Postpartum Workout Plan

Core exercises can be a great way to begin restoring core health, function, and strength after giving birth. During your pregnancy, it is very common to experience a weakening of connective tissues and your abdominal muscles, especially postpartum. Many women will experience diastasis recti at some point during or after their pregnancy. Although it is recommended to allow for your body to heal properly before beginning most core exercises, there are a few that we recommend in your postpartum workout.

• Breathing: Exercising proper breathing mechanics can significantly benefit your pelvic floor and core as your body begins to heal. Practicing rib breathing, or 3-D breathing, can help you recover as your breathing patterns may have changed after giving birth. I recommend that all my clients practice proper breathing mechanics as it is an important element in my program. This exercise can help reduce intra-abdominal pressure, engage your diaphragm and ribcage, and play an important role during your exercise routine.
• Candles Breathing: To coincide with the previous technique, candles breathing can be beneficial for many postpartum people during their recovery. However, it is important that if you feel any discomfort, heaviness, or strain in your pelvic floor or core, to wait until you’re healed a bit more before continuing. To begin this exercise:

1. Come onto your hands and knees or sit comfortably. Try to imagine you have a cake with multiple candles on it either between your hands (if you’re on your hands and knees) or placed in front of you while sitting.
2. Inhale and exhale slowly blowing out all the candles. As you do so, you should feel your abs slowly moving back and at the end of the exhale – they should feel very tight.
3. Next, come to a sitting position and imagine there is an oval shaped object (be creative) in your vaginal canal. As you exhale and blow candles, lift that object up toward your belly button. With this movement, you should feel your deep core move both up and back as it begins at your pelvic floor. Do not squeeze your superficial vaginal muscles – the lift comes from a bit higher up than that. Do this 5X in a row, 1 X a day.

There are many exercises you should avoid during the first 8 weeks of your postpartum recovery. In our program, Body Ready Method®, we firmly believe in a 5-5-5 program during the first 2 – 4 weeks before getting back into a more strenuous routine. 5-5-5 means spending 5 days resting in bed, 5 days around your bed, and 5 days within close proximity of your bed. After those two weeks are up, you can begin introducing walking and other light exercises.

Whether you are still feeling pain or feel totally fine after delivering your baby, it is extremely important that you take it slow. Performing the wrong exercises may be unhelpful to your body as it is trying to heal from a fairly large internal injury.

Avoid any exercises that apply unnecessary pressure or strain to your belly and midline. This means you should avoid any exercises that cause your belly to bulge (sit-ups, planks, squats, etc). This can cause any separation you may have experienced to worsen and can be very painful.

It is also important to avoid any heavy lifting or twisting in ways that can affect your abdomen or vaginal wall. Avoid exercises like crunches, oblique curls, roll-ups, or any similar exercises.

It may also be helpful to avoid yoga poses such as backbends or other spinal extensions as they, too, increase intra-abdominal pressure. Additionally, following advice from any flat belly programs or fast, baby weight reduction programs are a no-go. One of the most damaging lies our culture tries to instill in new mothers is that they should quickly begin trying to regain a bikini body or slim appearance.

If you are looking for a no-BS, helpful recovery program for your postpartum recovery, consider checking out our 12-week program: made by women, for women.