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 Years ago, women were told to decrease their physical activity during pregnancy. Now, we see that this may have contributed to the obesity epidemic. Almost all experts now agree about the numerous benefits of exercise during pregnancy. We know that it lessens or alleviates almost every discomfort of pregnancy. It helps create better childbirths and healthier babies. Yet, many pregnant women are still uncertain about how much exercise is safe and often feel it is better to abstain. Recent studies indicate that it is the doctors who are most likely to influence how much or even if their clients exercise during pregnancy. For this reason, I hope that doctors realize their tremendous responsibility in educating their clients about safe prenatal exercise. Interestingly enough, the approach for exercise prescription for pregnant women does not differ much from that of non pregnant individuals. Women who didn’t previously exercise can begin exercising during pregnancy so long as they start slow and build up gradually. I would recommend the same to someone who wasn’t pregnant! Of course, you should check with your doctor before starting any exercise program.
Here are some good recommendations for a woman experiencing a healthy pregnancy:
- Exercise most if not all days of the week
- You should exercise approximately 30-minutes per day.
- You can participate in most physical activities. Of course, you should evaluate risk of falling or abdominal trauma in a sport (and Scuba diving should be avoided).
- Heart rate is not reliable for determining exercise intensity. Instead use a talk test or an RPE scale.
Remember, exercise during pregnancy has many benefits. Consider prenatal exercise classes with educated professionals to support you through a healthy pregnancy. Talk with your doctor and find out what is right for your pregnancy. When you take good care of yourself during your pregnancy, you give your baby a first gift of health. You are not only getting fit for you, but Fit4Baby®.
Written by Lisa Druxman
I think perhaps the hardest thing about new motherhood is the sleep deprivation. In fact, I think some of postpartum depression may be due to lack of sleep. Lack of sleep can cause irritability, lack of emotional control and lack of concentration. But it can also keep you from losing weight!
A study by the University of British Columbia showed that adults who sleep less than seven hours per night are more likely to be obese. Why? It comes down to two hormones: ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin’s function is to trigger hunger. Leptin’s function is to regulate energy expenditure and energy intake (in other words it tells you when you’ve had enough to eat). A lack of sleep produces more ghrelin and less leptin.
Here are some ways a new mom can get more sleep:
1) Talk with your spouse about ways he can help you get some shut eye. Perhaps he can take over some feedings.
2) Go to sleep when your baby does; even if that is at 7 p.m. It won’t last forever!
3) Sleep when your baby sleeps. Even though 8 hours is best, taking a nap when your baby does will help!
4) Say yes to help. Get a friend, mother-in-law or babysitter so you can get the extra shut eye.
5) Start a sleep routine with baby as soon as you can. I highly recommend Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.
Written by Lisa Druxman
That’s right, YOUR S.T.O.R.Y.? Everyone has one; everyone is their own author, editor, illustrator and contributor—to their S.T.O.R.Y.!
A story ALWAYS has a purpose for being written or told or watched– do you know your PURPOSE? Women are famous for saying “when I heard that woman’s story, it changed the way I looked at__________”. Ask yourself this, when someone hears, watches, reads your S.T.O.R.Y of YOU (your life), are they changed for the better?
Are they UPLIFTED by you?
Are they surprised by you?
Are they interested by you?
Are they excited by you?
Are they more at peace by you?
CLUTCH! Catch this: ARE YOU UPLIFTED BY YOU?
If not, today is the day you CHANGE your S.T.O.R.Y. and start writing a NEW SCRIPT—
one WORD,
one thought,
one moment,
one tear,
one workout,
one look in the mirror,
one step,
one run,
one push up,
one hug,
one smile,
one laugh,
one thank you note,
one sleep,
one dinner,
AT A TIME
Let’s break down the word STORY that everyone HAS within their personal book of life!
S—Strengths
T-Thoughts
O-Opportunities
R-Reach
Y-Yes, Yucky stuff!
List the TOP 3 strengths you have.
List the top 3 thoughts that come to your head when you think about your current life-marriage/family.
List the opportunities you would like to pursue (if money/time/schedules were not an issue).
List who you REACH out to, daily beyond your immediate family.
List some “yucky stuff” that you hold onto in your life that may just need to be “let go”/rewritten.
NOW, it’s up to you to EMBRACE your story, CHANGE your story, SHARE your story, FIND JOY in your story, or IMPROVE your story….but NO ONE but YOU has any power to CHANGE YOUR story, without YOUR CONSENT—YOU OWN the rights to it all…
DECIDE that today would be the day YOU would want to READ YOUR story!
