 Here's the best way to work out postpartum. Our next caller is Ashley from Pennsylvania. Ashley, what's happening? How can we help you? Hey guys, I'm super excited to be chatting with you. I've been listening since 2017 and it's been really cool to see how y'all have grown over time. I came for the fitness info but have been thrilled to see how you've like evolved over time, especially. I've loved hearing you talk about your class with Dr. Becky at Good Inside because I'm obsessed with her. My jaw hit the floor when you said you were doing EMDR because I don't know, just never thought I'd see that from y'all. It's just been really cool. Is that you do that for a living or something or why are you interested in that? No, I did it a couple years ago for like a car accident that I was in and I just needed to like get past that to actually be able to even drive again. And then I'm exploring doing it again for some of the same reasons that you're doing it. I'm a mom and I just want to be like the best mom that I can be. So same thing. Awesome, great. All right, thanks. How can we help you? Cool. So I'm trying to decide what level of program is the most appropriate for me. So in certain programs like in MAPS resistance and MAPS 15, there are different levels or tracks of the program. So for anybody that doesn't know what I'm talking about, in resistance, there's a body weight track, a dumbbell track, and a full gym track. And in the body weight and dumbbell track, the exercises and workouts are the same throughout the phases. You just add sets as you progress through. But in the full gym version, the workouts are different in each phase. In MAPS 15, the normal version, the workouts repeat twice over the course of the week, but they're different every day in advanced. So my preference is to have a different workout every day or over the phases, just because I really like to switch it up. But I'm trying to decide if I'm ready for the more advanced version. So just for my specific situation, I started lifting consistently in 2015 and was super into my fitness from 2015 to 2020. I ended up taking most of 2020 off because I was pregnant and because of the pandemic. And then I was consistent for pretty much all of 2021 before taking most of 2022 off because I was pregnant again. So I started working out consistently again since February of this year and I followed the New Mom recommendation. So I did starter, and now I'm on phase three of resistance doing the full gym version. I'm planning on doing MAPS 15 next and I would prefer to do the advanced version. I also don't have a suspension trainer, so I feel like I'm doing the advanced version. But my concern is I have a lot of other stresses in my life, so I don't want to overdo it. I have a two and a half year old. I have six month old twins. We aren't sleeping all the way right now. I'm also breastfeeding. I'm not tracking any food. I just try to eat a lot because I'm literally like starving all the time. And then I don't have a super stressful job, but I have a semi-stressful job. So I'm just trying to figure out like how can I still see the benefits of doing the advanced version of MAPS 15 without overdoing it or should I maybe do something else next instead? You're on point. You know why? Because a lot of people in your position would not be asking this question with a program like MAPS 15. They'd be something like, can I do MAPS aesthetic or something like that? You're six months postpartum with twins. Okay, yeah. We're on the same baby schedule, Sal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I know what that, okay. So I think you're fine with MAPS 15 and here's what I'm going to say. I think you should get a suspension trainer and I think you should gauge whether or not you do the suspension-based workout or the barbell-based workout based on the previous night's sleep and how you feel, okay? So some days you could pick the advanced version, do some barbell exercises. Some days you could do the suspension-based workout because I was up four times last night and I'm not feeling very energetic and I'm kind of, you know, whatever fatigued then I would do the suspension version. I think that program would be ideal for you, especially because you've already been working out consistently. I think that that'll be totally fine. Yeah, I think it's a great question, but I think you already on, MAPS advanced, 15 advanced is I think going to be totally fine for you. And then another option if you don't switch the suspension trainer here and there is just to scale back on the intensity. So if you felt like it was, oh man, last night was a rough night. Baby was up, up and down all night and didn't get sleep in. So, you know, you still follow the program, but just reduce the weight by 50%. You know, just go through the move, go do the movements, but just back off the intensity. So you can easily modify it that way based off of the ebb and flow of your sleep schedule and stress levels throughout the week. But absolutely think you're ready for MAPS 15 advanced. I think you'll be just fine doing that. Ashley, you're breastfeeding the twins? Yeah, so I'm actually, my son has latching issues. So I've pumped for him and I breastfeed her. Okay, so that's a lot. So I do everything. I was just going to say, that's okay. Cause you look, you look fresh. You look like you're all good. I don't think people realize what you're doing. So you run down a typical