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The Riley Gaines Show
I Stopped Doing Crunches: How I Actually Got My Abs Back | Riley Gaines
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This episode is brought to you by. Prime Obsession is in session. And this summer, prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice off campus. Elle every year. After the Love Hypothesis, Sterling point and more slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime.
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I feel like in another life, I was meant to be a fitness influencer as opposed to the media personality activist that I am. It's just really what I love. It's what I feel very passionately about. I think it's, you know, part of that is being a Division 1 athlete. You can't really make it to that point without caring about your fitness and your health and your wellness. Gonna share with you guys a little bit of my personal experience, and I'm gonna give you guys five tips that have helped me to continue to prioritize my fitness, especially being postpartum now and to get back the bounce back, if you will, which I get a lot of flack for saying that. We'll touch on that. The bounce back to feeling like myself again while still being the best and most present mom that I can be. I'll preface by saying I don't know everything about fitness. I am not claiming to know everything about fitness. I am merely going to share with you guys what. What works for me. The benefits that I see and the things that I enjoy. And you can do with that what you will. Maybe some of you can relate to this, but I don't feel like I've always had the healthiest relationship with working out and with exercise and body image. It's pretty common, unfortunately, especially among women. Especially among female athletes. I've gone through it, too. I've gone through the restricting yourself of eating, of enjoying sweets, of not feeling like you're exercising enough. The need, the necessity of excessive exercise, you know, burning 800 to a thousand calories and work one workout I've gone through. Depriving yourself of sleep or social activities. Really having your life revolve around when you can get into the gym. A lot of that came in the pretty immediate following being done with collegiate swimming. But now being six months postpartum, I feel like I'm in a really healthy spot. It's kind of weird. Like your perspective, at least my perspective. It shifted when I was pregnant, and it's kind of like immediate, right. In the first weeks of finding out you're pregnant. And now being postpartum. I understand, or I understood at the time. That my body, it's changed entirely. It was a hard realization. Don't get me wrong. It's hard to deal with when you're going through pregnancy and you have no control over the involuntary growth and the involuntary weight gain. How your body holds on to fluids a little differently. Felt like my face got a lot fuller and my arms were retaining fluids. They looked a lot fuller. I wasn't changing a lot about what I was doing. I was still blessed enough to be able to feel great, to be in the gym, to work out, to run throughout the entirety of my pregnancy. I will say I did give in to the pregnancy cravings a little more, but my perspective shifted at that point into recognizing that my body, it was like a vessel. It was a vessel for a whole nother human being. I was creating life. Like, how miraculous was that? It was kind of like an involuntary shift in perspective. And once I realized that, which came around the time really when you could feel her moving and kicking and you could feel the little hiccups again, the signs of undeniable life, you recognize the growth and the physical changes that your body is going through as a beautiful and miraculous thing. And while I did appreciate it, I was ready for the bounce back after I gave birth. And like I said, I do get pushback for saying that. I posted a photo or a video on Instagram. I'll do the B roll. You can see it here of me. I think it was either five or six months, five months postpartum at the time and talking about, you know, how great I feel and how I was ready to get back to my body and I had moms. In the comments, I'm imagining it's moms who maybe feel insecure about their bodies or maybe haven't found that same motivation to get back into the gym. Or maybe it's. It's just not realistic with the kind of ecosystem that's around them. Maybe they have more than one kid. Maybe, you know, time is a constraint. Whatever. I understand, but there was a lot of moms who were, like, shaming mom, shaming me for prioritizing my health. Everyone is different. Of course, everyone's situation is different. But I don't see anything wrong with wanting to achieve the healthiest version of yourself, no matter what stage of life you're in. Don't take what I'm saying as anything more or anything less than that. If you have to ask yourself in this episode at some point, well, what about don't do the what about ism? I'm not about it. Here I'm just trying to use my influence to influence you to be healthy. Okay? That's what I'm going to spend the rest of this episode on. Speaking specifically to my postpartum fitness levels. I could speak to what I did in college, I could speak to what I did after that prior to conception, I could speak to what I did during pregnancy. But I'm going to spend this episode talking about postpartum fitness. I only took about three weeks after the labor before I really started moving around. Of course I took it light, I was careful and I listened to my body. But it was about three weeks where I was outside walking and doing light dumbbell exercises, which it's kind of another bone I have to pick. Specifically with the medical industry and how we treat women, women who are