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Can mothers exercise and breastfeed successfully? Yes! Learn Everything You Should Know About Losing This Baby Weight While You Keep Your Care Up – Including Simple Workouts You Can Do ANYWHERE!
Breastfeeding and exercise
As if health and exercise weren’t difficult enough already – doing it while growing another human or feeding that human with your own body makes it 10x harder.
Not sure what to do, what’s harmful, whether it results in lower milk production, or how to schedule it according to feeding / pumping schedules. First, let’s debunk some myths that are ONLY NOT TRUE.
Do you need meal ideas? Make sure you sign up for our breastfeeding plan. If you’d like to receive the first week for free, just enter your email address below:
This is an article by Nikelle Bronson of Nikelle Fitness
Myth # 1: Exercise while breastfeeding decreases milk supply
NOT CORRECT! It has no effect on your milk supply. However, dehydration does affect the milk supply, but it does so regardless of whether you are breastfeeding or not. My biggest tip to exercising when breastfeeding is to stay hydrated.
TIP: Always keep a bottle of water around you. It is recommended to drink 10-12 cups of water daily. The more you exercise and sweat, the more you should drink.
Myth # 2: Exercise makes your milk taste sour
Some women claim to notice that their breast milk tastes more acidic after exercising because there is some lactic acid in their milk.
While the second part is true, a recent study has shown that your baby usually doesn’t notice this taste or the chest rejects it after a workout.
It is perfectly healthy to breastfeed your baby after a workout and it will not harm them in any way.
TIP: Take a shower, however, so your baby won’t taste the saltyness of your skin, which it may repel.
Myth # 3: Exercise changes the nutritional content of your milk
Also proven wrong. Not only do mothers who exercise have the same cold protection enzymes as non-exercising mothers, but exercise mothers have been shown to be MORE immune boosters! What is the best excuse to start your workout!
Safe postpartum exercises
So here is a big problem you may have. Find time to exercise. You may just be exhausted and try to exercise between feedings so your breasts don’t feel like they’re bursting or leaking through your sports bra (yes, it has happened to me a lot and it’s embarrassing) almost impossible.
Another problem was finding someone willing to watch my girl for an hour. So I’m going to give two pieces of advice; one for mothers who have to exercise with babies and one for mothers who can actually find help for an hour a day.
My first tip is to exercise according to your baby’s nap and feeding schedule.
It’s best to exercise right after you feed so that your milk producers don’t drag you down, injure your back, or lick you through. When it’s time for a nap, lay her down and go into the living room to workout, or when she’s wide awake, go outside. Did you choose one? Ok, well, now read below.
Example of training plans
I’ve put together two training plans that include free workouts for postpartum mothers. One of these is for general afterbirth and one specifically for caesarean mothers. You can enter your email address below to have it sent directly to your email address!
App for postpartum fitness / nutrition
If you need something more structured, the Juna app is a fantastic companion for pregnant and postpartum mothers. It contains tons of workouts, tips, and recipes to help you have a safe and healthy pregnancy, or to heal from pregnancy itself.
This app contains:
- A weekly update with your trimester specific workouts, an important nutrient to focus on, recipes, and important milestones.
- Over 200 training units are carried out by experts before and after the birth as well as by pelvic floor therapists
- Nutritional advice and “food of the week” from registered dietitians and nutritionists
- Postpartum phases to help you find the right path
- Milestones, baby tracking, tips and advice from real mothers
- Daily diaphragmatic breathing
- Pelvic floor work
It’s a paid app, but you can get a 30% discount on a monthly or yearly subscription using the code KATIEC30 – Click here to redeem!
You can find more online postpartum training options here.
LIVING ROOM MOMS
I will tell you exactly what to do in your living room. It will make your muscles burn, increase your heart rate, and if you do it long enough, you will sweat too.
WARMUP: Jum Prope straight without a rope for 5 minutes.
ROUND 1: (1 minute climber, 1 minute wall sitting) x3
ROUND 2: (10 burpees and 20 squats) x3
ROUND 3: (Elbows to hands for 1 minute and 30 seconds jump squat) x3
END: 10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 jump squats and 10 dropouts without a break.
Yes, if it’s been a while since you’ve worked out this is going to kick your bum. And if you can’t do 3 sets at a time, start with 1 or 2. This should be a 30 minute workout.
OUTSIDE MOMS
I’m going to tell you exactly what kind of kick-butt workout to do outside that you can do with your baby. (Without walking, you could do some of these exercises with your baby as well).
WARMUP: Jog 0.5 mile or walk 0.5 mile with your baby in a stroller (or in a front carrier if you are walking)
ROUND 1: (while holding baby or in a front carrier) 10 step-ups on a bench (each leg) and 20 squats x2
LAP 2: A total of 20 lunges (with the baby in the stroller) and 20 squats with a baby in the stroller
ROUND 3: (You can put your baby on a blanket on the floor for this!) 20 pushups / modified pushups and 20 elbows on the hand boards (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1bXgfsbYoQ)
END: run 0.5 miles or run 0.5 miles
I’m not kidding you, the above is the workout I did 5x a week and I lost all my baby weight and an extra 15 pounds.
TIP: Walk as much as you can. My little one either wanted to be in the stroller or in the baby carrier all the time, so we were always on the go and going wherever we could.
Gym mommas
So you have a little more help than me.
Either you somehow have the energy to get up in front of your family (like I do now, but only because my baby is already 2 years old) and go to the gym, or you have a babysitter.
Boy am i jealous!
It’s safe to say that nothing is prohibited in the gym – unless you’re trying to fix a corrected diastasis (which I’ll get to in a moment). My tips for you are to groom / pump, drink tons of water, and get a great workout off before you go!
There is no training that is better than another, so to speak. So do whatever you love, take your time with me and sweat it out! You will feel better, I promise!
Safe energy boosters
I want to talk about lack of energy for a moment. I was a zombie for a year, ah, who I’m kidding, I still am because my LO still wakes up 3-5 times a night at the age of 2.
So let’s talk about safe energy boosters for breastfeeding mothers.
ALL pre-workout packages recommend consulting a doctor before consuming if expectant and nursing mothers. But how the hell are we supposed to get a good workout with no energy?
The two main ingredients in energy drinks and pre-workout are caffeine and vitamin B (along with smoother, not-so-healthy additives that aren’t suitable for babies). So how can we get a kick without the harmful additives? You will likely want to take whatever you want to take right after you breastfeed and about an hour before you start exercising.
Built Boosthttps: //builtbar.com/pages/built-boost-new#? Baapp = CLARKS% 20 is a good non-caffeinated energy boost that could also be a suitable option. You can use the code CLARKS for a 10% discount!
ALWAYS talk to your doctor first.
Diastasis erect;
Yes I had it and yes I could fix it. However, if you have had several children and your diastasis (division of the abdominal muscles) is more than two finger widths apart, you may need to speak to your doctor. The above may mean a possible operation to fix the separation.
Still, the race is slowly and steadily winning here. You have just pulled your abs apart for 9 months to make room for your baby. So it will take a while to fix this.
What NOT to do
The worst part is flat stomach work. By that I mean flat crunches and sit-ups. This can cause the muscles to separate further instead of contracting them.
What should I do
Any abdominal exercise, the TWIST. So Russian phrases are good practice. This pulls the separate stomach side together instead of apart. Another thing that I used to keep my abs and core in place to speed up the recovery time from diastasis recti was a waist trimmer. Again, these just hold your abs in place, pulling them together, and using them to keep falling apart. I have mine here on Amazon.
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