I recently blogged about the many excuses reasons you might have a mummy tummy, but couldn’t possibly do anything about it.

Diastasis recti is without doubt a major culprit. If you have a postnatal belly which bulges or protrudes, & seems to form a cone shape when you get up from lying on your back, then you probably do have split abdominal muscles, or diastasis recti. You will also likely be suffering from weak core muscles – that’s the muscles that support your lower back, define your waistline & are connected to your pelvic floor.

Appropriate exercises for diastasis recti are the core activation & strengthening exercises discussed here. You see, the muscles that have split – the outermost, vertical recti muscles of your abdomen – are connected to the important transverse abdominus muscle that lies deep inside.

Any exercise that strengthens the transverse muscle & draws it IN, by default will also draw the recti muscles TOGETHER.

Multi-tasking exercise. We like that.

But I would like to add a cautionary note, that follows on from my post about the psychology of excuses… if you do not perform these exercises on a daily basis to repair your diastasis recti & strengthen your core AS WELL AS eat & exercise intensively to lose fat… you will not get rid of your mummy tummy.

Diastasis recti is:

1. Reparable

2. Not the only problem with most mummy tummies

In our determination to identify the one issue to place all our focus on, we easily lose sight of the maybe more obvious stuff. I recently dealt with a client who was so fixated on diastasis recti as the key to all her mummy tummy woes, she chose to ignore (or at least downplay) her excessive sugar consumption. The abdominal gap wasn’t the big deal in this particular case, the sugar in her diet was. But it was easier to focus on the former as that felt more ‘medical’, more out of her control, or was maybe just less painful or less hassle to deal with.

Postnatal fat loss does not have one isolated answer.

This is why my MuTu System (soon to be available even if you don’t live in London… watch this space!) incorporates 5 essential components, ONE of which is treating diastasis recti.

Don’t kid yourself into thinking that if you could just close the gap in your abdominal muscles, all would be flat & gorgeous. In some cases this may be the predominant problem (every individual is unique), but there are 4 other issues. Ignore them, & you will make improvements, but you won’t have solved the problem.

Are you confused by the extent of your own diastasis recti, & how much it contributes to the appearance of your tummy? Let me know where you’re struggling & I’ll try to clear it up for you!

I’m having a philosophical moment, so bear with me. Well I did call my company No More Excuses…

Very often we look for the one culprit, the one reason why we’re bigger, or wobblier, or less fit, than we’d like to be. The reason WE couldn’t possibly run, do  any real postnatal exercise, eat in a way that would actually reduce the size of your mummy tummy, take the time to relax, breathe deeply or spend some time looking after *us*.

It might be a physiological condition, an emotional issue or a logistical obstacle. Whatever it is, it makes us somehow the exception to the rule.

We then focus on that one issue, blaming it for all our woes. *THIS* is why I haven’t got the flat tummy / energy / fitness levels / thinner thighs that I really want. This is why I can’t go running today, or eat right, or take 10 minutes to just breathe & still my mind for a brief moment. See? It’s out of my control. There’s nothing I can do. All those things that work for other people… consistent, correctly performed intensive exercise, a clean diet, postural correction or a positive attitude… they won’t work for ME. Because I’VE got *THIS* to deal with.

I believe that we CAN take control. That consistency, focus & some real knowledge, can take us a very long way towards our physical & emotional goals. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not denying the existence or validity of the often very real obstacles that every one of us faces. Very often we really can’t control them. But we can decide how big an obstacle we’re going to convince ourselves that they really are.

Before we say “You know what, I AM important. I deserve to look & feel better about myself. I’m going to take some good advice, figure out a strategy & then I’m going to actually DO it”.

What do you think? Do you recognise yourself? Do you agree? I’d love to know what you think!

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As you may have heard me mention before,   if you want to get rid of a mummy tummy, the LAST thing you should be doing is crunches & sit ups, or reverse curls, or oblique twists… more on why here

What you should be doing instead is core strength training that works your rectus muscles (the vertical ones down the front of your tummy that often split if you’ve been pregnant) in a linear, not gaping direction.

Exercises like these. (Please see safety notes below before trying these!) This little routine also works pretty much your entire upper & lower body, as well as your tummy too!

Warning! Take care of your back during these exercises – they’re hard! You MUST keep your abs pulled in & pelvic floor engaged throughout to support your back. If you ‘let go’ of your abdominal muscles, your back will sag as it takes your full body weight & it will hurt

Only the one from the kneeling position (pulling the ball in with your elbows) is suitable during pregnancy, & this is the one which should be attempted & mastered first even if you’re not pregnant.