evening for you. What time do you go to bed? How many times do you get up? And then what time is everybody up? Yeah, so we put the kids down at like, basically between seven and eight, we switch off. So I'm either doing the twins or my two and a half year old. And then just kind of like chill, sometimes watch something with my husband until like nine. And then I get ready for bed. I pump one more time or like power pump. If you know what that is, like pump a couple of times. And then my husband feeds the twins a bottle at 10 and I get in bed like right at 10. It varies a lot when they're up and sometimes the two and a half year old gets up occasionally too. Like the night before Mother's Day, my daughter slept all the way until 5.30 and I fed her at 5.30. So I got like a really good chunk of sleep. But then sometimes she'll be up at 1.30, 3.30. And I typically only feed her once at night, but we'll be up getting them a few times. And I try to like kick my husband and get him out of bed half the time just because sometimes if I don't go in there, she'll go back to sleep. But sometimes it just doesn't work out like that. And as soon as she peeps, you've said this before, Saul, with the mom thing, like as soon as anybody peeps, I'm like, what's going on? Yeah, a lot of people don't know this, but mom, especially postpartum, you're heightened for that. And so when you hear the sound, even if they go back to sleep, you've got stress hormones and catecholamines to keep you alert. And you can't just go back to sleep. Because I remember thinking that like, oh, when the baby goes to sleep, go to sleep. And I think it's not that easy because you got to get your body to calm down at that point. So that's a lot on the body. So I'll go back to what I said. I think you should alternate and even take days off if you feel like you need them. Because you are probably redlining right now as it is with minimum workouts. You're probably on a daily basis. You probably feel like, ooh, I'm already at the edge with, yeah. So I would be very careful to not overdo it. And I would treat the workouts as recuperative. I wouldn't even try to chase progress, but rather, can I go through the movements? Can I feel good? Can I get good full ranges of motion? Because otherwise you'll probably hurt yourself or you'll start to over-train your body. Now, after about a year, so you've got six more months or so, this is usually when things start to become a little bit less crazy and hectic. Then you can kick it up a little bit and then you're gonna kick ass. But I would definitely air on the side of less than more. So try to do less, not more. Because that sleep is such a big factor, especially so consistently, that even the, you could over-train so easily because you're already at the edge. Yeah. Do you have any thoughts about sleep? I feel like it's the one thing that you guys would normally be like, sleep more and then you'll feel less stress. But I feel like I don't have that much control over it. Yeah, that's why you didn't hear that from us with you. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah, no, we recognize that. I mean, it's a different situation. It's a different monster when you have You're in a season. Two newborns and a two and a half year old. Like we all, we're all parents, so we all recognize that like, yeah, we could sit here and give you advice all day. Hey, get eight hours of sleep. You'll be just fine. It's like, yeah, right. Okay, come on. The likelihood of that is slim to none. So you got to modify other things. The best advice that I've gotten so far personally is, are you getting out of the house every day on your own and get a little bit of time to yourself? That helps a lot. Yeah, I try to at least take a walk every day. And then I do try to a lot of times that it's just like me on my phone for like 30 minutes in the evening. But even that is something. But like leaving the house and interacting with other adults, that makes a big difference for moms. Yeah. Okay, because it feels very lonely. A lot of people don't know this, but being a mom with little ones is like, it's like, it's just you and the kids and then your break is just you by yourself. So some of the advice we got was, I get out of the house, go interact with other adults, even if you're just walking around target or going to the mall or whatever. Do that, try and do that a little bit every day. Some supplements can help. Ashwagandha is supposedly safe during breastfeeding. It helps the body deal with stress. Because you're nursing, I'm going to tell you to do your own research and see if that's something that you can take. But that's something that we've used. And then just being very easy on yourself. Just being very easy on yourself because you're running that red line right now. Your stress hormones are high just to keep your functioning at the moment. So pushing those even higher is not going to be beneficial. I would try and do your best to prioritize time for you and your husband to like when the kids go down. So maybe when you would normally be on your phone or maybe you guys would watch a show of just having like 30 minutes to an hour of like just you and the two of you talking. And whether you sparked that with a table conversation game or whatever. I found that for Katrina just me able to hear where she's at, what she's going through, how her day was that just that conversation of keeping us as a strong tight