Exercises for the abdomen after childbirth. Exercises for tightening the abdomen after giving birth to a nursing mother

In the period of expectation of a child, the body of a woman undergoes significant changes, and not all of them subsequently lead to an improvement in the overall appearance. Indeed: the increased secretion of special "pregnancy hormones" is able to turn sluggish and brittle hair into a delightfully lush mane, make the dull and painful complexion radiant, give a special spirituality to the look. But at the same time the skin on the abdomen, chest and hands loses the former elasticity, stretch marks appear, the muscles of the press stretch and grow old, leading to the sagging of the abdomen ... How can one remove the belly after giving birth to a nursing mother? Exercises will help regain muscle tone, but any physical exertion should be treated with caution. Why? There are two reasons for this.

Secret Hazards

The first obstacle on the way to a slender figure right after delivery is the need for maximum long-term retention of breastfeeding. With intensive exercise, the amount of breast milk can decrease dramatically, and in some cases the precious liquid also completely burns out. The second danger is the diastase of the rectus abdominal muscles. This is called the discrepancy of the muscles of the press, in which heavy physical exertion is extremely harmful and can even lead to damage to the spine. Determine the presence of diastasis and adequately assess its degree and potential risks can only be a qualified doctor.

Nevertheless, not every young mother with a child can afford to go to doctors without extreme necessity, especially if there is no one to look after the baby and must take it with him everywhere. As a result, many women turn a blind eye to danger, find on the Internet a random set of exercises for the abdomen after childbirth and take up the case, ignoring the pain in the muscles (which, by the way, may indicate a pathological process, and not the success of loads).

What to do in the event that the stomach does not want to leave even while dieting, and you want to quickly return to the form? Start sports with the most simple and most sparing exercises, which will not damage the direct muscles of the abdomen and will allow you to see in the mirror a coveted waist as desired.

"Bridge"

Not all workouts are suitable for cleaning the abdomen after giving birth to a nursing mother. Exercises such as the "bridge" - a pleasant exception: they do not lead to a decrease in the volume of breast milk and do not harm even with severe diastasis.

• Step 1. Lie on your back, bend your knees, rest your feet on the floor and stretch your arms along the body. Take a deep breath and draw in the belly.
• Step 2. On exhalation slowly raise the pelvis so that the upper part of the trunk forms one straight line from the knees to the shoulders. Hold in this position for two seconds: take another deep breath, then exhale and slowly sink to the floor.

Modified exercise "one hundred"

Many exercises for the abdomen after childbirth are modifications of known training. The proposed version of the "hundreds" is considerably simplified and is recommended as an initial physical load for women who have recently given birth to a child:

• Step 1. The starting position is similar to that in the above exercise: lying on the back, knees bent, arms stretched along the spine, palms and feet lie on the floor. Deeply inhale and strongly retract the muscles of the press.
• Step 2. On exhalation slowly tear off the head and neck from the floor, and take your hands away from the body. Do not forget to keep the muscles of the press in constant tension. Hold in this position for a couple of seconds, then take a new deep breath and on exhalation slowly sink to the floor.

Leg Breeding

The most well-known exercises for abdominal muscles after childbirth include such a popular element as the breeding of hands or feet. Fitness enthusiasts usually add to their program such training with dumbbells or special weighting, but at the initial stage of postnatal recovery it is highly discouraged to use shells and equipment. Any of the exercises of this type can be performed without additional weight. Attention is given to an effective modification of the legs.

• Step 1. Lie on your back, put your feet on the floor, bending your knees. Raise your legs individually so that the ankles are at right angles to the floor. Put one palm on the stomach, and the second - on the floor for an additional stop.
• Step 2. Pull the muscles of the press and slowly, smoothly move the raised legs to the sides until you feel the buildup of tension in the muscles. In the same way, bring your feet together.

Pelvic tilt

Some exercises for a flat stomach after delivery include the use of fitball. You will need a regular large gymnastic ball without a massage effect. The slope of the pelvis will be more effective when passing the training with the ball, but if you do not have a fitball, this exercise can be done without it.

Lie on your back, bend your knees and rest your feet on the floor or gymnastic ball. Tighten the abdominal muscles and tilt the pelvis back, pressing the lower part of the trunk into the floor. Hold this position for five seconds, then repeat the exercise.

"Boat" (yoga)

Perhaps you are already into yoga. In this case, boldly proceed to your favorite poses and asanas, training relaxation and proper breathing. If you are not sure of your skills, try to start with a simple exercise, aimed at tightening the abdomen after pregnancy.

Sit on the floor, bending your knees. Tighten the muscles of the press and slightly tilt the torso back, while lifting your feet off the floor. Raise your feet until the shins form a line parallel to the floor. The back should be straight, the hips at an angle of ninety degrees. Pull your arms forward so that you can comfortably hold the balance in this pose. Keep this position for at least thirty seconds.

