Be the Tortoise, not the Hare
Ever see those influencers who “got their body back” 6 weeks after having a baby, show a picture of their six pack abs, and brag about how much cardio they are doing?
I worry about them.
My hope is that they are an absolute medical phenomenon and they continue to live their lives healthily and happily. But after 25 years of practice and seeing hundreds, if not thousands of women, I know this is often not the case.
Birth, whether vaginal or cesarean section, is traumatic and absolutely needs physical and mental recovery time, just like any other injury or issue we deal with. We don’t see women who have a rotator cuff repair or knee meniscectomy showing how they lift a heavy weight overhead or run post op six weeks; so why do we glorify “getting back your body” like it's some magical thing?
Fact is, pushing cardio, lifting heavy weights, and performing advanced core work before you build your “new” foundation of strength and coordination leads to setbacks like leaking in your FUTURE postpartum months.
Leaking is a major concern among postpartum women with a whopping 55% experiencing it in their lifetime. Which means OVER HALF OF ALL POSTPARTUM WOMEN WILL EXPERIENCE LEAKING.
How do we help that statistic? By being informed. Pregnant and postpartum women have been such an underserved and under researched population, but that’s changing.
As Pelvic Health therapists we know:
Accepting your body is different and changing postpartum is key
Creating a strong foundation of strength and pelvic floor support/activation is the cornerstone of future success
Being aware of postural alignment and body positioning changes postpartum allows you to build and progress your strength and coordination to lift heavier and challenge more dynamic movement like jumping
Graded progression of impact training ,like jumping, with pelvic floor techniques helps leaking
Running should begin after we have built all these pillars to have some measure of success.
Now, success is different for each woman, but the common factor is your program. A strong program begins with a strong foundation. Your program should look like a pyramid with bottom creating a solid mental foundation accepting your body (and life) is changing. Then building physical body awareness, strength, and coordination allows you the freedom to choose if you want to challenge your body with impact and running.
Leaking during exercise is directly related to both mobility and strength of your pelvic floor. If you introduce impact and heavy cardio before your body has built each one of these steps, you chip away at your solid foundation. Eventually those small chips create a large crack, and before you know it, you are dealing with a longer term problem.
Our programs are built on science, professional experience, and mom experience which makes us unique in our field. We’ve been there, and we fully admit we were doing the wrong stuff as moms ourselves because we didn’t have the research and resources that are out there now.
It’s our mission to give your body and mind what it needs, even if you don’t know what that is yet!