pregnant, women who have had babies. I just feel like there's almost this one size fits all model. It doesn't matter if it's me, a Division 1 athlete who has a lifetime of body awareness and prioritizing health and fitness, or if it's a woman who's over £300 with a chronic illness and no intention of prior her fitness. Both of us are told that we need to wait six weeks before exercising following the delivery. But the truth is everyone heals differently. Every journey is different. Every birth and recovery is biologically unique. Some women have vaginal births, some women have C sections, some women tear, some women have episiotomies or preeclampsia or twins or triplets versus just one single baby. Do you call it a singlet? I don't know. It depends on how old you are if this is your first kid or your second, second or third child. All of these things are factors when considering when to get back to exercising and moving your body. So this whole six weeks clearance and then you can resume normal activity. Blanket model given to women is just so archaic and it is so outdated. Science, well, really specifically the technology that is used in science and in medicine has evolved so much. Think about the past like 20 years, how whether you know, going to the dentist even has changed now. They don't put that gunk in your mouth anymore. They have every like all these virtual scans and new technology. So it has evolved for the better, for the betterment of the human species. But for some reason when it comes to women and literally bringing life into this world, we're still stuck using the same old standardized, antiquated, obsolete, one size fits all timeline. I'm not a doctor, I'm not an ob gyn, but I feel like postpartum care should be a process with services and support tailored to each women's individual needs, not just one six week visit following the delivery. Which leads me to another point I just thought of. Why aren't insurance companies covering pelvic floor therapy? Uh, maybe some do, but as I understand it, at least the experience that I had, it's hard to come by with your insurance plan, especially if you're not paying an arm and a leg for health insurance every single month. Or maybe on the off chance that your insurance does cover this or some form of physical therapy, it's hard finding a pelvic floor therapist that will even take your insurance. To speak to my own experience, I did go to pelvic floor therapy, and I would say the last probably six weeks of my pregnancy. And if I'm being totally honest, it was kind of hard for me to buy into at first prior to delivering. You know, you go there and you learn how to breathe and you learn stretches and different techniques to open up your hips. It felt very elementary, but I actually did find myself in the moment. It felt elementary, but I found myself resorting to some of the techniques that I learned during that time when I was actually giving birth. Um, and I learned some core movements to do following delivery to strengthen the pelvic floor muscle. Again, again, I just say that to say I had a good experience and I didn't have complications. And I did value pelvic floor therapy. Um, I did have some tearing during delivery. Uh, but it was very, very minor. Nothing that really bothered me. Um, and because of that, I was really eager to start moving my body. Uh, I was about eight weeks postpartum when I did the turkey trot on Thanksgiving. Louis moved Louie married into a turkey trot family. It's like a little. We just did the little 5k race. Um, I ran it in about 21 or maybe 22 minutes. So not too shabby at that point. At eight weeks postpartum, I was already feeling pretty good. I do think genetics maybe has a little bit of a play in it, but I think a lot of it is fitness levels prior to conception and maintaining that as best as you can throughout pregnancy. So my routine now what am I doing at six months, almost seven months postpartum? I'm gonna share my routine with you guys, and then I'm gonna give you five tips that I have found to be useful things that I have kind of clung to in my fitness journey. My routine, it varies by week, if I'm being totally honest with you, because I spend so much of my time on the road and traveling. But even still, even when I'm on the road, I make it a priority to get in a workout. Whether it's a hotel gym, whether it's going on a run, it's a priority of mine. I typically three to four times a week, and I lift three to four times a week. So what does that look like? Okay, for my running, I try to run somewhere between five to six miles each run. Uh, if I'm in town for the full week, I'll run Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Was Saturday being a longer run? If this sounds scary to you, just know running five miles, six miles, sometimes even for example, this morning, I ran about eight and a half miles. If that sounds scary to you, I was right there with you, like, not that long ago. Okay, don't let it discourage you. It sounded scary to me too. I was not a runner by any stretch of the imagination. Actually, it's pretty common knowledge that those who excel in aquatic sports, such as swimmers, typically are not good at land sports. That's why we do the aquatic sports. And that was definitely the case for me. But I started at low mileage at a slow pace, and I just gradually increased. Um, I didn't like it at first. It took me a while to enjoy it. I liked the idea of being a good runner, so I stuck to it. Uh, so if you begin to run, or if you are a runner, you already know this. The first mile, getting started is always the worst. But if you can push past maybe the first 10 minutes of running without stopping, then I promise you, you will feel better. The run, that individual run, will get better. Uh, and with practice and consistency, of course, it