Louise Taor, Entertainments Officer for 135 Parents, mother of two, explains how she felt about her tummy after her second child and how TheBeezKneez came to the rescue.
After I had my first child, it was about six months before I returned to exercising, but once I did I was able to get back into a reasonable shape by her first birthday. The second time around I started to exercise straight after my younger daughter’s six week check and really hoped by starting early I’d be back to ‘normal’ soon. Eighteen months later, despite regularly going to the gym and doing aerobics-type classes, I had lost weight but still had a sticking out belly. It was a bit disheartening, and the day someone gave up their seat for me on the tube, I decided I really needed to do something about still looking pregnant!
I had met Vicky Warr who runs TheBeezKneez through our daughters’ swimming lessons and I knew this was her area, so I chatted with her and she gave me some great advice. It turned out I had some abdominal separation issues and that all the running and stomach crunches I was doing to try to lose weight were actually making the problem worse! She invited me along to a taster for her Mamas fitness classes – which are designed for anyone who has had children, no matter how long ago. I’ve been going along to the classes for a couple of months and I am starting to see results already. I genuinely wish I had known more about this before and gone to her classes sooner; and I really wanted to share my experience with all the 135 members.
Vicky says “A female body goes through dramatic changes when you have had a baby, no matter how longer ago. As the baby grew inside you, your abdominals stretched and weakened across the midline. After a natural birth, your pelvic floor would have had some loading and you may leak when you laugh or cough, jump or run. If you had a c-section you may have suffered adhesions, have some scar tissue and quite literally your abs will feel numb as the nervous system shuts down from communicating with the muscles. The lower abdominals are a part that most women dislike and struggle to flatten.”
The first thing Vicky does for her post-natal clients is a ‘rec test’ that checks for core weakness, any abdominal separation and the strength of the soft connective tissue in between. Apparently, these problems are very common and by doing the right kind of exercise can all be improved – even if you have left it a while! Unfortunately, there is not a great awareness of these issues amongst new mums and some gym instructors who might have you jumping and crunching before you are ready. Stomach crunches can actually increase abdominal separation due to the forward flexion of the movement, and the tendency to make the stomach dome out which can have the reverse effect – which is definitely what happened to me! Running too soon is also risky in putting too much pressure on the part of your body that is already weakened from pregnancy and birth. Vicky advises all new mums to “strengthen your core and pelvic floor first before starting to run.”
If any of this is ringing a bell with you, or you have been struggling to lose the baby belly (whether or not you have been exercising) I can thoroughly recommend the BeezKneez classes. The difference between these and the generic body conditioning classes I had done previously is that they are specifically designed for post natal bodies and actually teach you about these issues and the right kind of exercises to do to overcome them. They are also exclusively for mums so you know you are in the same boat as everybody else, in fact they are great fun and we always have a laugh! I also like the fact that the evening classes fits around having kids, although there is also a daytime New Mamas class where you can take along your baby up to crawling age (the babies all sit in bouncy chairs and giggle at the mummies exercising – it is very cute!). All the classes run in six week programmes, so can provide a really important first step back. Why not come along to a taster class to see for yourself and get a ‘body MOT’ including a rec test as part of the session?
The main thing I’ve learnt is that it is important to be mindful when you exercise – we would never dream of jumping around or doing crunches when pregnant, but lots of us seem to do it too quickly after birth in the struggle to get our ‘pre baby body’ back, without being aware that we could do more damage that way. According to Vicky and some of the mums I have met at class, it really is possible to get a flatter tummy – and it is never too late to start!
Vicky Warr is pregnancy and post-natal fitness specialist and founder of TheBeezKneez, mother of two. Find out more about the classes here: www.beez-kneez.co.uk.
