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Postpartum Abdominal Conditioning
Hi,
I am 2-3 weeks away from delivery. I have been so fortunate to have a completely easy first pregnancy, but now I am itching to get back into a more athletic shape. I have been fairly sedentary during pregnancy, falling into a pattern of only gentle exercise like walking and yoga. I want to get back into weight training and more regular activity as soon as possible! (Also, a few months ago I moved and now have a wonderful vaulted ceiling for my pole, so I’m both giddy about getting back into pole and nervous about all the strength I’ve probably lost for advanced tricks.)
I hear I should wait six weeks after a C-section (which sounds miserable!), but what kind of ab exercise can I do after a vaginal delivery? And how will I know when my abs come back together and I can start doing the intensive kind of ab conditioning?
I would love to hear your experiences and advice! Thanks!
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6 Replies
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I need to know the same answers. Did u pole in your pregnancy?
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I had a C section recently and my doctor was very adamant about not doing anything aside from walking for 6 full weeks. It was definitely torturous to wait that long, but I figured if my uterus wasn’t healed yet and I strained it too hard I could tear the incision and an exploding uterus was not something I wanted to risk. Although that’s probably being a bit dramatic :). I did read however that the first an thing you should do postpartum regardless of how you deliver is Plank. Plank plank plank as much as you can tolerate, once you’re cleared to do so. I believe it has to do with strengthening the deeper “girdle-like” ab muscles first for stabilization, and then later you could do the ab rectus (6 pack) muscles and obliques. As far as I know you can start planking right after a vaginal delivery. Although I highly recommend giving yourself a few weeks to bond with your baby :). Babies eat every hour or 2 and there’s not much time in between to be doing much working out. I was super motivated and like you thought I would be working out ASAP while the baby sleeps, but the reality if it is that while your baby sleeps, you have a small window to eat food or possibly shower if there’s someone else home. Lol. Not to mention the unbelievable exhaustion. Why do we have babies again?? Haha I’m kidding. My baby is 8 months old and worth every sleepless night and poopy diaper : P but anyway, just wanted you to know from my experience working out wasn’t even something that seemed a possibility for a while. I think having a C section in a way was good for me though because it forced me to not worry about how to get my strength back, etc. By the time 6 weeks passed, I was more in a routine and felt more ready…. Until I tried to actually plank or sit up. I used to be able to do sit-ups like no ones business. Arial shoulder mounts galore. I found myself not being able to do a sit up many MONTHS after my 6 week wait! It was SO discouraging! I did planks and planks and planks. And when I couldn’t do a sit up, I would do reverse training, coming down slowly from a seated position. I still have some ways to go on the pole, but now after 6 months of training I can do almost 100 sit-ups in a row. The more difficult thing for me with a c section was leg lifts. That was actually uncomfortable ( I could feel the c section area pulling) for quite some time after. I worked out pretty hard (running and weightlifting) up until 7 months of pregnancy. Having said all this, every persons body is different so just do what you can and keep at it! It will come back, just may take a few months, and on day 1, you may feel like you will never be able to pole again, but you will! Sorry that was so long! Basically just plank plank plank plank as much as you can is my advise. I don’t think I tried to do a sit up for at least 2 weeks (after my 6 week wait).
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I did pole in early pregnancy, but I stopped at 12 weeks pregnant … mostly because I was just too dizzy to anything other than walk in a straight line. LOL!!
My blood pressure was lower than usual during early pregnancy, so doing anything other than hanging onto the pole and waving my butt about just wasn’t happening.
Also, I was exhausted. Early pregnancy for me (for both of my kids) has been the worst for energy levels. I felt like I was a a very tired 80 year old woman.
Which kinda sucks, because when I really wanted people to know I was pregnant and to maybe treat me with kid gloves and offer me seats, etc, I was too early to show, so nobody had a clue I was pregnant. LOL! 😀
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Most doctors will want you to wait 4 weeks before restarting exercising. I started hooping day two of being home from the hospital because I had energy! This was baby number three for me. I think I goofily got on the pole and inverted two weeks post partum and everything hurt for days! I waited until my four week and started building back up at that point. I did a lot of crunches/floor moves and I really noticed that after this pregnancy and attempting to get back into shape my abdominals hurt a lot more and are in general much more tender than before. My little one is almost a year old and I still dread ab days.
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Hi Maurer Rose :
I think you could start gentle exercising shortly after birth (like, in a couple weeks) if you had a vaginal birth and felt up to it. Nothing too ‘shocking’ for the body, but exercise like you’re used to now. Within a couple months, i started doing light stuff on the pole. The main problem is finding the time and energy, even though the desire is there. lol.
As far as intensive ab stuff, yes, beware of abdominal separation. This (if you have it) will work itself out with time and corrective exercises. I think the website that I used for guidance was befitmom.com. My biggest advice would be to go slow…everything is getting back to ‘normal’ and takes time. But it’s a great time to work on ‘easy’ moves, like pirouettes, body waves, floor stuff…basically dancing that doesn’t require lifting. It will come! I know I was doing inversions again at about 3 months.
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KT Coates has a 7 video series on post-natal ab conditioning for pole on YouTube. This is the first video from the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjbEdGbVX74&list=UU661peV4XddIqoFZx3IUtuQ
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