will only get easier for you. Actually, Louie, he has run with me the past three weeks in the first mile, again, he's cursing me the entire time like, I hate this. Why are we doing this? But once he gets into the groove of it, so his stride, his rhythm, even your breathing pattern, all of that gets regulated, then he feels really good. I'm not interested in running overly long distances or being super competitive and running, but I like this form of exercise because it's cheap and you can do it anywhere. So no one has an excuse not to be able to go outside and run so long as you are physically able to do so. Now, for lifting, I try and do three to four days a week. Where I am in the gym, the split is typically one day legs, one day back and bicep, and then the third day chest, shoulders, and Triceps. If I make it to the gym the fourth time that week, as I said three to four times, then I just do whatever muscle group Feels like it didn't get enough attention that week. Uh, we have dumbbells and just a squat rack in the garage actually of my house, which is typically where I do that. Um, if you guys are interested in looking at what a specific breakdown of that looks like, would be more than happy to do it. You guys have to let me know. I don't know if I'm being like cringy posting fitness concept content again. It's what I enjoy. Um, but would be curious to. If you guys want to see more of that. So if you do leave some comments down below, reach out over over on the Riley Gaines show or my personal Instagram. In terms of group fitness, I've talked about this before. I also have an F45 membership, which I know this is getting excessive and crazy, but that one's really special to me because that's where my family works out. I mean, my mom, my dad, my sisters, my grandma, even all of us. So, uh, we do that together. If you don't know what F45 is, actually, I think it stands for Functional 45. It's a like 45 minute workout class. It's kind of like the hit training model. So high intensity interval training. Everything is timed. You have instructors who tell you what to do. There's TV screens on the wall with the movements. All the equipment is laid out for you. Uh, now's the time when you're probably thinking, you know, Riley, you're able to do all of this because you have a flexible job or you have a nanny, which let's debunk those things. Yes, my job is flexible in a sense where it's not a standard 9 to 5. And I really do appreciate that. I could not imagine working a 9 to 5 or sitting behind a desk all day. So God bless the people who do, especially those of you who are moms who have to spend time away from your babies. You guys are superheroes to me. But I don't have a nanny, so how am I able to do this? This is the first tip that I want to give you guys because I win the first hour of every single day. That's my first piece of advice for you. I know I might be in a different place than you. I'm a new mom with just one baby and a fantastic husband, which I'm going to get into that support system in a second. It feels like even when I don't have a lot going on. My day is just somehow entirely consumed by. I don't. I don't even know what. Even when I'm at home with the baby, it just feels like my day flies by. I take that first hour of the day when I wake up very, very seriously. Um, it feels like when I. Even when I don't have a lot going on or if I don't many things on my calendar for that day, even still, my day is just somehow like entirely consumed by. I don't even know what. When I'm just at home with the baby, my day gets away from me. There's just always something that needs to be done or there's someone. Something that somebody needs from you. That 5am hour is the time that I just carve out for myself. If that sounds scary to you, don't make that drastic of a step. If you're waking up at 8am Now, I would encourage you to increase it by 30 minutes every single morning or maybe a week at a time until you're at a place where you have an hour to yourself before the rest of the house wakes up. I love the concept of already doing so many things, so many hard things before most people even hit snooze on their alarm clock. My husband works, so I have to have everything done, all of the exercises and classes and gym and running and things that I do by 7 or 8 in the morning so I can come back home and be with the baby while. While he then goes to work. And I find in doing that and exercising early in the morning, it just like boosts my energy. It feels like my focus is improved. I feel like, you know, yes, of course it strengthens your body physically, but also just the mental resilience of training yourself to wake up, to show up, to push through and to follow through on commitments. It like sets your tone for the whole rest of the day. And that mindset of, you know, I can do hard things, it carries into work or to relationships or into decision making, et cetera. And so my pro tip for you, if you are someone who struggles with waking up early, but you want to make it a priority to get to the gym or to have that hour to yourself. My pro tip is to lay out your outfit. You got this like, cute matching workout set. Lay it out the night before. That way, the morning when you wake up, all you have to do is throw it on. It's laid out for you. You put it on, you're ready to go out the door. Pro tip My second piece of advice for you is to find an accountability partner. When you're a mom, you already feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. So that solo motivation, it fades really, really fast, especially when you're sleep deprived and when a whole nother human being relies on you, like, solely you for the most part, especially if you're breastfeeding. So find a friend or find an online mom group or your husband, or reach out to me over