Postpartum Training: Week 1-2

[caption id="attachment_1353" align="aligncenter" width="300"](Left) 41 Weeks Pregnant (Right) 7 days postpartum I gained 17 pounds with my pregnancy and was so proud to delivered a healthy, boy who weighed 7 pds. 11 oz.
(Left) 41 Weeks Pregnant
(Right) 7 days postpartum
I gained 17 pounds with my pregnancy and was so proud to delivered a healthy, boy who weighed 7 pds. 11 oz.[/caption]

Hey there! Sorry I’ve been gone for the last two week Fit Fam; but the craziest thing happened: I had a baby!

My last two weeks have been nothing short of the best (and craziest) days of my life, but now that baby is on schedule, my body is healing, it’s time to get my workouts back on schedule!

Like most new moms, I’m itching to get my postpartum butt back on the grind with some iron, but there are extremely important steps to take for yourself physically before getting back to a full training schedule.

Postpartum Training: Week 1-2



Are you there yet? Adjusting to a baby’s schedule is hard; adjusting to a recovering body is harder! Throughout pregnancy the body’s bones and ligaments adjust for delivery in pregnant woman, not to mention during many labors, a pregnant woman can see huge structural adjustment to her body. It’s important to get yourself straight in week 1 and 2.

The key things in the first week after delivery is to get yourself into recovery mode: hydration, nutrition, and as impossible as it seems: sleep.

Light walking and stretching is a great place to start in the first 7 days. This is also a time to check for diastasis recti, before starting any activity engaging the core. Diastasis recti is a fairly common condition of pregnancy and postpartum in which the right and left halves of the abdomen spread apart in the mide line fascia, causing separation. Here’s a link to check for diastasis recti: www.befitmom.com/diastasis_recti.php.

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Eat. Sleep. Pray?
Taken from my own week 1 experience with a newborn, it’s hard work! Feeding, changing, laundry, cleaning; oh and sleep? Not happening.

But eventually you and your newborn will develop a schedule and your first priority should be getting sleep. I suggest not attempting even walking, unless you’re getting 4-6 hours sleep in a 24 hour period. I struggle greatly with “sleeping when the baby sleeps” because I’m always on the go, but I’ve realized the more sleep I can get, the closer I get to training and being an alert, happy mama for my little!

The second most important part of establishing a schedule in your first weeks is getting your nutrition on track. If you’re breast feeding, you will need a surplus of 350-500 calories a day, depending on your body type and activity level. If you aren’t breast feeding, you need to look at the calorie range you were before pregnancy, supplementing calories slowly back when your training increases.

Filling those extra calories isn’t an excuse to belly up to the ice cream bar (goodbye preggo cravings) but you should be filling your extra calories with high protein, nutrient dense food throughout the day. I’ve tracked my macronutrients my entire pregnancy through the myfitnesspal app, which really helped gauge where my nutrition should be. Getting 2,000+ calories a day has proven to be harder than I thought with a newborn, so I’ve added in supplemental protein shakes with Axis Labs Clutch Protein to help add protein to my daily diet.

Once you’re eating, sleeping, don’t forget a little praying helps too. Being a new mom is the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced! At times I feel like a complete rookie and can get frustrated, but I just remind myself that my son doesn’t know if I didn’t get the to-do list done or if I missed a workout; he just knows my love.

Back to the basics. Now that we’ve wrapped up the essentials, I’m sharing with you guys a sample of my workouts for postpartum week 1-2.

In the beginning of your training, you have to get back to the basics and for new moms it’s establishing the stability in your core, ligaments, and flexibility that will have you ready to get back to full training.

Strengthening the pelvic floor and abdominal wall is crucial in these weeks, here are my exercises I perform every day:

Adductor ball squeezes 30x3

Hip bridge adductor ball squeezes 10x3

“Clam shells” 15x3

Remember, right now its about quality; not quantity. Focus on your contraction in your core and glutes.

I follow my post-baby recovery with this set:

Fire hydrants 15x3 Glute Kick backs 30x3

Body weight split squats 15x3 (each side)

Body weight squats 30x3

Make sure you are keeping your core tight, abdomen tucked, and glutes contracted during these exercises as well.

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Keep tuning in to my blog, because next week I’ll be going over everything you need to know for postpartum week 3-4! And remember fit moms, one day/diaper/exercise at a time!

  Article Contributed by:

Alysha White, Axis Labs Sponsored Athlete and Master Trainer  

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