The pike position with straight legs & your bottom in the air is pretty advanced & you need strong core muscles to maintain the postion. So watch it all through full first & then start slowly… Have fun!

If you’ve ever been pregnant (which if you’re here I’m assuming you probably have) you will have heard of pelvic floor exercises. They’re pretty darned important (read more on why here) should you wish to hold in your wee for the rest of your days, so well worth genning up on.

Pelvic floor exercises are often called Kegels, named after the (male of course) gynecologist who ‘invented’ them. According to Wikipedia, “Arnold H. Kegel M.D., F.A.C.S. (1894–1981) was a gynecologist who invented the Kegel Perineometer (used for measuring vaginal air pressure) and Kegel exercises (squeezing of the muscles of the pelvic floor).”

Don’t know about you, but I’m not crazy about the idea of having my vaginal air pressure measured, but I’ve also always found it rather amusing that a man *invented* the squeezing of the vaginal muscles (or is that just me?).

Since then, a random eminent french physiotherapist (bloke again. hmmm…) invented *his* own special brand of ‘negative pressure abdominal exercises’. Which yogis have actually been doing for thousands of years, but they use much more romantic sounding Sanskrit words like Pranayama (yoga breath), Mula Bandha (pelvic floor or root lock) & Supta Uddiyana Bandha* (lying down abdominal decompression)

I guide clients through elements of this Pranayama, Bandha & decompression practice as part of my MuTu System, but essentially it is a beautifully relaxing & highly beneficial breathing technique, which ‘draws up’ & contracts the pelvic floor muscles. It has the added benefit of helping you to really connect with & engage the vital core muscles.

A wonderful book I would like to recommend to you whether you’re pregnant or already a mum is Mother’s Breath, by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli – you can see more about her work here. I wish I’d been a student of hers when I was pregnant 3 & 4 years ago… possibly that helipcopter might have been avoided

So my advice today is:

1. DO your pelvic floor exercises. (PS. They’re yours, ignore anyone who tells you they invented them

2. Take just a few moments today to take some full, deep, yoga breaths into your rib-cage & your tummy, NOT just into your shoulders & throat. Without hunching your shoulders, fill your lungs, feeling your ribs & tummy expand. Then squeeze all the air out, pulling your pelvic floor up & your drawing your tummy button in towards your spine on the exhale. Do this a few times… you’ll be more relaxed immediately!

The above breathing practice is the fore-runner to the full Bandhas & decompressions of the abdomen, & can be done  safely at any stage of pregnancy or motherhood. Let me know if you like it!

And Relax……

* Concepts reproduced with kind permission, Copyright Uma Dinsmore-Tuli: ‘Mother’s Breath’ 2006

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Here is your 20 (-ish) minute Interval Training video! You don’t need any equipment, you don’t need to go anywhere, & your kids can join in… Have fun!

It seems that promising to shoot a video with my brand new flip camera, figure out how to turn that into an actual ‘video’, put some pretty music on it & make it *appear* on my blog, all over the weekend when my son had his 3rd birthday… was frankly a little ambitious.

I’m hoping future videos won’t take me quite so long to produce, & I hope it helps to make a little more sense of what you’re supposed to be doing on the ‘intervals” days of your 5K training programme.

PS I’m not sure yet how to credit music properly, so until I know the rules … it’s Dansez-Vous on the Hang on Little Tomato album by Pink Martini

Enjoy your workout ladies – let me know how you’re doing!

Mummy To 5K!

Maria at the Mummy’s Busy World blog is encouraging lots of other lovely mums to sign up to do a 5k race in aid of Arthritis Research in September. Just click the badge to find out all about the event!

I thought a 5K training programme might help… it’s a special, No More Excuses training programme, which means it’s written by a mum, for mums. It knows you haven’t got any time; it assumes you’re pretty much a beginner  & it knows you’ve got a whole lot of excuses as to why you can’t go running today. It’s a huge step in the direction of your postnatal fitness… so please join in!

To give you some context, 5K is just over 3 miles, & if you were to run it all at a pretty good steady pace, will take you 30-35 minutes. So have in your head that you’re working towards being able to run for a good half an hour without stopping.

So, without further ado, this is how you get ready to run, or run/walk a 5K in about 6 week’s time.

Each week you should aim to exercise (note, not always just run) on 5 days of the week, & rest on 2.

Now some weeks you won’t be able to run 5 times. Life sometimes just does that. So set 5 days a week as your ideal.. your ‘OH MY GOD I AM SO COOL & FIT & GORGEOUS & I TOTALLY ROCK’ kind of week. The kind of week you celebrate with a long hot bath & a glass of wine & some nice crisps.