Walking can be a great form of exercise. It’s cost effective, easy on the joints and can be done almost anywhere. But how fast does your walk need to be? A new study in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that 100 steps per minute can help someone achieve a moderate intensity workout.
Volunteers wore pedometers to count their steps while they walked at various speeds on a treadmill. Heart rates were also taken during the workout to measure how hard they were working. Researchers found that 100 steps per minute was a moderate intensity workout for the average participant. For reference, the U.S. government recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week.
By walking 10,000 steps per day, the average person will likely get the level of exercise recommended by the CDC and American Heart Association. Pedometers are a helpful tool for counting those steps. But the problem with pedometers is that they don’t measure how hard you’re working. If someone has an active job (such as a waiter or a nurse), they might take all of those steps as part of their normal day. That wouldn’t be considered “exercise” since it’s not elevating their heart rate enough to get the health benefits that traditional cardiovascular exercise provides. But researchers found that pedometers can be helpful if people use them to count their steps and set a goal of walking 3,000 steps or more in half an hour.
Why is it that people think they can eat no-sugar, no carb, grapefruit, cookie, all raw, macrobiotic or cabbage soup diets but they can’t just eat a balanced diet day in and day out? Why do we think we need a magic pill to see a change? Here’s the magic…
A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. What if you just adjusted ONE meal per day by just 200 calories and kept everything else the same? That’s nothing. Check out what 200 calories looks like on wisegeek.com.
That small change would result in a 20 pound weight loss in one year! I call that magic! So skip the crazy diets and make one small change that you can commit to.
Some may assume that expectant mothers have little to be consumed with leading up to labor aside from nesting and nursery décor, but proactive mommies-to-be are already devising plans for how to shed the post-pregnancy pounds. For those determined to dive into a postpartum fitness routine right after delivery, I have developed some month-by-month tips for getting back into shape safely and sensibly.
I applaud new mothers eager to get back into fighting form after pregnancy, but fitness goals must be realistic and respectful of the time it takes to bounce back after birth. New moms need to remember that it took nine months to gain the weight — at least that much time needs to be allotted for the way back.
Based on a nine-month timeline, I recommend the following tips for new moms looking to successfully reshape their bodies at a healthy pace:
MONTH ONE: Focus on Reconditioning Your Core
Begin to re-strengthen your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles with gentle pelvic rocks and kegel contractions.
MONTH TWO: Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
Make sure that you are drinking at least eight 8-oz glasses of water per day. Don’t forget to add an additional glass for each hour of physical activity.
MONTH THREE: Make Your Way Back to Walking
Begin gentle walking. Both you and your baby will appreciate getting out of the house and into the fresh air.
MONTH FOUR: Use Baby as Your Barbell
Maximize your workout and your time with baby by using your little one as a weight. Using a front pack baby carrier, engage in squats, lunges and plies, rest baby on your middle for abdominal-strengthening hip bridges, or lift baby in the air for chest presses. For further instructions and post-pregnancy exercise demos provided by Stroller Strides, visit www.babyfit.com.
MONTH FIVE: Nourish Yourself Like You Would Your Baby
Even if you’re not nursing, continue to eat as if your food fuels your baby. Chances are you’ll make better choices for your child than you would for yourself. Remember to include lots of whole foods, fruits and vegetables in your diet.
MONTH SIX: Start Your Stroller Workout
Get fit with your baby, the stroller and a supportive new group of friends by joining a group stroller exercise class like Stroller Strides. Outside of class, take baby on a rigorous walk that includes hills and varying speed intervals. Make sure you are focused on good posture while pushing your pram.
MONTH SEVEN: Make Time For Meal Breaks
Make sure that you are eating enough to sustain your activity. Instead of a few large meals, try eating five or six mini-meals throughout the day.
MONTH EIGHT: Keep Your Fitness Consistency in Check
You should be participating in some type of physical activity most days of the week. Remember that your workout doesn’t have to be traditional in order for it to count — some quick crunches with baby qualify!
MONTH NINE: Remember Your Role Model Status
Your motivation to be a fit mom is admirable, but remember that being a great mom and a role model come first. Show your little one that your goal is health and wellness and not just a size or number on the scale. Celebrate all of the joys of being a new mom — even if it means some new curves.
By Lisa Druxman, Founding Mother of Stroller Strides
A study that came out of Ohio State University indicates that postpartum women do not get enough exercise and that it ties in to increased rates of postpartum depression.
