Pregnancy is exciting, hard, amazing, and a blessing all tied up in a great big bow………or tied up in your belly that will continue to grow and grow! Taking care of yourself is a priority, not only for yourself but for that little human you are growing inside of you.
The other day I was talking among a few people that I just recently met. One asked me if I had any kids. I laughed and said, “Yes, I have 5 boys.” This is where I just sit back and enjoy her reaction. She looked me over head to toe and asked, “Like you have given birth to all 5 of them?” HA HA. I couldn’t hold back the laugh. I smiled and told her, “Yes, I birthed all 5 of them.”
Now I may look like I haven’t birthed 5 kids, but I sure feel it. I had all of my kids within 2 years of each other. After my 5th child, I felt my body was falling apart. About a year and a half ago, I remember telling my husband to feel my stomach. He poked it and his finger got lost in the abyss of nothingness. He asked me to flex, and I laughed and said,”I AM!” My stomach muscles were so weak that I literally didn’t have any core strength. I could not feel any muscles in my stomach.
Shortly after that I decided to start going to a personal trainer. I needed to feel strong again and to be able to keep up with my 5 boys. After a year and a half of working out with a personal trainer, I am finally feeling strong. Granted it was only 2 days a week, but it has strengthened my body and I can now feel some muscle in my stomach. It has taken a long time to feel this way, and I feel I still have a lot more to go.
Looking back, if there was one thing I would definitely change with being pregnant and having kids, it would be to stay active and exercise more. It is so easy to let yourself go when you are pregnant. When you don’t feel good, your body is hurting, you can feel all of your joints loosen up, it’s easy to do as little as possible. I remember thinking,
“I’LL JUST GET BACK IN SHAPE AFTER THE BABY COMES!”
I am here to tell you mamas……DON’T do this to yourselves. There are so many different resources you can use out there. Doing nothing is so damaging to your body. You need to keep moving, you need to keep active.
During one pregnancy I used this Summer Sanders Prenatal Workout that was great. It adjusts the difficulty to your different trimesters. I felt the best during that pregnancy. Discuss with your doctor what is safe during your pregnancy to keep your body strong. Do some resistant training to strengthen and maintain your muscles..
There is this Prenatal Pilates,
And this Perfect Pregnancy workout
I believe keeping your muscles active and strong will make your recovery time that much faster. You will have less problems as you have more kids. When your young your body can hide different problems your muscles may have by compensating somewhere else. As you get older your body will start bringing those problems to the surface. One way to help with this is to stay active and USE & BUILD THOSE MUSCLES. Your body will thank you as you get older. Yes, it is so easy to sit on the couch and avoid the aches and pains that you feel during pregnancy. I chose that route a lot. I can’t help but think how my body would be now if I had kept my muscles strong, instead of losing them all and later trying to build them back up.
Keep moving, keep your muscles going and stay active!
What advice do you have to help women stay strong throughout their pregnancy?