Postpartum Workouts

I am back!  As you know, I worked out throughout my entire pregnancy.  I had such an easy pregnancy and I felt great the entire time.  I hoped that keeping fit through my pregnancy would make for an easier labor and delivery as well.  Unfortunately it did not.  This baby did not want to come out and play so I had to be induced at 42 weeks.  I was in labor for 24 hours.  I finally delivered a healthy and handsome baby boy and was beaming.  Some complications with me ensued next and I needed a bit more recovery time than I had expected.

What I have learned from it all is that working out through pregnancy does help to ease common pregnancy aches and pains.  However, it does not necesarrily make for an easy labor and delivery!  On the upside, staying fit through my pregnancy did enable me to recover more quickly and allowed me to ease back into a fitness routine postpartum.

I began with very slow walking, then about 2 weeks postpartum I was walking more briskly, then by 3 weeks I was doing light workouts intended to move my joints in their full range of motion again, then by 4 weeks I was using equipment again.  Now I am gradually increasing the resistance and the intensity of my workouts.  Most of my time is spent caring for my adorable son, so due to time constraints my workouts have generally been 20 minutes on most days.  Because workouts are shorter, I have to workout more frequently and I have to have very focused workouts in order to see results.

During pregnancy I gained about 32 pounds.  One week post partum I had dropped about 20 as most of the weight was ‘baby weight’ and water weight.  My plan is to slowly and healthfully lose the last 12 pounds over the next several months.  We will see how that goes!

Please come back to view my postpartum workout videos which should be up in the next few days!