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HowTo Start Exercising Again After Having A Baby

So you had an appointment with your Midwife or Ob/Gyn 6 weeks after having a baby, they said “ok you are good to go” and that is the extent of the advice you received on returning to exercise after baby. Did that leave you wondering about a few things, like is it okay to go for a jog, go to Pilates class, lift weights or go for a bike ride? Or maybe you attempted to start back at your favorite activity only to feel frustrated and uncomfortable. I totally understand, I too experienced this place of uncertainty after having my first baby and remember feeling so defeated after attempting the Pilates 100 after 6 weeks of “rest”. What if I told you there are things you can do even before 6 weeks postpartum that will help you feel better and that it is possible to be stronger than ever postpartum if you follow a few steps to keep your progress going in the right direction? I’m sharing my timeline for returning to exercise and how to know when you are ready to progress along that timeline, and it’s completely customizable to you and where you are in your postpartum journey now. 

A few years ago  I taught an OB/GYN when she was pregnant with her first baby.  At the end of her last pregnancy session she asked “When should I come back and see you?” I could hardly contain my surprise. Women were following her advice about returning to exercise and here she was asking me! This doesn’t mean she is not an excellent doctor, because she definitely is, but it’s understandable if you aren’t sure what the first steps are to return to exercise and when you should be taking them. Even the people guiding most of us as new Moms are not really clear on it themselves. 

The “6-8 week wait” is misleading

Most women hear the advice: no exercise for 6 week or 8 weeks for c- sections. Now, I’m in no way advocating for going to the gym at 3 weeks postpartum or disregarding medical advice. The first steps to resuming exercise while recovering postpartum can be done in bed or sitting down and they are not physically taxing in fact they are incredibly restorative. These first few weeks should be focusing on resting and connecting with your baby. You can also start connecting with your breath and your pelvic floor. A deep breath where you expand your ribcage 360 degrees( expanding thought the side and back ribs often requires more focus and thought ) and a full exhale will assist you in connecting with your pelvic floor and abdominals without strain. It will also help your nervous system regulate and your ribcage stay mobile, which is super helpful postpartum. This can be done whenever you feel up to it or think about it. Going for a walk in the neighborhood is awesome too, fresh air and change of scenery does wonders as does gentle movement. You can practice deep 360 breathing on the walks too.

Ready for More?

Once you feel like you and baby have a bit of a routine down and you have received the all clear from your care provider you can start adding on more to the connection strategies. This might be 6-8 weeks postpartum or it might be 4 – 6 months or more. Each person’s timeline will be different.  Do not stress yourself out about exercise if you are still working on getting a few hours of sleep at night or finding a way to get some routine in your day. How much support you have, how many children you are caring for and the way your birth unfolded can all impact when you are ready to add in focusing on exercise.

Consider all your body has gone through during pregnancy and delivery and early postpartum.  Postures have shifted, even internal organs have shifted, not to mention all that your abdominal wall and pelvic floor have been though. It is important to build back up to the activities you were accustomed to doing before becoming pregnant. Running and heavy weight lifting are not recommended for the first 4-6 months or longer depending on your recovery, your body is still healing and these activities require a foundation of strength. Now is a great time to build that foundation even if you are not interested in running or weightlifting. Building a strong foundation will help you feel better in your day to day activities and help in correcting posture and healing any pelvic floor weakness or abdominal separation.

What does building a strong foundation look like?

Find abdominal activation with your exhale to support your spine and healing abdominal wall no matter what type of exercise you prefer. Watch for doming in your abdominals,  heaviness in your pelvic floor, or incontinence, these are signs the load is too much for right now. Modify exercises to take the pressure down a notch so you don’t have these signs of overload. Hands and knees or “knees/chest/chin” in yoga instead of plank and chaturanga, brisk walking and lunges instead of running, keep your head down on the mat and focus on the breath and activation with legs in table top or feet on the mat instead of the full Pilates100 are a few examples.  Take things slowly at first, and remember it will take some time and focused strength building before you are ready for the level of exercise you were practicing before pregnancy. You can be stronger than ever postpartum, building the foundation is key to continued progress. Remember any modifications you make are not forever, they are just a stepping stone along the way. Too much too soon is a huge contributing factor in injuries that set women back in progress postpartum.

It’s never too late!

If you are reading this and thinking that counting weeks or months is way in your rearview, no worries! It is never too late to start working on building the foundation of strength and connection in your body. It is still a very good idea to start with the connection strategies of breathing and gentle movement followed by foundational exercises before jumping into a group fitness class or running. I often see women who just want to jump in and push through only to end up with injuries like pelvic floor prolapse, diastasis recti, or strained joints. If you suspect you are working with diastasis recti or pelvic organ prolapse check in with a pelvic floor PT and/ or postpartum exercise specialist as you are getting started. It’s not too late to regain function in your core.

There you have it, you don’t need to wait and it is never too late. Take it one step at a time starting with connection then on to foundation building before higher intensity exercise. If you would like some guidance on this, or are just not sure exactly where to start, check out my postpartum connection guide. It’s a free video series that walks you through 5 connection strategies plus how to check yourself for diastasis recti. If you are ready to start feeling like yourself again check out this link here. 