We all know that the period after childbirth is an important phase in our lives with both physical and psychological implications for both mother and child. The study found that most postpartum women get less physical activity when compared to their pre-pregnancy state. This can lead to higher difficulty to lose weight and increased risk of postpartum depression. Postpartum physical activity has been shown to have important physical and mental health benefits. 74% of women studied did not get in the recommended amount of exercise after having their babies. Postpartum depression is the most prevalent health concern after childbirth, and therefore getting in physical activity is of utmost importance.
As a Stroller Strider, you already know the importance and benefits of getting in regular exercise. Remember, it’s not just about getting your pre-baby body back. Exercise is an essential part of your recovery and well being after pregnancy.
Core training is a term that is now regularly heard in just about any fitness practice from Pilates to sports conditioning. In fact, core conditioning is a foundational element for both
Fit4Baby and
Stroller Strides classes.
With so much focus, we wanted to make sure you understand the importance of the core.
What is it? Your core is made up of the muscles of your abdominals, paraspinals (the muscles on either side of your spine), your gluteals, your pelvic floor and your hip muscles. These muscles work together to stabilize your spine and move your body through most everyday movements.
How should you train your core? Gradually. It can do you more harm than good to do advanced training before you are ready. Start by learning how to activate your core and stabilize these muscles during movement.
Start with…
Abdominal Bracing and/or Abdominal Hollowing
Abdominal Bracing with Heel Slides
Progress To…
Side Plank
Curl Up
Quadruped
![mom_kissing_baby[1]](http://www.momszoneblogs.com/mother-fitness-with-baby-exercise-with-stroller-strides/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/mom_kissing_baby1-150x150.jpg "mom_kissing_baby[1]")
Most new moms find that exercise drops to the bottom of their priority list. But it’s essential to fit it in and adapt your workouts to the changes and challenges of motherhood. Lisa Druxman, founder of Stroller Strides, addresses in her book, Lean Mommy, the mom-specific fitness needs so you can become better, buffer and stronger than every before.
People don’t realize how much physical work is involved in being a mom. You’re lugging a (cute) little weight around all day. And you’re also lugging all of his or her (not-so-cute) accessories. There’s constant picking up, bending down, and twisting all around. As if being pregnant and giving birth to the baby doesn’t batter your body enough, these new physical exertions can really take a toll. More changes happen to your body in nine months of pregnancy than will happen to a man’s body in his entire life. And to top it off, afterward when you are weak and de-conditioned, you are expected to carry around a ten- to twenty-pound baby all day long.
There are many physical after-effects of pregnancy. Your posture may have withered, your back may ache, and in addition to excess flab, you may have seperated abdominal muscles. You may be experiencing uncontrolled urination or constant urges to urinate. The Lean Mommy plan accounts for all of your post-pregnancy needs. Each workout that follows includes the necessary exercises to strengthen what’s weak, stretch what’s tight, tone up what’s flabby, and lean down what’s mushy.
What To Do: Weeks 0 to 6
In the first few days, you can begin doing pelvic floor exercises, known as Kegels. You may resume gentle activity such as walking and stretching, and start light abdominal reconditioning such as abdominal bracing (see Splinted Crunch below). You can go on short walks (5 to 15 minutes) after about two to four weeks. Overall, keep it gentle for the first six weeks. Your goals during this time are to rest and recover from childbirth and to bond with your baby. If you are nursing, you will find that an ungodly amount of hours will be spent with your baby literally attached to you. My husband would jokingly make moo sounds whenever he passed the nursery.
Key activities to avoid are those that may stress your wounds from a C-section or episiotomy, or that may exacerbate overly flexible joints. Avoid wide lunges and squats, or big lateral movements such as wide plies. Hold off on jumping, jogging, ab crunches, or any moves that may increase intra-abdominal pressure on your pelvic floor or back. Stop immediately if any exercise causes pain, increased bleeding, dizziness or fatigue. Lochia, your vaginal discharge after pregnancy, normally lasts about six weeks. A sure sign that you’re overexerting yourself or exercising too much is lochia that is bright red or pink or increases after it has started to taper off.
Fatigue can be a major issue for you now. You’ll be in survival mode for the first six months, for sure. If you’re lucky, your baby may start sleeping six or seven hours by the three-month mark. Unfortunately, those probably aren’t the same hours during which you are resting. Beyond sleep deprivation, your body is recuperating from pregnancy, childbirth, and your new life as a mom. So, take it easy. Find light activities that will give you energy, not become an additional burden to your body. If after doing an activity you feel even more exhausted, then you know you pushed it too hard.