Instagram DMs, or post about it online. Find something or someone or some way to keep you accountable. When you have someone who is following up with you, who's checking in, who is celebrating your wins, it makes it easier to show up every single day. For me, it's my husband and it's my family. And I actually have one college teammate, a training partner of mine when we were at University of Kentucky, who has now moved to this area in Tennessee that I live in. So she's a fantastic accountability partner for me. Even if this person isn't going to the gym with you, just finding someone who makes it easy, easier for you to be able to prioritize that. Again, my family here cannot be understated. They are the village. They are the village to me. I cannot imagine how moms do it without having their family nearby. Being able to leave my baby with my husband in the morning or if we both want to go to the gym together, being able to leave my baby with my parents, it is a very, very big blessing that I don't take for granted. And last thing, I guess, when it comes to having an accountability partner, tell them your goals, like attainable and measurable things. It could be something like walking 20 minutes every day or getting 10,000 steps a day or, you know, lifting three sessions a week or hitting 100 grams of protein daily. These are all wins that you can track. And I promise you, they stack up faster than you think. And the bonus of having an account accountability partner is it turns fitness into something that you can do together as opposed to like a chore or a burden. It is time for y refi student spotlight success story. That's a lot of alliteration. I love these. Today's spotlight is on Sydney Barda. She is a track star at Stanford. Sydney is the first Paralympian to compete for the Cardinal. But her story is really about her intellect and her heart and her character. She's a bioengineering major. Okay, props. All while being a D1 athlete. A bioengineering major who wants to use her experience to innovate new ways for people to move and to. To thrive. Why Refi believes in that kind of vision. They know that your future shouldn't be stalled by debt. They work with you to help you find a path forward so you can chase your biggest dreams, just like Sydney is doing at Stanford. Because at the end of the day, it's about your family, it's about your goals, it's about your future. Why Refi can help you achieve that. Okay, third tip for you guys. Protein. Protein. Protein. Yes, it's true. No, it's not a fad. Protein is what builds your muscles and keeps you lean. The simple breakdown here. Basically, when you eat protein, your body breaks it down into amino acids. These are like the brick and mortar for repairing and growing muscle tissue. And if you don't have enough of them, enough protein, then your body cannot effectively repair the tiny tears that happen during strength training, which is the good kind of damage that leads to stronger, more lean muscles that then triggers muscle protein synthesis, which is the biological process where your body uses those amino acids to create new muscle proteins. Uh, if you are not eating enough protein, then you're kind of fighting an uphill battle. Uh, you'll have more breakdown than build up. It's. It's really a simple model here. Um, and outside of the physical and the strength aspect of it, if you're breastfeeding, you need even more protein. Your body is literally making a whole human's worth of nutrition in your milk, and that pulls from your stores if you don't eat enough. What I try and do, I try to have 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight every single day. So if I weigh about 135 pounds, I try and have 135 grams of protein every single day. Now, I know that is a lot. I try and keep it about 40 grams of protein per meal, plus my snacking or maybe like a protein shake throughout the day. Some good things for this, I love Greek yogurt, eggs, chicken. I love red meat. I don't know if you guys know, like the chomp sticks. Costco even has a cheaper version. I think it's like the Kirkland's version. They have those little beef sticks. They're really, really good. A fantastic source of protein, especially for, you know, a snack for protein. I. Or for the energy drinks. I like those Nuri drinks. I think that's how you say it again. Those are found at Costco, which, by the way, Costco is a fantastic place to shop for any of the things that I mentioned or if you're interested in meal prepping, highly recommend going to Costco. They have awesome foods and ways to make it really easy for you. Um, and no women, protein eating protein. High levels of protein is not going to make you bulky. I hear that all the time from women. They're scared of protein. It's not true. Myth busted. It will keep you lean. You will feel fuller for longer. As opposed to snacking throughout the day or eating how you would feel if you eat a heart. A high carb diet, energy levels are better. And again, your milk supply stays up. Um, my husband and I, we tried the carnivore diet for a few weeks. Um, and I found that the high protein, high fat, it increased my milk supply tremendously. So you guys should try bumping your protein this week and telling me how you feel. Um, let me know in the comments if this is something that you do, because I want to hear your wins. Consider me your accountability partner this week. Okay, Number four, I have you guys commenting on my posts all the time asking about my ab routine or my core. What workouts do I do to get my core to look the way that it does? I should actually insert photos of kind of the place I'm at now. Again, I post some of this on my Instagram, maybe sometimes on my TikTok. I try not to often, because again, I don't know if it's cringey or not, I don't know. But I'll insert a photo