Back to shape
after the baby
By Anup Deb
Nath
ONCE they have had their baby,
many women start worrying about getting back into shape
again. Traditional care in India cautions a woman against
exercising too soon after the birth of the baby as the
feeling is that the woman is too weak. Exercising apart,
women are discouraged from walking around the house too
much for a couple of months. In the West the attempt is
to get back on your feet and into a regular pattern of
life as soon as possible after the baby is born.
There
is really no way of saying which way is correct or
incorrect, but one thing is certain that giving birth to
a baby is not like a disease where you have to rest.
Unless you have had complications or problems in your
pregnancy and delivery, it is best to treat it as a
normal part of life and try to get back on your feet as
fast as possible.
It is best to start with
very gentle exercises and to remember not to try to
expect great miracles overnight. It is but natural that
during the first few months after the delivery you will
feel more tired than you did earlier and, therefore, your
expectations should also be more realistic. It is best to
take your doctors approval before you start any
exercise routine, though starting exercising once your
baby is about three-four months old is about the ideal
time. By this time you would have got more settled with
the baby and also regained most of your lost stamina as
well. The longer you put off exercising after the
babys birth, the tougher it proves to be to lose
all the extra weight you have gathered. It is best to
check with your doctor before you begin exercising. The
best time would be to start once the baby is three-four
months old. The longer you delay returning to
exercise, the tougher it can be and the longer it can
take to come back to shape.
Remember that you will
not have the stamina you had earlier, and try to begin
your routine very gradually, slowly increasing the
intensity, as you are able to cope.
You will feel less tired
while exercising if you drink water before, during and
after your exercise.
Drinking adequate water
is especially important for breast feeding mothers as you
lose more body fluids. So try to replenish all that our
body is losing. To begin try to start with a brisk
15-minute walk three times a week.
Along side, add in
abdominal sit-ups to strengthen your stomach area. A week
later increase your walking time to 20 minutes and start
body-toning exercises as well. These should include
exercises for the hips, thighs, waist, bottom and upper
body. Doing lightweight training three times a week is
also a help.
By the third week of
your exercise programme add in a 20-minute jog or 20
minutes of low-intensity aerobics. Continue with the body
toning exercises and weight training. Increase the pace
and time of your exercise, as your body becomes fitter
and gets adapted to the regular workouts you have been
doing. Remember, the aerobics will burn fat while the
body-strengthening exercises will tone up your muscles.
Some women can develop
abdominal muscle separation after the delivery. This will
make the toning up of the abdomen area much more
difficult. To check if you have this problem press your
fingers into the area around the belly button as you do
an abdominal crunch. If you can put in more than one or
two fingers in between the muscles, then they have
separated and you need to do slightly modified abdominal
exercises to correct this problem. Place your feet bent
at the knees like you do for a regular abdominal sit-up.
Instead of placing your
hands behind your head, place them across your abdomen.
Squeeze the muscles as you go up and contract the
abdominal muscles. Lift just your head and not your
shoulders as you do these lifts. If you find that you are
not being able to squeeze your abdominal muscles with
your arms well enough, you can tie up the stomach with a
piece of an old sheet, keeping it pulled reasonably
tight.
Try not to go on any
crash diet while you are breast-feeding your baby, as
your baby will need extra fat while you are nursing.
While trying to get back into shape remember that it took
your body a year to get this way and you should give it a
little time to get back into shape again rather than
expecting results overnight.
Try to aim for quality
rather than quantity when you look at the exercises you
are doing. Ten minutes of abdomen crunches done perfectly
are far more beneficial than doing 30 minutes of crunches
improperly.
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