Postpartum Excercise Routine #

Hello everyone,

If you are a mother, or have been with a lactating mother, most of them -especially women new to mother hood- complain about stretched mark, increase in weight etc.

Source
I lived with my sister's during their pregnancies and after that, being the type of person I am they came to me for workout advise an all that, to be honest I knew nothing about postpartum excercises even the word "postpartum" I didn't know that .. I spent hours of research online 😁 it was fun.. especially when I saw progress in their weight lose.

Am not a makeup artist or a beauty instructor to tell you about stretched marks but I can enlighten you on type of excercise you should do when you are ready.

    WHEN TO START EXCERCISING

During pregnancy your abdominal muscles stretch to give room for the little one to grow, after delivery you will like to get back in shape especially for someone who excercises frequently. After delivery before you get ready to excercise your body has to be ready for excercises.
It is recommended you start exercising after 6 weeks, and 8 weeks for complicated deliveries.
how do you know your body is ready?

• you lay on your back legs bent
• tilt your head up like you are getting ready to crunch
• use your two fingers put them at the center of your stomach just above your belly button
• if your fingers go between your abdominals with room for one more, means you aren't ready.
• It should only have room for two fingers or less. Then you're ready to start workout.

  WHAT TYPE OF EXCERCISES

When you are ready to workout, you go easy.. start small.
Wear loose comfortable clothing to exercise and find a Bra thats comfortable (breat feeding or expressing some milk before workout gives extra comfort)
Walking for starters should be enough then you can slowly work your way up to more lighter excercises.
Working out for 30min 3 times a week is enough to begin with.
It's essential to stay hydrated and sip water during your workout.

Excercises should focus on your abdominals and back muscles.. during these excercises try not to life anything heavier than your baby😊,

• You should try walking,
• yoga(tighten your stomach muscles as you breath in and relax them as you breath out),
• Join and follow online communities of lactating mother's 😊 being around or interacting with people with the same goal as you boost your drive.
• Aerobics are a good form of excercise for lactating mother's, most gyms in B'da practice it.. it's usually referred to as "dance sports"
• cycling
• rope jumps, I recommend rope jumps after you have gotten accustomed to walking/speed walking or power walk etc
• kegle excercises [Link]("Kegel exercises - self-care: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia" https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000141.htm)

DO EXCERCISES AFFECT BREAST MILK?
That's a million dollars question.
Postpartum excercises do not affect the quality and quantity of breast milk in any way, if anything excercises makes you healthier

It's important that you eat and eat and eat (healthy food) and have enough rest.

WHAT TYPE OF EXCERCISES TO AVOID
Avoid high intensity excercises like lifting heavy weights.. crunches and anything that will lay too much stress on the body.

MOTIVATION

• find something or someone that motivates you to workout, a particular form you want to obtain.
• make sure you do it for yourself, when you excercise out of your own free will it's easier to stay motivated

There are lots of stuff I don't know about postpartum excercises and I constantly do research to further increase my knowledge, feel free to express your mind about your experience if you are a mother and how you got through it, that information could go a long way to help a handful of mother's and in fact anyone who is just starting out.

PS, consult your health Care provider to give you a green light before excercising. It's important.

Thanks

@majerius
@nackasnelson
@hmtu