Road to Mpower - Your Path to Optimal Recovery and Strength

After weeks of hard training, your body is strong enough to handle complex exercises and further build your endurance. You want to work on a stronger core in the most effective and responsible way. To streamline this process for both our trainers and members, we’ve developed the Road to Mpower. This clear step-by-step plan guides our trainers in supporting and motivating you as you transition from Back in Shape to Mpower workouts.

Mpower is excellent for building endurance and strength. You'll quickly notice significant improvements in your fitness level! Plus, it continues to focus on core recovery, making it a great complement to any other sport.

Road to Mpower consists of three phases, guiding you through building your fitness step-by-step during your Back in Shape workouts. This plan is based on Toine van de Goolberg's Rehab Tree and the phases of connective tissue recovery described by J.J. de Morree in “Dynamiek van het menselijk bindweefsel”.

Note: The timeline for each phase is indicative; progress is personal and always individually assessed by your trainer.

Below is an outline of a typical Road to Mpower. Remember, this is a general guide and may not apply to everyone. Your trainer will provide personalized advice and guide you through the best training plans.

Phase 1: Back in Shape (6-12 weeks)

From 6 weeks postpartum, you can start with gentle recovery exercises in our Back in Shape workouts. This timeframe varies for each woman; some may not be ready physically or may not have the time to start exercising yet. Everyone progresses at their own pace! When you start recovery training, you can expect the following focus areas:

• Increasing your strength (reducing rest periods, building resistance)

• Building aerobic endurance (low-impact endurance, increasing repetitions)

• Improving stability and coordination (focus on technique, core strategy)

Phase 2: (12 weeks – Transition to Mpower)

From 12 weeks postpartum, if you have no pelvic or pelvic floor issues, you can start running in small increments, cautiously adding high impact to your training. This phase focuses on:

• Building impact in cardio

• Progressing with strength exercises

• Increasing aerobic endurance

• Enhancing anaerobic capacity (through sprints or accelerations)

Phase 3: Building within Mpower (or MpowerNext for women 40+)

In this phase, we continue to build in all areas. As you progress, your body will require more coordination and optimal core strategy. You will:

• Further challenge the anaerobic system (to your max)

• Increase speed

• Combine strength with impact

• Enhance coordination (unstable support surface, multi-muscle group exercises)

• Increase complexity (combining speed with resistance)

• Build and increase load capacity: trial & error

In recovery training, we want the body to be challenged in exactly the right way. In a phase where overexertion is a risk, only the best guidance is good enough! Any complaints are carefully addressed during this phase. This can include issues like pelvic/pelvic floor pain such as pubic bone pain, back pain, groin pain, radiating pain to the legs, or a heavy feeling in the pelvic floor.

Your trainer will regularly ask how the exercises feel, identify where you (often unconsciously) make compensatory movements, and advise you on how to adjust responsibly. This ensures you get a workout that is constantly tailored to your needs - all within a group setting.

In addition to recovery training, working towards personal (sports) goals has proven to be a great desire. Our trainers guide you as a member in making the right choices within the following areas:

1. Core

2. Strength

3. Coordination

4. Endurance

5. Impact

1. Core Strength

Building core capacity is a crucial part of Road to Mpower. The core includes the rectus abdominis, obliques, and deep abdominal muscles like the transverse abdominis, along with the pelvic floor, back, and gluteal muscles. Core capacity refers to the strength, endurance, and coordination of these muscles.

The deeper abdominal layers and pelvic floor require significant attention for 300-500 days post-delivery for optimal recovery. Your core muscles need this time to regain strength and endurance and, more importantly, to work together optimally again. This requires extensive practice.

During Back in Shape workouts, your trainer will focus on pelvic floor and core recovery through the trained Core and Recovery cycle, emphasizing:

• Proper breathing techniques

• Correct posture and technique

• Conscious core engagement (pelvic floor contraction and slight navel pull-in)

2. Strength

Strength is built by progressively increasing exercise difficulty. In our workouts, you will enhance your strength by:

• Increasing the range of motion (e.g., deeper squats and push-ups)

• Adding resistance (e.g., using a resistance band)

• Increasing repetitions and reducing rest periods (“repeaters”)

• Combining strength with impact (e.g., squat jumps and lunge switches)

3. Coordination

By making simple exercises more challenging and engaging multiple muscle groups, you will significantly improve your body's coordination.

4. Endurance

Endurance is built by increasing duration, repetitions, and intensity:

• For strength, increase repetitions and reduce rest periods

• For cardio, extend duration (aerobic) and increase intensity (anaerobic)

5. Impact

From 12 weeks postpartum, or when you meet our recovery standards, you can start building impact under proper guidance and motivation. This gradual process ensures you feel the difference within this timeframe.

You’ve probably heard it often: “listen to your body.” Especially during recovery phases after significant physical achievements (to say the least), we emphasize this. But what exactly are these signals and why are they important?

Ask yourself: Are you someone who needs encouragement or someone who needs to slow down? Be honest: do you take your body's signals seriously?

During workouts, we love to challenge ourselves, and that’s great! But it’s crucial to notice and listen to your body’s signals. What are they saying? When are you pushing too far, and when is an extra challenge welcome? Your trainer will focus on these aspects during workouts:

• Only correct technical execution of an exercise contributes to achieving your goals. Compensatory movements can lead to injuries rather than improvements. Feel and choose the right execution of the exercise with your trainer’s advice.

• Perform challenging exercises in front of a mirror to check your form. Mirrors help you correct yourself and learn the correct posture, which you can apply during workouts. Your trainer can explain the mind-muscle connection: which muscles you are training (and feeling!) during each exercise, creating awareness.

• If you can’t find the correct technical form or the exercise feels uncomfortable (causing pain or discomfort), your trainer is an expert in differentiation. Choose a lighter version of the exercise or a different posture for the same effort. Every workout remains tailored to you!

Eager to transition from Back in Shape to Mpower? (Of course!) We’ve developed a short checklist to help you decide:

• At least five months postpartum

• No pelvic floor, pelvic, or core complaints

• Able to run continuously for ten minutes without issues

• Correct execution of exercises:

  1. Wide squat (10x, to 90 degrees)

  2. Mild jump squat (10x, small range of motion)

  3. Forward lunge (10x per leg, to 90 degrees, stable)

  4. Horizontal plank (correct technique)

Your trainer is an expert in assessing your readiness for this next step. They will evaluate your technique, perform a diastasis check, and provide all the information you need to challenge yourself responsibly and be motivated! You’re always guaranteed top expertise on women's bodies during and after Back in Shape workouts.