You just had a baby – and now it’s time to get your body “back”.
I hate to break it to you, but your body isn’t going to bounce back. You are going to step forward into your new body. You have a new body to learn about, to strengthen. It takes a little bit of awareness to get everything working in concert like a finely tuned orchestra again. Then the sky is the limit!
No longer are we limited like our mother’s generation that wasn’t given a solution to peeing their pants while coughing or jumping on a trampoline. Having weak abdominal muscles was just a right of passage of motherhood, but that is no longer true.
We are a motivated generation of moms. We’ve been exercising for years before pregnancy. We know there is a solution, but we just don’t know exactly where to start.
Here are the four main mistakes that I see Moms make with getting back to exercise and life after having babies.
Mistake #1: Moms hold their breath (and don’t even know it)
You know, this is the least sexy of all of the mistakes you might make with your core. You might even be tempted to skip through this section to the next mistake. But, if I was to say which habit wreaks the most havoc to Moms of all ages (especially if you do it for years), it is definitely holding your breath.
Holding your breath and tightening your abdominals around the bottom of your ribs increases pressure in your belly. That pressure habit can put a downward force on your pelvic floor or forward on your diastasis.
This can become a habit that slowly creates problems over the years. I can’t tell you how many women of all ages I’ve worked with who can’t do a Kegel without holding their breath. You’ve gotta be able to breathe to keep the pressures low and to perform well.
How to fix it:
- Notice your breathing when you are sitting quietly.
- Can you take a deep breath or do your ribs or belly feel tight?
- Can your ribs expand like an umbrella opening on all sides, especially being able to expand sideways?
- You may want to practice taking a deep breath and loosen up your chest with gentle spinal twisting exercises and reaching your arms overhead.
- Relax your pelvic floor when you take a deep breath. This helps to coordinate the action of your diaphragm and your pelvic floor.
- Keep breathing when you lift or reach for something. Julie Wiebe, PT has coined an easy phrase of “blow before you go”. It helps you to remember to not hold your breath, and it helps your pelvic floor muscles to participate in gentle natural strengthening.
Mistake #2: New Moms start with Core Exercises that are too hard
Before having babies, exercise was fairly easy. Get your butt off the couch, work up a good sweat and tone your abs with planks and leg lifts like in Pilates. More or less you knew what worked for your body, and you didn’t have to be overly “careful”. Your abs and pelvic floor could easily balance the increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) that came with hard exercises.
I don’t think many of us ever thought about our pelvic floor muscles before having babies. (Although, a lot of us have been straining on the toilet with constipation for years, and some athletic women have had stress incontinence even before babies).
Now that your body has made and birthed a baby, there is a lot more to think about.
We have a few weak spots in the system that manages the intra-abdominal pressure. We have weak abdominal muscles that are stretched out, stretched connective tissue, and lax joints.
How you gave birth also adds many factors to consider with returning to exercise. Tears to your pelvic floor, C-section, and other birthing injuries need to heal.
There is a lot of natural healing that happens in the first 6-8 weeks: your uterus is shrinking over weeks, your DRA/diastasis is healing and ligaments that hold up your uterus are shortening.
Our bodies are amazing. Magic happens with creating a baby, and magic happens to our bodies as we switch over many systems to their non-pregnant state again. There is a lot going on to say the least.
Straining these tissues while they are healing doesn’t get us further ahead in the long run. A certain percentage of Moms are used to exercising intensely and they want to get back to their regular routines as soon as possible. Cross-fit, running, crunches, weight lifting, planks, etc
You can get back to the sports and fitness you love. Just remember your lax uterus, your stretched muscles and weak pelvic floor muscles need a little extra attention and time so that they can keep up to the rest of you. Once everything is healed and your muscles are coordinated again then slowly ramp up.
I don’t think any new mom should be jogging or lifting weights heavier than your baby or doing double leg lifts before 4-6 weeks. I know the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist changed their old recommendation of waiting 6 weeks to exercise, and now recommend **** “gently returning to exercise”. ***** but some women have interpreted this incorrectly as “if you’ve been athletic and strong prior to birth, somehow your connective tissue might be able to handle high exercise loads earlier than someone else. Sometimes you don’t know until you hurt yourself.
How to fix it:
- Move your body. From Day 1 after giving birth I don’t want you to be afraid of movement. We heal through movement, but you don’t have to strain or do a HIIT workout to benefit from exercise.
- Use good posture (see Mistake #3), connect with your deep core muscles (see Mistake #3 – all about coordination of using the right muscles), and don’t strain (ie. Feel unwanted pressure in your pelvic floor, or see your abdomen pooch outward with exertion).
- Check out a great blog I wrote about how Amy Rodriguez, from the US National soccer team, returned to winning the World Cup 2015 after the birth of her son. She did a combination of internal Physiotherapy treatment, abdominal core muscle coordination training, and didn’t start high level team workouts until 4 months postpartum. Going easy in the early postpartum period did not hold her back. It allowed her to heal strong. [click here to read the blog]
- Starting walking when it feels good, then walk run, then jog. Same with cross fit and weight training. Start with light weights and do smaller versions of the moves that you love. For example squats that aren’t as deep and practice coordinating your breath out with the movement (like in #1). Don’t be afraid to move, start with slower versions of the exercises you love be a sickler for good control of your form.
