New Mamas

This 12-week cycle of workouts is designed for women who have recently had a baby and have clearance from their midwife or doctor to start exercising again. Usually, women receive the green light to exercise at about six weeks after delivery, but your specific timeframe may be longer or shorter.

Please listen to your body and the advice of your medical professional. Start slow and increase as you feel more comfortable as your body heals and recovers. 

The primary goal of this program is to build up your base level of overall fitness, core strength and stability, and conditioning your body after the recovery period. I have included a video with breathing exercises for the first six weeks of your post-partum journey.

Then you will transition into six weeks of a workout routine that alternates bodyweight exercises emphasizing on the CORE strength and pelvic floor with some walking workouts.

Workouts are programmed three to four days per week for a full 12 weeks, with optional additional walking or mobility work and recovery workouts on off days.

How can I find my pelvic floor muscles?

Method 1 - Stopping the flow

The first step in performing pelvic floor muscle exercises is to identify the correct muscles. There are several ways that may help you to correctly identify the different parts of your pelvic floor muscles. One way is to try to stop or slow the flow of urine midway through emptying the bladder. Stopping the flow of urine repeatedly on the toilet is not an exercise, but a way of identifying your pelvic floor muscles. This should only be done to identify which muscles are needed for bladder control.

If you can, stop the flow of urine over the toilet for a second or two, then relax and finish emptying without straining. This 'stop-test' may help you identify the muscles around the front passage which control the flow of urine. It is not recommended as a regular exercise.

Method 2 - Visualisation

Another method to identify your pelvic floor muscles is to imagine stopping the flow of urine and holding inflatus (wind) at the same time. This can be done lying down, sitting, or standing with legs about shoulder-width apart.

• Relax the muscles of your thighs, bottom, and abdomen (tummy).

• Squeeze in the muscles around the front passage as if trying to stop the flow of urine.

• Squeeze in the muscles around the vagina and suck upwards inside the pelvic.

• Squeeze in the muscles around the back passage as if trying to stop passing wind.

• The muscles around the front and back passages should squeeze up and inside the pelvis.

• Women who are familiar with using tampons can imagine squeezing in the vagina as if squeezing a tampon up higher in the vagina.

• Identify the muscles that contract when you do all these things together. Then relax and loosen them.

Getting the technique right

This is the most important part of the pelvic floor muscle exercises as there is no point in doing them if you are not doing them correctly.

Imagine letting go like you would to pass urine or to pass wind. Let your tummy muscles hang loose too. See if you can squeeze in and hold the muscles inside the pelvis while you breathe. Nothing above the belly button should tighten or tense. Some tensing and flattening of the lower part of the tummy wall will happen. This is not a problem, as this part of the tummy works together with the pelvic floor muscles.

Try tightening your muscles really gently to feel just the pelvic floor muscles lifting and squeezing in. If you cannot feel your muscles contracting, change your position, and try again. For example, if you cannot feel your muscles contracting in a seated position, try lying down or standing up instead.

After a contraction, it is important to relax the muscles. This will allow your muscles to recover from the previous contraction and prepare for the next contraction.

It is common to try too hard and have too many outside muscles tighten. This is an internal exercise and the correct technique is vital. Doing pelvic floor muscle exercises the wrong way can be bad for you, so please see a health professional if you cannot feel your muscles hold or relax.