It’s been seven weeks since Birch was born (HOW?!) and I was just cleared for all kinds of exercise at my appointment. I plan to ease in very slowly to strength training and anything high impact (my sister keeps warning me about my pelvic floor!) I’m excited to start working back toward the fitness level I was a year or so ago. Exercise is so important to my mental health and makes me feel so good, inside and out.
The day after Birch was born, I asked my doctor when it would be ok to do more than just stroll. Should I do nothing but rest until my six week appointment, or could I listen to my body and do some light cardio if it felt good? He said to take it easy, listen to my body, and don’t do anything crazy. (I turned down an invitation to play in a soccer tournament during this time! It was tempting!)
The first week I was home I took a few outdoor walks around the block. I was still pretty sore, and 10-20 minutes was plenty of strolling.
The second week I inched up to closer to 30 minutes. My pelvic floor and abs were tired by the end. I needed to sit down for a while to rest everything when I got home.
The third week everything started to feel much more normal. My walks increased to up to an hour, and I was still feeling OK at the end. I think this week was the one we took a family trip to the gym on a Sunday and Thomas and I traded walking the track with Birch in the Solly with a little bit of cardio. I did 15 minutes of light stairmaster climbing and it felt amazing to break a sweat!! My body felt great afterward too. (I still counted this as walking – just walking up!) I also started power walking on our new treadmill (see below!) and added incline to get my heart rate up a little more.
The fourth week I was feeling great and doing 45-60 minutes on the treadmill or a long walk outside. I was up to walks about 4-5 days a week with a few rest days. I even tried jogging a few times for short intervals and that felt good. Everything down under feels normal, but I can tell my lower abs are still gaining their strength.
The fifth week I did a little more jogging on the treadmill and again, it felt great. I alternated a fast walk and a slow jog and literally have added a minute or two each day that I’ve done it (maybe 3 of the 7 days.)
The sixth week I felt great – aka totally normal – and started to increase my speed to a run and also added in some bodyweight strength work – just a little.
My doctor cleared me for all sports at my six week appointment!
I want to be clear that my eagerness to start workouts has had nothing to do with weight loss or “getting my body back” and everything to do with how I feel. Having been very pregnant for the last few months, it felt SO good to feel normal again. Breaking a sweat makes me feel happy, and I thrive on those endorphins.
I haven’t done any actually weight lifting or any kind of workout besides walking or jogging (until I went to strength class on Monday). I’m hoping to add in a weekly cycle class, a weekly strength class, a few home strength workouts, and indoor soccer in the next month or two. Indoor women’s soccer should be a nice transition back into full field outdoor soccer later next spring. Indoor soccer is shorter, much less running, and more low key. I can’t wait!
I probably won’t be going to the gym much this winter. I want to avoid putting Birch in Kids Zone until the spring when cold and flu season passes. I might go a few times because the little babies are pretty well separated from the toddlers, but I don’t intend to make it a daily habit anytime soon. I’m too sleep deprived to go at 5-6 am and our nursing schedule is too unpredictable anyways. So if I do go to the gym, I need to rely on Thomas or a sitter to watch Birch. I might be able to convince T to let me go to a weekly lunch break class : ) And I have a few work-from-home friends who have offered to watch B while I slip out for a bit.
All that’s to say I’ll be doing a lot of home workouts this winter, so we bought a treadmill! (Old news if you follow me on Instagram!) It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time, but since most of the time I am able to go to the gym, it just didn’t make sense to spend a lot of money on one. When I realized I’d probably be doing a lot of home workouts this winter, I decided to look at Craigslist just to see what was out there. And I found one that looked pretty nice for $125 a mile away. It’s 10 years old, but it works ok and has speed and incline – that’s all you need, right? A day later it was in our downstairs mud room that we never use. (But man that thing was a beast to get down there!) The downside of putting it here is that I can’t watch the TV, but the upside is I don’t have a giant treadmill in any of our nice living spaces. It’s sort of the perfect spot, and it has a great view too.
