1. Exercise with Your Baby
Are you a new mother? You can get fit while spending quality time with your baby. Place the baby on the floor and get in a push-up position with the baby under you. It is OK to have your knees on the floor. From the push-up position, bend your arms until you are face to face with your baby. Interact with the baby by giving it a kiss or say something nice. Interaction provides entertainment for the baby while you get fit.
Crunches also provide benefits for mother and baby. Get on the floor so you are looking at the ceiling. Hold the baby in your hands. As you perform the crunch, lift the baby in the air.
Another exercise that provides simultaneous benefits is the wall sit. Sit against a wall with your knees at a 90-degree angle. Hold the baby in your arms. Just sit there as long as you can, holding, rocking or talking to the baby.
2. Food Preparation Day
A major issue with new mothers is time management. The new baby needs a lot of attention, and your time becomes even thinner if you already have children. With time at a premium, it becomes too easy to just grab and eat the first thing you see.
The key to eating right while having a newborn is preparation. Take one day, or even one night, and dedicate it to your meals. Go to the store and have a specific meal in mind for each purchase. If it is eggs, hard boil them for your next seven breakfasts. Nursing mothers need to ingest excess protein anyway.
3. Walk Before You Run
Doctors generally tell new mothers not to exercise for 6 weeks after giving birth. However, walking is not only allowed, but recommended. Break out the stroller and take walks with your baby. Mothers with healthy, active lifestyles have children who grow up to lead healthy, active lifestyles.
4. Yoga and Pilates
That pregnancy not only temporarily ruined your body fat percentage, it also turned your spine into an "S" and twisted your hips out of whack. Yoga and Pilates help put everything back into place.
Some new mothers may not be able to go to a studio class. If this is you, be sure to stretch daily. Stretch all the major muscle groups, including the calves, hamstrings, quadriceps, groin, hips, lower back, shoulders and chest. Do not stretch the abdominal muscles, because they have already been stretched for 9 months.
5. Circuit Train
When you return to the weight room, circuit train. Circuits do more work in less time. Perform exercises in the order of legs, chest, back, shoulders and arms. Take about 20 seconds between each body part. After completing one circuit, take 1 minute of rest, and then start again at the beginning.
