Movement for Mere Mortals

This morning I got out of bed and didn’t feel like zombie. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to be fully awake and aware. I even did a few stretches after breakfast.

Perhaps, I thought, it’s time to start exercising.

Looking for advice online, the expert answers were universal: Get moving, but go slowly, be gentle and keep the baby with you. Not only are the ligaments in your hips and pelvis still stretched out due to the relaxin hormones that prepared you for birth, making you more prone to injury, but harder exercise may not be as effective as it was before you gave birth.

The Expectant Mother’s Guide is especially honest on this topic.

“I was keenly interested in getting back into great shape as fast as humanly possible,” the article author wrote. “I started with short cardio segments and some traditional toning exercises. I did see some results but not as quickly as pre pregnancy nor as fast as I would have liked. It seemed that my previously fine-tuned body was functioning as if I’d had no training at all! It was as if my years of fitness had evaporated. It was a humbling experience.”

What is truly remarkable is that the author had been a fitness trainer for more than twenty years. I find comfort in knowing that all mothers are in this together, fitness instructors and mere mortals alike. We all have to start from the beginning.

Suggestions for getting started from Dr. Sears are, as everyone’s favorite father-grandfather-pediatrician’s words always are, a blend of comforting new age tones and old school practicality: Do a fitness video and ecourage the baby to clap along, invest in a jogging stroller and start the day with a brisk walk.

You’d think we’d all know enough to take our kids for walks, but in this age of high-tech gyms and ever changing fitness trends, it’s easy to forget how simple exercise and activity can be.

It was especially nice to be reminded that nature is on the post partum mother’s side when it comes to regaining your body. The Fit Pregnancy article, Easy Ways to Get Your Body Back reminded me that just breast feeding burns between 500 and 700 calories a day. That’s the equivalent of about an hour of jogging and not as sweaty.