Self-healing of the body occurs. Everything returns to normal quite quickly, especially in the first months after the birth of the baby. However, young mothers remain dissatisfied with their figure and consider their body full of flaws. The stomach is especially an area of female “dissatisfaction,” so the question very often arises about when it is possible after childbirth.
Many young mothers, despite the fact that they are very tired and lack sleep at night, are ready to devote a free minute to exercises that will help them regain their more graceful figure. There are many different tips and recommendations regarding when you can pump up your abs after childbirth, but everything is individual for each woman. This depends on the complexity of the birth, the number of ruptures and other nuances that could have occurred during the birth of the baby. It is these criteria that determine for each woman the time when she can pump up her abs after childbirth. One of the problems of a woman who has given birth is diastasis. This is the divergence of the abdominal muscle tissue in the very center. The muscles cannot connect on their own, leaving an unattractive bulge. There is concern about whether it is possible to pump up the abs after childbirth, whether this will be dangerous for the woman’s body and whether it will aggravate the existing problem.
What to pay attention to
If the birth was natural and passed without any complications, then the abs can be pumped up after six weeks. However, if there was a cesarean section, then you should start training no earlier than twelve weeks later. Knowing these criteria, you need to determine when you can pump up your abs after childbirth in your case. When starting classes, it is necessary to take into account that this activity requires regularity, as well as perseverance and patience. The problem after childbirth is not only that the muscles are stretched. During pregnancy, the woman’s body increased its fat reserves, so its layers will be on the sides and abdomen, precisely the area that worries women so much. Keep in mind that by pumping up your abs every day, you won’t feel results at first. However, this is not a reason to stop exercising; they will certainly be useful and will prepare the body for further changes. In order to remove extra centimeters and belly fat, physical activity such as walking is needed, so if the weather permits, you need to do more walking with your child. Dancing, aerobics, and jumping rope are also useful. However, in this matter, the main role will be played by your availability and time.
Set of exercises
In order to make your stomach beautiful and flat, you need to pump up your abs, but in combination with others. On the question of how much to pump up your abs, the main thing to remember is that exercises should take place daily, but at least 20-25 minutes a day. Depending on desire and physical dexterity, the exercise time can be increased, although it is difficult to imagine that a baby would allow his mother to devote so much time to himself, leaving him without attention. It is necessary to organize your sports activities in such a way that the child finds it interesting at this time; you can combine abdominal exercises with simple movements with the child. Thus, you will study not only for yourself, but also for the benefit of your child. It is also important to pay attention to how after childbirth. Exercises cannot be started with full volume. You should gradually accustom your body to such loads, and then increase the time of training. You can do light crunches and many other abdominal exercises. It is very convenient to study through video lessons, following the instructions of the video trainer.
After the baby is born, many women want to get back in shape. The stomach is the most problematic area in postpartum period.
Therefore, the most common question that interests women who have just given birth is when can you start pumping up your abs. Everyone must give themselves the exact answer, because there are many factors that influence the ability to play sports.
How can sports be dangerous after childbirth?
Childbirth is a significant stress for the body of a young mother. For some time after the birth of a child, the body recovers. This period should be characterized by restrictions in movement and complete calmness of the woman who gave birth.
The likelihood of uterine bleeding
After childbirth, the uterus is an open wound. At first, the woman in labor is bothered by bloody discharge. Even when they are over, the uterus is still quite weak and can bleed again at the slightest stress.
Exercising can affect milk production
Intense exercise promotes the production of lactic acid, which affects the taste of milk. The baby may refuse breastfeeding if acid emissions are frequent.
Playing sports is fraught with prolapse of internal organs
During pregnancy, as the baby grows, all organs move from their places. After childbirth, the process begins to reverse. However, the muscles that hold the organs are too weak. This may cause prolapse.
The best and safest option is to start twirling a hula hoop five months after giving birth.
For the first two months, a woman’s uterus continues to bleed. The internal organs take another 2-3 months to fall into place. After this time, hula hoop classes can begin fully. But in some cases the body is recovering faster.
Before you spin the hoop, you need to strengthen your core muscles. The development of inflammatory diseases should also be excluded. In this case, you cannot practice with a hoop. When choosing a model, you need to base it on its weight and additional options. A hoop with weights and spikes is not the best best choice for a woman who has just given birth.
In the first days after childbirth, a woman, even with all her desire, cannot fully sit down. Any movement is accompanied by discomfort and pain. Gradually, the body returns to normal, and the woman begins to think about sports.