unit and conversing on a regular basis. Because I do know how easily you can be like divide and conquer. You know what I'm saying? Like you guys. Yeah, then you don't see each other. It's you guys are playing defense on three opponents. It's three against two. We're not man on man anymore. Yeah, it's not man on man anymore. And you can really easily get into this like all you talk about is, Hey, did you get the milk ready? And oh, did we go to get this? And so it becomes versus just how you doing honey? And how's your day? And I'm talking about our relationship. I fought and when you talk about trying to manage stress and things like that, I really think that there's tremendous value in that. We found like a stroller walk, you know, that was like, we would just go together instead of like her just doing it or me just doing it. It was like, let's go together and we would get a good hour talk like that. I found a lot of value in that. So if you don't already prioritize that, I think there's a lot of value in that too for managing stress. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And then obviously you said, you know, the next six months I'm still kind of going to be in this air flight survival mode. I was planning on doing symmetry next. Do you think that that's okay? Or do you think I should do something different after? Sorry, I'm doing 15 and then I'm going to do something else. I was thinking symmetry would be great. I would wait till you're done breastfeeding. So how long do you plan on doing that? I'm hoping to make it to a year, but we'll see. Yeah, a lot of things change when you stop breastfeeding because your hormones are a little different while you're breastfeeding too. So in my experience training women postpartum, they would stop breastfeeding and then their body would start reacting like it used to type of deal. So part of that is they probably got more sleep. And the other part of it is the hormone changes. So I would wait and right now your goal with exercise is going to be recuperative, maintenance, keep myself healthy. Once you get past that kind of hump of what's going on, then it's okay. Now how can I progress? And then at that point, map symmetry would be great. Do you have that by the way? I do. I have like all everything. I have everything except for anabolic advanced basically. Are you in the forum? I'm pretty far out from doing that. Are you in the forum? I don't Facebook. Okay. Oh, you don't Facebook. Oh, that's healthy too. Yeah. I use the Facebook and then all the old people that I know got on it. And I'm done out there now. Well, if you want, if you don't mind Facebooking, I don't know, I don't know, you could, it was a verb. If you don't mind Facebooking again, we'll put you in the forum. We can send you a link to it. Either that or let me, let me give her the, let me give her the free program, the new program. Oh, it's a surprise. Oh, we can say it, huh? Yeah, we can talk, we can talk about it on this one, right? Yeah. So we have an, it's an all bands program. So it's, Oh, okay. Which I think could actually complement where you're kind of at and where you'll be in the next year or so. So we'll have Doug hook you up with that. Awesome. That sounds great. Okay, cool. Thanks for calling in Ashley. Thanks so much. I really appreciate you guys. You got it. Yeah, it's funny. You know, I have an infant and a two year old and then I hear twins and a two and a half year old. Oh my God, that's a, yeah, that's a zoo, you know, at home. But I mean, at that point, your workouts are not, you're not trying to progress as much as you are trying to keep yourself healthy. That's really it. Because if you keep, if you push it, you're already pushing it. Everything's pushing it. Yeah, you got to take into account your environment and totally like what you can really like accomplish. And yeah, for the most part, it's really just staying healthy and like being energetic. That's like the two biggest things. Yeah, I can't help but think when we talk about health, we, we talk about it as, as total health, right? There's so many other parts of it. It's not always just like the physical aspect. And so if you accept that this is where I'm not going to be in my most physical prime. So it's more like what you said, it's like treat your workouts as more recovery and kind of maintaining and just being healthy as far as movement's concerned. And then honestly trying to prioritize other parts of that. That's why I kind of want the direction with the relationship. Because I know when you get, I mean, I don't know from a personal experience what it's like to have three kids. I can only imagine, but I know what it was like just playing defense with one. How easily you can get separated from your partner. Like two ships passing in the night. Yeah, it becomes a, it becomes more, you know, and, and there's nothing like the two good partners tend to work like that. Hey, now we're on a team. This is a hard time in our life. Let's conquer that. And before you know, it's like the stuff that you're only talking about is house, the dishes, the grocery shopping, the baby diapers, milk, like it's like, Oh shit, when will we checked in with each other? When was the last time that we talked about our personal needs or the things that we are happy with in our relationship or we're working on? And so, I mean, that's a part of health. And doing that, I think we'll bleed into the other pursuits too.