AfterPregnancyPeriod. How to get rid of stretches. Posture and brest after pregnancy .

And no wonder – fat interlaying is increased and muscles are stretched. And you will hardly remove belly by going on a diet: weight will lower but belly still will stick out. So you have to start working with abs.

By the way, nature is on our side – abs contract by themselves even without special load in several weeks after birth. So don’t worry having looked into mirror for the first time after birth - everything is to change soon.

I'll remind you that you can't work out right after birth, wait for a couple of months, during this time you can support muscles by wearing pre-birth bandage for couple of hours during a day. And when these 60 days have expired start working with belly and waist.

Abs consists of several segments and each of them is to be trained. Lower segment is strengthened by moving legs with body stable. On the contrary, upper segment is trained by working with body with legs still. If you work with legs and body at the same time you train oblique abdominal muscles that are very important for the waist.

Watch your breath and keep abs tense during exercises. Draw in belly when breathing out and relax it as much as possible, blowing as you've swallowed a balloon when breathing. By the way, such type of breathing is a wonderful exercise for abs by itself, helping to loose fat and not to develop muscles. Relax and strain belly as much as possible with every breath. Do this exercise as much as you can for you can do it everywhere not only at home on the floor.

And of course different abs exercises:

• lying position, knees bent, heels parallel to floor (another version: knees at right angles, ankles lie on elevation, hands under head), lift head and chest when breathing out, watching for main load fall on chest for head not to pull the whole body. 2 sets in tens.

• initial position is the same, but try to reach left knee with right elbow when lifting, next lifting – right knee with left elbow. 2 sets 15 times each.

• initial position – lying. Hands are under head on floor. Legs lift 30 degrees up and stay in that position as long as possible, then SLOWLY lower. 2 sets in tens.

• initial position is like in previous exercise. Try to write figures or letters with legs with maximum amplitude.

• Cindy Crawford exercise: initial position – lying, hands over head, parallel to body, lift completely little by little, sit and stoop forward, then slowly lie down. Don't flop. 2 sets in tens.

• Jennyfer Lopez exercise: initial position – sitting cross-legged. Hands over head, linked on neck. Turn all body right-left, slowly increasing angle. 2 sets 15 times each. This exercises shapes waist very good.

So these stretches are. And, unfortunately, there is no way to get rid of them completely. If stretches have appeared recently you may go to the pharmacy or shop and buy special cream. By the way, in case you have used these creams before birth – do not stop using them during half a year after birth even if stretches haven't appeared (in a prophylactic view).

By the way, there are special anti-scar creams, like "Contratubex", consult your doctor and use them.

At a pinch you can buy simple moisturizing cream or olive butter and rub it clockwise twice a day.

If you couldn't overcome stretches with creams you can use something from wide service list offered by cosmetology – there are plenty of procedures allowing to make stretches almost invisible:

• polishing (removal of upper skin layers, creating an impression of its smoothing);

• deep chemical peelings, that remove upper skin layers too;

• mezotherapy (a cosmetic procedure when medicinal nutritious substances are injected under skin with thin needles).

Treating must be long-lasting, up to a year, to take visible effect.

And remember – you can find a good side in everything. For example, a friend of mine used to get rid of insomnia at nights by counting her … stretches!!!

Next what disturbs you after pregnancy is breast form change. Of course, gravity has not been called off and we will hardly keep maiden form until the old age, but it is natural and is not worth of worrying. There are more important things, like cellulite and stretches, about what we will talk later.

There is a number of rules to keep up breast and maintain its shape as much as possible.

The first and the main is posture. Don't weigh upon breast and don't fold up three times like Japan umbrella when suckling or rocking a child to sleep. Just put a pillow on your knees (under the baby) or lay down on bed and put child near you.

The next one is bra. It has to be special for suckling and you should already put it up in maternity hospital, desirable before milk appears and wear it until the end of suckling period or until milk disappears. Bra has to have good shape, support breast on all hands and have wide straps. Of course, such bra is not lacy lingerie but, agree, lingerie can be put on later but you will scarcely put on new shape for your breast. By the way, non-suckling mothers can wear such bra too while having milk. Some experts advice wearing it round the clock, even at night, but I consider it to be question of comfort and personal choice.

