hill climbs, just a gentle walk on a flat surface for now to test the waters.

From left to right: Hollie is wearing the 'Cruise Long Sleeve Top,' in tui blue, Michelle is wearing the 'Scoop Tee,' in lilac and Nikki J is wearing a 'Rise Up Tank.'

2-4 weeks postpartum: You can now do the above exercises daily, and as long as there’s no pain or heavy bleeding, you can increase your walk time. Again, listen to what your body is telling you, if you’re feeling uncomfortable, dizzy or completely out of breath, slow down.

4-8 weeks postpartum: At about six weeks, most women have had a ‘check-up’ from their midwife or obstetrician to see how their body is recovering. If there are no complications and your medical professional says everything is looking good, we can now add some more exercises to your work-out.

Continue to strengthen your core, but add some functional exercises to the mix also, i.e. squats and support presses and pulls. 

In regards to walking, you can add some hill climbs and you can walk for a longer period of time, but no more than an hour. Increase your intensity, but don’t push past 80% of what you’re capable of doing just yet. 

Also, if you’re breastfeeding, your supply is still being established, so you don’t want to compromise this. You’ll also be getting used to a life where you’re up a lot in the night, so enjoy taking it a bit easier while your body gets used to the sleep deprivation!

8-12 weeks postpartum: By this stage, you should be feeling more ‘yourself,’ so you can start to add weights, and you can also delve into some interval training. Climbing stairs or using ‘step boxes’ for a minute a day at about 80% intensity is a great way to first approach interval work.