Workout I Did: Quick Upper Body Circuit

As I write this update, the new addition to my family is one month old. I just had my follow-up postpartum appointment with my doctor, and while I didn’t get the total “all clear” to exercise due to some residual shooting thigh and pelvic pain that’s leftover from pregnancy, I’m going to slowly start to add exercise back in as I can. So while I’m not going to start running or Zumba-ing until that pain goes away, I am going to start trying to do some strength training to ease back into exercise. I’m basically going to go with the “if it hurts, don’t do it” philosophy until I’m back up and running (literally) again. So for my first workout back, I opted out of lower-body anything and did this super-quick upper-body workout. It took me less than 15 minutes, and even though I only used 3-pound weights (yeah, I’m feeling slightly wimpy, guys), I still felt it. I did 20 reps of each move (or until I was too fatigued to continue) for two circuits.

I’m hoping everything will get to feeling better in a couple of weeks, but I may also have to start looking into other low-impact exercises like Pilates or swimming.

Have you ever had to give half of your body a break? Did your other half get super buff? —Erin