on screen of kind of just where I'm at currently with my core. Um, again, I do think genetics, unfortunately, maybe, fortunately for me, maybe you're listening to this and you feel as if you weren't blessed in this area. I do think genetics plays some sort of role in this, but that's not to understate the hard work that does go into it. You guys might be shocked by this, but I don't actually do a ton of core specific exercises. Instead of that, I try to engage my core in full body movements, maybe a hot take. But I think the best ab exercise that you can do is back squats. So I'm very, very mindful and intentional about engaging my core, whether it's shoulder pressing, whether it's running. I think especially with being postpartum, I've realized that your deep core and your pelvic floor, first of all, they got stretched for nine months. They kind of need to be retrained on purpose, with intention. So in every single exercise that I do, I think about drawing my belly button toward my spine and gently lifting my pelvic floor. I brace myself with my core every single time I do a glute bridge or squats. You know, one actually kind of silly thing that I do, and I've done it for a long time now, actually, is every single time my car stops at a red light, I engage my core, like, I contract and flex my abs. Um, so it's almost like you're training your muscles to contract without having to do the crunches or the planks or the sit ups. I think that you guys will find that your abs will literally be sore if you are very intentional about how you are using them in your full body exercises and movements and just in your daily life. So that is my best advice or what I have found to be useful on how to get a really strong and defined core. Last tip for you guys, number five is to be consistent. It is consistency that turns these hard workouts into real results. I feel like it goes without saying that progress does not come from one brutal leg day. It comes from showing up again and again and again so that your body can adapt and learn. That's how you build strength and endurance and resilience. Without consistency, you're just, like, repeatedly starting over. How many times have you guys said, like, diet starts Monday, and maybe you make it to Wednesday, and then you're back to unhealthy eating habits. And then you tell yourself, you know, diet starts again Monday. You're really not doing anything. Actually, you're confusing your body. You're not creating real results by that. You're throwing off your hormones and your endocrine levels and your nervous system, physiologically, your muscles, your, your cardiovascular system, your nervous system, they all improve through repeated exposure. Uh, so one tough workout that might leave you sore, but it's 10 consistent workouts. That's what makes you stronger. It's the difference between strain and growth. Plus, it also protects you. Consistency does, because when you train regularly, your body just becomes more durable. Uh, your joints, your tendons, your movement patterns, they all get more efficient. Uh, and so if you only go hard occasionally, you're more likely to get injured because your body is just not prepared for that sort of intensity. Uh, and it's good for you mentally. It's that consistency that builds discipline, which turns into confidence. Uh, you stop, like, negotiating with yourself and start identifying as someone who follows through. And that identity shift is really powerful, and it carries into every area of life which matters when you are a mom. So the key here is that consistency does not mean Perfection. It just means you keep showing up even when the workout isn't your best or your favorite, even when life is busy, even when it means you have to wake up really early or when your motivation dips because it's in that intense training that you realize that it's not the hardest day that defines you, but instead it's the hundreds of ordinary days that you chose not to skip. Again, reiterating the point, I'm not a doctor. If you're dealing with something or if something doesn't feel right, don't push yourself. Don't. Don't take it from me. Of course I would encourage you to consult your physician or your ob GYN or your primary care doctor. I just want to use my platform and whatever influence that I have to encourage healthy habits. That's all this episode was. Being fit is good for my physical and mental health, but most importantly, it is good for my baby. Healthy habits are realistic. They really are. And it's your habits that create your baby's future. I'm actually doing something really exciting with pertaining to my health this week with Louie and I'll try and vlog that. We're going to have an ultrasound done of every major organ and several other things. Toxicity screenings are genome tested. I'm going to really, really excited about this. Again, this is something that like piques my interest. If you guys are interested, we'll vlog it and put it on the YouTube channel. We appreciate you guys. Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Riley Gaines Show. If you have questions, if you are increasing your protein, I want to know about it. Let me know in the comments down below. See you guys next week. Thank you guys for watching today's episode of the Riley Gaines Show. I hope you loved it and if you did, make sure you subscribe. You can do that right here so you never miss an episode. So we'll see you guys next week.
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Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho. Look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you and hang some string lights to give your
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patio a glow up.
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Spring's calling, Ross, work your magic.