No matter what your fitness level or physique- working out after having a baby is a humbling experience to say the least.

You may feel like things don’t ‘feel right’ or that you are so far behind from where you were pre-pregnancy. Don’t get this narrative in your head and let it overwhelm you. It took many months to make that perfect child, and it will take time to heal from giving birth. Take the pressure off yourself to be ‘perfect’ and simply focus on consistency for the time being.

At about 6 weeks after you deliver your baby, either vaginally or cesarean, your doctor will “approve” you to workout, have sex, and start to get back in the swing of things. The key word is START! This is not a green light to go from 0 to 100. It’s normal to think that hard exercise, less calories and strict discipline will get you to your goals- but that can wreak havoc on your mental health and hormones. Take small steps in the direction you want to be, and your body will respond with much more love.

At 6 weeks after giving birth your body still has Relaxin, which is a hormone produced by the ovary and the placenta.

This hormone helps relax the ligaments in the pelvis, as well as softens and widens the cervix. While the last bit of this hormone is still present in your body, it is important that we do not overexert ourselves during the first few weeks of movement and instead practice light workouts.

And before you get to moving, take note of your Core!

Our core muscle consists of our hips, abdomen, obliques, back and glutes. While these muscles carried you through pregnancy and supporting life, they basically turned to mush thanks to giving birth. Being cautious around how we engage our core post birth is so important. Giving birth should have the same mindset of after-care equivalent to having surgery.

For your first workout post-birth, try some movements that will help strengthen the pelvic floor and help you start to engage your core as to help put everything “back together”. Many of you will be carrying around your baby and feeding, it’s also important to focus and strengthen your back. Protect your back by getting in the habit of bending your knees to pick up your baby. This protects your back SO much. As your baby grows into a healthy toddler, having good habits of how you move your body as they weigh more is of the utmost importance.

Get started with this 10 Min Routine to begin getting your strength back!

Warm up, to get your body moving.

Begin in a chair, engage your core and practice how you hold your midsection daily.

Once you feel comfortable with this, you may graduate to standing.
Practice sitting up nice and tall, shoulders back and down, while keeping your spine as straight as possible. Big inhale through the nose, expanding your rib cage for 4 seconds, and exhaling through the mouth, tapping into the transverse abdominis, this small muscle group underneath your obliques and rectus abdominis that helps us strengthen the pelvic floor. The count should be inhaled for 4 seconds and exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds. Repeat this for a total of 30 seconds.

Lift your arms up overhead, clasping the hands and bringing your pointer fingers together.

Begin to bring your pointer fingers from one side of the room to the other, stretching out your ribcage and working on spinal flection-gently. This stretch is especially helpful if you are holding your baby and nursing all the time. Repeat for a total of 30 seconds.

Cat/cows

While still sitting, let your hands come to your knees, round your shoulders and spine slightly dropping your head down (cat), then elongate your spine, bring your shoulders back and head and neck an extension of your long spine (cow). Working towards spinal flection. Repeat for a total of 30 seconds.

Chair squats

Standing up in front of your chair, squat down back into the chair and right back up, engaging our quads and glutes as you stand up. Inhale and bring the arms all the way up overhead, and exhale forward fold, bringing the arms down above your knees, hinging forward, then roll all the way back up. Repeat this for 30 seconds.

The workout

You are going to do 4 different exercises, each is done for 1 min and then repeat it 2x though.

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Bicep overhead press

Sitting in a chair, nice and tall, holding a pair of light weights or soupcans, keeping your elbows in towards your rib cage, bring the weights up towards your shoulders, then turn the palms facing away from your body and press the weight up overhead, on a slight angle away from you, just like you were putting something on a shelve high over head. Repeat for 1 min.

Pile squat using a chair:

Facing the back of the chair, you will use your chair for stability. Feet wider than the hips and toes turned out. Squat down and come up, going slow, especially the first time. This will help engage your inner and outer thighs. Don’t forget to engage your core, just like we did in the warmup.

Chest openers

Sitting in your chair, grab your light weights or soup cans, bend your elbow and bring your arms up so your elbows are shoulder height, and palms face you. Opening up the arms and engaging your upper back, getting into the trapezius and muscle around the scapular spine You will feel this in the back of the shoulder or your deltoid. This exercise is great for moms, because we are holding and feeding babies all the time, this helps strengthen our back and helps with our posture.

Squats

Holding onto the back of the chair, knees and toes facing forward, squat down and up, pressing your whole foot on the floor. Repeat for 1 min.

How do you feel after 10 min? Not bad right?! You may have even created some energy! Practice being consistent with this routine and build upon it as you see fit.