Healthy and Quick and Everything Fit: A Step-by-Step Guide to Exercise After Pregnancy

After nine months of pregnancy and the miracle of childbirth, you may find yourself waiting for another miracle: the return of your pre-pregnancy body.

Your post-pregnancy body not only looks unfamiliar, it also feels unfamiliar. Getting your body back after pregnancy means not just getting a flat belly but also getting back the way you move, the way you cope, the way you find the strength to face the day, and it means inspiring a lifetime love of movement in your little one. After you have a baby, you'll benefit more from exercise than at any other time in your life. But it isn't easy.

Exercise after pregnancy is complicated by sleep deprivation, fatigue, breastfeeding, new responsibilities, and a multitude of other challenges. Finding guidance is also confusing, from the advice of friends who seem to magically return to their pre-pregnancy wardrobe to the exercise secrets, workout fads, and quick techniques available through books, magazines, and the internet.

The truth is, there is no magic. There are no secrets. Even better, there's scientific research decades of it that covers topics critical to recovery from pregnancy and childbirth. There is research to dispel myths about breastfeeding and exercise, research that covers the details of pregnancy's effects on the body, research to detail postpartum biomechanics, research to show the benefits of exercise for mothers and their babies, and research to guide the prevention and treatment of the most common injuries for new moms. The only trouble is, that research is squirreled away in a variety of medical journals, out of sight for the everyday mom.

For the first time, that research is synthesized into a comprehensive guide for new moms. This book, written by Dr. Christine Iverson, a Doctor of Physical Therapy, athlete, and mom of two, lays that information out in an easy-to-follow guide with a step-by-step exercise progression. Christine will be your physical therapist next door, there to help you to fix your own body in a systematic, comprehensive, progressive, and challenging way from the inside out after giving birth.