What To Do: Week 6 and Beyond
Once your doctor clears you to exercise, you can embark on any of the Lean Mommy workouts. Remember, your workouts are not meant to be a quick fix. It took you nine months to gain the weight, and it may take as long to take it off. In addition to aiding weight loss, your workouts will strengthen you psychologically and physiologically. If you do too much too soon, or work out too hard before your body is ready for it, you are likely to get burned out or injured. Exercise shouldn’t hurt to be effective. Remember, this is a lifestyle change: you need to start with the small additions to your day, and work your way up. Your workouts should always be easy enough that you develop a sense that you can do them. If it’s a struggle, you will find it hard to persevere. You need to start slow and increase gradually as your body gets stronger. Sometimes, this isn’t so easy for moms who were extremely fit before they got pregnant. They want to push harder than they are ready to. Take baby steps.
Over-committing at first is also a big no-no. You may be able to obsess over a new workout for a week or two. But if it interferes with your family time, chances are that you’ll quit sooner rather than later. That’s why, as a new mom, exercising with baby as much as you can makes sense, as does fitting in activity that gets you moving while you go about your mom duties.
The Lean Mommy plan features progressive routines that gradually build up to longer, harder, and more frequent workouts.
Your Abs
Every mom is anxious to get their abs back in shape. This requires a combination of cardio to burn enough calories to reduce fat, and strengthening exercises to tone up the weakened muscles.
Doing hundreds of sit-ups, crunches, or extreme leg-lifting Pilates ab moves is not the solution. It’s ineffective to pummel away at your abs with exercises that will increase the spinal load on your lower back. Instead, you need to do less bending and more stabilizing. Learn to engage all the ab and back muscles that encircle your entire torso, known as the core, not only when you are exercising but through everyday mommy movements – picking up baby, driving the car, or using the bathroom. The first step is learning how to consciously contract these muscles. The following visualizations will help you focus on these muscles so that you can engage your core.
Belly Lacing
Your rib cage widens during pregnancy. Engaging your core muscles can help compress it afterward. Imagine that you have ribbon laced throughout the front, sides, and back of your rib cage. Imagine pulling the ends of the ribbon together so that your rib cage narrows. If you find this contraction difficult to initiate, practice and visualize; your mind and the muscle will eventually connect.
Cinch the Corset
Going back to the ribbon image, imagine you are wearing an old-fashioned corset. Tighten that corset to bring in your entire waistline – the front, back and sides. Do this with your muscles, not by holding your breath. Breathe (even if shallowly) through all of these exercises.
Button Your Belly Button
Imagine you are wearing a very tight pair of jeans, the kind where you have to suck it all in to get them on. Now imagine that the button is broken. You need to button in your belly button or your pants will open up (quite embarrassing). Keep those jeans zipped up and buttoned up, again without holding your breath.
Heel Slide
Lie on your back with your knees bent. Draw in your abdominals without holding your breath. Slowly slide one heel away from your body without changing the natural arch of your back. Your hips should not tilt. Extend your leg as far as you can without changing the position of your hips and lower back. When you find your end position, bring the heel back to starting position. Your abdominals should stay contracted throughout the movement. Repeat on the other side. This exercise can be done daily to regain strength to the core.
Splinted Crunch
Lie on your back on top of a towel or scarf. Wrap the ends around your belly so that you are in effect cinching your waise together. With your feet flat and legs bent, draw in your abdominals without holding your breath. Do a small crunch by lifting your head and shoulders, but be sure to draw in your abs a little deeper as you raise up. If your abdominals poof out, you are lifting your head and shoulders too high. Repeat, raising up only to the point just before you see your abs bulge.
For more information on Lean Mommy and the exercises and education found in this article, contact Jennifer Myers or attend your local Stroller Strides class…its Fun for Mom and Fun for Baby!
Fruits and veggies are fabulous portable snacks that will help you to meet your daily vitamin and mineral needs. As you’re heading out for the day, be sure to pack two to three pieces of fresh fruit and some cut-up veggies for healthy snacking. “Ants On a Log” isn’t just for kids; it’s a good snack for you too. Spread some peanut butter on that celery stick and top it with a few raisins!
Dried fruits and nuts are also handy snacks to have around. Along with fruits, vegetables and whole grains, adding dried fruit and nut mix can help you feach the 20-35 grams of fiber recommended for each day and is a healthy source of non-animal protein.
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Making Strides in Fitness, Motherhood and Life 
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