4 days a week would be pretty fab. 3 is just about OK. Less than 3 & that 5K is going to hurt, Lady.

I’m going to be realistic, & assume you’re going to manage 4 days a week. (If you do the extra one, tweet me @nomorexcuses & let me know so I can tell everyone about your gold star). The plan doesn’t specify which days you do what, as you will need to fit them in whenever possible, but try to spread your exercise / rest days out over the week if you can.

Of those 4 exercise sessions, you’re going to run on 3 of them. If you manage 5 days in a week, do an extra session of whichever option that week you enjoyed the most.

A really important feature of your 5K training programme is that you won’t always run the same distance. The reason for this is that if you just try to plod out your 5K (just over 3 miles) every time, all you’re doing is training your body to plod out 3 miles. You won’t have any reserves at all to cope with crowds, your sprint finish (let’s aim high ) or the need to chat all the way around the course on the day.

You need to establish 3 running  ‘paces’ which will be totally personal to you & that correspond to:

Easy Pace (this could be a run or a run/walk) & on an exertion level of 1-10, is about 5

Race Pace: the steady jogging or running pace you hope to run your 5K at. Exertion level 6-7

Intervals Pace: more intensive, as you will be working in bursts for shorter periods rather than slow & steady. Exertion level 8/9

Please note this is a pretty intensive schedule which increases both distance & intensity fairly swiftly. In an ideal world, starting as a complete beginner, you’d want a 12 week preparation. But hey, since when did we live in an ideal world? Take it at your pace & don’t worry – running is supposed to be enjoyable! (It’s also terribly good for you & bad for your mummy tummy…)

Week 1:

1. Walk/run 2 miles (easy pace)

2. Run 2 miles (race pace)

3. Interval training (intervals pace). IE for 20 minutes, you alternate running fast or skipping for 1 minute, with bodyweight resistance exercises. Maintain the more intensive level for the whole time

I am going to post this intervals session as a video tomorrow but wanted to get the basic programme up for you ASAP! Just leave the intervals & get on with the running if you like for a couple of days & check back or watch my tweets.

20-minute Interval Training Programme for Mums:

Warm Up 3 minutes

Cardio (race pace) 1 minute; 15 squats; Cardio 2 minutes; 15 Gecko‘s; Cardio 3 minutes (hard!); 15 Dynamic Planks; Cardio 3 minutes (hard); 1 minute Walking Lunges; Cool down 3 minutes

4. Walk/run 2 miles

Week 2:

1. Run 2 miles (Race Pace)

2. Run 3 miles (Easy)

3. Intervals

4. Run 2.5 miles (Race pace)

Week 3:

1. Run 3 miles (easy)

2. Run 2.5 miles (race pace)

3. Intervals

4. Run 3 miles (easy)

Week 4:

1. Run 3.5 miles (easy)

2. Run 3 miles (race pace)

3. Intervals

4. Run 3.5 miles (easy)

Week 5:

1. Run 3.5 miles (race pace, alternate with easy if necessary)

2. Run 3 miles (race pace)

3. Intervals

4. Walk/Run 4 miles (easy)

Week 6:

This is the week of the 5K.

Aim to do 1x intervals session, 1 x 3 miles (race pace) near the beginning of the week, then have a couple of days rest before running just an easy 2 miles the day before the race.

I’ll do a post on food in the next couple of days to help you plan your eating around your training if that helps?

Oh, & it’s of course an aside & not the reason you’ve signed up AT ALL… but you know if you follow this programme for the next 6 weeks, you might just notice a rather miraculous change in the size of your mummy tummy come race day…!

As the No More Mummy Tummy Masterclass gathers pace with shiny new venues in SW London, I’m giving away (just some, obviously!) of my postnatal exercise & fat loss secrets to tempt you over at Cafe Bebe.

Karin is the brilliant Mummy Blogger at Cafe Bebe (Martha Stewart follows her on Twitter don’t-you-know!). She is on a Mummy Tummy Begone challenge, following my tummy guidelines & has stoically taking up running with the help of Marathon Mummy blogger Rachael.

Will you join in the challenge? Postnatal fat loss is never easy, so let us know how you’re doing, & of course if you’d like to book a No More Mummy Tummy Masterclass in SW london (sorry I can’t cover more than that yet )

Tell your tummy its days are numbered…

A little while ago Sue talked about ‘Wendy’s horrible new variation on a plank’ & I promised you a photo – sorry about the delay (I’m sure you’ve been beside yourselves with anticipation).