Planck "dolphin"

Static exercises for restoring the abdomen after childbirth are widely known. First of all, the speech, of course, is about the bar and its many varieties. Attention young moms are offered an effective bar "dolphin", for which you will need a gymnastic ball.

Take the starting position for the bar, leaning elbows on the fitball and stretching his legs. Tighten the muscles of the press and thighs, straighten your back and hold this position for at least thirty seconds. You can consider this position a standard, classic bar, but to increase the complexity of experts recommend using a fitball, which gives the whole pose instability.

Side lath

Lay down on your side, leaning on your elbow, which is in line with your shoulder. Squeeze together the hips and feet, make sure that you maintain balance, and lift your hips off the floor until your body looks like a straight line. Hold the position for at least thirty seconds. Repeat on the other side, in a lying position on the other side. When you master these exercises for tightening the abdomen after childbirth, add to the side bar ten to twelve lifts of the legs from the starting position. This little improvement will allow you to better train the muscles like the cortex and thighs, and also improve your ability to maintain balance.

Still too difficult?

If you have difficulty with the above exercises, perhaps physical training left much to be desired even before the birth of the child. It is not worth it to strain for the return of harmony - especially if you are breastfeeding. Leave more complex workouts for later and go to the simplest:

• Breathing belly. Similar exercises for the abdomen after childbirth consist in a deep feeling of the movements of the abdominal muscles during breathing. Allow the muscles to shrink and expand as much as possible on each breath and exhale. Do not forget that you need to breathe as deep as possible.
• Press tension. Start from the starting position: lying on the floor. Strain the press, cutting the muscles of the entire bark, as if preparing for a blow in the stomach. From this position, perform a variety of movements, for example, lifting one or both hands over your head or stretching your legs. Remember that the back should lie completely on the floor.

Level up

Exercises for tightening the abdomen after childbirth are not easy, but in time you will certainly feel that it is much easier to perform them. This means that you already need to increase the level of training, so that the muscles do not get used to the same load and continue to grow stronger. There are many varieties of twists and other exercises aimed at getting rid of excess fat in the abdomen and ideally suited for those who already have some "experience" in fitness.

Twisting Colber

This training is recommended by fitness instructor Petra Kolber, who created a whole complex of exercises, available in the form of ten-minute video files.

• Step 1. Lie on your back, lift your legs, bend your knees at an angle of 90 degrees. The ankles should be parallel to the floor.
• Step 2. Get your hands behind your head (with your elbows should look strictly in different directions, not upwards) and twist, lifting your shoulders off the floor.
• Step 3. Pull your legs diagonally, cross your ankles and stretch your arms above your head. Keeping this position, eight times follow the feet in turn, the movement of the "scissors". Return to the starting position. Do eight repetitions.

Modified jumps in the support lying down

What exercises after giving birth (for the abdomen, legs and buttocks at the same time) are recommended by specialists? This, without a doubt, is a leap in the supine position. They can be modified as you like - depending on the purpose of training, the degree of physical training of the athlete and the required dynamics of the load. The proposed option is suitable for beginners, women with minimal training and young mothers, whose body has not yet completely recovered after the birth of the child.

• Step 1. The starting position is like for squats, but you need to lean forward slightly and lean your palms on the floor.
• Step 2. Quickly move the legs one by one ("step back") back to be in the push-up position. Without pausing, move your legs one at a time to their original position.
• Step 3. Perform 1-3 sets for 5-10 repetitions.

If you want to increase the difficulty of the exercise, to remove the abdomen after childbirth as soon as possible, perform dynamic jumping with your feet back and forth instead of more gentle "steps."

Push ups

Push-ups simultaneously train the muscles of the arms, shoulders, chest and press.

• Step 1. Take the starting position, leaning on the floor with the palms and toes. The distance between the palms should slightly exceed the width of the shoulders.
• Step 2. Bend the elbows and lower the chest until there is about two centimeters left between it and the floor.
• Step 3. Straighten your arms and go up to the starting position.
• Step 4. Perform 1-3 sets for 10-20 repetitions.

Pulling the legs in a prone position

Similar exercises for weight loss of the abdomen after childbirth at first glance seem fairly sparing, but they very effectively strengthen the stretched muscles of the press during pregnancy.

• Step 1. Lie on the floor, bend your knees, feet - on the width of the belt. Pull in your stomach. Heels must rest on the floor.
• Step 2. While maintaining the pelvic stiffness, inhale, then exhale, using the muscles of the press in order to straighten the left leg (not to the end: the knee should remain slightly bent). Return to the starting position.
• Step 3. Alternating legs, perform five repetitions on each side. Gradually bring this number to ten repetitions.

Curl with towel

It is possible that among the dozens of variations of twists, this version will seem to you the most suitable. If you are sooner or later disappointed by the relative ease of the proposed exercise, tighten the belly after delivery will help the modified and complicated versions of twisting.

