Being a young mother is an unforgettable experience; it brings many new emotions and impressions. Constantly being alone with the baby and following a daily routine can be difficult psychologically and physically for a new mother, but thanks to modern technology, life with a newborn is quite easy to arrange. Just a few weeks after giving birth, more and more young girls are trying to find time for themselves. Exercises with a child in your arms are an excellent way to maintain a good appearance and a cheerful mood.
Choosing a class time
It is recommended to start doing the simplest exercises aimed at training the pelvic floor muscles, or Kegel exercises, already in the maternity hospital. Squeezing and unclenching the internal muscles of the vagina helps prevent problems with urination and restores the muscles of the uterus, stretched after pregnancy and childbirth.
sports exercises for a mother with an infant no earlier than 6-8 weeks after birth, if they passed without pathology. In case of cesarean section, heavy bleeding or other complications, it is better to postpone gymnastics until you consult a gynecologist or your doctor.
Fitness exercises should be carried out provided that both mother and baby are in good health. Her goal is not only to restore the female figure after childbirth, but also to enjoy the time spent with the baby.
The best time to play sports with a baby in your arms is the period from 3 to 12 months of the baby . A baby at this age is already strong enough for a little joint gymnastics. It can serve as a weight for exercises with loads and at the same time it does not move too confidently and can be fixed in the position that is required.
You should not deal with the baby immediately after feeding, so as not to cause regurgitation; it is better to wait 40-45 minutes.
Naturally, the baby should be active and alert while charging. If the baby is naughty or falls asleep, you will have to choose a different time for training or wait until he sleeps and do the exercises yourself.
Increase the load gradually
The second rule of fitness after childbirth is gradualism . Do not try to immediately return to the physical activities that were familiar to you before pregnancy. At first, just walk with your baby in the fresh air. To start, 20 minutes a day, then gradually increase the time of walking and the pace of movement. Walking with a stroller burns more calories than race walking.
4-6 weeks after natural childbirth, you can begin gentle training, advises Anastasia Mironenko , manager of group programs at Wellness Park. If you had a cesarean section or episiotomy, you will have to wait longer - 6-8 weeks: the stitches should be completely healed. Before starting classes, it is better to consult a doctor.
As for full-fledged training , you can switch to it three months after a natural birth and 5-6 months after a cesarean section. These terms are arbitrary and depend on whether you exercised before and during pregnancy, and how the birth went.
In addition, young mothers should remember that active fitness is not recommended during lactation . “Serious power loads during the feeding period are still undesirable,” says Natalya Bakhireva, instructor at “LIVE!” — The whole point is that they release lactic acid, which spoils the milk. The child may simply refuse it. As for aerobic exercise, there is no one-size-fits-all rule. In some women it reduces lactation, in others it does not.” Therefore, during breastfeeding, only yoga or Pilates .
Anastasia Mironenko advises young mothers to do Pilates also because it is the best way to strengthen all the internal muscles, which need to be restored first after childbirth. After the end of lactation, more intense exercise is possible - running, dancing, water aerobics.
If you don't want to part with your baby to go to the fitness club, you can train at home while the baby is sleeping. To do this, short workouts with simple exercises for all muscle groups are suitable for you. And together with your baby you can study according to the “LIVE!” program. “Fitness Mom” with Natalia Bakhireva or Svetlana Litvinova.
Fitness rules for mothers with children
Carrying out home sports activities for mothers and babies requires following simple rules:
- The mother's movements should be soft and smooth, so as not to scare or harm the baby.
- It is forbidden to run and jump with a child in your arms due to the high load on the baby’s spine when shaking.
- The child must be supported and secured to prevent him from falling during training (babies up to 3-4 months should be supported by the head, then held by the arms).
- If the baby cries, home exercises should be completed and calmed down.
- You should start with a minimum number of approaches, gradually increasing the load.
- Physical training should bring joy and satisfaction, not fatigue.
How can a mother with small children find time to exercise?
So, it's time to start doing fitness.
Photo: Tatiana KURCHINA
By evening, pulsating flashes of pain in my back echoed into my heart. It felt like hot nails were being hammered into me. No, no, this won’t work, I thought, it’s time for me to play sports and strengthen my muscles. Crunching my stiff limbs, I tried to warm up. Imagine my amazement when I discovered that I couldn’t even stand on the elementary bridge from below. Hello, my new completely wooden body. The body after the third pregnancy. Pregnancy, during which I gained, as usual, my rightful twenty-five kilograms. No, no, I want my old waist, I want to be beautiful, fit and young. Do you know what is most important? The most important thing is that my children need an active, healthy and energetic mother, and not some kind of wreck. A mother who can play sports games with her children, run, and climb with them around children's playgrounds.
