Customer Reviews

The Perfect Postnatal Workout

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first decided to order the Perfect Postnatal Workout video, I was worried that I might not be able to keep up with a former trapeze artist. However, I was interested in the fact that the baby is incorporated into the workout since I was having difficulty completing other tapes. I kept having to stop what I was doing to attend to my daughter. Going for a walk was a great option, but not always possible because of the weather.
The first time I did the workout my daughter was about 10 weeks old. On the very first exercise, she laughed out loud through the entire movement! At that point I thought that it didn't matter if it was excrutiatingly hard, that my baby's laughter was motivation enought. To my delight, I found the exercises physically challenging yet easy to do.
Since consistently exercising with the video for the last month, I finally feel that my "pregnancy muscles" are toning up and I feel so much stronger.
Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful video that not only increases my physical fitness, but allows me to have fun with my baby at the same time!

When my baby was six weeks old I tried it for the first time. I thought it was WAAAY too easy and he didn't like it at all. I turned it off when he started crying.

I tried it again when he was nine weeks old. He seemed ok with it and was getting heavy enough to make me feel like I was doing something. It wasn't terribly strenuous, but I figured some exercise was better than none so I did it from time to time.

Now my baby is 4 months old and fifteen pounds . Holy frijole! What a workout! The best part of all is that HE LOVES IT! It's like an amusement park ride for him. He smiles and laughs the whole time and just as he starts to get bored with one movement, it's on to a new one and he's laughing again. It's incredibly motivating to keep on going when I look at his face and I can feel "worked" when I'm done.

One thing that surprised me was how much he enjoys the parts when he is on the floor and I exercise over him. I thought that he would only enjoy the lifting exercises, but the "kiss the baby" pushups are one of his favorite parts. He also gets to workout with me because he gets so excited that he kicks his legs snd swings his arms!

My advice to you would be to get this DVD early and try it. If it doesn't work for you or your baby the first time, wait a few weeks and try again. If it's STILL not good, wait a bit more and try again. It's like everything else with a baby- you can't make any hard and fast rules about what they like because they change so fast. Don't miss out on the experience, though. It's the one thing that I can do that gets him to laugh EVERY TIME. Take the time to be persistent. it's definitely worth it!!!

I wish I had this DVD as soon as my son was born. I lost my pregnancy weight within three weeks of his birth from nursing yet I was overweight before I was pregnant so I had more to lose. My legs got smaller but my stomach was different and bigger as it is after having a baby. Grant is now 10 months old and I decided to do something about it. I was terribly out of shape and this video is wonderful. It is a great starter point. It is difficult starting now because my son is 27 pounds. It's a lot of weight to start with. I would suggest this video shortly after your child is born. It would be much easier to start with a 10 pound baby. My son just smiles and loves doing this with me. If he gets antsy he crawls away for awhile...but he always comes back for more.

The best thing about this video is that I didn't have to wait until my baby was sleeping to do it. When she sleeps I have a million other things to do. It's a fun workout and Aileen loves getting raised in the air.

You absolutely HAVE to see Karyne's before and after photos on her website www.progressiveparent.com. They're extremely inspiring.

I absolutely loved the Perfect Pregnancy Workout by Karyne....just couldn't get into this one.

I started doing this video when my baby was about a month old. I had worked out with her Perfect Pregnancy Workout up until a couple of weeks before the birth of my son.

I personally found the exercises not challenging enough and awkward...maybe I was looking for doing too much too soon?! Just was not as impressed with this video. I found myself going through the entire video to feel like I had exercised. I did the workout half a dozen times and then went to the library and got a Denise Austin video. Sorry...it just wasn't as good as the pregnancy video.

Her Prefect Pregnancy Workout is definately worth it, not this one though.

After reading some of the reviews here I chose this DVD and the Lindsay Brin.

Brin's is much more professional, and impressively flexible with its various effort levels and multiple components. But it doesn't include baby, which makes it one more thing to cram into baby's naptime - plus, one of the ab exercises I've since been told you shouldn't do - Brin doesn't mention "diastasis" once, and you would hope for more awareness.