• Step 1. Lie on your back, bend your knees. Squeeze the opposite ends of a towel of medium length with your hands and pounce it on the upper parts of the shins. Pull the ends of the towel and squeeze the hips.
• Step 2. Take a deep breath, then exhale and draw in your belly, lifting your shoulders off the floor. Hold in this position.
• Step 3. Stretch and relax the muscles of the press 10 to 12 times, gradually bringing this number to 20 repetitions.

Raising legs from a prone position

This exercise can be safely called one of the most famous workouts for the press.

• Step 1. Lie on the floor, bend your knees and stretch your arms along the body. Tighten the abdominal muscles and alternately raise the legs so that the shins form a line parallel to the floor.
• Step 2. Squeeze the hips and feet together and straighten your legs, then slowly lower them to the floor, keeping the back of your body still. Use the muscles of the press to re-tighten the legs and bend them in the knees to return to their original position.
• Step 3. Make 20 repetitions.

Exercises for the abdomen after childbirth from Gillian Michaels

Especially for those who want to return the lost form and even achieve even more spectacular results, the world-famous fitness instructor Gillian Michaels has developed several video programs with unique in their composition and effectiveness of training. Immediately exercises for the abdomen and sides after childbirth are presented in the author's collection "Weight Loss for Beginners". As the name implies, the proposed trainings are suitable not only for young mothers, but also for those who never took a great interest in sports, and (most likely) gained a lot of excess weight. Conventionally, every woman after a difficult process of delivery and recovery of a weakened organism can be called beginning in sports and losing weight. Gillian Michaels is well aware of the danger of excessive physical activity during this period, and personally demonstrates the simplest and sparing exercises for the abdomen after childbirth. The unconditional advantage of her training, calculated for 30 days, is the balance of the complex and attention to every part of the body. The same load strengthens the muscles of the cortex, thighs, chest, shoulders.

For more advanced users of her video programs, Michaels developed an intensive course "Lose Weight in 30 Days." As well as the program for beginners, these video lessons consist of three levels - as progress increases, the difficulty of training. Effective exercises for the abdomen after childbirth here are replaced by serious loads on the press using dumbbells.

If you are interested not so much losing weight, how much local lifting of the sagging tummy and the return of the wasp waist, it is recommended to read the reviews about the program "Flat stomach for six weeks." This course lasts only one and a half times longer than the main trainings of Gillian Michaels, and is aimed strictly at working out the muscles of the press. It is also a VIIT - a high - intensity interval training - and consists of several sets, alternating cardio-loading and strength exercises. When passing the first level, you can not burden the body with dumbbells, but with the transition to the second level of the program will have to take in hand extra weight.

The issue of nutrition

As supporters of a healthy way of life speak, playing sports make only twenty percent of success. The remaining eighty are on proper nutrition. At present, there are several variations of the so-called PP system. Whatever you choose for yourself, do not throw physical exercises. To remove the abdomen after childbirth, it will be necessary to exert all possible efforts.

The simplest variant of proper nutrition is the rejection of harmful food or reducing its use to a minimum. To products harmful to health and a figure carry every possible sweets, bakery products, half-finished products, sausages and sausages, sweet aerated drinks, chips, flavored crackers and other "snacks". It is desirable to limit the consumption of fatty meat varieties (pork, lamb) and replace them with beef, veal, rabbit meat, poultry meat. Although it is believed that for frying by the rules of healthy eating, you need to use vegetable, and not butter or margarine, in fact, PP generally does not accept frying in oil. You can cook your favorite pancakes, fritters and chops, but only in a dry frying pan with a good non-stick coating. Grill meat well.

The complicated version of PP is a kind of diet that strengthens the effect that exercises give after the delivery for the abdomen, sides and thighs. By its rules, you need to eat 5-6 times a day in small portions (200-300 grams). For breakfast, use protein foods and cereals, rich in complex carbohydrates; For the second breakfast - useful fats (for example, nuts) and carbohydrates. At lunchtime it is desirable to combine at once proteins, complex carbohydrates and vegetables (these can be meat and fish dishes with a side dish in the form of pasta or potatoes and vegetable salad). On a mid-morning snack they eat vegetables and protein foods (they are better than sour-milk products), for dinner - again squirrels and vegetables. For the night you need to drink a glass of yogurt or eat a little cottage cheese, because even during sleep the body does not stop functioning and it needs recharge. If during the day you performed intensive exercises for the abdomen after childbirth, it is better to prefer cottage cheese to kefir - there is more animal protein, useful for the development of muscles.

If you are serious about sports, you may be interested in sports nutrition. First and foremost, fitness lovers pay attention to protein. High-nutritional cocktails and protein bars are rich in easily digestible protein - they help to strengthen muscles and increase the overall effectiveness of strength training.