How to Return to the Gym After Child Birth
Body of Misinformation
Exercise after childbirth is great for promoting mood stability and keeping your energy levels high. If done the right way, increased physical activity can expedite the healing process, stave off depression and keep you positive and proactive in balancing and managing your new lifestyle. One major challenge that women face, however, is finding ways to get back into the gym and build an effective and feasible workout plan.
Consulting With Your Doctor
Women will typically need between four and six weeks to recover from the birthing process, before they are physically ready to adopt and maintain stringent workout routines. Talking with your physician will help you to determine when is the best time to start aggressively working out. Fortunately, new moms can rely on professional fitness trainers to help them establish workout plans that are best reflective of their new needs.
Muscle Memory And Pregnancy Fitness
If you are serious about reclaiming your pre-pregnancy physique, the best time for maintaining a solid and consistent workout plan is during your actual pregnancy. Prenatal yoga and Pilates classes abound. Remaining consistent in your workout plan throughout pregnancy will increase muscle memory, whereby the various muscle groups retain their tone and definition after childbirth and the process of returning to pre-pregnancy fitness levels is greatly simplified.
After The Baby Is Born
It is always a good idea to consult with a personal trainer after having had your child, especially if you are attempting to traverse the delicate line between weight loss and offering your child optimal nutrition through breast milk. Not only can your trainer show you different workout strategies for slowly rebuilding core strength and promoting gradual fat loss, but this individual can also give you nutritional tips that will ensure that you are giving your body all that it needs for the ongoing process of milk production.
More importantly, trainers emphasize gradual, healthy weight loss. This will allow you to adopt a plan that is in line with your body’s ability to recover after pregnancy. Rather that implementing strict and calorie-deficient diet and exercise plans that will throw the metabolism into starvation mode, women who work with trainers can instead, use this time to pamper themselves, improve their overall health, regain systemic balance and boost their metabolic functioning.
Taking Classes
There are a number of low-impact and even non-impact exercise programs that ladies can engage in. In addition to minimizing the stress that is placed on the joints and bones, these activities also help to foster optimal spinal alignment. After carrying excess weight for several months, many women suffer from pinched and compressed nerves, especially compression of the sciatic nerve. Putting the body back in motion and engaging in activities that lengthen, elongate and realign the spine is therefore ideal. Thus, the best place to start a new post-natal routine is often in beginning or intermediate yoga classes, especially those classes that have a post-natal focus. There are also water-based exercise classes that help to loosen sore stiff muscles and serve as the perfect introduction to physical fitness training for women who did not workout before or during their pregnancies.
Using Equipment And Building Strength And Endurance
Women will find that there is an incredible range of gym resources for every level of fitness. Thus, as they increase in flexibility, strength and endurance, they can look forward to high-energy Zumba classes, training with fee weights, cardiovascular equipment and innovative weight machines and systems. There is also an extensive array of children’s programs available, for keeping little ones occupied throughout their various stages of development.
