Redefining Your Postpartum Journey: The Dangers of Jumping Back into Exercise Too Quickly (Part 4/6)

Once you’ve wrapped your head around why we mamas have to exercise differently for a bit and the mental shift we have to deal with in postpartum too, we know you’ll be ready to jump in, like…yesterday.

But hold up!

This is one of the biggest mistakes we see new moms make. Going too fast, too soon. 

We know, it’s so tempting to jump feet-first back into doing ‘what you were doing before’ the second you start feeling more normal around the 4-6 week mark, right? Plus, you see all these other moms running with their strollers, so why can’t you?!

First, you never know what’s going on with other women. The running moms might have great pelvic floor and core strength and are feeling great, OR, they could be peeing on themselves and in pain through the whole run. You just don’t know!

But back to you – doing too much, too fast can and adding crazy intensity to your workouts (or life!) can have major consequences, either now or years down the road. The postpartum repair process takes TIME and can be really slow.

Good to know:

the further away from the birth of your last child you are, the more likely you are to have an injury setback from going too fast. Why? Because your brain is telling you that enough time has passed and you’re ‘fine’ to amp up the intensity to make up for lost time. But your core and pelvic floor might have other ideas.

Check out this scenario:

Say you have a day off of work or the kids are with the sitter and you (finally!) have time to work out. What do you do? Maybe you throw on your sneakers and go out for a run. You start jogging and about 10 feet in your hips feel crazy wobbly and your back aches a little. But you suck it up and keep going. No pain, no gain, right? You keep running and now your right knee hurts and your back aches a little more than it did before. Now you’re breathing hard and you get a side stitch, but you keep running. Oh! There’s a hill up the road, that will be perfect to kick your butt into high gear. When you start up the hill, your knee really starts hurting and your back feels like it’s about to spasm at any minute. When you get home, your entire body is screaming at you and you feel completely out of shape, deflated, and feel awful about yourself.

I’d venture to say this is not how you’d like to feel when you start working out again. And you certainly wouldn’t feel motivated to do it again!!

Plus, if you pushed really hard during that run, you might end up with an injury that sets you back even further because your body wasn’t ready for that intensity, and now you’re spending 3 more months rehabbing that injury.

Obviously this is a made up scenario, but you can picture it right? You might even be able to feel the tension building in your body just from reading it. Ack! Let it go!

Plain and simple, we don’t want to see you get injured or have setbacks.

Here is our advice to you:

1. GO SLOWLY.

2. Take the time to build up a fantastic foundation.

3. Get to know your body well and understand how it feels to do things correctly.

4. Learn how to spot movements that feel ‘weird’ and actually pay attention to them – because that is the early warning sign for a potential injury.

5. THEN increase your intensity and resistance with intention.

You can absolutely do this! The good news is, you don’t have to do it alone. 🙂

Resources & Links

Looking for support to stay active during your pregnancy or start your postpartum recovery? Here are some options to get you started on a great path forward:

1) Take the Pelvic Floor & Core Strength Quiz. After taking the quiz, you'll get a score and based on your results, guidance on what steps to take to move you forward in your recovery.

2) Check out our podcast listening guides: Download the Pregnancy Listening Guide or Postpartum Listening Guide.

3) If you're pregnant, want to be way more active than you have been, AND want connection with other mothers, but don't know where to start…join the Expecting to Flourish™ Membership - a mom-driven and expert-guided virtual space empowering moms with a new approach to prenatal fitness and birth prep that actually prepares you for the physical and emotional hurdles of motherhood.

If you’re postpartum and ready to get moving, need to heal your body but you don’t know where to start…join us for Postpartum Repair & Restore LIVE, a science-backed and fun-stacked, Diastasis and Pelvic Floor Strength program. Start healing your diastasis and eliminating leaking in 8 weeks or less with our guidance.

4) Do you prefer working one-on-one, or have a high risk pregnancy, a severe diastasis or leaking that won’t quit? You might be a candidate to work with us privately. To find out, take this quick self assessment! If you qualify, you'll be invited to schedule a complementary Postpartum Strategy Session with us where we'll take a good look at what's not working in your repair process, and come up with a great plan just for you.