Sleep Deprived Moms- when to workout

Even though my daughters are getting older I still have the odd sleepless night- like last night. After a full day of training and running on fumes should I work out? Today yes, and this is the reasons why- I do not feel like I'm coming down with anything, I have overeaten and under exercised over the long weekend, I have a lighter day at work tomorrow. So given my circumstance I should workout today. I have looked deep in my archive and pulled out a sleep deprivation workout from last year- when I was chronically sleep deprived. The workouts below are from Feb 2009. Enjoy and if you are in this position of being sleep deprived, listen to your body to decide which workout is best for you.

Today in busy mom fitness I want to talk about working out while sleep deprived. As a parent I think you have a new sense of “normal” when it comes to the amount of sleep you get. If you are only moderately sleep deprived like one bad night, but you still have you regular “mom” energy level you can still get a great benefit from performing Tabata fat loss circuts. These are the short 4 minute circuts I post with 20 second work 10 second rest intervals, repeating the circut 2 to 3 times. These are intense while you perform them and have a great after burn affect for fat loss. The workouts are short enough that you can manage them with less sleep and intense enough to help increase you growth hormone for a great health benefit.

If you are extremely sleep deprived or feel like you are fighting a virus I suggest performing a joint mobility workout with foam rolling ending with some static stretching. You should feel energized by getting your blood flowing, release some tension and you will not be lowering your immunity by performing intense muscle breakdown work. (As a bit of back ground this is how muscle grows- first by causing micro tears that stress the muscle tissue during your workout and, then repairing it with proper sleep and nutrition) When extremely sleep deprived you do not want to start this breakdown cycle, you want to focus on maintenance and relaxation.

As a busy mom integrating fitness into your life you have to trouble shoot what you need and what you can manage. We have talked about two totally different types of mom workouts that are both beneficial depending on your unpredictable schedule.

2 DIFFERENT SLEEP DEPRIVATION WORKOUTS

I have been getting some more response regarding the recipes and realized people without a blogger account cannot comment on the blog. If you want to share your recipes with others mothers please email me at jacqgradish@hotmail.com and I will post your recipes or you can sign in http://babybumpfitness.ning.com and post your recipes in the busy mom group, this way everyone will get to share the information.

This is a comment that Denise had emailed to me to post-

Hey Jac

I just wanted to let you know that the pulled pork was yummy, yummy, yummy! Leah helped me sprinkle the spices over the meat and then kept asking me all day "WHAT is that smell?" (I thought it smelled great!). She gobbled it up and so did Jeff. We're going to try your second recipe next week. I liked that I could have the spicy stuff I want, but still have Leah eating the same meal as the entire family (by taking some non-spicy meat out to the middle). I hate having to make her something different because I feel like something spicy.


Thanks,

Denise
Great feedback Denise, thanks. We can really support one another through our journey as parents, please share anything that you may think another mom may find helpful.

Today in busy mom fitness I want to talk about working out while sleep deprived. As a parent I think you have a new sense of "normal" when it comes to the amount of sleep you get. If you are only moderately sleep deprived like one bad night, but you still have you regular "mom" energy level you can still get a great benefit from performing Tabata fat loss circuts. These are the short 4 minute circuts I post with 20 second work 10 second rest intervals, repeating the circut 2 to 3 times. These are intense while you perform them and have a great after burn affect for fat loss. The workouts are short enough that you can manage them with less sleep and intense enough to help increase you growth hormone for a great health benefit.

If you are extremely sleep deprived or feel like you are fighting a virus I suggest performing a joint mobility workout with foam rolling ending with some static stretching. You should feel energized by getting your blood flowing, release some tension and you will not be lowering your immunity by performing intense muscle breakdown work. (As a bit of back ground this is how muscle grows- first by causing micro tears that stress the muscle tissue during your workout and, then repairing it with proper sleep and nutrition) When extremely sleep deprived you do not want to start this breakdown cycle, you want to focus on maintenance and relaxation.

As a busy mom integrating fitness into your life you have to trouble shoot what you need and what you can manage. We have talked about two totally different types of mom workouts that are both beneficial depending on your unpredictable schedule.

I will post examples of each style of workout at http://babybumpfitness.ning.com. So visit and give them a try.

5 Things New Mothers Can Do to Increase the Results of Their Fat Loss Program

Please read my published article thru the link below

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1195295

Arm Cramp- trouble shooting using early post partum exercises

So the baby was up every 2 hours last night to feed and I could not get enough water into me. I constantly felt dry with the change of weather coming so quickly. All of the sleep deprivation, baby holding and dehydration the inevitable happened today. When I was working I suffered a muscle cramp in my coracobrachialis (biceps area). I can feel my scapula is unstable, my forearm is tight and my upper arm has a knot in it. My workout for dealing with this today-
2 sets of shoulder external rotations with cables, 3 sets of hand behind the back shoulder isometric wall pushes, push presses, pull up position shoulder protraction/retraction, squat high pull with my left arm only, front plank, side plank, wall shoulder rotations with stick ups, laying on the foam roller small arm circles, pec stretches, and rolled my armpit area along the boarder of my scapula, 1 legged leg lowers for abdominals. This is part of being a nursing mother. This happened more often to me when the baby was first born and I was just starting post partum exercises. This workout is a typical example of a more involved early post partum exercise routine.
After work I picked up the girls, I unloaded our 10 bags and all of the soiled clothes (both) into the house I was ready for some quality time with them. I poured the bath and put the baby in with the toddler, we made a nice dinner of chicken pasta and pears with rice cereal and talked about the day. My previous sleepless night, arm cramp and bed wetting are all a distant memory.