Getting your body “back”
Pregnancy is the most intense experience for the body. I am not even talking about the life altering changes that come with becoming a parent or adding a new human to your family but simply about the physical part. Before I got pregnant the first time, I had no idea how much my body would be impacted. I knew I’d gain weight but I didn’t know about all the crazy things that happen to your body when you’re expecting (that constant nausea was traumatising…). It’s magical but really violent, and the body needs time to recover.
A lot of women want to get “their body back” after pregnancy and I’m here for it, but whenever I talk to a new mom I also want to understand how she feels underneath that goal. First of all, your body is changed forever. Bodies change, that’s what they do, and pregnancy is one of the most intense things the body will go through, and it is really important to understand that your body has been through something really common yet exceptional and crazy: you created a whole human being. We often feel self conscious during postpartum: that body that was celebrated and taken care of during pregnancy is suddenly left alone (health care providers and society in general don’t care much about postpartum women) and it’s still big but there’s no baby inside anymore. My first advice is always: take a breathe, you have time to lose the weight, you just did something magical and you’re really strong and do not need to get your “body back” to any of its previous states.
The focus in the first six weeks is to heal and to recover. In Germany we call this “Rückbildung”. It’s important to take it easy and start moving again with the green light of your doctor and/or midwife. Yoga, light pilates - no exercises that target directly the core, a lot of walking… After those first weeks, you can usually resume your normal activity, as long as the doctor says it’s safe to do so. But again, listen to your body. Each body is different, and actually one body can feel really different after two pregnancies. After my first pregnancy, I started running again after 6 weeks, and I trained for a marathon shortly after. After my second pregnancy, I couldn’t run for a year. I had a C-section in both cases. Some exercises will feel comfortable, some won’t, so listen to your body and understand what feels right or not and focus on what feels good at the beginning. The important thing is to move again. Support your body by eating a rich, healthy whole food diet, and not only if you’re breastfeeding - if you’re not and you want to lose weight, you can go with a higher calorie deficit, but I would recommend to wait at least 2 weeks after birth to go into a deficit, your body needs food to heal.
My focus with my newly postpartum clients is not only fat loss but getting strength back. After pregnancy, we are in a hurry to lose fat, but our bodies are tired and fragile and we can hurt ourselves easily. For a sustainable weight loss, I focus on building the muscles back with strength training so my clients feel more powerful and stronger; they have more energy to go through their daily endless to do list, their body immediately feels more toned and it supports fat loss in a sustainable manner. In addition, I add a little bit of cardio training to get the endurance and speed back and support weight loss, and I usually recommend to my clients to do some light cardio sessions when they’re alone (so they don’t pay me to watch them run on the treadmill).
After pregnancy, and in life in general, I feel it’s healthier to focus on improving skills rather than focus on fat loss exclusively. If your goal is to improve your speed/strength/endurance/balance etc. you will lose fat as a result, but it will give you a bigger sense of purpose, more motivation, and long term results. It’s also a great example for your children. The end goal is to be healthy, happy, and to feel good inside your body on the long term. That’s what some of my clients are saying:
I remember the day I asked for Ludivine’s help. I was 5 months postpartum stuck in a body shape and weight that I didn’t like. We started our workout journey and the first session was already amazing cause she unlocked my strength and made me realise how powerful I am and that I can lift weight! I felt healed, light, and again in my pre pregnancy shapes within few weeks. I started wearing my pre pregnancy clothes too and I felt super confident showing off my toned muscles. Ludivine is not just a personal trainer, she is a mom and she knows how postpartum moms feel especially during the breastfeeding journey. She is a whole package that helps you reach not only a sexy body, but she also does it along with mental and emotional support, compassion, understanding, motivation, and lots of strength. I highly recommend her for postpartum workouts journey, she is my rock, she help me heal, she is a therapy.
Chaima