5 Fun Ways To Reclaim Your Waist After Pregnancy

EasyBabyLife Home » New Mother » How To Get Your Waist Back After Pregnancy

The biggest change to mom's body after pregnancy is often the belly. It is suddenly soft and pouty and nowhere near flat. To once again have something reminding of a waist after pregnancy is really something many new moms long for. Here are some fun ways to tone your abdomen. No crunches and no dieting.

Have fun! (And get going...)

Pole Dancing

Let's start with the most controversial way to reclaim your waist after pregnancy - I think. Pole dancing. These days, this is not just for strippers, but it has also developed into an exercising form that most women (only women as far as I know) who try say is huge fun AND exhausting. Working with sexy moves around a pole when being a new mom, may seem as natural and tempting as walking down the street naked, but why not give it at try? It is very far from milk, diapers, and being exhausted and much more about being a woman (again!); not just a mom.

So why would it improve your waist? Several reasons. First of all, you are up and moving around. Secondly the dancing requires a lot of moving of the hips and abdomen. Great for getting your waist back and great for both your cardiovascular health and upper body strength - something all new moms really need both for their looks and to save their back when carrying around their babies. And it that's not enough, fitness pole dancing has also been shown to increase bone density, which is an important benefit after pregnancy and especially if breastfeeding.

Since fitness pole dancing has been on a rising trend for a couple of years now, you are likely to be able to find classes in many cities. If you live in a small town, it can be more difficult. Have a look around for classes, but if you can't find then, don't despair. Some of the other fun tips below can easily be carried out at home.

Want to see what moves you might learn if attending a class? Have a look at the video clip below.

Back

Belly Dancing

Belly dancing is probably slightly less controversial than pole dancing, since this really is an established art form (although still sexy!). Great for your waist nonetheless. Belly dancing may be less exhausting than pole dancing, but very good and fun for tightening your abdomen. It actually tones your abdominal muscles and hip tucks so effectively that belly dancing is sometimes recommended as a prenatal preparation for giving birth naturally.

Belly dancing is not as hot a trend as for example pole dancing and Zumba, and it can be a bit harder to find classes. But they do exist, so just look for them where you live. There are even prenatal, postnatal and mom/baby belly dancing classes in some places.

To start belly dancing, attending a class is the easiest and most fun, but it can be done at home too, by using a DVD or online class.

Here you can watch a sample belly dance workout. No wonder the waist is toned!

Zumba

Another hot trend this year is Zumba classes. Zumba is dancing (again) and you are not likely to find even one participant who isn't smiling. Based on South American beats, Zumba offers fun music, fun steps and great exercise for toning your hips, waist, thighs and abdomen - as well as for the rest of your body too. Zumba burns a lot of calories without you even noticing, because it is so much fun.

The coolest thing for a new mom - Zumba has grown so popular that mom/baby zumba classes are popping up in many cities. So have a look around your city - maybe there is a way to trim your waist, have fun and bring your baby along.

Below is a video showing a simple mom and baby/toddler zumba class. Tempting, don't you think?!

Fitness Hula Hoop

If you don't like dancing and don't want to attend a class - or if you want to combine a class with some extra effort to get your waist back - get yourself a fitness hula hoop. These hula hoops are different from the ones you played with as a kid, because they are much larger and much heavier. This means that they are much easier to use - practically anyone can get them to spin after a few minutes of trying - AND it means that they are very effective for training your abdominal muscles.

It really doesn't take much time every day to start seeing results. Some women can tell about a significantly slimmer waist when using a fitness hula hoop for just 6 weeks, and less than 30 minutes per week - that's some 4 minutes per day. Even a twin mom can fix that!

For a basic training program, have a look at this video clip:

Make Love...

As long as you are actually making love and not just enduring sex inactively as a new mom, having sex is a great way to work your pelvis, thighs and buttock muscles. The back muscles also benefit. In addition, having orgasms is a much more enjoyable way to exercise your vaginal muscles after giving birth than squeezing; something often recommended to new moms to prevent urine leakage.

Sex is good for your cardiovascular strength too; intercourse burns about as many calories as 15 minutes of jogging. Not bad.

If you really want your waist back, only having sex is not likely to be enough. But you can always combine lovemaking with any if the exercising forms above.

I am not going to add in a video clip on making love. Being a new mom, I am quite sure that you already know what to do... :-)

Back

Now, if you have any other tips on fun ways to tone the after pregnancy belly, please share them below!