"I leaked down there every time I sneezed"

Every woman who’s pushed at least one bundle of joy out of her body knows that with the cute babbles and angelic face of your newborn, come the aches and pains of post-natal healing. While most post-partum conversations revolve around the baby’s routine, the truth about mums’ post-delivery bodies is often swept under the rug of ‘celebrate your body’s achievements’. It’s no wonder then that most women are caught off guard when they realise that recovering from childbirth could take just as long as (or sometimes even longer than) the pregnancy.

Celebrity coach and pre-postnatal fitness expert, Sucheta Pal too thought she would bounce back quickly when she started training after having a baby, but she was in for a rude shock, “I not only experienced a weak core with ab separation, but leaked down there every time I sneezed, don’t even get me started on the back pain,” she says.

Discovering a lack of resources on regaining strength postpartum, Pal decided to take matters into her own hands and change that. For our Call An Expert series on Tweak India’s YouTube channel, she demonstrated a few exercises that are tailored for new moms who want to get started on their post-natal fitness routine. They’re easy, effective and will likely bring your bladder control back.

How to strengthen your post-natal body

Focus on your core strength

During pregnancy, the abdominal muscles stretch to make room for the expanding uterus while your pelvic floor muscles work double time to support the weight of the growing baby — making them weak. Pal says that post-delivery, fitness isn’t so much about losing the extra kilos or having a flat belly as it is about rebuilding the strength of your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles.

The best way to start is by doing some core connection breathwork. “It’s definitely going to make you feel calmer and will amp up your energy levels,” Pal says. She recommends gentle walking as the second step. You can start with walks as short as five to ten-minutes-long based on how you feel physically. And when you can’t find time for a workout, just take to the floor and play with your kid for 30 minutes, Pal says it’s the best kind of cardio.

Stretch the pain away

After delivery, you can experience several aches, such as abdominal contractions, as your organs return to their normal size. You may also feel pain in your joints, ligaments, and bones, as well as back pain due to breastfeeding. Pal recommends adding a few simple stretches to your daily routine that’ll alleviate this pain, “Seated cat and camel pose, the child pose and spinal roll downs can help a lot.”

To see positive and noticeable results, Pal recommends adding progressive overload to your workouts by increasing repetitions of the exercise you’re doing or by adding resistance. You can do the latter by including mini-loops in your exercises or by slowing down the movement. But always remember to listen to your body and do take your time to build strength.

To know more about other post-natal exercises that you can do, watch the full video.