Essential Exercises After Childbirth

Stan 08/06/2012 0

Morning everyone,

Sorry I haven’t blogged for a while but I’ve been away having a baby! Well, my wife actually had the baby but I was there holding her hand. I’m now the proud Daddy of little baby Emma! I’m so happy right now and being a parent of both Adam and Emma is one of the most magical things I’ve ever been blessed with.

While I was in the hospital, I picked up a leaflet by the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Women’s Health (ACPWH). It had some rather interesting information on exercise after childbirth.

The following information applies to all new mothers no matter how you gave birth. They includes safe and practical advice to aid your recovery. After you’ve given birth, the natural thing to do is to give your baby lots of attention. This is great but it’s also important to take a little time for yourself. You can’t expect to return to full pre-pregnancy fitness immediately but there are things you can do now to help get yourself back into shape. Regaining your fitness, will give you more energy and possibly avoid problems later.

Posture

Regaining good posture after you have had a baby is important, this will help the way you look and feel. Standing, sitting, lying or being active with good posture may help to avoid future aches and pains.

Before reading on, I suggest you have a quick look at my article on Pelvic Floor Muscles Exercises. Also read my article on The Abdominal Hollowing Exercise before performing any of the exercises below.

Exercising your abdominal muscles

The abdominal muscles form a natural corset supporting your back and internal organs. During your pregnancy, these have been stretched and become weakened. Exercises will help you regain your body shape and prevent or relieve back pain. The deeper abdominal muscles may work at the same time as the pelvic floor muscles.

You should start all exercises by lying with your head on a pillow, knees bent and feet shoulder width apart and arms by your side. My wife (Mutha Fitness) will now take you through 4 simple exercises, which are also useful in helping to relieve wind and nausea following a caesarean delivery.

1. Pelvic Tilt
2. Knee Bends
3. Knee Rolling
4. Head Lift

All the best,

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POSTED IN » Exercise and Pregnancy
About the author: Stan View all posts by
Following the birth of his son in 2009, Stan felt unfit and sluggish. Since then he's been training using a range of exercise techniques and gained some valuable information over the years. He concentrated on using ideas and methods from the teachings of Paul Chek, Chuck Wolf, Dax Moy, Charles Poliquin, Martin Rooney and Phil Richards. His fitness training currently includes running, kettlebell training, the world famous TRX, Olympic bar training, different types of body weight exercises, medicine balls, interval training (Tabata training) and cross fit training. He has completed the Pier To Pier run, Total Warrior and the Newcastle Stampede in 2012. He also raised over £1000 for local charity Percy Hedley, by running 60 miles over the 12 Days of Christmas.

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