In the first two months after birth, squats are strictly prohibited. After a cesarean section, recovery takes even longer. Moreover, a suture on the abdomen and uterus can bother a woman in the future.
Training should be started gradually, controlling the intensity. You can fully move on to classes no earlier than six months later. To begin with, practice simple exercises. Weighted squats are not recommended in the first year after giving birth.
Sports activities after childbirth should be carried out under the strictest supervision. Figure restoration through physical activity causes great controversy among gynecologists. One wrong move can make the situation worse.
Only a year after giving birth can you make training more intense. Until this time, you should limit yourself to a light warm-up, squats without weight, body lunges, expander rows and exercises with light dumbbells. As an alternative, you can use stretching, yoga, swimming in the pool, dance classes, cardio training.
How to pump up your abs correctly?
During the first time after childbirth, a woman has a fatty layer on her abdomen, which together with training will help to get rid of it. proper nutrition. If you focus exclusively on exercise, the muscles will be strengthened, but the fat layer will not go away. The abdominal muscles will be under it, which leads to an even larger belly.
Before doing abdominal workouts, you should familiarize yourself with some recommendations.
- Particular attention must be paid to breathing during exercise;
- Eating must be no later than an hour before the start of training;
- There is no need to do weight-bearing exercises. They can lead to injuries to a fragile body and contribute to an increase in abdominal volume;
- It is very important to exercise regularly;
Tears appear when the mother in labor behaves incorrectly during childbirth. If they are present, a woman can sit down fully no earlier than ten days after giving birth. Playing sports V in this case It's better to postpone it. The fact is that there is a risk of the sutures being applied coming apart, which means that the body’s recovery process will be delayed.
If there are ruptures, it is necessary to wait until they are completely healed and only then proceed to sports. The recovery process also includes returning the organs to their original locations.
Based on this, we can conclude that sports can be started no earlier than six months after giving birth.
After the birth of a baby, some young mothers are dissatisfied with their figure, namely the appearance of looseness and flabby abdomen, unsightly folds. When can you pump up your abs after giving birth? Getting back into shape is not so easy, since fat accumulates in the folds of the abdomen and even if you pump up the muscles, the effect may not be noticeable.
You can’t start pumping up your abs immediately after giving birth, as this can have dangerous consequences:
- With increased stress, blood vessels may rupture and uterine bleeding may begin.
- When blood vessels are pinched or increased intraperitoneal pressure, which occurs during training, there is a risk of developing blood clots.
- Omission internal organs due to modifications in the physiological arrangement of organs in the peritoneal cavity and displacement of the uterus as the size of pregnancy increases. Applying load to pelvic muscles When pumping up the press, it can cause side effects.
- The development of chronic diseases of the rectum (bladder) in the case of prolapse of the peritoneal organs. During the postpartum period, in order to avoid possible complications, doctors recommend that young mothers wear an elastic bandage (fabric bandage) to hold the anterior wall of the peritoneum in a normal anatomical position.
Weakened pelvic muscles and abdominal ligaments after childbirth need support, but the load must be applied gradually. Mothers are recommended to conduct classes, starting with Kegel exercises, gradually increasing the load on abdominal muscles.
Diastasis, what is it, reasons for its appearance
Few women who have given birth manage to quickly achieve a slim figure due to diastasis. This is a pathological modification of muscle tissue, characterized by a deterioration in its functionality.
Diastasis of the rectus abdominis muscles is a common pathology diagnosed in women during the perinatal period and immediately after delivery. There is a separation of the rectus abdominis muscles from the location of the lower layers of the skin, where the white line of muscle tissue passes.
In medicine, this phenomenon is called a hernia. Pregnancy leads to widening and thinning of the linea alba and separation of the rectus muscles on the abdomen. Provoking factors:
- dysplasia, vascular weakness;
- stretching, separation of abdominal muscles;
- increase in muscle tissue size.
Starting from the middle of the 2nd trimester, almost all women experience strong internal tension in the anterior abdominal wall, as the uterus contracts and increases in size. But after childbirth, gradually the muscle tissue and the width of the white line on the abdomen begin to decrease in size.
How long after giving birth can you start doing abs?
Women after childbirth should be attentive to their health and listen to their inner feelings. A few weeks after the birth of a baby is considered a dangerous period, since the innervation and contractility of muscles are impaired. The female body is individual and each woman in labor has a different degree of stretching of the muscle fibers in the abdomen. Influenced by:
- fruit size;
- age;
- the course of pregnancy and delivery;
- individual characteristics of the body.
