This Girl Can: Jenny and Maternity Exercise Part Three

This Girl Can
Jul 27, 2017 · 4 min read

Jenny knew she wanted to stay active after the birth of her son Ben, but knew that pushing herself could do more harm than good. Here, she writes about getting back on the saddle with (and without) the little one in tow.

In my last two blog posts (here and here)I discussed my experiences of exercise throughout pregnancy. Our son, Ben, arrived two weeks early and in a bit of a hurry. This meant the active birth I had imagined did not happen, but that didn’t matter — he was here!

I could write for ages about the challenges of becoming a mum, both physical and emotional, but the purpose of this post is to discuss my experiences of post birth exercise. I am more acutely aware than ever that everyone’s experiences are very personal, and by no means is this blog post intended as a set of recommendations; it merely describes my own experiences.

In the first days exercising was the last thing on my mind (especially cycling — a saddle: ouch!), all my energy was used looking after Ben. After a few days we took our first tentative walk with the pram, it was less than two miles yet the whole day revolved around this activity! We tried to get out every day, and once I recovered from childbirth and Ben was big enough for our sling I started to carry him instead of using the pram. Not only did this seem to comfort him, being snuggled into me, but I also felt like I was benefiting my fitness as I was carrying his weight too. Not having wheels to contend with we could go for walks off the road. The local woods are Ben’s favourite on a sunny day as the dappled light is endlessly fascinating!

After three months I was going slightly mad, not having been more than a few metres from Ben for his entire life. So, we decided it was time to get the bike out again. It took a lot more planning than in the past: I expressed some milk and timed my exit for straight after a feed. I spend the first half of the ride trying not to cry, and the second half trying to get nursery rhymes out of my head! The weather was hideous, but it felt so good to be in the fresh air and pushing myself. I now try to ride for a few hours once a week. Initially, the challenge was to try not to push myself too much, by getting caught up with how fast I used to be able to ride. But now I’ve been at it for three months I have noticed an improvement, and I try to go as fast as I can to make the most of the limited time I have.

I’m still slow and get overtaken a lot. But I slightly adapt one of the This Girl Can mantras: I’m slow, but I’m lapping myself on the couch.

Before having Ben I hated the idea of gyms, much preferring the fresh air of the great outdoors. But upon discovering a local leisure centre did “bring a baby” classes, I decided to give spin a try. I love it! It’s specifically tailored to new mums: the instructor is knowledgeable about issues affecting new mums, there is no pressure to push yourself too hard, and the music is quieter. Non-crawling babies either lie on the floor or in their prams and you can get off your bike at any point to tend to them. There is often a domino effect of screeching babies! Not only do I enjoy it, but I think it has helped me improve more rapidly on my real bike, especially on hills which have always been my weakness. I’ll never be a gym bunny, but I think this has opened my mind to other kinds of exercise in the future.

I hope that as Ben grows up, he develops our love of the great outdoors. We’re buying a bike trailer soon so that we can take our adventuring even further!

This Girl Can

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This Girl Can celebrates the active women everywhere who are doing their thing no matter how they do it, how they look or even how sweaty they get.

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