How to start exercising?

[flyingbeet]

I'm four months postpartum. Im not someone who used to consistently exercise. Just before getting married I did Chloe tings videos on YouTube and counted calories. It worked and I lost around 10kg. After I got married I stopped exercising. I got pregnant and now I wanna lose the fat again. I don't know how to start. It's hard to fit in a workout with baby since she doesn't nap alone. I also don't know if at four months postpartum everything is healed and I'm able to do all exercises. I don't know if I should go back to following Chloe tings videos or if there is another way to workout at home. Please let me know your experience.

You need to build up slowly.

Start by walking - it's a really good overall, low impact form of exercise. I don't mean meandering along with a cup of coffee, but walking with intent for a good half hour, unless that's too much, in which case build it up. Think about your posture while you're doing it. You use almost all your muscles doing that.

You can also find pelvic floor exercises on YouTube which are a bit like Pilates. Look for postpartum pelvic floor videos. Or there's Perifit which you can buy and follow the app.

Don't start off with high intensity thinking you want to loose weight because your chance of injury is higher. You have a baby, so you'll not be getting solid 8 hours of sleep every night, and your body is still recovering (although the big part likely has been done).

What you shouldn't do are sit ups. Ab workouts are ok but alternative exercises, not sit-ups.

It does depend on how much time you have too. But walking and the pelvic floor strengthening are relatively easy to fit in with a baby and provide a good foundation.

@gestroopd Thanks for the advice! I'm definitely going to look into pelvic exercises. Even if it's 15-30 min a day

I lost most of my baby weight by walking.
i would simply put my baby in a pushchair and walk briskly for forty five minutes five days a week.

I had hard pregnancies and births requiring a lot of recovery. I started with walking, building up from just 100m, then built in postnatal yoga/ pilates videos from 6wks, then a post-natal fitness class from a couple of months. It took about 5-6 months before I felt ready for standard fitness classes or C25k. Long term I've been fitter since having children than before.

Do you want to lose fat or exercise? If it's the former than a calorie deficit is what you need.

My biggest recommendations is the app Workout for Women (used be 7M). It has a whole range of "7 minute" exercise routines with optional.music and a timer. From beginner to expert. There are longer workouts too. There are ads but easy to skip like YouTube.

See if you can do 7 min a day. Then try to do.two a day and so on.

Also when I was post partum, i walked as much as possible (ECS so couldn't do much else)! Highly recommend.

Good luck x