This is a fabulous multi-tasking No More Mummy Tummy postnatal exercise that also happens to burn fat, improve your posture & give you lovely arms… interested?

I’m calling this The Gecko, because it reminds me of those lizard things that lift one foot off the ground at a time in an attempt to keep cool. I think it’s got a proper name like ‘prone arm row’, but having already christened the ‘Supermum’, I’m going to carry on taking blatant exercise-re-naming liberties & call it The Gecko. It’s a great Mummy Tummy blaster… what do you care what it’s called?

This is your starting position – it’s a version of the plank, or the first stage of a full press up (don’t worry. You’re not going to do one).

The Gecko starting position - the Plank

Make sure your shoulders are directly above your hands, & that your core muscles are engaged (navel pulled through to spine & pelvic floor contracted) to support your back. From here, lift one hand off the ground, so you’re balancing on your feet & the other hand…

Try not to rotate your whole body as you lift each hand, but squeeze your shoulders blades together as you pull each elbow up & back.

Why do you care about this exercise? A few reasons why it’s one of my new favourites:

• It’s a big muscle group multi-tasker. The more & the bigger muscles you use per correctly performed bodyweight exercise, the more calories you use up
• You keep on using up calories after you’ve finished. Big muscle groups need more energy (IE calories)  to just ‘be’ than small ones. So for postnatal fatloss, pump out 20 of these in good form, & you’re toning lean muscle as you do it, & still losing fat when you stop!
• It’s a great core exercise. To maintain this position & the movement, you need to keep transverse abdominus (that the important muscle for a flat tummy) engaged throughout. Pull navel to spine, keeping pelvic floor contracted.
• It works the upper back, rather than the chest. For mums, this is incredibly important for correcting the postural imbalances of pregnancy & motherhood (slouching, hunched shoulders)
• It’ll give you nice toned arms & shoulders

You can make it harder by holding a dumb-bell in each hand & lifting them as well!

So incorporate this one into your postnatal fitness intervals, either instead of, or as well as, the press ups. Enjoy! (Or even if you don’t enjoy it, do it anyway. It works)

Oh & if you think of a better name for it, I’m open to suggestions!

Elly, A Few Weeks Postnatal. Baby is just behind the camera!

If you’re looking for specialist pregnancy or postnatal personal training, you need to be sure you’re really getting an expert.

If you’re pregnant or have recently had a baby, the world of gyms & exercise classes suddenly doesn’t seem to be belong to you anymore (if it you ever felt it did that is )

Gyms are wary, pointing pregnant women nervously towards the treadmill with instructions to ‘only walk’ & to ‘make sure you keep your heart rate below 140BPM’ (this is outdated & inadequate advice BTW).

Most class instructors will want you to sit most of it out, & even your personal trainer is highly likely NOT to be specifically qualified. The teenagers patrolling the gym with ‘Personal Trainer’ emblazoned across their backs just don’t seem to exactly relate to what you & your body really need. They are almost definitely NOT really a specialist pregnancy or postnatal personal trainer.

Yesterday a new client joined us who has been working with her own personal trainer for years very happily. He is highly qualified & she enjoys training with him. But at 13 weeks pregnant, neither of them feels confident that he can give her the right kind of instruction. Good for him, I think that shows real professionalism to refer her. Some (& this applies to many professions) would be more concerned with keeping her short term business, than putting her in the safest hands.

Anyone advertising or claiming to be a pregnancy or postnatal personal trainer in SW London (or anywhere else for that matter… Google just like me to remind you where we are ) should be able to give you certain reassurances… See previous post ‘How Do You Know if Your Pregnancy or Postnatal Personal Trainer is Any Good?’ for some guidelines when choosing.

Your relationship with your personal trainer at any time is a pretty close one. They see you sweaty, with no make up, feeling vulnerable & not-so-self confident… add to this the hormones, tiredness, emotions & monumental physiological changes of pregnancy & motherhood… & you really do want to make sure you’re comfortable with this person!

Qualifications are very important, obviously. As are insurance, first aid training & of course experience. But the missing link is what we at No More Excuses like to refer to as ‘getting it’. My fabulous team don’t just know how to train pregnant & postnatal women, they do it all the time, they know how to work around young children, they know exactly where you want to be… but at the same time they know exactly what else you’re dealing with. They Get It.

Military boot camp style suits some clients (we’ll shout at you if you really want us to!). Some women prefer a much more sensitive approach. Neither is any more effective than the other.

No More Excuses pregnancy & postnatal personal trainers in SW London (got it now, Google?) get you the results you’re after – safely – that’s a given. But where we are a little more flexible & undertsanding to the needs of mums – expectant, new or otherwise – is in the way we get you there.

