Review: Power Plate Healthy Mums Programme

Having spent nine months bonding with your bump, when baby actually arrives you’re far too busy to bother about the state your body has been left in. Pregnancy, and childbirth, can push your body to the absolute limits. Stretching skin, moving organs, wreaking havoc with hormones, it’s a wonder anyone has more than one child after the trauma of childbearing! And as time passes the dreaded baby weight, and complete change in shape, can be a source of trouble for most mums. While your scars and shape should be worn as a badge of honour, not many of us are able to look in the mirror after childbirth and say ‘yeah, that’s exactly how I want to look for the rest of my life’.

But with a new baby comes sleep deprivation and total, utter devotion to this new person in your life. It doesn’t leave much time for exercise, and the last thing you need is a crash diet when energy levels are on zero already.

After my first child I did a few buggyfit classes and went for lots of long walks. Seeing as the sweet little thing wouldn’t sleep unless he was being pushed along a bumpy road, I must have covered the distance of John O’Groats to Lands End by the time he was teething. But while it helped me shift some weight, the walking did little to recover my pre-baby body. I wasn’t that bothered to be honest, a sibling was part of our family plan so I figured I’d just hit the gym once that one arrived, and after a few months look the same as I did on my wedding day. But things don’t work like that, do they?

Pregnancy Number Two was tough, much tougher than Number 1, and I found comfort in biscuits, and chocolate, and Galaxy Caramel sandwiched between salt and vinegar Discos. Yes really. The trauma of birth Number 1 had taken its toll too, so despite the reintroduction of frequent walks (why can my children not sleep in cots like everyone else’s?!) by the time Baby Number 2 was six months I was two stone heavier than when this whole parenthood journey began.

Pregnancy and childbirth can cause a multitude of disorders in the female body, from a weakened pelvic floor to complete incontinence. Then there’s weight gain, wobbly bits absolutely everywhere, and the awkward and cumbersome diastasis recti – the separation of stomach muscles which affects 90% of new mums. But if you head to your local gym, chances are the person setting you a programme won’t have a clue about post-natal exercise. And if you’re like me, the idea of heading to a gym at all when you can barely face looking at your body in the mirror, is a task too daunting to take on after a several year hiatus. That’s why I looked into other ways to get back into shape. I tried yoga, bought a few exercise videos, and cut out the crisps, but I wanted something to really give me results. So I decided to try the Power Plate Healthy Mums Programme – a 12 week exercise programme created specifically for post-natal women and designed to tackle common post-natal problems.

A Power Plate is a piece of equipment I had seen in the gym, but I didn’t realise you could have one in your own home. The home ones are more compact but just as effective, and mine slotted neatly behind my sofa when I wasn’t using it.

The Power Plate’s advanced vibration technology is a result of decades of scientific research by some of the brightest minds in sports science. The gentle, harmonic 3D vibrations enhance the benefit of any movement, and it has been suggested that by using a Power Plate you are boosting the effectiveness of a workout – using up to 85% of muscles as opposed to around 60% without it. The Personal Power Plate plugs into the wall and vibrates at 25 to 50 times a second (about the same rate as a massage chair) for either 30 or 60 seconds. After having a little play around with it and trying various squats, lunges and planks, I embarked on the Healthy Mums Programme.

The Power Plate Healthy Mums programme is created by Post-Natal Exercise expert Jenny Burrell, and she presents a series of video tutorials you can download as part of the programme. You start off with a gentle introduction – learning how to breathe again properly (Little did I know I’d be doing it wrong all these years!), getting your mind in synch with your pelvic floor, and strengthening muscles you’ve not used for a while.

The first phase is gentle but effective, and after just a few days you really can start to notice a difference. Gently aching limbs feel slightly stronger, and after a week you notice that doing 20 lunges isn’t half as hard as it was a week ago. It’s a fact that 37% of post-natal women suffer incontinence, but many more have weakened pelvic floors which can lead to embarrasing or just damn inconvenient incidences now and then. This programme is designed to tackle that.

All the equipment you need to complete the programme is provided with the Power Plate – resistance ropes, mini weights, therabands and a yoga ball – and you can take all the exercises at your own pace. As the course progresses the regime intensifies in frequency and resistance, but what really kept me going was Jenny herself.

Watching a woman who seems to totally get you can really push you on when you feel like giving up. After a bit of research I realised Jenny has a fascinating back story of her own (more of that  another time) but the appealing thing is her affable manner and her no-nonsense manner. She talks to you, not at you, and as the programme develops you feel that this woman on your screen is becoming a friend. Jenny has helped thousands of post-natal women back to fitness and you can see why she’s so successful. She also runs online courses for women once they’ve finished the Power Plate programme and I would encourage anyone with an interest in post-natal health to sign up.

The Healthy Mums programme is a 12 week course which only takes between 10-30 minutes a day so it doesn’t stretch you on time, a really important selling point. It doesn’t matter if your baby is six months or sixteen, it can work for you if you want to strengthen your core muscles, lose weight, restore your pelvic floor strength and stop accidental leaks, reduce lower-back pain or basically just cope with daily physical demands of motherhood. I can’t say I did it every day, but on average four or five out of seven days, so yes it took a bit longer than anticipated but I really did reap rewards. By the end of the course my tummy was definitely trimmer, my muscles more toned and my pelvic floor less, er, unpredictable. I went from a wobbly Size 14 to a happy Size 12, and I couldn’t have been happier.

Like anything, the Healthy Mums programme takes commitment and dedication. Sometimes you just don’t feel like doing anything, but when you know the solution is behind the sofa and will only take fifteen minutes it makes keeping fit a lot easier than packing a bag, organising a childminder and driving to the gym. The workouts are fun, Jenny is enthusiastic and encouraging, and there’s even a Facebook community to keep you going. Power Plates aren’t cheap, RRP is £1350 from the official website, but there are payment plans available it really is a good investment for anyone who’s  serious about getting into, and staying in, shape.

• Belle About Town was loaned the Power Plate and the Healthy Mums programme for the purposes of review. All opinions are the writer’s own.
• For more information see www.powerplate.com
• Buy the Power Plate Healthy Mums Programme now from John Lewis by clicking here