Post Pregnancy

My wife is having a hard time getting back to her badass self after our daughter. She has the build and work ethic to be near bikini competitor level if she commited herself to it.

Can anyone who has been through it help me in a way that can motivate her to get back into it that will help get her hooked again please?

Supplements, training advice for her…anything!

anavar

[quote]Carhart531 wrote:
My wife is having a hard time getting back to her badass self after our daughter. She has the build and work ethic to be near bikini competitor level if she commited herself to it.

Can anyone who has been through it help me in a way that can motivate her to get back into it that will help get her hooked again please?

Supplements, training advice for her…anything![/quote]

How old is your daughter?? I have a 2 year old and a 7 month old, I will be doing my first figure competition in 2 weeks. Taking care of a baby is mentally and physically draining, but once she gets back into a groove she’ll be fine… It’s always hard starting over and especially with a new little body to look after it’s not as convenient to plan your days.
I started training 4 weeks after my second son and it was a slow and frusterating process, I would squeeze my workouts in whenever the boys were napping or have my husband watch them while I went to the gym. I have always been very active and I actually feel more tired and sluggish if I don’t get some physical exercise during the day (even with sleep deprivation from being up at all hours of the night)

Depending if she is breastfeeding or not, I would recommend having her use the Biotest MAG-10 and Plazma as supplements. Since I have been using Plazma in my Intraworkouts I have really noticed a difference in the intensity of my workouts and speed of recovery… Which is crucial when trying to take care of yourself and a baby! And due to time restrictions, I always have the Metabolic Drive protein bars close at hand so I never skip a meal.

Try having her do something new at the gym, old and repetitive routines get boring very fast and don’t produce desired results. If you follow Amit Sapir’s log on the Micro-PA users forums you will get some good examples for workouts that she can do. Personally, I like to include Olympic lifting in all of my programs… It’s fun to do and great exercises for the whole body.

[quote]Carhart531 wrote:
My wife is having a hard time getting back to her badass self after our daughter. She has the build and work ethic to be near bikini competitor level if she commited herself to it.

Can anyone who has been through it help me in a way that can motivate her to get back into it that will help get her hooked again please?

Supplements, training advice for her…anything![/quote]

Once a week we go to the gym and train together, it’s our Friday night date night! Maybe if you go with her and help her once a week (if you have someone to watch your daughter) then she will have something to look forward to each week and get a little break.

Bron Sapir are you breastfeeding??
I’m almost 7 weeks postpartum with my daughter and also have a 2 year old. But I’m dying to hit the gym again and will be going back as soon as I relocate across country to stay with my mother in law (husband is stationed overseas so I need to stay with her so I don’t burn out!) I have dreams of competing this time but more importantly I just want my dream glutes lol. I’m breastfeeding my daughter though and plan to for a year so I’m not quite sure how to approach working out and eating this time around?

OP how long has it been? As Bron said it’s pretty exhausting especially for a first time mom since it’s a whole learning process. And if she is breast-feeding I can tell you that too is exhausting and takes extra calories and energy. Best to give her some time if she is into working out than she will get back at it soon! Better to listen to your body. After my son it took me 3-4 months (maybe because I had to stop BFing) to get back into it. Also needed to have adequate rest time to recover from workouts so maybe offer up a schedule for her where she can get extra rest for working out. Offering new clothes doesn’t hurt either :wink: I know I can’t wait!!

[quote]mma_girl wrote:
Bron Sapir are you breastfeeding??
I’m almost 7 weeks postpartum with my daughter and also have a 2 year old. But I’m dying to hit the gym again and will be going back as soon as I relocate across country to stay with my mother in law (husband is stationed overseas so I need to stay with her so I don’t burn out!) I have dreams of competing this time but more importantly I just want my dream glutes lol. I’m breastfeeding my daughter though and plan to for a year so I’m not quite sure how to approach working out and eating this time around?

OP how long has it been? As Bron said it’s pretty exhausting especially for a first time mom since it’s a whole learning process. And if she is breast-feeding I can tell you that too is exhausting and takes extra calories and energy. Best to give her some time if she is into working out than she will get back at it soon! Better to listen to your body. After my son it took me 3-4 months (maybe because I had to stop BFing) to get back into it. Also needed to have adequate rest time to recover from workouts so maybe offer up a schedule for her where she can get extra rest for working out. Offering new clothes doesn’t hurt either :wink: I know I can’t wait!! [/quote]

Hi! If you can make it for the full year that’s awesome… I breastfed my first for 7 months(I actually did a photo shoot while I was still feeding, he came to the gym and chilled in his carseat to watch and ate in between shooting!) and my youngest was bf up until 5 months (stopped 2 months ago when he got 8 teeth all at once) I trained normally in the gym while breastfeeding, I trained very hard like I’m used to doing and gradually increased the weights back and got back to my pre-pregnancy weights just a few months after…

You really have to go with how to feel, some days are harder than others and your body will tell you when enough is enough. I’ve really learned to decide whether I physically can’t do something or I’m just being “lazy” that day, even if I was tired I would try to gather enough energy to do SOMETHING… even if it was to go outside with the boys for a jog/walk.
Keeping milk supply up is also tricky, I didn’t want to run into that problem so I took some precautions and never had any issues…

Fibrous & complex carb sources(oats for example) are great for keeping your milk supply up. My main carb sources were oats, ezekiel bread and baby rice. I am also prone to anemia so I ate red meat twice a day and consumed a lot of dark green vegetables. As for vitamins, I continued to take my prenatal vitamins, vitamin D, calcium, B complex and folic acid.

