Lean mommy: How to get a post-baby body
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It's no surprise that the posture distortion can strain your back. Even when you shed some weight, your back can still feel fatigued or painful because being a mom requires constant leaning forward and carrying extra weight. Bending over can be stressful for the spine because the discs between each spinal vertebra get compressed. When you're sleep- deprived, exhausted, and overwhelmed, you can forget to use the best posture to lift, carry, and hold your little one (and all his paraphernalia).
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Learning how to minimize the load on your back during everyday mommy movements, such as when nursing or picking up baby, is the key to tackling neck, upper back, and shoulder pain. Plus, strengthening your core ab and back muscles to provide support when your spine needs it can help alleviate back discomfort. The Lean Mommy plan will show you how to make motherhood feel better simply by moving in a more effective way. You'll also learn ab and back moves to keep your torso strong and stable. See pages 59-62 and pages 117-118, "Baby Plank," and page 115, "Supermans," for example.
The number one complaint of new moms is their tummy-a combination of lingering body fat, stretched- out skin, and poor muscle tone. Even if you didn't love your stomach before, in retrospect it looked much better than you ever realized! You wonder if it can ever feel fl at or firm again. Some women eat more and become less active in the postpartum period and actually gain weight after they have the baby! Women who are more active while pregnant are more likely to slim down after giving birth. But women who are active in the immediate postpartum period are also likely to drop a few dress sizes. Even though you should wait about six weeks before engaging in vigorous activity, there are things you can do immediately to incorporate exercise back into your life. Even if you've waited longer, it's never too late to start being active and reap the rewards. Although I'm not a proponent of worrying about your weight, it is important to get back down to a healthy weight because not doing so may contribute to staying overweight or even becoming obese in the future.
What you can do about it:
Your stomach will naturally recede as you lose your baby weight. The inches and pounds will come off from staying active and making smart eating choices. But doing the right amount of physical activity and performing specific tummy- tightening moves correctly will ensure that you slim down and firm up in a way that's easy, safe for your joints, and more likely to be permanent. See pages 101-104, for example.
When you were pregnant, the added weight and internal shifting of your organs magnified the pressure on your bladder, resulting in an increased urge to pee. If you had a vaginal delivery, you may have suffered trauma to the pelvic floor muscles, which can contribute to further incontinence. Either way you can end up with a permanently weakened bladder mechanism and pelvic floor muscles. You might experience just occasional leakage when you exert yourself (such as picking up the stroller, sneezing, or coughing). Or you may be silently suffering with a constant urge to urinate (even when there is nothing there), or a loss of control (you don't make it to the toilet in time). It's imperative to take corrective measures now because whether you experience incontinence later in life is associated with the level and length of time you experience incontinence after each birth.
What you can do about it:Muscle fibers in the pelvic floor have an amazing recuperative ability. But you need to give them the proper stimulus. Most women can return to normal by performing pelvic floor exercises, as shown in the Lean Mommy plan. See pages 62-65.
After your second trimester you may have noticed a gap at the midsection of your belly. This condition, known as diastasis recti, is a separation of connective tissue in your outermost abdominal muscle, the rectus abdominis. Because your ab muscles split and widen, the muscles provide less stability. There are varying degrees of separation and the problem can persist or even worsen if you're not careful.
What you can do about it:You'll need to learn how to do corrective exercises to help the muscle fibers rejoin. The Lean Mommy plan helps you identify if you have this condition and shows ab exercises that will help. See pages 57-58.
I call it "the hunchback of motherhood": muscles that raise the shoulders tighten while muscles that hold them down weaken. Many mommy motions encourage this shoulder slump: bearing the weight of milk- heavy breasts, nursing baby, holding baby close, and carrying diaper bags, car seats, and strollers. If the back muscle that runs from your neck to your shoulders and upper back, the trapezius, spasms from being continually tight, you may feel neck strain or pain that can extend through your shoulders, back, and even arms.
what you can do about it: Practice holding yourself in an upright posture, strengthening the back muscles while stretching the chest muscles. Learning to recognize-and stop yourself-when you slump is key. So, instead of bending over to breastfeed, you should bring baby up to your breast. The Lean Mommy plan includes exercises to help you hold yourself erect and to train the back muscles. See pages 116-117, for example.
Before pregnancy, you might have been accustomed to holding a heavy purse or lugging a gym bag. Suddenly, you are hoisting an extra ten, twenty, or even thirty pounds on an hourly basis as you carry your child and all the stuff that goes with him! Your back and shoulders are not the only body parts to bear the brunt of this added weight. Your wrists can become strained, too. You could be prone to carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition caused by excess pressure on a nerve in the wrist caused by edema, or swelling. Bending at your wrist can exacerbate this problem. You may experience numbness, tingling, or pain in your fingers, thumb, and hand when you push the stroller or hold baby. Carpal tunnel syndrome can appear during pregnancy or in the postnatal period.
What you can do about it:Resting your wrists and maintaining proper wrist alignment when you pick things up or push your stroller can alleviate the problem. When you are pain- free, wrist flexion and wrist extension strengthening moves, along with stretches to the hand and fingers, can prevent further aggravation. Some breastfeeding moms notice that their pain recedes after weaning. Lean Mommy focuses on these and other subtle actions that can put pressure on a body that's already been taxed from pregnancy. See page 65.
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