The Problem With Jumping Back Into Exercise - Postpartum by Carly Maxwell Fitness
Mamas, your body took 9 beautiful months to grow, stretch, and deliver your sweet little ones. When society shares that after just 6 weeks (or 8 with a C-birth), you are ready to jump back into all exercise because your doctor said so, it can often backfire. Birth is one of the biggest events our bodies will go through and more times than not will need more than 6 weeks to heal properly.
3 Important Steps to take before diving back into Pre-Pregnancy Workouts
Give your body time to heal and begin to rebuild a strong foundation with breathwork and pelvic floor work when YOU feel ready
Begin to introduce strength and foundational exercises and slowly increase intensity
Work on your posture during daily life tasks
The biggest problem with jumping back into exercise is that it typically looks like this. Say we have a gal who goes to the gym often and fitness is like second nature to her. She then becomes pregnant and continues to go to the gym. Everything may work out just fine for her during her pregnancy, and then she delivers her baby and falls into the postpartum phase. This postpartum phase is when many women can feel depleted and maybe even weak. Her goal is to strength train during pregnancy to help set the stage for a stronger recovery in postpartum. SO let's just say because this gal did all the right things and things she knows about working out during pregnancy that everything is fine? Well fast forward and she has been leaking during her early postpartum days. She laughs, coughs, or sneezes, and can count on some leaking happening. She did everything typical in the gym BUT she didn’t focus or know about specific breathwork or pelvic floor work that is SO important during and after pregnancy because no one told her. Moving on, she gets clearance from her doctor to workout (she may or may not have mentioned the leaking to the doctor, and they may or may not have said this is normal and sent her on her way), and so then she goes back to the gym and continues right where she left off. Only now her body is a bit unfamiliar, and she leaks at certain points and jumping back into her routine doesn’t feel right. So now what??
It's time for her to dial back her old fitness routine and work on her pelvic floor, something that might feel boring because her favorite things to do are upbeat and energetic workouts. This is a big challenge to get her to slow down enough to heal. It is hard for someone in this position who wants to get back to the gym to realize her body needs more time to heal and with exercise techniques she's never heard of before.
But the best thing about this is that the techniques needed to help make foundational changes in the body are easy to implement and just need the time to be learned and applied. An advanced exerciser who has clearance from their doctor to exercise, can implement these techniques as a warm up and apply the techniques to each exercise one performs which will help to rebuild a strong core from the inside out.
For mamas who are not interested in fitness or are beginners, working on the pelvic floor is a wonderful place to start and dip those toes in the water of fitness while also doing so much good in helping to heal the core muscles after pregnancy. Every woman should have access to these techniques and help with applying them to their daily life.
2 Important Techniques Every Mama deserves to know Postpartum
Pelvic Floor Exercise
It is equally important to fully contract the entire pelvic floor as well as fully relax the pelvic floor. Both pieces are vital in a healthy pelvic floor
Breath work
Take your deep belly breaths a step further and spread that deep inhale into all sides of your rib cage (a fully 360*) Not only is this breathwork vital in getting your deep core back online, it also is a great tool to relieve stress in those early postpartum days.
**If you need any guidance with any of the topics addressed above feel free to reach out to me through instagram or email. @fitmamaspecialist or carlymaxwellfitness@gmail.com
Carly is a Certified Personal Trainer specializing in Pre/Postnatal Fitness. Fitness & health have always been her greatest passion. Her own mama-journey, which gave her two wonderful children, made her realize the lack of information and programming for Pregnant and Postpartum Women. Since then she made it her mission to share information and help as many women as possible.
carlymaxwellfitness.com
@fitmamaspecialist