This short article will deal precisely with the physical activity accompanying the immediate postpartum period, offering a three-week training protocol in which all new mothers can find useful information to recover the desired physical shape. At the end, the "classic" training can then be resumed.
It is recommended to absolutely avoid immediately after pregnancy - especially if you have no previous gymnastic sports experience - "improbable" intense training programs, perhaps associated with more or less drastic diets. It would seem an "obvious indication, but on the other hand many women approach the gym or gymnastics for the first time in the post-partum period, in order to" restore physical fitness ", resulting unprepared and nevertheless undergoing an" intensity " training that would be heavy even for an "advanced athlete." Physical activity can be programmed and nutrition managed, but modulating them in compliance with the physiological and hormonal changes that the woman's body has undergone both in pre and postpartum.
Let us not forget, then, that for about 6 months the ex pregnant should carry out the role of nurse, breastfeeding until weaning; this is why particular and further precautions are necessary, in order not to interfere with this delicate and very important phase of feeding the baby.
The proposed training program can be done both in the gym and comfortably at home. It is in fact designed for the first months after childbirth when it is not always easy to organize yourself to attend a gym. In this case, it will be sufficient to obtain simple modular dumbbells, which can be purchased in any center specializing in sporting goods.
Before starting, let's make another and important premise. Since during the gestation period the woman's organism has adapted to the growth of the baby, through real transformations of the body - which affect the macroscopic muscular and bone aspects - not one can think of finding the physical aspect prior to pregnancy in the immediate postpartum. The body can take up to a year in the entire readjustment process, but that doesn't mean that the best shape is impossible to recover.
The recovery of "healthy weight", for example, is one of the aspects that usually worries most. It is certainly possible to completely fall within the desirable physiological weight, but it is necessary to wait for the physiologically necessary time. In addition to the birth of the baby, and the expulsion of the placenta and the amniotic fluid, it is necessary to wait for the downsizing of the uterus; then, even the breasts, during weaning, will undergo a considerable decrease.
Having said that, let's now consider some problems related to the post-partum period, which are completely normal, but which require due care before putting the work program into practice.
In the event of a caesarean section, you cannot train for six weeks, which is the minimum period necessary for the wound to heal. In the meantime, avoid lying or sitting all the time, instead trying to help the body recover faster.
During this time, vaginal bleeding may occur. There is no reason to be alarmed. They are considered completely normal as the blood from the placenta and uterus collects in this area.
That said, unlike women who have given birth naturally, those who have undergone a caesarean section will have less pain in the pelvic area; however, the fact remains that an incision was made in the abdominal area.
In addition to standing, you can also start straight away some simple exercises to reactivate blood circulation, with all the benefits of the case, and some exercises for the pelvic muscles. Table 1 below shows a descriptive scheme.
