Juggling the demands of motherhood while trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle can seem like a daunting challenge. When I first became a mother, I struggled to find a movement routine that fit perfectly into my new life. My old habits of spending hours doing yoga and long runs whenever I felt seemed impossible, with the little ones constantly needing my attention because there was a child first. And then another child. And then a third after that, my time was less and less my own.
I had no idea how to move my postpartum body because I didn’t know how to make my pre-birth movement practices a reality in my life with children.
It took time, but I eventually realized that tailoring my movement routine to my needs as a mom didn’t mean sacrificing its quality. Rather, it was about finding creative ways to incorporate movement into my daily life amid the chaos of #momlife.
Here are my top 5 mom strategies that I’ve used to make daily movement easier, more accessible, and just as satisfying. Whether you’re a seasoned fitness enthusiast or a complete beginner, these tips will help you find the balance between caring for your body and meeting the needs of your family.
1. Shorter bursts of movement
The first thing to facilitate daily movement for mothers is shorter periods of movement. This can be a 5-minute yoga class that you can easily attend when you have a short period of time to exercise. This can be running up and down the block while your child draws with chalk on the sidewalk. I did this long before my youngest daughter was in pre-K and she was still at home with me.
2. Lower expectations
It is important to remember that practicing at home is not and will never be the same as going to a studio or gym. And that’s fine. At home you can do cat/cow for 3 minutes and child’s pose for 2 and call it okay. Or you can do an 8-minute strength circuit and that’s it. Or you can do a 12-minute flow in your pajamas.
Going to a yoga studio or gym is great, when you can do it. But if you expect your home practice to be the same, you will be disappointed. It’s best to view home practice as a consistent, daily opportunity to move and those adventures in the studio or gym as an added bonus.
3. Be prepared
One of the things that used to trip me up when I was adjusting to moving around with kids underfoot was not being prepared. I would often spend 10-15 minutes trying to find a practice to do online and by then I often ran out of time.
To save time, start compiling a list of your favorite online internships. If they’re on YouTube, create a note on your phone with your links or a playlist within the platform.
If you don’t have online classes that you like, write down some of your favorite poses or exercises. And work from your list. It doesn’t have to be perfectly sequenced. What matters is the movement. But to help you, here are 2 playlists from my free YouTube channel. The first one contains all my videos which are 15 minutes or less. The second contains all my videos. aimed at momsincluding practices you can do with your children and movement practices appropriate for postpartum.
4. Let your movement space be anywhere
I’ve moved my body in all kinds of interesting places. At playgrounds, when my kids were little and usually when there weren’t many other kids or parents there. In hotel bathrooms, when my children were sleeping and I tried not to wake them. At the bus stop, waiting for my children to get off the bus. In the living room, when my children watched television but didn’t want to be alone. In my kitchen, when I felt like I needed to move my body.
Are any of these places ideal? No. But avoiding them because they are not ideal just means I can’t move when I want or need to. These practices were generally simpler, less sophisticated or coordinated. But they were affordable, they still made me feel great and happy I did it.
5. Every movement counts
Yoga is great. So is walking. So is dancing in your kitchen to a good song. So is jumping on a trampoline if you have one and your pelvic floor is feeling brave. So is getting up to do some stretches when you’ve been sitting for too long, which I just did while writing this article!
We tend to have hierarchical thinking when it comes to movement, as if certain types of movement are better than others. This is an unnecessary limitation. If you limit your daily movement practice to only the types of movement that you think “matter,” you may miss out on movement that makes you feel good.
Motherhood is hard. Your movement practice should be a relief in mom’s life, not an added stress.
Use these tips to make your movement practice an integrated and enjoyable part of your life as a mom and let me know which one works best for you! – Naomi
