Exercise for new mums

Yesterday I did a free taster session for British Military Fitness. Doing push-ups and crunches in the mud on Wormwood scrubs, in torrential rain, may not be everybody’s idea of fun. And it wasn’t mine either.

I saw my mistake almost immediately. Balance has never been my strong suit – I once broke my foot standing still on a pavement; I can turn an ankle just by looking at it. Running across scrubland in the dark seemed reckless for ankles as delicate as mine. Everybody else was sprinting, while I gingerly picked my way across the boggy ground.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. There’s nothing like a series of jumps and squats to remind you that you’ve hardly done a pelvic floor exercise in nine months. “WHY AREN’T YOU DOING YOUR STAR JUMPS NUMBER 30?” shouted the instructor. I had to take him aside and explain a few postnatal facts to him. But by then the damage was done. Luckily the driving rain covered up the fact that my pelvic floor had abandoned ship. Imagine if I’d been in an aerobics studio! The shame! My main concern was that he’d ask us to leap frog – that might have been unpleasant.

But I couldn’t help coming round to BMF. Surely this is the perfect exercise class for new mums? During the cool down I surveyed my exercising comrades, standing in a dark field, covered in mud, soaked to the bone, who’s going to notice a wobbly tummy and a bit of wee? No one!  

So today I’ll be stocking up on Tena Ladies and signing up for my next session. And doing a few pelvic floor exercises….