An Unfit Mother: How to get your Health, Shape and Sanity back after Childbirth. Kate Cook

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      Belt up

      What it does: This exercise engages your deepest tummy muscle—it is a muscle that is like a corset and should keep everything in. Naturally, during pregnancy this muscle will have been overstretched and now you need to reel it back in. Your lower back is also strengthened with this one. You need this exercise to get back that hourglass gorgeousness. Do this one in the morning while you are preparing breakfast—go on, whack a sticky note on the cooker hood to remind you.

      What you will need: That piece of string.

      1 Stand up and pull in your tummy muscles really tight.

      2 Tie the piece of string around your waist

      3 Keep those tummy muscles tight or your stomach will cut into the string. Cruel? You have to suffer to be beautiful.

      4 Breathe normally for as long as you can stand it. As each day passes, you’ll find you can do this for longer.

      The Elvis (the King) lives routine

      While The Martini exercise plan can be done wherever you like, the four exercises in this routine need to be done one after the other. But it will only take you a couple of minutes, promise. Aim to do the routine every day and always warm up by first marching for a couple of minutes on the spot.

      When’s the best time to do them? In your downtime, as little as it is, perhaps in front of the television. Stick a sticker on the screen. That’ll annoy your partner.

      Elvis the pelvis

      What it does: This exercise has amazing benefits. It helps strengthen the deepest abdominal muscles, drawing in your waist as well as building strength in the lower back.

      You will need: A mat or towel.

      1 Lie on your back on the mat, with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Keep your head and shoulders on the floor and put your arms by your sides, with palms facing down.

      2 Keep your spine in a neutral position, meaning in line with your hips and shoulders and not arched.

      3 Breathe in with a big breath through your nose and then gently exhale through your mouth as you pull your navel towards your spine, tilting your pelvis so the pubic bone lifts and your lower back presses into the floor.

      4 Hold for 2 seconds, release and return to the start.

      5 Repeat 12 times. Rest and then get on with another 12.

      The ‘Kegel’, don’t pee gal

      What it does: Imagine that at the bottom of your stomach there is a hammock-shaped muscle that is holding everything up—boy, has it gone a bit saggy after all that’s been sitting in it for the last few months. This exercise is therefore designed to help tone up the pelvic floor muscle, or that hammock. Don’t do this exercise when you are really having a pee as you could give yourself an infection, but you could do it after you are done—just sit there for 10 seconds longer and give them a squeeze. Try a sticky note on the loo paper holder.

      What you need: A mat or towel.

      1 First, to identify the muscle, imagine you are sitting on the loo and you want to stop peeing—the one you are squeezing right now is your pelvic floor.

      2 Lie face up on the mat with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Keep your head and shoulders on the floor and put your arms by your sides, with palms facing down. You can also do this exercise while standing up.

      3 Squeeze your pelvic floor muscle. Hold for a count of 10 seconds, then release.

      4 Do this 12 times. Rest and then get on with another 12.

      As many as one in three women suffer from stress incontinence after childbirth as a result of their hammock swinging low and loose. So if for no other reason, that’s surely a motivator. This exercise helps that not-knowing-if-you’re-going-to-get-the-key-in-the lock-in-time panic. And when you can even begin to think about it, it helps your sex life, too.

      The praying bust lift

      What it does: This exercise is fab for toning the boobs as it helps draw in and lift the chest muscles that support your new enlarged breasts, while at the same time working on strengthening your tummy muscles and lower back as you sit on your Swiss ball.

      You will need: Your Swiss ball.

      1 Sit on the Swiss ball with your feet flat on the floor. Good posture now, ladies!

      2 Keep your belly button pulled in tight to the spine.

      3 Extend your arms directly out in front of you and keep them at shoulder height.

      4 Bend your arms and press the palms together—as if you were praying (that you don’t fall off the Swiss ball!).

      5 Hold in those tummy muscles, pressing the palms together. Press for 4 seconds then release. Keep those tummy muscles engaged all the time as this helps to keep your balance.

      6 Repeat 12 times. Rest and then get on with another 12.

      The tummy toner

      What it does: You will be working your deepest abdominal muscles for this simple exercise. This is great to build up strength in your abdominals and your lower back.

      You will need: Your Swiss ball.

      1 Sit on the Swiss ball with your feet flat on the floor and sitting with good posture. Place your hands on your hips.

      2 Pull in your navel to your spine and lift one foot just slightly off the floor, only a few centimetres. Hold for a second (at the same time you must engage your abdominals as this is where your balance and strength will come from) then place the foot back down.

      3 Repeat with the opposite foot.

      4 Aim for 12, rest then repeat another set.

      Be nice to yourself

      As well as concentrating on your nutrition, make time to think of feeding of a different nature—feeding your soul. You have been through a lot (even though some really capable mothers push through all this with a no- nonsense, bristling efficiency), especially if you are used to feeling in control and suddenly you don’t feel in control any more. So be nice to yourself, or you could collapse in a melted pile of exhaustion later down the track—it’s a long journey.

      * Take a long bath—grab the moment and don’t feel guilty.

      * Get someone to come and give you a massage—sometimes student trainees offer discounts. Local training colleges are a good place to go to check out such a thing.

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