Folic acid has many health benefits besides preventing neural tube defects, and there must be a balance of iron, B12 and folic acid in the body(I won’t get into the complexity of this) I noticed that I was bruising easily while I was breastfeeding and when I started the calcium and folic acid in addition to my other daily vitamins this symptom went away within a week.

Breast milk is produced mainly off of fat, therefore people always assume they need to consume a lot of fat to keep milk supply up(as if the bag of chips they eat is going to help their milk supply and goals… No… It’s just temporarily giving their mind a sense of satisfaction)… But the body has so much adequate fat storage from the pregnancy that in fact you can eat a lot less fat as long as its coming from good sources. My daily fat during breastfeeding came from red meat, salmon, 1/2 avocado and some natural peanut butter on my ezekiel bread.

Set small goals to begin with so you’ll have a sense of achievement rather than looking forward to nothing except your 3am wake up call.
My first set goal was to get back to the gym and eat clean for 1 whole week. Reward yourself with whatever motivates you… Maybe some new workout gear or a “free” meal.

mma_girl I’m going to go ahead and guess that your babies don’t nap at the same time either BUT if they do you can start getting back into training just by doing workouts in your living room. You’ve been through this before so you know it’s a slow process at the beginning so just bodyweight exercises will be more than enough until you are comfortable and want to get back in the gym.

I worked out at home for 2 weeks before heading back to the gym and I remember my first squat made me feel so discouraged but consistency was my key and I was back to myself in less time than I had anticipated. I was so frustrated on some days(some days meaning almost EVERYDAY!) and it wasn’t easy but my husband kept encouraging me everyday and as I started to see results it kept me motivated and going strong.

Bron Sapir, Thank you for taking the time to reply! I’m going back next week. We just moved across country so I could live with my MIL (husband is stationed overseas for 2 years) so I have a lot of help now and not so much in the way of excuses. I do feel very tired as of lately but it could just be from the big move. I’m also considering a carb cycle. I don’t want to lose weight right away if anything I want to put back on some muscle. I figure in about 6 months I can start losing.

I’m about 10 lbs above pre pregnancy weight right now (lost muscle though and put on fat). So I’m not too in a hurry to shed a lot of fat. I do want to BF for a year but I won’t beat myself up if I can’t! Everyone can’t and I understand but I won’t put myself before my child. With my son we only made it 3 months but that was because of his latch a problem I don’t have this time so it means a lot to me to go for as long as possible! Thanks again!

[quote]mma_girl wrote:
Bron Sapir, Thank you for taking the time to reply! I’m going back next week. We just moved across country so I could live with my MIL (husband is stationed overseas for 2 years) so I have a lot of help now and not so much in the way of excuses. I do feel very tired as of lately but it could just be from the big move. I’m also considering a carb cycle. I don’t want to lose weight right away if anything I want to put back on some muscle. I figure in about 6 months I can start losing.

I’m about 10 lbs above pre pregnancy weight right now (lost muscle though and put on fat). So I’m not too in a hurry to shed a lot of fat. I do want to BF for a year but I won’t beat myself up if I can’t! Everyone can’t and I understand but I won’t put myself before my child. With my son we only made it 3 months but that was because of his latch a problem I don’t have this time so it means a lot to me to go for as long as possible! Thanks again![/quote]

Hope the move went well!

If you can make it a year that’s awesome, just find a good balance with your training and eating… I’m sure you’re doing great! You survived the move so now maybe everything is a little less stressful :slight_smile:

My best advice now is to take lots of pictures (as much as you might not want to see them right now) you will want them later on once you get back into shape. I always wish I had taken more “before” pics.

I know right but those pictures will be great to look back on!
My move went well thanks and I signed up for the gym again yesterday.
A year is what I’d like but I won’t stress over it just taking it day by day for now. As for my calories I decided to go with maintenance plus 500-600 extra for the milk production. I might also cycle my calories/carbs just be because? And I can adjust from there. I really want to see progress this time. My goals are to regain lost muscle and build up my lower body especially my glutes (I think I’ve read everything by Bret Contreras). Pre pregnancy I lost focus and would just go into the gym without much of a plan. I made some ok gains and lost some fat but really logging everything and setting some goals.
Thanks again!