Find out how to exercise for a woman after childbirth, what types of loads can be given and how much exercise. After a natural childbirth without complications and a woman's normal well-being, you can start playing sports even the next day. Of course, in this situation, it is necessary to choose the right load and exercise. Unfortunately, now normal childbirth has become a rarity and many women know firsthand about various types of complications.
But even after most birth breaks, you can start playing sports in a couple of months. The situation is completely different in those cases when the caesarean was carried out. Today we will tell you when you can go in for sports after a cesarean.
Health and sports
Most women decide to start exercising to improve their health and appearance. There is a certain standard of beauty in society that most women strive to achieve. From the pages of numerous print media, slender beauties look at us, and television programs tell us how quickly they managed to achieve success.
In such a situation, it is quite obvious that many young mothers tend to start going to gyms faster, doing various types of fitness. Unfortunately, at this stage very often the desire to become beautiful outweighs the concern for health. What should women do if their childbirth turned out to be very difficult and when can you go in for sports after a cesarean?
Medical professionals in such a situation are unanimous and argue that after a cesarean, you can start playing sports in at least six months. We are talking now about active fitness classes. At the same time, you can perform light gymnastics or morning exercises much earlier, two months later. Even earlier, you can start using gentle preparatory exercises, such as the Kegel exercise. In no case, during the first couple of months after cesarean, the abdominal muscles should not be loaded.
What can be considered a sport?
Most often, the question is when you can go in for sports after a cesarean, you should understand not sports, but physical culture. Let's see how these concepts differ. First of all, sports and physical culture pursue completely different goals.
In sports, the main task is to defeat rivals. To achieve this, athletes carry out heavy intensive training and, in fact, their whole life consists in this. Athletes have to endure enormous physical exertion, and there can be no talk of any improvement in the state of health, fast vice versa. Many professional athletes have serious health problems after completing their careers.
The task of physical culture is just health promotion. With regular moderate exercise, a properly selected physical activity has a beneficial effect on all systems and organs of the body. But it should be remembered that this is possible only under moderate loads. Such activities should bring joy to the person, and not exhaust him.
There are no standards for the frequency of physical education. Of course, only regular exercise can bring the maximum benefit. However, your health should not suffer. Based on this, you should decide when you can play sports after cesarean.
When and how to exercise correctly after a cesarean?
We have just figured out how sports and physical culture differ. Let's now find out which sports disciplines are allowed after Caesarean, and which are prohibited. Two months after giving birth, you can begin to perform warm-up exercises, which are known to many from school. However, the intensity should be lower.
You can start walking, tilting the body, swinging your arms, circling your head and shoulder joints, and more. You can work at a relaxed pace on a stapler or stationary bike. But intense squats and high leg swings should not be performed yet.
When all these simple movements are easy for you, you can start performing more complex ones. Sometimes this can be done after three or four months, but doctors most often recommend waiting six months. After this period of time, dancing (primarily Latin American or Oriental), yoga (will strengthen all body systems), swimming will become available to you.
If you want to get rid of excess weight, then you can recommend water aerobics. This is due to the fact that loads in water are tolerated by the body much easier. You will be able to work out the muscles of the whole body with high quality, and the joints will be relieved of negative stress.
You can also start walking at a brisk pace or doing fitness. Today, a large number of programs have been created for young mothers. They are based on specific exercises, but work during this period of time should only be done under the supervision of an experienced instructor. He will help you create a set of safe and effective exercises, as well as select the load.
What kinds of sports are contraindicated after cesarean?
Even when six months have passed after a cesarean, you should not engage in those sports disciplines that create a serious load on the heart muscle and skeletal muscles. The female body tolerates cesarean much more difficult in comparison with normal childbirth. From the outside it may seem that everything is fine, but in practice it is not.
If in the human body any process begins to take place not according to the laws of nature, then complications always appear. Moreover, they may not appear immediately. Sometimes it takes years before these effects become noticeable. You should definitely fully recover and only after that start actively playing sports.
We do not recommend playing volleyball, basketball, cycling, weightlifting and even athletics, as well as other extreme sports after a cesarean. Perhaps someone will think that we remembered about extreme sports in vain, but some women can jump with a parachute or do something similar in order to try to maintain their physical norm and keep up with their friends. At the same time, most doctors simply do not expect such questions, considering their patients prudent. Unfortunately, in practice, this is not always true. Active sports during this period of time can have a very negative effect on the female body. For example, not only the quality of breast milk may deteriorate, but it may disappear altogether.
Often women strive to restore the shape of the waist as soon as possible and use a hoop for this. It is worth using this sports equipment no earlier than six months after the cesarean. However, if you plan to use a simple plastic hula-hoop, the weight of which does not exceed half a kilogram, then you can start practicing in a month and a half. But using heavy massage hoops is definitely worth the wait. It is also necessary to gradually increase the range of motion, and not try to accustom the body to intensive work in a short time.
To speed up the recovery process, you should start by doing breathing exercises. They can be started while still in the hospital or after being discharged from it. Let's say you can take a dozen deep breaths by engaging your chest and leaving your abdomen still. After that, place your hands along your body and inhale deeply a dozen times using your belly. Then ten more times lightly tense and relax, while pulling in the muscles of the abdomen and perineum.
As soon as your baby learns to walk, try to be with him more often in the fresh air without a stroller. Children often start running at a time when their parents do not expect it at all. In such a situation, you will probably forget about the extra pounds, because you have to be in constant motion.
We answered the question when it is possible to play sports after cesarean, but it is worth mentioning when it is worth interrupting sports activities. You must understand that all today's recommendations are general, because the body of each person has its own characteristics. Someone within three months will be able to lead a more or less familiar way of life. For others, this will take much longer, and even a light load can cause discomfort.
It is very important to pay attention to various complications that are possible in the postoperative period and to the course of recovery processes. If, while exercising, you have pain in the abdomen, discharge from the vagina, dispersed seams, or you notice other signs of deterioration in your well-being, then sports should be stopped immediately. Then you should consult a doctor for advice.
Do not rush to return to your previous active lifestyle. It is better to wait until the body is fully recovered and gradually get involved in sports. Otherwise, you can harm your body. We urge you to remain prudent and you must understand that health comes first. It is better to start playing sports later, but at the same time be sure that the body is ready for physical activity. You can make up for that time later. Which was spent on restoration.
For more on how to remove the belly after a cesarean, see this video:
