If Baby is Over One Year Old
If you had your baby (or kid, or teenager) more than a year ago, it isn’t too late to repair your post-pregnancy body.
If you had your baby (or kid, or teenager) more than a year ago, it isn’t too late to repair your post-pregnancy body.
Start at Level 1, and work your way through the program. You can swap your strength training workouts out for the circuit workouts, and if you’re only doing cardio now, you might consider shortening your cardio workouts to 20-30 minutes to give yourself time for the circuit workouts, too.
For the first 3 levels, give yourself 2 weeks per level to allow for neural adaptations – even if the exercises feel easy. Remember, the focus is on working the smaller muscles that tend to be most affected by pregnancy and then later substituted for if they’re never properly rehabbed afterwards. So don’t be tempted to pile on the weights for the workouts.
You can do the full program, which takes anywhere from 20-40 minutes per day, starting at Level 1. Once you are able to walk 2 back-to-back miles at 15 minutes or faster, ask your doctor if you’re ready to start a run progression.
Please get seen for your injury before continuing to exercise. You can often add the core drill exercises to your injury treatment plan as well as the circuit exercises, but it’s best to show the exercises to your doctor or physical therapist first for advice. Here’s a link to help you find a physical therapist near you.
You still need to check with your doctor before getting started, but you don’t need to track down the physician or midwife who delivered your baby – it can be your general practice doctor.