Customer Reviews

Exercise After Pregnancy: How to Look and Feel Your Best, 2nd edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book when I was 22 months post partum. I still have abdominal separation, and have been afraid to do ab exercises for fear of increasing it as I know doing ab exercises incorrectly can make a separation worse. I first bought Loose your Mummy tummy, but sucking in my stomach 100x at a time, up to 10x a day wasn't for me. The exercises in this book are challenging, but completely do-able, and I'm noticing that my ab separation is closing after only 3-4 weeks of doing the exercises, not even doing them every day. Great book!!

This book has helped my stomach within weeks. I previously purchase the Lose Your Mummy Tummy book and there was not any significant change in my stomach with that book. With the Exercise After Pregnancy book by Ms. Byrne, you get varied exercises that not only help your stomach, but your lower back and posture. It has enough varied exercises at different experience levels that you won't get bored compared to the Mummy Tummy book. After doing a few sets of the exercises in the Exercise after Pregnancy book, you can feel a difference. For anyone with diastasis recti, I highly recommend this book over the Mummy Tummy book. My lower back has felt better and is beginning to straighten out more after my 2 children were born as well as my stomach muscles are tightening up and my stomach is becoming smaller. I still have a small ponch on me, but no one has asked if I'm pregnant for the past few months.

This book really worked for me. It has a good set of varied exercises, with clear explanations and pictures of how to do them properly. It grades the exercises so that you can build up to more challenging ones as your tummy gets stronger. As far as I am concerned, the proof is in the pudding, as I had suffered from a severe tummy separation for 2 years after baby number 1, which would not close despite doing all sorts of specially targeted exercises. After baby number 2 my tummy separation was 6 fingers wide. I followed the exercises in this book for six months, and the separation is now down to 1 finger wide and starting to close altogether. Fantastic book - and big thanks to the author for writing it!

This book gives you the low-down on why you have Mommy Belly and truly how to get rid of it, by building muscle in the right places and which muscles to build up, in the right order. I for one HATE doing crunches because I have neck and shoulder problems as well, and the exercises in here are really easy for me to do. There's no equipment needed, which is wonderful for someone just coming off an unpaid maternity leave. I look forward to having a flat tummy again very soon.

Helene has done an amazing job with this book and has included actual postpartum women as well. The exercises are integral for any new mother wanting to get her body back into shape the right way. In society today, it is all too easy to get caught up in the new diet or exercise fads but Helene creates several easy to follow programs that focus on the core muscles that are so often overlooked. I've noticed a difference already after just a couple of weeks. Thanks Helene.

This book is very informative with details about the mid area a lot of new and experienced moms never had a clue of. The best part of the exercise is that its very gentle and 100% effective! This is a must have book as well as the dvd for those who want to work out with the dvd view..

Helen does an excellent job of identifying what most moms suffer from- which is a case of pregnancy posture that persists long after pregnancy. Her gentle beginner exercises really focus on posture correction and pelvic floor strength. Once you get the hang of this, her progressive core exercises are challenging enough to make a a big difference. I like that all of her exercises are quite functional, preparing you for the activities you do throughout the day (i.e. housework, nursing, lifting baby). Until I read her book, I had no idea that the way I carried my baby around undid all of the work I was doing to get my core back. After using her book for about a month, people commented on how I looked better than before I had the baby- and that had much to do with posture correction because I was still 12 pounds heavier!

All in all, an excellent book for regaining core strengh. If you want 6 pack abs, sorry, it's not a magic book.

On a scale of 1-5, Helene Byrne's book on "Exercise After Pregnancy" is a 10. This book is fantabulous, and every new mother should have it to help her look and feel her best after having a baby. Great job Helene for providing pictures on how to do the exercises.

I have had several children and have diastis recti trouble to the point of discomfort daily... my tummy actually seems to be strengthening from the first of the three sections of excercises in this book... I struggle with doing these consistently, but when I haven't done them my tummy starts hurting again and each time I begin them again I feel better quickly. No, I do not have a flat tummy... But it requires more effort than I have yet given it for that. Good explanations and pictures... Just feel it and don't overstress with perfection while you break into it and the excercises really work. I might try the video sometime too. It is next to impossible to find help with diastis... I am so thankful for this book.