With each subsequent pregnancy and childbirth, the likelihood of developing diastasis increases.
If the birth took place naturally (without complications), then after 2 months:
- the uterus should return to its previous shape;
- the walls of blood vessels and bleeding wounds heal;
- ligaments and pelvic floor muscles strengthen.
After 2-2.5 months, you can begin training and pumping up your abs. If a woman had to go through C-section or difficult childbirth with ruptures of the walls of the vagina (uterus), then forget about physical activity it will take 3-4 months, since the seams may come apart under stress.
After a difficult birth or caesarean section, it takes up to 6 months for the body to recover. You can understand when to start doing simple exercises and how to properly pump up your abs after childbirth using the following factors:
- 1.5-2 months have passed since delivery;
- there are no special contraindications to the exercises;
- no abdominal pain or other unpleasant sensations (nausea, vomiting, dizziness);
- there are no signs of diastasis and blood discharge from the vagina at times of increased pressure on the peritoneal walls.
Doctors allow training for grade 1 diastasis, but in a special corset. If grade 3 pathology is detected, then performing any exercises is unacceptable.
The effect of abdominal training on lactation
When exercising on the abdomen during abdominal training, the muscles begin to feed on glucose, which produces lactic acid. During periods of intense physical activity, the level of acid in the blood can reach high values. Lactic acid can distort the taste of breast milk for 1.5-2 hours after physical activity.
In order to speed up the removal of lactic acid from the body, women are recommended to:
- carry out a warm-up slow warm-up before pumping up the abs;
- dose your classes; in the first weeks it is better to use gentle training programs;
- breastfeed your baby 2 hours before or after classes so that the concentration of lactic acid in the milk remains minimal.
The opinion that the release of adrenaline into the blood leads to the blocking of oxytocin, which is responsible for the function of secreting breast milk, is erroneous. Training does not affect the decrease in milk volume and retention rate.
The release of oxytocin occurs reflexively and only as the nipples are stimulated when feeding the baby. If there is less milk present, this can be determined by the child’s behavior. After all, when he is hungry, he will begin to be capricious, nervous, and kick his legs.
Effective abdominal exercises
There are various complexes and exercises for pumping up the press. Women with breastfeeding(GW), it is better to start training with basic, simple exercises. The goal is to remove folds on the abdomen and restore the tone of muscle tissue.
Basic gentle exercises for the abs after childbirth:
- Lie on the floor, clasp your hands behind your head, bend your knees. Rotate your legs like pedaling, like on a bicycle.
- Lie on your back, put your hands behind your head, bend your knees. Raise your head slowly without touching your chin to your chest. Hold the position for a few seconds. Return to IP.
- Pull in your stomach, hold for 25 seconds, relax. Repeat 15 times.
- Sit down. Lift your legs off the floor, lifting your pelvic area up to 40-45 degrees. Pull your arms forward, taking a pose in the form of the letter V. Hold the position for a count of 100.
- Sit on the floor, press your back against the wall. Cross your legs in front of you. Slowly draw in your stomach, placing your hands on it. Inhale, tense your upper abdominal muscles. Hold your breath for 20 seconds, pressing your hands. Exhale, lowering your arms down, repeat up to 5 times.
- Lie on your stomach, resting your bent toes and elbows on the floor. Stretch your body parallel to the floor. Hold the pose for 1 minute, gradually increasing the exposure time to 3-4 minutes.
The safest exercises for restoring abdominal muscles are considered static, which can be performed even at stages 1-2 of diastasis. Although it is necessary to increase the load gradually, because at an accelerated pace it is not possible to achieve rapid appearance flat stomach. And the quality and quantity of breast milk can change dramatically.
In what cases is it better to postpone exercise?
It is better to postpone classes if:
- the uterus begins to bleed from physical exertion;
- lactation was disrupted, milk began to flow slowly;
- pain, abdominal cramps, and other unpleasant symptoms appeared.
The main thing is to monitor your well-being. If you experience any unpleasant side effects during exercise, you should seek advice from a doctor.
Experts advise;
- First perform a warm-up warm-up and breathing exercises: squat, jump, walk, turn your body to the sides, spin a hoop.
- Pump up your abs regularly and preferably at the same time without missing classes.
- Breastfeed your baby and start training only after 1 hour.
- Do exercises with approaches, interrupting for 2-3 minutes.
