A Quick Post-Pregnancy Workout To Fill You With Confidence
Carrying a baby around inside you for nine months doesn’t leave much time to exercise as regularly as you used to. Especially in the final trimester when you’re carrying loads of extra weight from the baby and everything feels tough. Add this to the fact your body goes through multiple changes as an expecting mother and it’s highly common to be left low on confidence once your baby is born.
You want to get back into exercise after a long break, but you’re unsure what you should and shouldn’t be doing following your child’s birth. The good news is you don’t have to do much – here’s a speedy post-pregnancy workout that can be repeated again and again to help build your confidence back up.
Squats – 3 Sets, 10-12 Reps
The squat is a fantastic exercise for building strength throughout your lower body. It gets the blood flowing through legs that may have been swollen during pregnancy while strengthening your thighs and glutes as well. Due to the intense nature of the movement, it’s also one of the best exercises to lose stomach fat after pregnancy. Add as much resistance as necessary to get 10-12 reps each set.
Glute Bridge – 3 Sets, 15 Reps
Glute bridges involve lying on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Then, you want to contract your pelvic floor by squeezing as though you’re holding in a pee. This should tilt your pelvis so your lower back is flat on the ground. From here, squeeze your glutes and thrust your hips up in the air while keeping your lower back as straight as possible.
Training your pelvic floor is key after giving birth as these muscles weaken significantly. Also, glute bridges are excellent at preventing lower back pain.
Leg Raises – 3 Sets, 10 Reps
Your core muscles need training after pregnancy too, and this exercise helps target your lower abdominal region. Start exactly as you would on a glute bridge, but this time you should lift each foot off the ground. As your core gets stronger, you can transition to both feet off the ground at once. When this gets too easy, start straightening your legs until you’re eventually able to lie flat on the ground with fully straight legs and lift them both into the sky without your lower back coming off the floor.
Plank – 3 Sets, As Long As Possible
Finally, you’ll end with a plank – another great core exercise. You can start on your knees and hands to see how it feels. If it’s too much, this is your level now and you should hold the position for as long as possible.
Transition to forearms and knees, then hands and feet before finally getting a full forearm plank in. It’s the best way to build your core strength and tighten your abs after childbirth.
Repeat this workout a few times a week or turn it into a circuit if you want to make it more cardiovascular-focused. For the circuit version, perform each exercise once in a row. Minimize breaks between each exercise and rest for 1-2 minutes after your plank before going through them again. Do this 3 times total, or for as many cycles as you want!
