How to Exercise Postpartum

Video Transcript

"Now, you've just had that beautiful baby, and you're ready to get back into shape. Hi everyone, I'm Carol Ann with Studio Group X, and I'm going to show you how to exercise postpartum. The first thing you want to remember, is that it was ten months into your pregnancy. Take your time, ten months out of your pregnancy, to get back into shape. Make sure you've been released by your doctor. If you've had a vaginal birth, it will take about four to six weeks, before your doctor will release you. If you had a C-Section, anywhere between six to eight weeks, before you're released back into your regular exercise program. Now, even after a few days, after you give birth, you can start doing some light movement, like walking, or some stretching, but make sure you're not going to overdo it. You never want to overexert yourself. You know you're overexerting, if your vaginal discharge is a pink or red color, so kind of monitor that. Now, to get back into your pre-pregnancy program, if you were exercising during your pregnancy, remember to do so gradually. That's the theme, gradual, gradual. Now, the best thing that you can start with are Kegels. Now, Kegels are great to pull those pelvic floor muscles back into shape. They've been stretched, so what you want to concentrate on, is if you can think about urinating, and you stop that urine stream. Those are the muscles that contract to pull up on the pelvic floor muscles, so think about your Kegels. You can hold for ten seconds, release, and do that about three to five times, whenever you can think about that, and when you get back into a program after you've been released by your doctor.You can add in about three days of cardio exercise. Do some push-ups and then really focus on some nice stretching, and relaxation time. Now, I know you guys are really thinking about pulling those abdominal muscles back into shape, so I'm going to show you some abdominal exercises, that you can do, and a way that you can test yourself, to see if you are indeed ready, to start doing some abdominal exercises. Now, during pregnancy, your abdominals have a tendency to stretch, right here in the middle, so you want to place your fingertips right in the middle of your abdominals, right above your belly button. Inhale, exhale. Sit your shoulder blades up off the mat. Now, with your fingertips right here in the center, if the separation is more than two fingers, then your abdominals have not yet come back together yet, so if that is the case, you're not quite ready for traditional abdominal exercises, so you can do some pelvic tilts. You can do some leg slides here, just to strengthen the abdominals, and get ready for your traditional abdominal exercises, so I'm Carol Ann, with Studio Group X, and that is how you exercise postpartum. Good luck in your journey, getting back into shape."