Fit Mom's Blog

This is a guest post from Sue who blogs at  Body Builder Board.

As Mothers we reprioritize our lives, and reschedule our time to fit everything in.

Before I became a mother, time was never an issue, I had time enough to work, to exercise to relax and have fun, and to sleep as much as I needed to.

Now, in the throws of early mother hood, I find myself kicking out of my life all that is absolutely not essential, so that I will have both the time and the energy for things that are completely vital to my life.

So, I sleep, but don’t lie in (even if I wanted to – who would let me?)

I shower, but don’t really allow myself those long wonderful relaxing scented baths of the past.

Everything is calculated, and planned to fit into the limited time that I have without my kids around, because when they are around – I am me no longer, but their mom.

A lot of mothers, myself included, make a point of exercising and staying fit. We exercise for different reasons, whether it’s to return to our former shape, to gain more energy, out of the love of sport.

In the general efficiency overhaul, many of us ignore the very important part of recovering from exercise.

Speeding of from your exercising class or session to the rest of your life without taking time or steps to help your body recover could counteract your very good exercising intentions.

Here are some of the rules of thumb for recovering from exercise – obviously the more strenuous your exercise the more you need make sure you take steps to recover.

1. Don’t slam the breaks on -

Come to a gradual safe stop. Continue exercising slowly for an extra 10 – 20 minutes, this will help the lactic acid leave your muscles and reduce the feeling of stiffness.

2. Save your stretching for the end of your session – do long static stretches. This helps the muscles relax and return to there normal length. (It also feels really good)

3. Eat. As soon as possible after exercising, carbohydrates are essential to our muscles after exercising (you could compare it to putting gas in a car). Protein is pretty important as well and helps the muscles recover from protein break down that occurs during exercise. A piece of fruit and some almonds, a cheese sandwich or energy bars fit the bill perfectly, plus they are easy to carry around, and to eat on the run…

4. Drink water. Lots of water, before during and after exercise. Since you loose salt along with water when you sweat, you can also drink sports drinks and replace both salt and water together.

This is especially important if you are doing very strenuous sports, like marathons triathlons and so on.

5. Be merry. Why not – you’ve earned it.

6. Sleep. Your body needs sleep to recover and to keep your performance at its best, in all aspects of life. Sleep deprivation will affect you mood more than your overall performance.

Partial sleep deprivation (one of the wonders of mother hood) is the worst kind, with the most detrimental effects. Take a nap in the afternoon if possible. Even 15 – 20 minutes can do wonders and restore your strength.

7. For the more serious athletes, damage control is not to be scoffed at either. Light massage after exercise, and cold pack on joints. After a seriously strenuous exercise, take a few days of to recover, or revert to other more gentle types of sport – walking, or swimming are good.

This looks long and time consuming, but in actuality, it will only really add about 15 minutes to your session, since the eating drinking and being merry can be done on the way to your next mission