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A postpartum workout plan is important for a variety of reasons. Not only does a postpartum workout plan help with strengthening the muscles that become weak during pregnancy, but it also aids in boosting mood and energy levels.
However, before diving into a postpartum workout plan, let’s begin by understanding the term “postpartum” better.
What Does Postpartum Mean?
Postpartum refers to the time that follows after childbirth. Usually it lasts for six weeks, but it can go on for longer. There’s no exact timespan for it, but it’s the period during which the new mother’s body goes through various emotional and physical changes while it recovers from pregnancy and delivery.
This period can be extremely challenging for new mothers as they adjust to caring for a newborn (which is quite a task in itself) and simultaneously deal with their own emotional and physical changes. All of this together can take a toll on a new mother, resulting in fatigue, mood swings, vaginal bleeding, breast tenderness, and even depression. These are commonly referred to as postpartum syndromes and are essential to make note of.
During the postpartum period, new mothers require proper care and support to recover and adjust to their new role. This is where exercising comes in.
Why Is Postpartum Exercise Important?
As mentioned, a postpartum workout plan serves a variety of purposes. Here are some of the most important ones:
Strengthening Muscles
During pregnancy and delivery, the core and pelvic floor muscles can become weak. Therefore, a proper workout routine can help with strengthening muscle fibers and improving conditions such as urinary incontinence.
Boosting Energy and Mood
Postpartum comes with mood swings and fatigue, and exercising is a good way to release endorphins and boost your mood and energy.
Promoting Weight Loss
A postpartum workout plan will help with weight loss and improving cardiovascular health. This has a long-term impact on your well-being and overall health.
What Is a Postpartum Workout Plan?
When you’re thinking of a postpartum exercise plan, you need to understand that your body should be eased into it. So, it’s best to divide the postpartum workout plan into weeks and focus on progressive overload with each passing week.
Here’s an example of a postpartum exercise plan:
Weeks 1-6
Focus on low-impact exercises such as pelvic floor workouts, walking, and light stretching. The idea here is to get your muscles reacting to the movements but not adding any stress on them.
Weeks 7-12
Start adding light cardio to the mix, such as cycling or swimming, along with pelvic floor exercises. You can even add certain resistance training exercises such as bodyweight squats and lunges.
Weeks 13-16
Start increasing the intensity of your cardio workouts. What you can do for this purpose is focus on jogging or brisk walking. On the other hand, begin to add weight to the strength training movements such as light dumbbells.
Weeks 17-20
Begin adding proper strength training sessions to your workout routine by aiming for at least two such sessions. Additionally, you can start adding high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to your cardio routine as well.
Weeks 21-24
Continue with regular exercise but add some postpartum core exercises to the mix such as pelvic tilts, bridge poses, clamshells, and planks. Furthermore, continue to add other core exercises such as variations of crunches, side bending, and other similar moves.
At this point, you should be more focused on a proper workout plan since over the course of 24 weeks, your muscles will have become stronger and be able to take on more resistance.
Things to Be Aware of during Postpartum Workout
While it would be great to workout intensely again, pregnancy is an extremely stressful period for the body. So, when you choose to return to exercising, it’s important to know the following:
- Start slow
- Focus on your core muscles
- Listen to your body
- Give yourself ample rest
- Be patient