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Zoom fatigue giving you achy back and shoulders?

One thing almost everyone I see has in common these days is tight shoulders and mid/upper back. They have “text neck” or “baby carrying shoulders” or both!

After the past year plus of everything being online and now many things remaining online, tight shoulders and forward head posture are the achy side effects that even blue blocker glasses can’t fix.

The issue is with our posture, as we sit and look forward we tend to round the shoulders forward and send the head forward towards the scree. There are a few things you can do to help alleviate the strain on your body.

Fix the height of your monitor so you do not have to look down or lean forward to see it well.

Use a few book to lift up a laptop or raise the desk surface if possible, there are stands for monitors and laptops to help you get your monitor to the ideal place as well. Check out he options at your local office supply store, I like this Etsy store option for laptops https://www.etsy.com/listing/881514187/

There are also stands that will make your desk into a standing desk!

As for your chair, make sure you can sit up on your sitting bones and have your feel flat on the floor. Take breaks whenever you can, walk around, step outside if you can this will help your eyes, nervous system and hips as well as the shoulders and rest of your body.

Even with all these adjustments you may find aches and pains creep in to your shoulders and back after a day on zoom.

Your mid back becomes weaker over time with the forward head and shoulder posture which ironically makes it harder to have ideal posture and leads to using the upper back and shoulders more making them even tighter. This snowball leads to headaches and shoulder and back pain.

How do you strengthen the mid back so you can have ideal posture and don’t slump in the chair you may be wondering? I got you!

I made a short video with a few exercises you can do anywhere there is a wall. Take a break from sitting and try it out! Let me know how your shoulders, neck and back feel afterwards.

It’s a movement snack at the wall!

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Postpartum is not a bad word

As a pregnancy and postpartum corrective exercise specialist I use the word postpartum often. I realize that most people don’t, and many people only hear the word followed by a condition that sounds terrible. I recently heard the phrase “she had postpartum” What does that even mean?! Probably in this instance postpartum depression was the phrase they were looking for, which is no laughing matter, but that is not the the only use for the word postpartum.

post-par-tum

/pōstˈpärdəm/

adjective: post-partum; postpartum

  1. following childbirth or the birth of young.

The fact that this word is somewhat foreign shows how little regard there is for the women that are postpartum. After baby is born the women who birth the baby are not as cared for. You do not need to be Meghan Markle to struggle with this fact. Very few people will regard you as separate from your baby and ask or concern themselves with your well being.

I’m listening

This is why I chose to specialize in helping postpartum women. I’ve heard so many heartbreaking stories. Women being told they do not have anything wrong with them as they plead with a doctor to check them for pelvic organ prolapse; because what they are feeling is so very real. To be in great pain and dismissed by doctors, told to carry on and deal with it. “It’s just part of motherhood”. The sad reality is, it very often is a part of motherhood to be disregarded, and told to deal with it. Mothers are already dealing with so much and many of these things they should not have to deal with. Things can be done, support can be provided, and information should be shared. We need to listen to and value the postpartum woman.

Common does not equal normal

Diastasis recti, and incontinence are things most people won’t discuss. Many will count the symptoms to be normal parts of motherhood. Although many women suffer with these issues, few will be provided with helpful support to address them. In a society that pressures women to get “back to work” and “back in shape” little time is allowed for recovery and healing. Recovery and healing are vital, and most women will require much more than what is expected or allowed. Just because it is common does NOT mean it is normal and just needs to be accepted.

Tissues need to time to heal, fascia takes up to two years to regenerate.

Fascia is the tissue that connects your abs, gets stretched and thinned out during pregnancy and is a big part of creating diastasis recti. It’s also all over your body, in and around muscles. Even those pelvic floor muscles that stretched and very likely sustained some level of damage during delivery. C-sections are major surgery. Read that last bit again, enough said. We should honor the experience a woman had in order to bring a new baby into the world.

The what if’s

We leave postpartum women to figure it out in more ways than one. Trying to get healthy movement in can be challenging, yet so essential to physical and mental health. With a healing abdominal wall and pelvic floor and new baby to care for, how do we go about doing this? Our regular pre pregnancy run, or group fitness class is most likely not ideal in the early postpartum time. Walking is great, get outside take the baby along too and go for a stroll, it’s accessible and will be gentle as you are healing.

Enjoying a walk early postpartum with my second son.

What about the aching shoulders, sore back, and painful daily movements? What if you’re leaking when you walk downhill? What about when you want to do more than walk? Here is where you may need a little more help. A specialist in postpartum exercise is just who you are looking for. I am a specialist in postpartum corrective exercise and have years of teaching Pilates to women in this stage of life. Send me an email if you would like to chat about your specific needs. If you are not in Northern California, Here is a Map of PCES to find one near you.

Needing a little more? Pelvic floor physical therapists and women’s health physical therapists are a thing and they are a great thing. Ask your midwife or OB for a referral, if they are not helpful keep asking, ask your PCES too.

