Last night I went to my first step class in six months. I got myself a new top (nice and loose) and popped in a substantial incontinence pad to catch the drips!The pelvic floor issue is one I will revisit in more detail another time. Many women suffer from a weakened pelvic floor after having a baby and mine was never very good to start with! So when I do high impact exercise involving jumping, I need some protection. At first I felt really self-conscious but, just as people with different body shapes worry about what they look like, I realised that it didn’t matter as long as I was doing exercise. It’s always been a massive bug bear of mine when people mock overweight people going for a run or to the gym – better they’re doing something that sitting on the sofa worrying about what some d*ckhead thinks of them! If the ladies that stand behind me have clocked my tena lady then so be it, but the reality is that they’re too busy worrying about getting the routine right to worry about me.
During pregnancy, I carried on going to Les Mills BodyBalance and BodyStep until I was about 32 weeks, then I swapped it for ‘YogaBellies’ – a specialist yoga class for pregnant women – which provided lots of safe alternative options for people with different conditions associated with their pregnancy. After pregnancy, I feel like yoga is a little too gentle alone. I want to sweat!
One of the problems I’ve encountered with going back to classes after pregnancy is that instructors sometimes aren’t brilliant at offering specific instructions, alternatives or advice regarding exercise post pregnancy. This is really important because our bodies have changed and need easing back in gently and safely. Not all instructors have in depth knowledge postnatal exercise so it’s important to find out a little bit about exercising safely yourself before you throw yourself in. My advice is simply to listen to your body and take it easy – I tried to stick to the low impact options and I had my step on the lowest setting. The only advice I got from the instructor was “you’ll be fine!” To be fair, she was right. I was and I loved it. The first time I exercised after my first baby, which I had by cesarean section, was a completely different story and I could barely manage some of the exercises.
I was fully expecting to ache like hell today but actually I’m not too bad. My thighs are slightly sore but I can get up and down from the toilet ok – the true test!
In other news I went to playgroup today, which is renowned for its luxury hot chocolate. I didn’t have one. I had a coffee instead, which actually ended up being spilt all over me and my toddler. Lucky it wasn’t the chocolate!
WedFit Mum 