How did I navigate my own postpartum recovery and return to fitness? Both of my births were vaginal births, but my second was a home birth with no medical interventions. I did have a first-degree tear, that required maybe one stitch, but very different healing than from my first birth. So, please keep in mind that my healing process may be different than yours based on the prehab work I did during my pregnancy and what happened during my birth.
Check out the links below to explore how I approached my return to fitness after my second birth.
Weeks 0-2: Rest + Breathing
During the first two weeks, I focused primarily on being in reclined or supine positions and off my feet. My main focus was snuggling with baby and establishing breastfeeding, and my support team took care of daily chores and my toddler. I know that not everyone has the same support system, so understanding your priorities during these first weeks can be helpful!
Week 2-5: Breath Coordination + Mobility
As my bleeding began to slow, I started to incorporate gentle core exercises and focused on beginning to coordinate my breath with movement. There was no rep scheme or set number of exercises; I moved how felt good to me. and didn’t bother counting. Exploring different breathing drills each day helped me reconnect with my breath in preparation for movement.
I also started to incorporate short walks and monitored my bleeding to any increases. If there was an increase, I lowered my overall activity. If there was no increase, I slowly would increase my level of activity over the next few weeks.
Weeks 6-9: Structured Movement + Coordination
When my bleeding had completely stopped, to include spotting, I began our 16-week return to fitness program. The first four weeks of the program were focused on relearning basic movement patterns with little to no weight. I really focused on continuing to coordinate my breathing with my movement, but the movements were upright and more dynamic than the prior weeks.
My workouts were done in short bursts, as baby boy had a big say in how long I could workout. I tried to time workouts for his nap times, but sometimes he would wake up before I was completed. I would either hold him as my weight or take breaks throughout to nurse and play with him and my toddler. I wanted to give myself a lot of grace in my return to fitness, and felt okay taking my time and with the interruptions.
I also saw my pelvic floor physical therapist during this time to see how my initial healing was progressing, and access my prior pelvic organ prolapse. I found any pelvic floor heaviness I was feeling was actually related to pelvic floor tension, as opposed to a worsening prolapse. I incorporated a lot of pelvic floor relaxation exercises to help relieve the tension and I found a lot of relief!
Months 3-4 Postpartum: Strength Endurance + Stabilization
The next two months were focused on building a foundation in strength and continuing to focus on stabilization. Our program increases in overall volume, and rep scheme is higher to increase muscular endurance. All exercises were paired with a stabilization or core focused exercise to help increase balance, single leg and hip stability, and reconnect with my core postpartum.
This phase was focused on preparing to return to higher impact movements. I also began to feel more comfortable in my pelvic floor with hopping and my breathing was beginning to feel more natural. I was feeling more like myself again.
Month 5-6: Return to Higher Impact & Strength
Now that I was beginning to feel more comfortable in my postpartum body, and felt that my foundation was fairly solid, I began to incorporate more higher impact movements such as running and increased the weight that I was lifting.
Our approach to return to running includes doing short timed intervals, and then a longer walk period. This allowed me to begin to incorporate running, but was mindful of my pelvic floors fatigue levels. I wanted to stop my running interval before my pelvic floor began to clench or quit due to fatigue. Over the weeks, I increased the running interval, and decreased the walking, until I was running for several miles with no pelvic floor issues!
I also started to push the weights in the gym! I felt strong from the first two months of training, and wanted to increase loading. I focused on maintaining optimal form, and continued to coordinate my breathing with my movements. I began to slowly incorporate more breath holding during my lifts, and monitored how I was managing pressure.
Month 7 and Beyond: Return to Specialized Sport
After several months of increasing my strength base and returning to higher impact movements, I felt more like myself with my workouts again! It took a lot of patience, but I feel stronger and more capable than I did pre-pregnancy. I used to have a lot of hip and knee issues before I was pregnant, but after forcing myself to truly start from scratch each pregnancy and relearn movements in a better way, I found that a lot of my old chronic pain is now gone!
I explored our different specialized programs after completing our 16-Week Return to Fitness program! I started with our Running Program and then did our Weightlifting Program.
Now I currently do our monthly subscription programming, that cycles through 4-weeks of a specific focus (strength gains, power, etc.), with a one-week deload between cycles. Spending the time rehabbing mindfully postpartum has helped me feel stronger and move faster than I have ever before!
Want to return to fitness with us? Check out our postpartum fitness offerings to find a program that helps you return to fitness!