Day 11 of Lockdown #COVID- 19

4th April 2020

Diary of a new mother 

My entire series of these 21 days will be based on my experience of being in this lockdown and staying home as a first-time mother of a 5-month-old baby, Anvay. 

I felt that my body aches and pains would reduce further, only if I do some stretching. Yd was telling me every day to dedicate some time to do some basic stretching exercises apart from just walking on the terrace. He pushed me into caring for myself more by saying that if I want to be viewed as a ‘ Fit-Mom’ by Anvay, I had to build strength. Even though I had undergone a normal delivery my body was not ready for a lot of exercises. I wasn’t sure what to do and what not to. The physiotherapist in Apollo Cradle had taught me some basic exercises to follow post-discharge but I was not consistent. I thought I should do something extra and started with 5 rounds of Surya Namaskar. Let me tell you, I couldn't even complete those 5 rounds properly. I was totally dejected thinking that my body had changed so much. At one point I was able to do 108 rounds of Surya Namaskar without any problem and now my fitness level had completely declined. I knew that I needed to give my body some more time to heal post-delivery but the very thought made me feel very upset. I felt that I was fit and fine even during pregnancy, to the extent that I don’t even remember my labor pain but the current state of my body was not what I was comfortable with. There are many Apps like Cult Fit, HealthifyMe, Teal Fitness, etc, which help in giving the right kind of fitness advice based on every individual’s body needs. I had realized long back that after having a baby it was not easy to stay away from the house for long to do any fitness activity if we are also working. I had to make do with the time I was at home and find out some sustainable fitness solution. Yoga/home fitness exercise was the only option for me and probably a brisk walk for cardio. Lockdown actually opened up new ideas not only for me but also for the fitness enthusiasts who usually needed to go to the gym or outdoors for a jog/run.

I was following CultFit’s live free fitness sessions but certainly, they were not meant for my current state. So, I took help from an online fitness and yoga coach who suggested basic exercises to strengthen my body first before doing any high-intensity exercises. They told me that I had to work on my body from Square 1. Since muscles are weak and ligaments have become lose post-pregnancy and delivery I was more prone to getting a catch easily if I did not strengthen them at the right time. They had given me a simple set of exercises and I started doing it in the evening. First, when I saw the videos of the exercises I thought, ‘ Eh, these exercises are so simple, I can do it within minutes, but when I started doing each one with the stipulated repetitions I realized how important it was to first correct the posture and build strength. If not every day, I thought at least I should be able to build a habit. In this hope, I called it a day. I was in dire need to regain my strength back in order to feel comfortable taking care of the baby and also get back to work.