What’s the best approach to exercise post baby?

Like pretty much every topic I cover over here, the answer is ‘it depends’.

It depends on how important exercise is to you.

It depends on the kind of birth you had and where you’re at with your recovery.

It depends on whether exercise, as an added stress on your sleep deprived body, would send you over the edge, or if it would be a beneficial training stimulus.

It depends on whether you have time to yourself and if so, how much time and how you prioritise the things on your never ending to do list.

It depends on your breast feeding status.

It depends on how you respond to multitasking and whether the ‘something is better than nothing’ approach works for you.

In fitness and in fact life in general, there is so rarely a one size fits all answer. In this blog I’ll be drawing upon a combination of my personal experience and that of my postnatal clients. There might not be a clear conclusion, but hopefully this discussion will get you thinking about what might work best for you as well as offer some tools to get you moving intuitively and working with your body.

I was lucky enough to be able to train throughout my pregnancy. I modified as I went along and reduced once I was full term. It was really only during the final 2 weeks that I just had to stop and become one with my sofa. Yet throughout my pregnancy, all I could think about was how amazing it would be to move freely again! To get out of bed without rolling to one side first, to lie flat on my tummy, to test my one rep max...hell, I even missed burpees (needless to say that since having Malakai, my burpee compliance has been minimal). In my mind I played out all my home workouts with my little one chilling out happily on his play mat or napping peacefully in his cot. I planned all the postnatal fitness classes I would go to. I was excited to rehab my core and rebuild my fitness and strength.

We all know how this story goes - the reality was of course very different. Firstly, every parent-to-be is warned about the tiredness, but until you’re in it, there’s just no way of understanding how tough it can be. Some days I barely managed to get my breathwork and kegels in, let alone anything that resembled a workout. After a few months, either because the lack of sleep improved, or because I got better at functioning while being tired, I did manage to start training again. Unfortunately, Malakai didn’t appear to have received the memo about gurgling happily to himself while mama worked out, or sleeping peacefully long enough for her to train. As we know, every baby is different and our little just wasn’t that way inclined. And so I had to learn to take each day as it came and work with what I could.

Some days I would head to a mum and baby fitness class and literally spend the whole hour attending to Malakai - feeding him, soothing him, changing his nappy, feeding him again. It was tough. Other days my efforts to get him to be asleep in his buggy throughout worked a charm and I managed to get a whole workout in. Living the dream! Of course, when I repeated the same actions the next week it never worked and I’d be back to the cycle of soothing Malakai while trying to do at least some squats or random leg raises. Things definitely got easier as he got older but the sweet spot didn’t last long. As soon as he was able to crawl and move around, the mum and baby classes became less of an option as he loved to explore and could often be found in the kettlebell corner, trying to pick up the weights. I also increasingly found that I was so preoccupied with making sure he was ok that I wasn’t able to focus properly on the workout. On the one hand, something is usually better than nothing, but on the other I found it frustrating and constantly fluctuated between mum guilt at trying to do something for myself and also feeling frustrated at not being able to get my workout in.

I went through a similar process with my home workouts - some days it would be a case of squeezing something in during his nap time and others it would be a mish mash of baby wearing squats and baby pushing overhead presses mixed with random kegels and abdominal work. However, as much as I appreciated that I was at least getting something done, I started to realise that for me, the mental fatigue of juggling everything and the frustration at not being able to focus purely on my training took away from that satisfaction or sense of wellbeing from getting my movement in.

Over time, I began to realise that I felt much better on shorter, uninterrupted workouts and would find ways to get them in. This felt great when I was able to make it happen, but also led to inevitable frustration when I couldn’t.

And so gradually I figured out what you might call a happy medium, which was a mixture of random exercises thrown in during movement opportunities throughout the day, plus structured workouts whenever I could. It wasn’t perfect - nothing ever is - and to this day it still fluctuates but overall I am able to get my training sessions in and stay relatively active.

Most people who know me, know that I’m not the kind of trainer to dictate what others do. I prefer to lead my clients towards a better understanding of their goals and needs and help them make informed choices about how best to make them happen. Below are a few options and considerations for postnatal training and I hope that some of these will resonate with you and open up not only some more opportunities to train, but also a potentially healthier approach to those days when it just doesn’t happen. 

First things first - sometimes we just need to sleep!!

Sleep really is the unsung hero when it comes to wellness. It forms the foundations of our health on which everything else is built. It allows us to rest, recover and heal. Short term deprivation will negatively affect our quality of life... long term deprivation however will quite literally reduce our life expectancy. There are numerous benefits to prioritising sleep and it is something I am relentlessly reminding my clients about. However, if a new parent is waiting to feel well rested before they start training again then they might be waiting for quite a while...and in the meantime there are so many benefits to rehabbing your core post birth and keeping your body as strong and healthy as possible. And so we return to the ‘it depends’ scenario. There is no right or wrong answer but the chances are that if you check in with how you’re really feeling then the optimal answer for you in that moment will become clear.

So yeah - sometimes we just need to f*****g sleep!

And other times, we need to move despite the tiredness - get the blood flowing, get the body moving and release some of those feel good hormones. If you feel like that’s you then there are different ways to make it happen.

If getting a home workout in is an option (and I appreciate that it isn’t for everyone, for a variety of reasons), then this is definitely a great move. Remember, it doesn’t need to be an hour long sweat fest - short workouts are your friend! Get in some full body movements that incorporate large muscle groups, move mindfully and connect with your breath and make those 30 minutes count.

If a workout isn’t an option there are still ways to get your movement in. Maybe set yourself a goal for the day of 100 squats and 50 push ups throughout the day. You can hold your little one for added resistance in the squats (assuming they’re feeling cooperative) and break both moves down into 10 sets of 10/5. Creating a tally for this can really help. Each set might not feel like much at the time but by the end of the day you’ll have stacked up a fair few. No, you might not get that mental release of focusing on just you and your workout, but you will get in a little bit of strength work and it all helps. And if you go in with the mindset of ‘I’ll take what I can get today!’ rather than ‘I must get in a solid workout otherwise it doesn’t count’, then you can finish the day feeling pretty satisfied with what you get done.

If your little one only sleeps in the buggy or in a carrier then if all else fails you can go out for a walk and get those steps in. This might be your only shot at activity but do not underestimate the humble walk and all the health benefits that a decent step count can bring. It ain’t sexy and you won’t see many fitness influencers bragging about it on the gram (mostly because you can’t sell it), but walking is an awesome way to look after your health. Throw in some squats or resistance band rows using a bench every time you see one and again, you’ve snuck in some movement.

As you can see - there isn’t any one approach or solution and the most useful skill you develop could be the ability to see opportunities to get some movement in. You could do 100 squats during a focussed workout or 100 squats throughout the day. The end result is still the same -100 squats done and dusted. (there are way more options for exercise by the way but the squat is a pretty good starting point).

Speaking from personal experience, I found these various approaches beneficial and they have been really helpful for my clients too. It very much depends on how you feel each day, what kind of day your little one is having and how much else you have to do. 

Listen to your body, release yourself from those expectations of what you want to get done and take each day as it comes. There’s no point dragging your body through a workout if what it needs most is sleep. Missing a workout for whatever reason doesn’t mean you need to write your exercise off for the day. And finally, something is usually better than nothing, but nothing is also OK too.

Find your balance and remember it will look different every day.

Give me a shout in the comments section if this raised any questions for you or if you have a similar experience to share. Your passionate personal trainers in Walthamstow  would love to hear from you :-)