One morning while Birch was sleeping Mazen and I went down there and did some intervals. I let him walk at a very slow pace while I did some stretching and then we switched and he did some squats and jacks. (Check out the nice view!)
He got bored after about 10 minutes and went to color at our desk while I kept walking (and then ended up printing out Pokemon cards from my phone to our wireless printer – eye roll – whatever makes him happy!)
While watching TV would be nice (and I could with our iPad too if I wanted), I have discovered Aaptiv!!! My gym friend Erin told me I had to check it out because the workouts were totally awesome – and she was right! They offer a huge variety of sports like: outdoor walks and runs, treadmill workouts of all kinds, strength training with weights or bodyweight, elliptical, cycling, stairclimber, rowing, stretching, yoga, and meditation. The workouts are set to all kinds of music, and the trainers walk you through them, motivating you and telling you exactly what to do. “When the beat drops we’re going to drop the incline from 10 to 4 and increase speed from 3.5 to 4.0!” My favorite trainer is John and I love that he does a lot of his workouts to the beat of the music. It’s so motivating! You can filter the workouts to find exactly what you need in the moment like “Less than 20 minutes // Treadmill // Walk + incline // Pop music.” Dare I said this little app has made me excited for my treadmill workouts?! You can use it at home, at the gym, while traveling, outdoors, etc. I work so much harder while doing an Aaptiv workout than if I’m just listening to music on my own.
Aaptiv hasn’t sponsored this post – I’m just doing a free 30 day trial with them. I think it costs from $60-100 a year depending on what specials you can find going on, and you can pay by the month too but it’s more expensive that way. You must try it out!! I will definitely be subscribing.
So that’s what I’ve been up to. I am on the hunt to procure a few sets of weights or a kettlebell or two to use through the winter. I’ll probably get 10, 15, and 20 pounds and a heavier kettlebell? If anyone has any good suggestions on where to get them, please let me know. I’m going to try Play It Again sports.
You know what I just remembered and got totally excited for? Hot yoga!!! Soon.
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
I wish I could be as motivated as you, Kath! As it draws closer to Christmas I’m starting to eat junk food more and more, every day. 🙁
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Melissa says
I am SO JEALOUS that you actually have an extra mudroom that you don’t even need. That is like totally unheard of in our dumb expensive New England city gahhhhhhhhh!! Love your blog Kath and the kids are so cute, I’m just grumpy we can’t find jobs we trained for in a small town in affordable areas so we could afford a lovely house like yours. Our hovel was 800K and I have no space for anything and a crappy 70s kitchen bleh. Reading your blog is like torture sometimes! (Just kidding! I know we are very fortunate too, I guess the grass is always greener!) I am really impressed with your motivation to move so much so soon after giving birth. I know it’s good for me, but I feel so exhausted between chasing a toddler and working and hardly sleeping. You’re making it all look a little too easy!
KathEats says
“our dumb expensive New England city ” LOL. I feel the same when I watch House Hunters in the deeper South! At least we don’t live in San Diego where we couldn’t even afford to buy a 1 bedroom apartment!?
Bethany says
Thanks for sharing! I totally relate to the endorphins and how exercise be it walking, running, or weight training improves my mood and positive sense of self! I like using weights but also resistance bands. Light weight and the tension can be adjusted. Plus they are easy to store and take while traveling.
KathEats says
Good idea! I think I do have some bands downstairs somewhere.
Kelli @ Hungry Hobby says
Mud rooms don’t even exist in Arizona lol our gym is where the family room or formal sitting area should be ha ha totally thinking about buying a treadmill now! Last night it was so hard to get out the door for a walk /run after hubby got home but before it got dark
Sally says
I spent years shelling out wayyyy too much $$ on classes at fancy boutique studios. I recently discovered BeachBody at-home workouts, and while I do have a problem with the way they sell their products (aggressive MLM, ugh) their on-demand workouts are amazing. I invested in some hand weights and a heavy 35 pound kettle bell, and have been doing all my strength workouts from our basement. It’s great! I do still splurge on 2 cycle classes a week because I just can’t give those up, but it is amazing how effective home workouts can be. I need to check out Aaptiv next!