This workout, on the other hand, does include baby, which makes it much more practical. Baby enjoys it when he's in the mood, and even when he's not, he'll generally tolerate it - and I'll sometimes get some smiles even if he's in a grump. He especially loves it when I do push-ups over him.

It doesn't look hard, and certainly it doesn't challenge in the way that the Brin workout can, but I do a similar style class every week and this nevertheless has the ability to make me ache a little the next day, and it does make me break a sweat. I find the fact that it's gentle to be a real benefit, in fact: it's not a daunting prospect, it's doable even when I'm tired, so I'm much more likely to do it than the Brin. And even though she's obviously super-fit, it really is her baby, just 8 weeks old, and she genuinely engages with her during the exercises, which is both charming and helpful as an example.

It's made up of three short workouts - the first is carefully designed for the first four weeks post-natal, and is not much more than Kegels and stretches; the other two (about 15' with stretches) are full-body workouts, lifting your baby in the air, swinging it (in a controlled way!) to work your triceps, using it as resistance in sensible but challenging abdominal exercises. You can run all three together comfortably, using the first workout as a warm-up.

I'd give it five stars, but it's too short - I'd have liked a couple more workouts so I could chop and change a bit more.

I tried this workout first when my son was 1 month old. And we both didn't like it at all. It was still difficult for him to hold his head steady and that's why it was difficult for me to hold him properly during the exercises. Also he didn't like being put on the floor while I was stretching (workout suggested to "put the hand on your baby so she knows that you are here", but my baby just didn't get that message).

Since I really liked "The Perfect Pregnancy Workout" I gave this workout one more try when my son was 2 months old. This time we both liked it a lot. It was one of the first times I heard him laughing out loud. The workout was good enough to make my muscles sore next day, but at the same time easy enough not to make me afraid of dropping the baby. This time my son was watching me during stretching and it was rather interesting for him.

Now my son is 3 months old and I feel that we are outgrowing this workout. He is becoming too big and too heavy, so I cannot hold him like the workout suggests anymore. I still do the exercises, since it's a real fun for us both, but I think that we have only a couple of weeks left.

So, try it out, it's a real fun (just make sure your baby holds her head steady and pays attention to your movements). But be ready that it will work for you only for couple of months only.

By the way, the workout has a part that can be used during the first four weeks postnatal. It actually doesn't involve the baby - the baby just lays on the floor. Also it was too easy for me even during those first weeks.

I can't say enough good things about The Perfect Postnatal and Prenatal workouts. I used the Prenatal workout and two doctors told me being in good shape led to an easy delivery and recovery (I also did Shiva Rea's prenatal yoga DVD, light weightlifting, and walking). I started the first Postnatal workout (there are 3) 4 weeks after delivery, but it is gentle enough to start earlier. I did all 3 in a row until my son was 7 months old, smiling all the way through. I loved spending the time with him and I'm almost back in my prepregnancy jeans. Now, I am pregnant for the second time and thrilled I have these workouts to look forward to. I STRONGLY encourage all mommies and mommies-to-be to start or keep up the exercise - I am so relieved I did!

I am impressed with this DVD. All instructions were clear to follow. It is organized into 3 segments, with the first portion being appropriate within a few days of delivery. The instructor gave clear directions and showed modified exercises for those with diastasis recti (abdominal separation), as well as a few others (modified squats, for example.) I feel that the exercises are gentle, yet effective. My 2-month old baby was not very interested, but by three months he enjoyed the exercises.

I bought this DVD hoping to strengthen my body to the point I could resume more strenuous workouts. I am pleased with the results. This DVD focuses primarily on strengthening the muscles, with extra focus on abdominals and pelvic floor muscles. It is not an aerobic workout.

Most other workouts show photos of Mom and baby together on the cover, but in the actual video, there is little to no interaction with the baby in your workout. But this video truly involves the baby in Mommy's exercises! I just finished a quick 20 min workout with my baby, and my baby LOVED doing these exercises with me!! He was laughing and smiling, having a ball! I highly recommend this video. I have her prenatal video, which I found to be too advanced for me, but this video is just right. I feel a little sore, but not too much. I got a good workout and some quality interaction with my baby, it's perfect!