What to do when you hit the mark "6 weeks postpartum"

At 6 weeks after giving the birth most of the new moms get a clearance from the doctor to exercise again. Unfortunately most of the times with no further specification what is safe/unsafe to do. Sometimes you an also read you shouldn’t exercise until 6 months after giving the birth. Well you don’t have to rest that long but you also want to take it step by step and start really easy.

As I repeat every time - this is SO INDIVIDUAL. While some moms can’t wait to workout again some moms take longer time to rest and recover. It depends on so many factors - how do you feel, how much sleep at night you get (and how much energy you have left to exercise), how are you healing after the labour, if you had a vaginal birth or c-section etc. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.

It also depends how much and what you have done at your 6 weeks postpartum (what I call Phase 1).

I always say to my clients the slower is better and there’s nowhere to rush - the postpartum recovery is not a competition. I know there’s so much social pressure but doing things way too fast can in the end slow down your recovery.

WALK

As I mentioned in the posts before - walking is the best way to start. Walking is the most natural movement. It’s easy for your joints and also for the connective tissues. It’s GREAT for your core! Walking is also great for your brain - it can be so relaxing. Walking increases the cardiovascular and pulmonary fitness. It increases the bones and muscles strength and your endurance. Sometimes I have a feeling that walking is very underestimated but is very beneficial.

You don’t have to walk for hours - set up short term goals (like walk once a day for 10-15 minutes) and then increase the length or walk twice a day. Also you don’t have to walk super fast (neither don’t walk suuuuper slow :))). But more important than the speed - keep your walk active! Meaning keep your posture upright, keep the movement natural.

BREATHE

After months when your organs were squeezed and the baby took most of the space in your belly now all the organs are returning back to their original position. Including the muscles most important for breathing - lungs and diaphragm. You might have noticed after the delivery you can take a full deep inhale and exhale :).

Learn how to breathe in your lungs and to use your diaphragm as well. Try not to breathe in your stomach but feel your ribs opening. From my point of view the breathing is the most important so don’t hesitate to look for a physical therapist or a personal trainer to get help.

INNER CORE

Start the workouts from inside out. Start with your inner core - transversus abdomens (TVA) is the deepest layer of muscles and was stretched during the pregnancy so now it’s probably very weak (and maybe still stretched). The best way how to strengthen the TVA - is with correct breathing :).

Next part of the inner core which was most probably affected by the pregnancy is the pelvic floor. Now - it doesn’t matter that much if you had a vaginal birth or c-section. Pelvic floor can be very weak now. It consists of 3 layers of muscles and we want to target all of them to do the work really properly. The best way how to strengthen the pelvic floor is - surprisingly breathing :).

Another part of the inner core is diaphragm - I already talked about this muscle.

Last part of the inner core is multifidus - basically stabilizes the joints within the spine. During the pregnancy it’s pretty common you got some hyper extension in the lumbar (lower back) spine. Now it’s time to return the spine to the natural (neutral position). The best way to start with is watching the posture - how you stand, sit and walk (yes, back to the walking :)). Also once your TVA gets stronger it will be easier for you to maintain the spine in neutral position.

As you see the beginning if your postpartum workout is pretty easy but yet can be very hard! It can be hard if you were used to workout hard using the big muscle groups and now all you have to do is to breathe properly and work on those tiny tiny muscles you don’t actually see anyway. But believe me - they need all your attention at this phase.

Learn how to breathe, walk and keep the correct posture. Once you master this then move on to some “real” exercises. Start on the mat in lying position or so you have a better control over your body. Start with your body weight and after a while start adding some resistance using various equipment.

Even if the rest of your body is strong and you want to move on and level up remember the inner core comes first and it’s the most important part at this moment you want to focus on.

DIASTISIS RECTI

Almost every women will get Diastisis Recti (the abs separation or DR) during the pregnancy. It is physiological - the abdomen has to stretch to create the space for the growing baby. Some women will be lucky and their abs separation gets back to normal within few weeks after the labor. While some need some work on it. It actually doesn’t matter that much if you have the DR but how the muscles and the fascia (TVA) are strong. So if you find out you have the DR you should start strengthening your inner core anyway. Usually that helps to heal the DR as well.

There are some things you should avoid if you have DR so you won’t make it actually worse.

Most of them are not postpartum safe anyway - like planks, abs crunches etc. The full list is below.

But there are also some everyday moves - I want to write a separate blog post about this so stay tuned :)

WHAT TO AVOID

In this phase we are talking about the time frame 6 weeks postpartum until about 4-6 months postpartum.

I would definitely avoid any type of jumps (jumping jacks, burpees,…), running, high intensity workout. I would also avoid planks, full push ups, any type of abdominal crunches.