Rebuild Your Body After Baby
My clients are healthy active people and seem to inherently know when the time is right to stop exercise prior to birth and when the time is right to re-start afterwards. If you had an active pregnancy and an uncomplicated natural birth you might get LMC clearance to exercise as soon as a week or two after the birth. Most women require a longer period for their body and energy levels to recover, check out my article on how to recover appropriately from your pregnancy.
Initial exercise should be gentle with the aim of gradually increasing endurance. Pregnancy places mechanical stress on the body so the rebuild may require some rehabilitation. Common post-pregnancy ailments are sacroiliac joint pain, pubic symphsis, lower back pain and abdominal splitting. I regularly liaise with my clients’ physiotherapists to help them rehabilitate back to full functionality.
Once you’re fully operational the top priority is to regain some lean muscle mass. The body recovers from most aspects of pregnancy naturally - the uterus contracts to close to its former size in about six weeks and the body’s ligaments return slowly to their former length and elasticity. Unfortunately, muscle tissue doesn’t respond in the same way, so it is necessary to introduce weight training to return your muscles to their former length, strength and functional capability.
This change in muscle mass explains why the body feels so different after having a baby. Most of my clients who have exercised through the pregnancy find that the number on the scales returns to normal within a month or two but body composition is quite different. It’s partly hormonal, it’s partly from being relatively sedentary for the best part of a year and it’s partly from being at an age where lean muscle mass is starting to decline anyway. Whatever it is, it’s common to lose “weight” but still feel like a marshmallow. I certainly did both times!
Getting into some resistance training is the best way to resurrect your pre-baby body and of course it has the added benefit of increasing your metabolic rate, making weight management even simpler. Once you’ve addressed lean muscle mass you’ll find that any exercise which raises the heart rate will burn calories and support weight loss. It’s important to choose the type of exercise you enjoy. Caring for a baby is all-consuming and the little time out you get should be spent as enjoyably as possible.
If you did the groundwork in pregnancy and prior then the rest will follow. With time and patience there is no reason why your post baby body can’t be just as good, if not better, than before.
Initial exercise should be gentle with the aim of gradually increasing endurance. Pregnancy places mechanical stress on the body so the rebuild may require some rehabilitation. Common post-pregnancy ailments are sacroiliac joint pain, pubic symphsis, lower back pain and abdominal splitting. I regularly liaise with my clients’ physiotherapists to help them rehabilitate back to full functionality.
Once you’re fully operational the top priority is to regain some lean muscle mass. The body recovers from most aspects of pregnancy naturally - the uterus contracts to close to its former size in about six weeks and the body’s ligaments return slowly to their former length and elasticity. Unfortunately, muscle tissue doesn’t respond in the same way, so it is necessary to introduce weight training to return your muscles to their former length, strength and functional capability.
This change in muscle mass explains why the body feels so different after having a baby. Most of my clients who have exercised through the pregnancy find that the number on the scales returns to normal within a month or two but body composition is quite different. It’s partly hormonal, it’s partly from being relatively sedentary for the best part of a year and it’s partly from being at an age where lean muscle mass is starting to decline anyway. Whatever it is, it’s common to lose “weight” but still feel like a marshmallow. I certainly did both times!
Getting into some resistance training is the best way to resurrect your pre-baby body and of course it has the added benefit of increasing your metabolic rate, making weight management even simpler. Once you’ve addressed lean muscle mass you’ll find that any exercise which raises the heart rate will burn calories and support weight loss. It’s important to choose the type of exercise you enjoy. Caring for a baby is all-consuming and the little time out you get should be spent as enjoyably as possible.
If you did the groundwork in pregnancy and prior then the rest will follow. With time and patience there is no reason why your post baby body can’t be just as good, if not better, than before.