In case of having problems with elutriation do it not with hands but with the help of modern breast pumps – it will preserve breast shape better and feelings of elutriation will be more pleasant. And don't forget about posture during the process!

You can keep up breast with the help of different creams – both anti-stretching (which you can successfully use for half of a year after birth with a prophylactic view even if stretches didn't appear during pregnancy) and special, intended for improvement of breast form and skin. But don't forget to assure that the composition doesn't consist of substances not combined with suckling! And don't come under the advertisement of different miracle remedies that promise you three sizes increase in three days. If such effective and safe remedy had really been invented, plastic surgery would have died long time ago.

About plastics by the way. Of course, when looking on breast AFTER and remembering breast BEFORE in addition to some amount on hands it is very desirable to give up and lay on surgical table. But surgeons say that only few percent of women coming to breast plasty after birth really need it. The rest simply lack love to themselves. But the risk of complications is incommensurably high.

If in spite of all you don't see any other way out, choose prestigious medical centre under clinical hospital with real recommendations and… think again – there is a number of exercises that help tighten breast and improve its shape. With their help you really can achieve visible result. The thing is keep doing them.

Don't forget please that doctors recommend to make physical exercises two months after birth, starting from minimum and gradually increasing load. For mothers having stood C-section training time is delayed over a longer period. Any way it would not be bad to consult with a doctor before start.

So. The simplest and most effective exercise is press-up. Hands are bent in elbows, legs in knees. Try to touch floor not with chin but with breast, back should be straight, don't sag! Start with as many repeats as you can and add one each day. Next, advanced, version of this exercises is not to move hands aside but to keep them parallel to body.

Also you can alternate press-up with next exercise. Initial position: lying support, legs wider than shoulders, feet lean on tips, hands straight towards. You lift shoulders, bring together shoulder-blades, and then come back to initial position.

In case if press-up is hard, there is quite simple but not less effective exercise. Stand with legs shoulder-wide, elbows aside ("pray position"), palms together right in front of you breast-high and squeeze them as hard as you can for 20 seconds. Relax and repeat again. You can do it in 30-40 repeats several times a day.

Also you can take expander or dumbbells. Lie on your back, take dumbbells, move hands aside. Then join them over you, make 2 sets in tens. Next initial position – hands with dumbbells behind head. You lift them and join on waist level over you. Another version: hands lying free on floor then lift them over your head and lower again. 2 sets in tens.

You can use expander in standing position, placing elbows floor parallel and stretching it out as much as possible. Also you can lie, take expander in hands and stretch it out in laying position, and exercise is the hardest and the most effective the lower hands are. And there is a pleasant bonus – both with breast you train hand muscles at the same time!

1. Right approach (in order not to faint because of severe diets and become depressed if there is no visible result in three days).
2. Mood for the long-lasting and in ideal constant process (for there will be no fast result all the way or it will be very short-term).
3. Faith in yourself and confidence in success. Remember – every move brings you closer to your ideal fit and you are going the right way)

So let us begin with meal.

Idea of going on diet and losing weight fast is tempting but it has to be rejected. Both for suckling and not suckling mothers. Diet is contra-indicated for you if you suckle for keeping you and your child healthy – milk has to contain necessary nutrients and vitamin and mineral deficit is not useful for you. If you don't suckle it is unreasonably to go on diet because of two reasons: you organism has to recover from intense stress pregnancy was and additional stress in form of diet will not be useful no matter how much weight you've put on. The second and the main reason is that no diet can cause weight lost keeping forever according to recent progress in dietology. All diets lower weight only for time, until their end, often at the expense of water and as usual do not lessen body's fat interlayer.

So let us switch over healthy meal. If you are a suckling mother, you keep to such type of meal naturally – doctors do not advice to eat fatty, fried, smoked, salty, floury and sweet food, chips, hamburgers etc and drink soda when suckling.

Only the most useful stays – boiled meat and fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, cereals and obligatory good vitamin-mineral complex! (Non-suckling mothers can follow this diet as well – it will bring only use.)

Few months of such meal in addition of active load, combined to taking care and development of child, plus suckling and you will surely loose weight. By the way, suckling doesn't block loosing weight - it promotes slimming in spite of all the myths! Your organism has been accumulating fats during pregnancy exactly for suckling! So now it is time to give them away. And loose weight in a romp and with joy!