My Top Six Tips for Postpartum Fitness
Hello friends! I hope your morning is starting off well and with a large, hot cup of coffee. I woke up this morning tired! Between staying up late with Landon and friends last night and a fussy Benaiah this morning, I’m ready to go to bed, and it’s only 10 am.
Yesterday was the complete opposite. Early morning + early morning workout + showered + ate breakfast + blogged all before 9am. Today, is just not that day. But that’s okay, sometimes life happens and you move on.
That brings me to what I was going to talk about today. >> Postpartum Fitness!
It’s been a little bit since I updated you all on my fitness and I thought I would share how it’s going overall, and, if you are pregnant, my top tips to getting back into your exercise regime!
So, let’s be honest, working out while having a newborn/infant is hard! It’s not something that I naturally do whenever I feel like it. On the contrary, I have to set aside a time to make sure I sneak in a workout while Benaiah is sleeping or sitting in his high chair watching me. I have to choose to do it, otherwise the daily tasks of raising him, keeping up with the house, blog, and errands would overtake my fitness time.
Thankfully, because I love health and fitness I make time for it. That being said, coming back to my “normal,” workouts postpartum took some time to adjust to. My first run back was 1.4 miles and if felt challenging! I definitely lost some muscle and endurance, so the small amount that I was able to run felt like 4-5 miles to me. (For more on running postpartum read here.)
After straining my hip flexor, I had to be creative and come up with different exercises and routines to do, indoors, that would be effective. Enter: Pilates and yoga. I feel like these two have helped me tone up and gain my muscle back that I lost those six weeks after having Benaiah. Having a little one, also forces me to find super effective, short and sweet workouts. Right now, it’s not realistic for me to spend an hour or more working out and that’s okay! Instead of working out for a long period of time, I’m working out 20-40 minutes a day of intense, muscle isolating or HITT training workouts and I’m loving the results.
Since having Benaiah, I’ve come to realize that you can have just as effective workouts in a shorter period of time than you can with longer workouts! It all depends on how you do them.
To summarize, here are a few of my top tips for new moms who want to get back into their fitness regime:
- Start slow. I can’t emphasize this enough. Start building back slow! If you don’t, you are wayyy more likely to injure yourself. (Hello, hip flexor.)
- Get accountability. As I stated before, working out as a tired, spit up laden mom is hard. Your body feels different, you are emotionally and physically tired, and all you’d rather do is sleep. Yes there is a time and place for sleep, but sometimes (at least for me) it’s just my lazy side talking me out of it. That’s when it is so nice to have Landon encourage me to finish the workout! Surrounding yourself with accountability is so important!
- Find something you enoy. If you don’t enjoy running, don’t run. If you hate yoga, don’t do it. Find a workout that you love, do it, and put 100% effort into it! (Granted there are times it is good to try new things, but my point is to find something you are passionate about!)
- Find at home workouts. Something that I love are at home workouts that require NO equipment! These are so nice, especially for new moms. YouTube has a lot of good ones and you can find mine here.
- 20 minutes isn’t nothing. Guys, I am so guilty of thinking that if my workout or run isn’t longer than a half hour, it doesn’t count. Goodness, what kind of thinking is that? If you can find any amount of time to move your body, strengthen your core, or build muscle it is something and it is good!
- Lastly, give yourself GRACE. Oh my goodness, you mama, are doing great! Being a mom is beautifully hard. It’s a 24/7 job and it’s a joy. If it is taking you longer to get back into shape, it’s OKAY. If it took 2 weeks and your abs are magically back, it’s OKAY! You brought a beautiful, little life into the word and only you are his or her mama. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Keep trying, keep pushing forward. But give yourself grace.
Questions of the Day
- Moms- how long did it take you to return to your normal exercise?
- What is your workout today?
- What is one new that thing you are learning this week?