My Journey Working Out Postpartum
I’ve been wanting to write this blog post forever, but wanted to wait until I could give some solid feedback and advice while going through it myself. So I’m super excited for this one, and hope you all enjoy it too!!
Growing up, I always saw my parents live an active and healthy lifestyle and witnessed first hand the happiness it brought to them and how it improved the quality of their life. So, at 13 years old I decided to step into the gym for my first time (I did the elliptical and biceps for 20 minutes and called it a day 😂), and I fell in love instantly. Fast forward to today, I have continued to remain active all these years. Because of my lifestyle, when I got pregnant I thought “oh postpartum? I’m going to have the easiest time getting back to my normal routine. My body already knows what to do!”… man did I underestimate this journey. There is no part of it that has been easy, and it has taken way more time for my body to get back into the routine than I could have ever expected. All I can say is one thing to be sure to not lose sight of when you are postpartum is giving yourself grace. You grew a freaking human. You birthed that human. And now you are caring for that human around the clock. If there’s any time in your life to give yourself grace about “getting back to it”, it’s now.
Ok, onto my personal experience… if you have read my recent blog posts you will know that I’ve been dealing with infections, delayed healing, and prolapse during my postpartum journey. All of these things delayed me getting back into the gym, and I was finally cleared at 8 weeks pp. While it was definitely slightly frustrating having to wait a couple extra weeks, on the other hand I don’t know if I would have had the energy to workout before the 8 weeks. During those weeks I instead fully embraced spending time with my son and went on short walks to get in a bit of movement if I was feeling up for it.
My first day back in the gym, I was scared but incredibly excited. Things were still feeling “heavy” down there, and I felt pretty weak from not training for almost 3 months (I took time off before Dallas was born as well). I still felt excited and grateful that my health was turning a corner, but even though my doctor said I could “resume normal activity”, it didn’t feel like I physically could. I had to take it super slow and be patient with my body. One thing I did to help recover was start seeing a pelvic floor therapist about 6 weeks postpartum and boy do I wish I had seen her sooner. She will be helping me throughout my pp journey to help strengthen my pelvic floor again, as well as rehabbing the slight prolapse that I have. Each week I ease into my workouts more and more, and taking those small steps back into your routine is SO important and the main thing that I want you to take away from this blog post! It’s not a race…your future self will thank you if you take the appropriate steps towards getting back into things safely vs rushin .
Tips for new mamas getting back into working out postpartum:
Take. It. Slow.
Give yourself grace. You are incredible and you are doing amazing.
See a pelvic floor therapist asap! If you’re able to I would start this during pregnancy instead of waiting until pp.
Don’t take your docs word for it - get a second opinion to see if you truly are ready to hit it hard again.
Movement, even if it’s walking, is still good for the soul. Not every workout needs to be balls to the wall for it to be beneficial for your mental and physical health.
Maybe your old workout routine is for the closed chapter in your life. Maybe it’s time to develop a new routine that fits into this new exciting chapter. It’s OKAY for things to change!
Listen to your body. If you can only workout for 20 min a few days a week right now, that’s ok!! Once baby starts getting into a routine, it will be become easier to lengthen those workout times if you would like.
Workout WITH baby! You may need to hold him/her the whole time because they cry when you put them down and that’s ok! It will be a fun bonding moment for the two of you.
As I sit here writing this, I can tell you in confidence that each day gets easier and easier. I feel stronger each time I pick up a weight, and I’m out of breath less and less! I truly believe mamas are the strongest humans alive, even when we sometimes don’t feel that way. Just remember that and remember I am always rooting for you! ❤️
