When we first learned that The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jen Affleck was powering through rehearsals for season 34 of Dancing With the Stars a mere two months postpartum, we—like so many others—had questions. Could her body handle the hip-swaying, leg-kicking, and straight-up flying through the air? And how was she faring mentally with all this high-key training while having three little ones at home? Happily for us, the MomTok star took a break from rehearsals last week to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the experience that she says is “a lot harder than I was expecting.”
From a physical standpoint, Affleck is hurting. “Ballroom is, I kid you not, a sport,” she tells SELF. “I have blisters on my feet, bruises all over my body.” No doubt, that could apply to any of the celebs—learning pro choreo at hyperspeed isn’t for the faint of heart (or body).
But as for the postpartum of it all? Affleck seems to be remarkably resilient. Her pelvic floor is “great, surprisingly,” she claims, crediting a lifetime of staying active, including throughout her three pregnancies, for the strength of both her pelvis and the rest of her body. During each one, she did “tons of yoga,” worked on her core strength (with deep breathing exercises), and most of all, “was a very active walker.” We’re talkin’ miles at a time. She says it was her pregnancy-friendly swap for running, which has long been one of her favorite forms of exercise. (Let’s not forget, Affleck ran the New York City marathon just three months after giving birth to her second.)
The only part of postpartum life that makes the show extra-challenging, she says, is the sleep loss. “It’s been hard to get in a full seven, even six, hours of sleep most nights because I still have a newborn,” Affleck says. “It makes recovering even harder.” But luckily, she’s been getting plenty of support from the DWTS physical therapists, she says, who wrap her up in tape and cold packs on the reg and encourage her to do “lots of ice baths”—which she says are “the worst” but worth it to help speed along her recovery.
