Mom and Baby Exercise

Tips On What To Do And How To Get Started

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Mom and baby exercise can be a great way to do something for yourself while at the same time having fun with your baby.

You get more energy and start your journey towards getting your post pregnancy body under control. Your baby gets activated, stimulated and will have some fun.

If you want to exercise at home or attend a class, it is by far easiest to begin before your baby starts moving around. After that you might not even be allowed to join some mom and baby exercise classes - for understandable reasons. If you have 10 babies crawling all over the floor, it is not easy to do any workout at all.

So don't wait for too long. But also don't start too early. First rest and get used to actually having a baby in your arms. Then you can start, slowly.

Below you'll find some exercise tips and things you can do with your baby.

Take a walk

This is the easiest way to get some exercise. You can start more or less from the day you gave birth, although you'll have to take it very slowly in the beginning. Either carry your infant in a sling or baby carrier or use his stroller.

In some cities you can find walking groups. A fun way to meet other moms!

If you walk in a park, or at least under some trees, your baby will have some fun too, looking at the swaying leaves. With older babies, go somewhere where there are a lot of people to look at and a lot of variation.

For more stroller walking tips, check out this website.

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Jogging

When your baby is 6 months old or so, you can put him in a jogging stroller and hit the trail. Many babies find it extremely exciting to go fast.

Just make sure you fix the front wheel of the stroller if you will be jogging somewhere where the road in rough. Otherwise the stroller might turn over.

For tips on buying the right stroller, click here.

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Riding a bike

When your baby is around eight months old, and sits steadily, you can put him in a bicycle child seat , like this one at Amazon and take him for a ride. Don't forget to put on a helmet of the right size (One for you and one for your baby!)

And practice together with someone else on putting your baby in the bicycle seat and get going the first few times. It can be pretty scary to place a wriggling baby in the seat and try to get up on your bike until you know how to do it.

Some bicycle seats can be put in a reclining position. This is very convenient for babies that tend to sleep relatively often.

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Yoga

This is my favorite! I love yoga and doing yoga together with a baby can be a lot of fun. In most forms of yoga, you tend to go down on the floor from standing up quite a bit. If you do this, bending over your baby, he is likely to think that it is great fun.

Join a mom and baby yoga class or exercise at home to baby exercise video. Or do both!

However finding a good mom and baby yoga video is not that easy. (Actually, finding any type of good exercise video is hard, I think.) One DVD that you might want to consider is Yoga for Mom and Baby: A Postnatal Yoga Workout with Your Baby

Another option is to buy a book to help get going. An interesting book that consistently gets great reviews from its readers is Itsy Bitsy Yoga: Poses to Help Your Baby Sleep Longer, Digest Better, and Grow Stronger by Helen Garabedian. The book contains exercises from babies from newborn to the age of 2.

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Pilates

Another mom and baby exercise possibility is pilates. Pilates is gentle but still very effective to improve the strength of for example your back and abdominal area.

If you haven't tried pilates, consider buying a video or attending a class.

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Regular workout

While maybe not so exiting, plain vanilla workout, like sit ups are a great way to get your body back. You can use your baby to get some extra resistance, for example put your baby on your stomach while doing sit ups. Lift your baby to exercise your biceps and so on.

In many cities you'll find workout classes where you can bring your baby, at least until he learns how to crawl. There are also to fairly new, interesting workout DVDs that you can check out:

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Home training equipment

If you have a lot of space at home, you can of course consider buying a stair master,, treadmill, indoor cycling bike or some other type of training equipment.

I wouldn't exactly call this mom and baby exercise - more mom exercise, but if your baby enjoys watching you, for example from his baby bouncer, then why not?

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Getting back in shape after giving birth doesn't have to be impossible. But allow it to take time! Doing mom and baby exercises is an excellent way to do something for both yourself and your baby.

Good luck!