You should not start gymnastics after childbirth immediately with lifting weights, not forgetting that the body is overly strained. Sudden load application can lead to sharp increase muscles in volume. It is important to monitor the technique of performing classes so that the stomach is always retracted, and at the end of classes, stretch.
In this article:
Restoring your figure and making your tummy flat and attractive after childbirth is not so easy. During pregnancy, the abdominal muscles stretch, layers of fat appear, as a result of which after childbirth it sags, becomes flabby and looks like jelly. And every woman wants to have a beautiful and flat tummy even after giving birth.
Myths about abs after childbirth
Most believe that appearance the abdomen will become the same as before if you regularly pump up your abs, and the sooner you start exercising, the better. This opinion is wrong. Of course, abdominal exercises allow you to return stretched muscles to tone. However, in order to return the tummy to its previous state, it is also necessary to remove the fat layers formed during pregnancy, which “hide” the muscles behind them. And even if you regularly pump up your abs, but don’t try to lose weight, you won’t see any results.
However, this does not mean at all that in the postpartum period, doing press exercises is a waste of time. No. This allows you to tighten your abdominal muscles, but, alas, you still won’t be able to remove fat with such exercises. Therefore, it is necessary to combine abdominal exercises with aerobic exercise. For example, with jumping with a rolling pin, jogging, dancing, etc.
When can I start?
Be sure to see a gynecologist before you start pumping up your abs after giving birth. During the examination, he will tell you whether physical activity on your body is possible now or not. The thing is that during the first 2–3 months your uterus goes through a process of restoration (contracting and moving to its “rightful” place).
The recovery period is individual for each woman. Exercising after childbirth is fraught with its dropping below the required level, as a result of which serious health problems may arise.
How to pump up the press
The abdominal muscles protect and support the organs in the abdominal cavity, forming the abdominal wall, and they are also responsible for human posture. They consist of 4 muscle groups, namely the external oblique, internal oblique, transverse and rectus. That is why, in order to pump up your abs after childbirth, you need to separately load each abdominal muscle. For this purpose, there are special exercises for the abs after childbirth. But more about them a little later.
After your doctor has given you permission to exercise physical exercise, consider that your body has already passed the postpartum recovery period. Now you can take hold of your figure with all your “hands and feet” and begin to actively engage in abdominal exercises. However, first you need to prepare your muscles for heavy loads.
To do this, you need to twist the hoop for about forty minutes every day. If you have a heavy hoop (about 3 kg), then you should reduce the training time to 20 - 30 minutes. In this case, you need to start with 10 minutes, and then increase this time by 2 to 3 minutes every day.
Ab exercises
Having decided to pump up your abs after childbirth, you need to decide at what time you will do it. It is best if you start the exercises when you are daytime, since in the morning the muscles are still “dormant”, and in the evening they are very tense and, while exercising, you will very quickly feel tired.
So let's begin.
Bike. Lying on the floor, clasp your hands behind the back of your head, straighten your legs and lift them a few centimeters above the floor. Then bend one leg at the knee and pull your opposite shoulder towards it. Do the same with the other knee.
The most popular abdominal exercise is crunching. Lie on the floor, bend your knees. Press your lower back to the floor, clasp your hands behind the back of your head. Begin to raise your head so that your chin does not touch your chest. Stay in this position for 2 - 3 seconds and return to the starting position. This needs to be done 10–15 times in one approach.
The next exercise is diagonal twisting. Lie on the floor, bend one leg at the knee, place the ankle of the other on the knee of the bent leg. Press one hand to the floor perpendicular to the body, and bend the other and place it behind your head. Then the elbow bent arm bring to the opposite knee without touching your chin to your chest. This exercise should be done 10 times in each direction.
Remember, only regular abdominal exercises after childbirth will help you achieve a visible effect. If you do physical activity every day, you will soon be able to boast of a slim and toned figure.
Video about abdominal exercises after childbirth
Young mothers often worry about their figure deteriorating after childbirth: the extra pounds, a flabby, sagging belly. They rush to work on their abs in order to regain their former shape, not realizing that in addition to flabby muscles, the fat accumulated during pregnancy gives the belly a saggy appearance. A layer of fat, until it is burned through aerobic exercise, will not allow a woman to fully tighten her tummy. So exercises for the abdominal muscles should be combined with aerobic exercises aimed at burning fat in problem areas. So when can you pump up your abs after childbirth and what should you consider? How will this affect lactation? Let's figure it out.
First, let's recover
Is it even possible to pump up your abs after giving birth, or are there prohibitions on this? Rather, not complete bans, but restrictions. The main thing is to give the body time to recover when the woman is relieved of heavy loads. How long it takes to pump up your abs after childbirth depends on how the birth process went, how the female body tolerated it, and at what rate it is recovering.
A normal birth with a successful outcome means a medical exemption from sports activities for an average of 8 - 9 weeks (this is 2 calendar months).
What will happen in these weeks?
- The uterus will contract and restore the condition of the endometrium;
- The uterine mucosa will be renewed;
- The placenta insertion site will heal;
- Stretched pelvic muscles and ligaments will strengthen and restore tone;
- Diastasis will go away (as the separation of the rectus abdominis muscles is called in medicine).
During this period, it is useful to perform Kegel exercises to quickly restore the tone of the birth canal.
By the way. Diastasis of the 1st degree is sometimes not a contraindication to physical activities, if the doctor does not find other tangible reasons, and the mother herself will use a special corset. But grade 3 diastasis is an absolute contraindication for exercises on the abdominal muscles!
There can be no talk about pumping up the abs a month after giving birth: it is not prudent to finish off an already weakened body with physical exercise.
Why is it better to wait
There are situations when sports loads it is vitally necessary to postpone for a longer period of time:
- C-section;
- difficult, protracted labor;
- the presence of tears, cuts, seams.
When can a young mother start working out her abs after giving birth with such complications? 3, 4 months, and sometimes as much as six months after giving birth - this depends on her body’s ability to recover and the degree of damage received. Only a gynecologist can determine his readiness for heavy loads.
Impatient mothers in labor, rushing to quickly regain their former beauty and start pumping up their abs after childbirth, face 2 of the most unpleasant consequences. The first of these is uterine bleeding, and the second is prolapse of internal organs.
Bleeding is caused by increased pressure on unhealed blood vessels in the area where the placenta was attached, or by high stress on the internal sutures.
Nature provides that during pregnancy, a woman’s peritoneal organs shift, being compressed by the enlarging uterus. Without allowing the body to fully recover, the young mother runs the risk of prolapse.
Weakened ligaments and pelvic muscles that hold the abdominal organs cannot cope with the load. A woman gets prolapse, which threatens the appearance of chronic forms of various diseases of the bladder, as well as the rectum (including severe forms of hemorrhoids). To prevent them, it is useful to wear a special retaining bandage.
A frequent question from inexperienced mothers in childbirth is whether such a load will affect breastfeeding: the quantity, taste, composition of breast milk? When is nursing mothers allowed to pump up their abs? The answer is the same: at least 8 weeks after the baby is born.
Considering that the loads selected are gentle: excessive intensity of training increases the level of lactic acid in the mother’s blood, which affects the taste of breast milk. True, it returns to normal within an hour after training. Therefore, you need to plan it after feeding, and not before.
The volume of breast milk produced decreases due to fluid loss during intense exercise, which is corrected by drinking water, including during exercise.
The amount of milk is also affected by adrenaline, which is produced during stress or high physical activity and blocks the action of the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for lactation. Prolactin is produced more actively when the baby is applied to the breast. Hence the solution to the problem: offer the baby the breast more often an hour after training. The more he breastfeeds, the faster the effect of prolactin will resume.
How to pump up abs for a woman after childbirth?
Immediately after childbirth, you cannot pump up your abs for the reasons stated above. But even after established deadlines you need to load the body correctly:
- Make sure there are no contraindications by visiting a doctor;
- Increase the intensity of exercise gradually;
- Stop training if nausea, dizziness, discomfort, or pain in the lower abdomen appear;
- Do not give the body a higher load than it was before pregnancy, arguing that there is a sharp deterioration in physical fitness;
- For grade 1 diastasis, be sure to wear a support corset; if it is grade 2 or higher, postpone training;
- Before starting a workout, a warm-up is required (this will reduce the level of lactic acid release);
- Finish classes with muscle stretching exercises;
- Do not use weights, especially those that load the chest muscles;
- The most intense exercise connected no earlier than 5 - 6 months from the moment the baby is born;
- Drink enough fluid, taking into account its loss during physical activity.
By the way. It is prohibited to go on a strict restrictive diet to quickly lose weight, since this is dangerous for the mother and her baby.
Young mothers are not prohibited from pumping up their abs after giving birth. It is only important to exercise prudence, not to force events and remember: the health of the child depends on the health of his mother. Taking care of it is more important than fighting flabby abdominal muscles.