So, it's time to start doing fitness. I have no helpers, I have no one to leave my children with, and my annual card to the fitness club is successfully burned out. There is only one way out: do fitness with your children. By the way, I have three of them.
Walking with a stroller is very easy to combine with a set of sports exercises
Photo: Tatiana KURCHINA
The eldest, already completely independent and conquering the heights of Olympus at the age of nineteen without my participation. But with our youngest newborn hero and two-year-old beauty, we have just started on the path to sporting heights. I began to organize my days so that not a single day would be wasted, that is, without sports. And you know, it’s only at first glance that it seems difficult to find time for fitness. With some skill and proper organization of the day, you can manage everything.
You can use the stroller as a support and do exercises while rocking the baby
Photo: Tatiana KURCHINA
Walking with a stroller is very easy to combine with a set of sports exercises. If the child sleeps well in the stroller, you can put it in and calmly do a full workout in the park. For some reason, my children prefer to sleep while moving. Walking, of course, is wonderful, but I also want to tighten certain muscles. So what's the solution? Use the stroller as a support and, rocking the child, do exercises.
You can do exercises with a child in your arms
Photo: Tatiana KURCHINA
I do exercises with the stroller, even when I am walking with my eldest daughter on the playground. I seized the moment when my help was not needed and began to squat. Yes, I am not ashamed that others will look at me askance. I have no other choice. Either I work out outside, or my back and wrists will crumble.
Exercising with a newborn
I was always surprised by the phrase: “you don’t need to accustom your child to your hands.” Does anyone really teach a child to hold hands on purpose? My children are born immediately accustomed. But for them to lie down on their own, they still need to be persuaded, but they won’t agree. During wakefulness, they require their mother's hands and spectacles.
Playing sports with a child is a pleasure
Photo: Tatiana KURCHINA
Exit to do exercises with a child in your arms. In this case, it is necessary to follow safety rules: do not overtire the child, do all movements smoothly, do not scare or rock them. Time must pass after feeding. Well, if the baby lies calmly, you can do the usual exercises next to him. At the same time, you need to coo with him, sing songs to him, in general, entertain him in every possible way.
Playing sports with an older child is a pleasure. Children aged about one and a half years will happily repeat the movements while training nearby. It's all a fun game for them. Of course, they will interfere, and there is a high probability of getting your heel in the eye, but nevertheless, you can conduct a full workout! The main thing is not to forget about safety. After all, nimble and active children can unnoticed appear under the lowering dumbbell. It is important to control the situation and keep the child in sight. It’s better to do joint game training. Let's say, jump like bunnies, walk like ducks, roll like a bun, and so on. My daughter and I love to dance together. Sometimes to Zheleznova’s children’s songs. And sometimes we dance adult rhythmic dances.
The real fun comes when you start playing sports with several children, in my case two.
You can always find time to workout during the craziest day, even when everything seems to be going wrong. Someone will probably prefer to build a daily schedule and schedule a workout, say, at nine o’clock in the morning. I prefer to create a flexible schedule. Let's say: today during the day I have to do fifty squats and three sets of twelve reps on the abs. I can’t allocate a full block of time for training; I train in fits and starts throughout the day. But even to find these windows, remarkable self-organization is required. After all, you need to maintain the right balance: not to infringe on the interests of children, but not to forget about your own. In addition, kids have an amazing ability to exhaust to the last drop. I noticed that when you start fulfilling all the whims of children, adapting too much to them, the reign of chaos sets in. Therefore, it is important that they follow a mother who has a plan and serves as an example. Children need to be organized and guided. Then the work will be done, and the children and mother will be trained.
Start getting ready for a sports day in the morning
Photo: Tatiana KURCHINA
Start getting ready to have a sports day in the morning. Of course, when there are children in the house, one of whom is a newborn, it is sometimes difficult to find time even to comb your hair. Therefore, it is better to put on comfortable sportswear immediately after waking up, so as not to waste time changing clothes later. Let your sportswear be beautiful and tight. The tight-fitting uniform is very stimulating to exercise when you feel every part of the body that needs to be worked out. I further enhance the sensation by wearing a short top. In order to always remember about your deflated balloon in the waist area. And of course, in this state of affairs, abdominal exercises do not take long to arrive.