- You should feel confident that you aren’t straining as you increase your strength and endurance. The first few months are vital in letting your connective tissue regain strength after being stretched out to make room for baby to grow in utero.
- Honour this time and your body will thank you.
Mistake #3: Moms often strain their lower backs
How are you lifting? How are you sitting? How are you standing? Are your hamstrings tight? All of these things can put extra stress on your lower back.
We can do all of the “right” exercises but if we don’t use good posture, stretch and learn to use our core with life’s functional activities, even the most fit people can experience back pain.
How to fix it:
How are you lifting? You should be bending your knees and your hips to allow your back to stay in a good position. We call this a “hip hinge” in the Physiotherapy/Physical Therapy world.
Are you using your deep core muscles to support your lower back? Your deep core muscles are your deepest abdominal muscles (Transverse Abdominis), deep spinal muscles and pelvic floor muscles used in coordination with your breathing. These are the muscles that are an internal support belt for your pelvis / Sacro-iliac (SI) joints / low back. Often these muscles are out of practice or uncoordinated with coming on at the right time before you lift when pregnant or postpartum. Now is the time to wake them up and not let the bigger 6-pack muscles (Rectus Abdominis) and Oblique muscles dominate, which can cause problems later on. [ link to Deep Core Series]
How are you sitting? We sit so much with feeding our babies. The best way to sit is to keep your lower lumbar spine in neutral with a slight “in-curve”. Often a little pillow behind your back helps on a soft couch when you might just sink in and overly round your lower back. Another tip is to use pillows to lift your baby higher so you aren’t bending down to reach your baby for breast or bottle feeding.
How are you standing? The easiest way to stand while holding a baby is to push your pelvis forward or to the side to create a “shelf” for your baby to rest on. It might be easy temporarily, but this not only jams your lower back joints, but it also promotes weakness of you abs. Try to bring yourself into alignment and build your core and spinal strength as your baby grows.
Are your hamstrings tight? All of that sitting and not moving like you used to can make your muscles tight. To stretch your hamstring muscles lie on your back when your baby is playing on the floor and put one leg out straight and raise the other leg in the air holding the back of your thigh with your hands. Try to straighten your knee and feel a good stretch in the back of your thigh. Hold it for 30 seconds on each leg twice.
Mistake #4: Moms don’t do any exercise at all
We are often overwhelmed with a new baby and lack of sleep. We don’t even know where to start.
We put ourselves and our bodies last, thinking that there isn’t enough time for exercise. Even I get caught in this trap with my busy schedule with work and kids in school, but like any habit, you need to start again.
How to fix it:
Small steps forward are easiest.
You don’t have to go to a gym or a post-natal class to officially exercise. Although, going to classes can be a great way to get back in shape, stay commited and meet other women.
Simple effective exercises can be:
- Walking with your baby in a stroller 5 or 10 minutes to work on your core muscles lying on the floor next to your baby
- Deep breathing
- Coordinating regular breathing and “Blow before you Go” into normal movement patterns like lifting and doing housework
- Strengthen training at home. Buy some exercise equipment like light weights and exercise bands to do some strength training. Body weight squats and lunges can be great too. Again 5 or 10 minute intervals are amazing.
- Do your own routine or use DVDs or online fitness routines.
- Team up with other Moms and help each other. You can look after your friend’s baby while she rides her bike for 30 minutes and then swap. Groups of 4 are fun too, then there are 2 of you to exercise and 2 to watch kids.
- Ask for help and have your partner or family watch your kids. Or hire a babysitter. You are worth it! Get creative! You can do this!
In Summary:
Breathe, get back in touch with your deep core muscles and coordinate them to work with all exercise, use good posture, move and progress back to everything you love to do without straining.
And, definitely get some help if things aren’t going well.
A Women’s Health Physiotherapist can get to the root of the problem and help get your body back on track.
We can analyze how you are moving and give you exercise prescription to help your areas of weakness. We can help to loosen tight muscles around your hips and pelvis that can be key to unlocking areas. We can even assess your internal pelvis muscles that might have trigger points that need to be released to allow them to fully work again to relieve pain or stop leaking urine.
For local, guided instruction on these concepts of deep core strengthening, posture and return to exercise, join me in Penticton for our Postpartum Foundation Exercise series.
This series consists of 4 classes once a week for an hour. Over 4 weeks we learn posture tips and introductory exercises that get harder or the month. We talk about incontinence, pain, DRA, C-section, pelvic floor dysfunction and other common new Mom concerns.
By the end of the series you will feel more connected to your muscles, have a better understanding of good posture and more confident to safely return to exercises that you love to do. Check out our website for class times and how to register [link] www.pentictonwomenshealthphysiotherapy.com/postpartum-class
All my best,
Jennifer Gabrys, PT