You tell us you want No More Mummy Tummy, more energy, a strong pelvic floor & no back ache. You want to be a lean, shapely, energetic & sexy mummy, not a size zero but not flabby either. No problem, we can help!

If you’d like a free, no obligation at your home, just fill out the form on the right & I’ll get right back to you to arrange it.

What are your pregnancy or postnatal experiences of  gyms, instrcuctors or classes? Did you feel in safe hands? Did they ‘get it’??

Sue’s No More Mummy Tummy challenge had a tummy measuring tape moment of truth last week – and she’s LOST AN INCH & A HALF OFF HER WAIST!

Her version of events is below, with some rather insightful soul searching about why so many mums ‘set out to fail’ when it comes to postnatal weight loss. She has inspired me to a little ‘Tell It Like It Is’ moment too, so please join the conversation & add your philosophical tummy ponderings too!

Sue and Ella

Sue has steadily & healthily lost tummy fat, plus got fitter & stronger & she will continue to do so. Why? Because she isn’t ‘on a  diet’ or killing herself with an unrealistic, unsustainable postnatal exercise plan.

Instead she is becoming (sometimes kicking & screaming, but she is becoming nonetheless) ‘someone who runs & works out’. Someone who eats clean, good food for 98% of the time. Someone who trains intensively enough, often enough & effectively enough to make a difference.

Mummy tummies take many months to accumulate. If you’ve had more than one child without losing your mummy tummy in between, it may have taken years. And it will take dedication & hard work to get rid of it. It’s going to take a good few weeks before you see a difference. It takes ongoing changes in your fitness & lifestyle to lose fat & to stay lean.

So get over it.

(Told you I was having a ‘tell it like it is’ moment).

Doing the following ALONE will NOT achieve your goals: joining a gym, buying new trainers, even hiring a personal trainer.  You still have to actually DO IT.

If you want to lose the mummy tummy, you have to eat in a way that will make you lose body fat. You have to do the right kind of exercises to put your split tummy muscles & weakened core muscles back together again. You have to do intensive interval training using weights & cardio work.

As Sue says below… Kinda boring? Well not if it works. So bloody well done Sue.

She didn’t just talk about it, she actually got off her arse & did it! I feel kinda proud. But only for being there & showing her what to do. She did it.

This evening I ran Sue ragged round our field, boxing, lunging, skipping (we’re trying to skip like Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby, but we look more like 7 year old girls) & sprinting. Of course she complained, swore like a trooper & tried to ‘miss’ the pad I was holding with her right hook. She got sweaty, out of breath & had a laugh. But the important part is she just did it. (Good line, Nike, can I borrow it?)

And so here is the measuring session as only Sue is her self-deprecating loveliness can tell it…

“Last week Wendy came to my house for the measuring session.  I was apprehensive as I still think I’m a freak of nature who, whatever effort is put in, is destined to stay overweight.

When she measured my waist and informed me I’d lost 1 ½ inches my first thought was – ‘She didn’t measure me correctly’.  Then I assumed that the reason she didn’t have the bodyfat scales with her, was not because her little boy had spilt milk on them (it’s true… sorry) but because she wanted to let me down lightly.

Neither of these two assumptions was correct, but this is my natural reaction.  On analysing why this is my natural reaction and why my thought process is wired this way I came up with the following reasons:

• I am crap at dieting, and even though this is not ‘dieting’ it is still a weight type challenge and therefore I will fail.
• Why will I fail?  Because every diet and quick fix I’ve ever been on in the past has reversed itself, either rapidly or more slowly.

So how can I re-wire my scrambled thought processes and assumptions?

• By reminding myself that I am making steady changes, and losing a stone in a week and keeping it off is just plain silly.
• If I made dramatic/boot camp style changes then I would go into martyr mode and set myself up to fail as I would see food as something to be denied and exercise as a punishment.
• These changes will bring about slow but significant changes in my body shape and my attitudes toward food
• I am becoming a healthier person and by doing this I will naturally lose weight, become fitter and healthier.

This is quite clearly the boring way to do weight loss, but in my opinion it’s the only way.  Nothing faddy works because faddy isn’t any way to live your life long term.  It’s also quite boring for the diet/weight loss industry because they don’t make any money out of you.  But I won’t get on that soap box today.  Anyway Wendy would probably make me use the soap box in a step type exercise, or weird press ups, or some such torture..….”

What has or hasn’t worked for you? Do you identify with Sue & her feelings of  ‘setting herself up to fail’ before she’s given herself a chance? We’d both love to hear your thoughts!