Before I get into the review, I just have to share: today is my son's first birthday. This has been the most exhausting year of my life, but also an incredible one in many ways. About a week ago, he learned to walk unassisted, and so I've not only managed to keep a baby alive for a whole year, but he's now a proper toddler!
It's hard being a new mom. You know you ought to work out, but it's tough. There's the constant fatigue, there's a needy baby who demands all of your attention just to stay alive, and it's hard to decide what to do even when you have a few minutes.
Sarah Zahab's Postnatal Strength Workout aims to solve a lot of those problems by incorporating the baby into the workout. But you know what?
It's also hard being a blogger, trying to decide on just the right screenshot, when there are so many adorable moments.
So, alright, I'll settle on this one, a baby who has gone rogue, in a Canadian t-shirt (go, Canada), gleefully taking over the show. The Postnatal Strength Workout DVD (of which I received a review copy) is a totally professional, well conceived workout that is both doable for postpartum women and scalable for a greater challenge. But Sarah and the other people involved in the making of the video clearly also have a sense of fun. I think it's a great idea to bring babies into the workout, but mine never, ever stays still. It made me incredibly happy that the babies in the video didn't either, and it just made the whole program seem more approachable. "This is being a parent," it seemed to suggest, "but you can still carry on with the pushups."
So let's get into the meat. After an introduction in which Sarah describes how and when to do the workout, you get seven sections:
Warmup (about 3 min): Sarah introduces her co-exercisers, who show easier modifications of the moves. There is posture instruction, stretches with breathing, and squats, and guided kegels.
Baby Workout 1 (about 3.5 min): This section is intended for babies of all ages. Most of what they have to do is hang out on the floor while the moms exercise, but the positions allow the moms to interact with the babies. Here there is a focus on gently but carefully working the abdominals, push ups, and planks.
Baby Workout 2 (about 5.5 min): For babies who have head control. This section has more creative use of the babies, since they actually serve as weights! Sarah gives tips on how to hold the babies (and how to react to them if
they don't go along with the program!), as well as giving frequent
technique pointers. I really enjoyed the exercises here, including squats, press-ups, some really intense ab twists, and bridge. One of my favourites was a double crunch with the baby belly down on the knees. I love the fact that these moves could also be done in the middle of a day, when spending time with one's kid. And, since my baby already weighed over 20 lbs when I did this section, it was some serious strength training!
Body Weight Workout (about 9 min): This section just uses your own body weight. However, I still had the baby around -- he stayed for the whole workout -- and that worked fine even if I occasionally had to run after him. It includes some well-guided low squats (these can really hurt my knees if I'm not careful about form), push-ups, shoulder squeezes, a variety of hip lifts and crunches, leg taps, and... more kegels!
Ball Workout (about 9 min): This was a super fun ball workout, and I have to say, even though I am no longer newly postpartum, it was enough of a challenge for me to feel a burn on this one. Again, this is also all about the abs, which is exactly what a new mother needs to work on rebuilding, but there are also exercises for the backs of the legs, arms, and of course, the kegels.
Stretch (about 6 min): Pretty classic set of stretches, including some really nice moves for the lower back. And, oh yeah, more kegels! I'm guessing Sarah thought kegels were boring and needed to be split up over the workout -- a good idea of putting necessary pauses to good use.
Bonus (about 5 min): After a check for diastasis recti, or abdominal separation, Sarah guides a few exercises for building abdominal strength that are safe to do in the first six to eight weeks after giving birth. After this section, the video moves directly into a few outtakes and bloopers.
All in all, Sarah Zahab's Postnatal Strength Workout is a useful program you can do in bits (this is why I included rough times) or all together for a longer, but still manageable workout. Zahab suggests that if you want a greater challenge, you can repeat sections, which I probably will when I do the video again. I like that she's constantly keeping you on form, and that she's aware of women who have had vaginal deliveries or c-sections. She also has a really warm on-camera presence, friendly and motivating without being annoyingly perky. (Well, and the occasional twinges of a Canadian accent remind me of home.) The one thing that worked less well for me was the camera angle, which sometimes made it difficult to see what the modified exercises were. This video would have been just the right amount of challenge for me about eight weeks after birth; a year later, the ball workout and the exercises using baby as weight still made me work.
You can get Postnatal Strength Workout at Amazon, or directly from Sarah Zahab at http://www.sarahzahab.ca/.
Labels: pilates, postnatal, Sarah Zahab, strength training, workout