Connecting to your body postpartum can be a challenge, but I believe it’s a skill that can be learned and will develop with time and serve you well for the rest of your life. I’ve created a PDF with a few things to get you started with his skill and feel better in your body right away. No need to put on a sports bra, no need to leave the house, no need to find an hour of uninterrupted time. These things can fit in to your daily routine and will help you feel better and connect to your body. Check out the form below to get your copy.

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A place to begin

It is January and everywhere you turn there is “New year, New you!” messaging. The thing is, completely overhauling your life and creating a “new you” is not very realistic. It speaks to our desire to improve and be the best version of our selves, which is great, but then the reality of how to make these big changes gets to be overwhelming.

Where to begin? Where you are right now! Fitting new habits into your current life is best figured out now, as you start. How can you make the new habits happen along side the current life flow you have? Mark time in your calendar, set reminders on your phone, set an earlier alarm clock. All these things can help, putting thought into this now as you begin will help keep your goals on track.

When we feel better and see improvement in small ways this encourages us to keep going or take on more to see even bigger results. Try taking those big “New year New you” resolutions and making manageable intentions.

I created a pdf download around this idea. Reconnect to your body with 5 things you can fit into your daily life with minimal adjustment. You will very likely feel inspired to do more once you feel the change these small but powerful actions bring. I created this with postpartum women in mind, but it is useful for anyone. Try these out, fit them into your days for a month and see how you feel. Click the link below to get your downloadable PDF of 5 tips to reconnect to your body.

Happy New Year!

Get the 5 tips now
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De-Stress with Pilates

My gift to you this holiday season. A simple Pilates routine you can do at home to de-stress and feel more grounded. Give yourself the gift of twenty minuets for deep breathes, gentle stretches and core activation. Comment below with questions or comments. I’d love to hear from you.

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Why I’m a Pilates Fan

What is so great about Pilates anyway? Why should I try it out of all of the options available when considering a new movement practice?

There are so many ways to move and exercise, each one has it’s fanatics. I grew up dancing, and spent years in the dance studio day in and day out. Giving no thought to to any other sports or after school activities, I completely immersed myself in dance classes and rehearsals. 

One day I realized the pain in my foot that had been bothering me for a while was not going away. Surgery was required to remove a growth on my big toe that probably was there because of my many hours in pointe shoes. I was at a critical point in my dance training. I worried about not staying in performance shape or missing out on opportunity as I recovered. This is when I had my first experience with the Pilates Method.

My First experience with Pilates

A friend was also recovering from surgery ( I was not the only otherwise healthy teenage girl  getting surgery for a dance related injury), we joined together and took semi private Pilates sessions so we could keep moving while also staying off of our feet, or in her case her knee. I enjoyed playing on the funny machines and figuring out how to accomplish the exercises the instructor was describing. 

I didn’t realize it then, but this was also my first taste of movement for the good of the body. In ballet appearance was queen, in Pilates the way the exercise is executed is much more important. Doing a bigger leg circle is not necessarily better. The exercises were not designed to make you look a certain way but to strengthen and stretch for the health of the body.

Joseph Pilates wrote “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.”

The purpose of a Pilates practice is not to look better in your clothes although that can be a side effect. It’s not done to lose weight or raise your heart rate, these things can also happen, but they are not the leading reason to practice Pilates. 

Why do Pilates then?

After an hour of Pilates I feel energized from challenging my body, not worn out. My mind is clear and I am more aware of my movements and posture. I feel good in my body having worked in a healthy range of motion with deep breathing. This is known as the Pilates glow.

How do you do that you may be asking?

In Pilates sessions the focus is on how an exercise is accomplished, not simply making a shape but how the shape is made. Noticing how we feel making that shape and what muscles we are activating to make that shape. This builds awareness of our bodies in and out of the Pilates studio, improving posture, movement patterns, habits and balance. 

Pilates incorporates mindfulness, concentration and control. We use the mind to direct the intention of the body’s movements, bringing a distinctive mind – body connection to the the method. This gives the work a type of moving meditation quality.  You can’t think about what you will do later while you are focusing on activating correct muscles for specific exercises.

This focus while moving the body through the specialized exercises engages the entire body, builds strength, balance, coordination and flexibility. All of this translates into more confidence and less discomfort. 

With a variety of equipment to work with and so many exercises to explore I never get bored. I can get what I need each time I practice whether that is a stretchy feel good session, a restorative focused session to help with an injury or an athletic session to test my stamina and strength.  I’m a Pilates Fan because of all of these things. It keeps me engaged, challenged and uplifted mind body and spirit. I teach Pilates to share this with others.

People find the things they want to do more accessible after incorporating Pilates into their lives

Carrying their baby, gardening, going on longer walks, making better time in a bike race, performing on stage, riding a horse, lifting their disabled child, Yoga asana, their golf game, These are all things my clients have told me they are able to do better after incorporating Pilates into their lives. 

What do you want to do better? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you christmas@joypilates.fitness is where you can find me.