Postpartum Recovery: How to Get Your Body Back After Giving Birth

Moves to Get your Body Back After Birth

One question that is asked by new moms very often is, “Is it necessary to exercise in the initial weeks of childbirth?” The simple answer to this common question is a big “YES”. Although it may feel like exercise is the last thing you will have to do as a new mother, we must not forget that it has lots of benefits. As it sounds obvious, the first benefit of exercising after childbirth is that it will help lose the weight you gained during gestation. Besides this, exercise has a lot more benefits like:

• Boost mood by elevating the levels of endorphins
• Save you from aches/pains
• Increase energy levels
• Boost the strength and stamina

Having said that, let’s move on to the main part of the article now. To get the pre-pregnancy body back after the childbirth may appear to be the hardest thing ever. But, in reality, it’s not as hard as you might imagine.[1]

Key Tips to Get Your Body Back:

Before going to the moves to get your body back after childbirth, let’s go through the key tips to help get faster results here:

• Breastfeed to shed extra pounds
• Workout at least five days per week for 30 minutes
• Wear a postpartum belly band
• Drink plenty of water
• Take fish oil and multivitamins
• Add lean protein to each and every meal
• Avoid the following no-no foods:
• Refined bread
• Pasta
• Candy
• Soda
• Sugar
• Add more veggies to your diet
• Stay motivated and don’t give up
• Take a stroller walk after every dinner

Useful Moves to get your Body back:

Following are some moves that can effectively bring your pre-pregnancy body back for regular exercises:[2]

Walking:

This may sound simple and some may not even consider it to be a workout, but we’d say this is one of the simplest methods to get back to your fitness routines after childbirth. Kick start this workout with an easy stroll after your dinner every day. In due course of time, this will slowly power up to do wonders. For better results, try walking in zigzag patterns. You can take your newborn in a front pack to add some additional weight, which will help increase the benefits of walking.

Stomach Crunches:

You really need to do some serious crunches to get your stomach back to its pre-pregnancy glory. However, you are advised to start out small. Doing as low as ten crunches in a day will help you reach heights with your postpartum journey. This number may sound quite small, but you will understand the sorry state of your tummy muscles when you try it out. Once you are comfortable with one set of ten, increase the numbers to go up to three sets of twenty.

Deep Belly Breathing:

This workout when it’s done with abdominal contraction will help relax your stomach muscles, which will eventually help strengthen and tone the abs and stomach. It’s so easy that you can do it for an hour after the delivery. To do this, you will just have to sit straight and start taking deep breaths by drawing air from the diaphragm in an upward direction. While inhaling, contract and hold the abdomen tight and while exhaling, relax it. Slowly increase the time of contracting and holding your abdomen.

Kneeling Pelvic Tilt:

This workout will help tone your stomach when at the same time strengthening your abdomen and relieving your back pain. To do this, start on your fours with toes and palms touching the ground. In this position, you should have your back straight and relaxed. While inhaling, pull the butt forward by tilting the pelvis and rotating the pubic bone upward. Stay in this position for a count of three and go back to the original position.

Finally, don’t forget to think how long it took you to put this weight. It will probably take you so long

to go back to normal. So, wait it out!

 References:

1. https://www.babycentre.co.uk/a749/exercise-after-birth-the-first-six-weeks
2. https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/6-exercises-for-new-moms#1
3. https://diaryofafitmommy.com/how-i-got-my-body-back-after-baby-2/
4. https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/841153/10-steps-to-getting-your-pre-baby-body-back