Grace says
So impressed to hear that you’ve been burning so many cals even before 6 wks!! But wait, I’m having trouble following — in the first paragraph you say that you hope to be cleared for exercise soon, and later on you say that you were cleared at your 6 wk appointment — which is it?! I may be missing some of the tech specs of childbirth recovery because I’m not a mom yet, haha 🙂
KathEats says
Sorry, thanks for pointing that out! I wrote the post before six weeks and thought I had edited the timing! I will fix it 🙂
Katie Dawson says
Facebook Marketplace is a shockingly good place to find workout stuff that isn’t too expensive. I’m a trainer out of my gym garage and have found a lot of great deals through that. Good luck! P.S. The pics of Birch and Mazen together totally melt my heart! You have beautiful boys!
Emily J says
Hey Kath! So glad you’re feeling so great. I’m a pelvic floor PT and give a high five to your sister. 😉 There IS strength training you can do right now! Don’t forget about those pelvic floor contractions!
KathEats says
Yes!!
Kerry says
I just thought I’d throw out there that WW (Weight Watchers) is now including Aaptiv on their app as part of their offering, meaning free with membership. I’m sure it’s limited compared to the full subscription but I thought your reader base might like to know that.
KathEats says
That’s awesome!!
Sara says
YAY! I’m a WW member. I’m checking now. Thank you for this comment! We have treadmills at work and I’m too lazy usually to use them. But if I have an app like this that can tell me what to do, I may feel motivated to do the 20 min one 🙂
Jessica says
I just installed Aaptiv and have my first workout scheduled for tomorrow morning. Thanks for sharing!
KathEats says
Yay!
Kate says
Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, or HomeGoods for lightweight kettlebells/dumbbells!
KathEats says
Oh good to know!!
Taylor says
I signed up for a pelvic floor restoration course called brbyoga.com that I thought was very comprehensive and helped a lot postpartum. After having 3 kids, it seemed like I was having a lot of aches and pains and I went to a lot of providers before I was able to figure out on my own that it all kind of revolved around a weak core.
KathEats says
Thank you for sharing
Carla says
I love my power block adjustable dumbbells. They have multiple but mine go from 3-24 lb in 3 lb intervals (which is nice because jumping 5 lbs is sometimes hard). They also take up less space than multiple dumbbell sets. Seems like target sells a pro form adjustable set also and bow flex makes some if you look on Craigslist/Facebook marketplace.
KathEats says
Good to know! I’m going to research these
Cathy says
My treadmill is in the basement, no tv for me either . When I would use it more I played cds . My first thought was books on tape . Years ago I used to listen to them while I walked and I made the rule , if the book was getting good and I wanted to here more I had to keep walking . No sitting and listening.
KathEats says
That’s like podcasts for me!
Megan says
Oh man, I can’t wait to try out that app! Thanks for sharing 🙂 And kudos to you for listening to your body and easing back in gently…and also kudos for not forgetting about those pelvic floor muscles – so important 🙂
Hope you are enjoying this holiday season with your beautiful family!
Pura Vida <3
Steph says
I want to try Aaptiv but am not finding a 30 day free code anywhere. Do you have a code or know someone who does?
KathEats says
Sent you one!
Steph says
THANK YOU! 🙂
christy says
Hi! i only see a 7 day trial, could
you also send me for the 30 day trial? i’m about 3 wks post partum with baby #3, i am excited to try out aaptiv. thanks!
KathEats says
Send me an email to Katheats at Gmail.com and I will send you one of the friend codes that I have
Cindee says
Try Meg’s treadmill classes and Sultan’s strength. I’ve been loving these for more than a year on Aaptiv!
KathEats says
Awesome!