The key with all post natal exercise is patience! I know this to my cost, having started running too soon post natally and have the sore knees to prove it. I know that taking it slowly can be frustrating, but slowly and steadily building back up your strength is the key to long lasting health and fitness with no aches and pains.
So with that in mind, three things for this week:
1) Sphinx pose
Lie on your tummy, then bring your weight onto your elbows, with elbows under your shoulders, hands facing towards the front of your mat. Keep the neck long, lifting out of the shoulders.
Inhale, lift through the pelvic floor, exhale lift your tummy off the mat, wrapping it around you (as though you were wearing a corset), release pelvic floor, then inhale tummy goes back onto the mat as you inhale to lift up through the pelvic floor again.
2) Leg Lifts
Here's a video. Start from a lying on your back position with a neutral spine, with a slight curve in your lower back. Both feet on the floor, knees bent. Inhale, lift your pelvic floor, exhale suck your tummy in all around. Then Inhale, lift the pelvic floor, lift the leg so it's level with the other thigh, then exhale lower the leg, sucking the tummy in and around.
3) Pelvic Floor exercises.
You'll be doing this already, regularly, right? Well we all forget, but please try and make it part of your day. You want to be holding the pelvic floor up, as well as bringing in the stomach, to have a strong core again. You can get an app which reminds you (Squeezy is the NHS app) or stick reminder stickers around your home, but do make it happen.