Don't get discouraged or give up if you don't lose weight as quickly as you want. Until six months after childbirth, the body has a lot of the hormone “relaxin” - which prevents the mother from losing weight. By the ninth month after childbirth, if you do not overeat, restoration of your previous figure comes on its own. Exercise is more important for health
Don't be afraid to exercise while breastfeeding. What a nursing mother should avoid is dehydration, not exercise. If you still believe that the milk will disappear from physical activity, or the baby will refuse the breast due to the abundance of lactic acid in the milk, do not make the load very intense and focus on stretching. You can feed your baby before training, then wait half an hour and start fitness classes. From my own experience, I know for sure that the number of classes does not affect the amount of milk. I just eat well and drink a lot. A nursing mother should never follow a weight loss diet. Losing weight in general has a ghostly value; what is more important is a toned, strong body and beautiful shape. Therefore, to be the best version of yourself, you need to exercise daily. In order to fit fitness into your life and not stray from the path leading to a healthy body, your arsenal of exercises should be constantly replenished. When I feel like my imagination is exhausted, I go and look at the exercises on the Instagram profile FITNESS_s_Baby - a real storehouse of ideas. A very interesting profile is also FITNESS_s_Baby _all, where instructors from all over our, and not only our, country publish their ideas for exercises for mothers with children.
Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent experienced fitness with children
Photo: Tatiana KURCHINA
You can also try to master a new type of load. Challenge yourself like this. For example, I decided to learn how to twerk. Once a week I add a new movement and practice it throughout the week. It’s very difficult, very unusual, but I really want to learn. And don’t say that it’s indecent for a mother of three to twerk.
And one more important point. A new mother can play sports after giving birth only when her doctor allows her. As a rule, this is one and a half months after natural birth. After cesarean section in two to four months. The baby should also have no medical contraindications for exercising with his mother.
Tested by my mother from her own experience.
Exercises with a child in your arms
You should start your fitness classes with a warm-up in the form of a quick step or jumping in place, dancing to your favorite music. It is better to carry out this part of the training without the child, leaving him in a crib or other safe place (on the floor, in the playpen). After 4-5 months, the baby will follow with interest the actions of the mother, which will benefit the development of his attention and observation.
You can turn on the music and dance with your child, moving smoothly and calmly.
Fitness for mothers with babies includes exercises for various muscle groups, but the main focus is on the abs, abdomen, and buttocks as the areas most affected during pregnancy. You should also not forget about back exercises, since carrying a baby in your arms for a long time puts a serious strain on the spine.
Initially, any exercise is performed with a minimum number of approaches. The increase in load should be gradual and not lead to overwork. In case of discomfort or pain, especially in the lower abdomen, exercise should be stopped.
Abdominal exercises
Abdominal exercises can be performed no earlier than 2-3 months after the baby is born. If there are surgical scars, the date for starting classes is recommended by the doctor; violating it is dangerous due to the risk of sutures coming apart.
- Starting position: lying on your back, legs bent at the knees, the child lies on the mother’s stomach or sits, leaning on his hips as if on the back of a chair. Mom raises her head, lifting her shoulder blades and shoulders off the floor, and tries to reach her knees. This is a classic abdominal exercise with the only difference being that there is a baby on the woman’s body.
- Lying on your back, bend your knees and press them to your chest. Place the child on his shins parallel to the floor. In this position, try to lift your head and shoulders off the floor, straining your buttocks, folding even more.
Exercises for the buttocks and thighs
- Squat with the baby on your neck or in a sling.
- Rock the baby on your shin, sitting in a “leg to leg” position, while at the same time you can recite a nursery rhyme or a nursery rhyme.
- Lie on your back, bend your knees 90 degrees and place your feet on a sofa or low chair. Place the baby on your stomach, holding it, lift your buttocks, stretching your body in one line. Hold the position for 3 seconds and, relaxing, lower to the floor.
- Lunges with a child in your arms. Alternately stand on the knee of your right and left legs, holding the baby upright, tightly pressed to you.
Basic set of exercises
"Squat"
Stand near the wall, pressing your back and buttocks, feet shoulder-width apart at a distance of 30 - 35 cm from the wall. Take the baby in your arms, with his back to you. Hold it with one hand in the chest area and the other between the legs. Slowly bend your knees and lower yourself down until parallel to the floor (for beginners, do a shallower squat), while pressing firmly against the wall. Stay in this position for 5 - 6 seconds, then slowly rise up.
"Forward Lunge"
Take the child in your arms, turn his back to you, hug and press. Take a wide step forward with your right foot. Bend your knees and lower yourself into a lunge. Make sure that the shin of your right leg is perpendicular to the floor, and point your left knee towards the floor. Return to the starting position and repeat again.
"Legs to the side"
Hold the child's body with your hands, with his back to you. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, feet slightly turned outward, knees slightly bent. Stand on one leg and abduct the other leg to the side. When returning to the supporting leg, do not touch the floor. Repeat on the other leg.
"Turns"
Take the child in your arms, hug and hold him close. Place your feet shoulder-width apart. Perform smooth turns to the sides, without sudden movements.
"Children's elevator"
Take the child in your arms and sit on a chair, knees bent, feet on the floor. Turn your baby to face you and hold him at approximately chest level, elbows bent. Tighten your abdominal muscles and lift your baby slightly by straightening your arms. For a playful moment, blow in his face, return to the starting position and repeat.
"Back Bends"
Kneel down, supporting your baby by the legs and under the chest, with your back to your stomach. While kneeling, lean back slightly with your whole body and return to a vertical position.
"Press"
Take your baby and lie on your back. Knees bent, feet on the floor. Place your baby on your stomach so that he leans his back against your thighs - leaning back, like in a chaise lounge. Hold it at the sides. Raise your upper body, reach towards your baby, keep your lower back pressed to the floor, smile and kiss. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat.
In the final part of the workout, use breathing exercises. We recommend performing the preparatory and final parts without the baby, so as not to question his safety and for the mother to avoid injury.
Fitness for moms in the pool and gym
You can train with your baby both at home and in a special room.
Many fitness centers offer similar services for mothers with children over 3 months old . Classes in the gym are conducted under the guidance of an experienced trainer and include a full range of exercises for losing weight and restoring the body after pregnancy. Postpartum gymnastics has a beneficial effect on a woman’s health and gives her vitality.
Attending such classes is a great way to get in shape, be physically active, make new friends and expand your social circle.
A popular type of physical activity with a baby is baby yoga. This is a set of asanas selected for women after childbirth and performed together with their babies. The older children are, the more actively they become involved in yoga practice. During training, mainly static poses are used, which alternate with rest. This activity will not only put your body in order, but will also teach you how to properly relax and distract yourself from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
A significant disadvantage of training in a specialized center is the need to visit a public space at a certain time. In young children, their immunity is still developing and they can easily be susceptible to viruses. In addition, the periods of sleep and wakefulness of babies up to 3-4 months are just being established, so it may be difficult to synchronize training and daily routine. It is also important that the road to the center is not tiring for either mother or baby.
An alternative to fitness can be swimming. Special classes for mothers with babies are held in many swimming pools. Many children under one year old enjoy swimming and can easily learn to dive if they regularly attend classes. Staying in cool water helps strengthen the immune system, strengthening, physical development and restful sleep of the baby after training. When choosing a pool, you should pay attention to the quality and method of water purification, the availability of conditions for babies (changing tables, playpens). Classes must be taught by a certified instructor.
Exercise #4: Lunges
Do you want a butt like a nut? Lunge the best!
Take the child with his back to you, lean his elbow slightly on his thigh and squat on one leg, then on the other.
This is the number for the baby . This exercise is a very effective prevention of cellulite on the fifth point.
Exercise #5: Stretching
We finish the exercise with stretching, which will help relax and restore the body after training. Place the baby between your legs, bend one leg, straighten the other and bend towards the straight leg.
Now straighten both legs and place them at an angle of 90 degrees and continue bending in one direction or the other. You can kiss the baby alternately on both cheeks!
Every mother can do these exercises 2-3 times a week, even with a baby in her arms.
Don’t forget to take care of your body, and it will thank you. Many women who look 30 at 40 don't do anything extraordinary - sleep enough, watch their diet and exercise, no matter how many children they have.
Wish you all the best!
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Ekaterina Ulyanova
Mother of two wonderful daughters and author of the blog blogomamochka.ru
Lessons on the street
In the warm season, you can do gymnastics while walking while the baby sleeps in a stroller . At the first stage, it is enough to alternate fast and slow walking paces, roll from toe to heel, walk on tiptoes and goose step. You can practice leg swings, try to do “swallows” and squats, if your physical fitness allows.
Don't forget about your hands. Although carrying a child in your arms in itself stimulates the development of the muscles of the shoulder girdle, it is worth adding unloading exercises: rotating your arms in a circle, squeezing your clasped hands while holding your elbows at chest level. The last task also helps prevent milk stagnation during breastfeeding.
Some models of strollers allow you to go for a full run when walking with your baby. For such training, you need to choose smooth paths away from highways in order to minimize the child’s shaking. You should pay attention to the stability of the stroller when turning.
At the dacha or in your own home, you can do all the same exercises as at home, while being outside, combining the benefits of physical activity with being in the fresh air.
Exercise #2: Raising your legs
In the same position, lying on your back, place your baby on your shins, naturally holding him well. Straighten your legs, but not to a right angle with the floor, but to 70-80 degrees, so that your assistant does not fall) You can’t even imagine how effective this exercise is! Your butt, abs and calves will thank you
