Mommy Muscles

POSTPARTUM RECOVERY IS WAY MORE!!!

It’s about connecting and building stability in your hips, pelvis and core to be able to move well again!

Pregnancy really affects your core muscles which stabilize how you move and these need attention afterwards, before loading your body with high impact and loaded activity.

Until the last couple of years there has been a missing piece to postpartum recovery. Mommy Muscles 6week Inner Core Retraining Program is the rehab needed to help support and recover your postpartum body and core from many months of pregnancy and the trauma from delivery.

This program is unique as it’s individualized to your postpartum body and developed by a pelvic floor physiotherapist and I pregnancy and postpartum athleticism and corrective exercise coach!

We want you to have the support and guidance we wish we had during our postpartum journeys. Education is a HUGE component to our program because we want you to learn how to use it in a efficient way to help you become stronger, symptom and pain free!!

STRONG over SLIM

Because our kiddos are always watching.

Since having the kids, I have promised myself to never talk negative about my body in front of them.

My kids have been watching me train women since they were babies! And always I explain that they’re coming to me to get strong!!!!

When and I developed the Mommy muscles program the main goal to help clients be pain and symptom free and to do that we need to get you stronger all over!

Gone are the days I do side by side pics to look at how much weight someone has lost. After having babies I want to see how we corrected alignment and posture! To me that is a huge win!! If I can get my moms back to doing the activities and exercises they love pain and symptom free, mission accomplished 🙂

Think about what you can add to your daily habits such as exercise and food to make you stronger. Instead of thinking of what you can limit to be smaller.

Postnatal recovery is WAY more!! It’s about building stability in your hips, pelvis and core to be able to move well again!

Pregnancy really affects your core muscles which stabilize how you move and these need attention afterwards before loading your body with high impact and loaded activity!

Jumping and landing, running, and similar activities can place a lot of stress on your joints and pelvic floor if your core control is weak or fatigues quickly.

Before you go out and hit the road again or go straight to Bootcamp ask yourself is your body ready for that yet?

The Mommy Muscles Program at Elevation Health Cold Lake was started to help you become more aware of your core and pelvic floor and show you how it’s all connected to help you regain strength so you can continue to do the activities you love ❤️ this rehab or “4th trimester” training has been the missing piece for all postnatal fitness and T.J (pelvic floor physio) and I (personal trainer) are happy and excited to provide this program for you!! 😀

NOW IS THE TIME TO BUILD YOUR FOUNDATION

It’s NOT the time to go for a run or a do a beach body workout.

The 4th Trimester 0-3 months postpartum is a time where movements and exercise should be intentional not high intensity.

I know the urge to get your body back and run again is VERY tempting! That temptation forces us to go all out all the time. There is a perception that busier is better. That rest is for the weak. That working hard all of the time, cutting your rest time proves how dedicated you are.

BUT

If you don’t ever give yourself downtime you will never be able to perform your best! The only way to rebuild your fitness level is by giving your body time to repair, recover from 9 months plus of constant change!

Trust me if you cut corners and skip steps you will have a much harder time to see the results you want!

Choose Intention NOW ! Do the postpartum rehab to build yourself back up ⬆️ 🏃‍♀️💪🏋️‍♂️

You won’t regret it 💗🙂

INCONTINENCE IS NOT NORMAL‼️

It doesn’t matter if you had a baby or not, incontience can happen to anyone but it’s NOT normal.

Our society has normalized incontinence, and we all laugh when we tell our friends that we leak when we laugh and jump. BUT I’m here to tell you that you DON’T have to live with it, you can get help and learn techniques and strategies to help prevent and manage leaking from happening 🙂

Did you know that there is 2 different types of incontinence???

STRESS INCONTINENCE is when demand on the bladder is increased through impact or abdominal force (coughing, sneezing, jumping, running). This type of incontinence stops moms from exercising! We don’t want that! So here are some tips to help during running and jumping rope.

👉Try quick short exhales while jumping followed by a long inhale.

👉During running, try to breathe deeply and focus on leaning forward slightly and coming tall.

👉Check ribcage and pelvic alignment

👉When landing does your pelvis slip into a posterior pelvic tilt

👉Think about soft knees when landing and being light on your feet

URGE INCONTINENCE is the feeling like you might not make it to the bathroom, leaking may or may not occur

Sound like you? Try this!

👉Stop the “just in case” pre ( this trains the bladder to empty early).

👉Try quick pelvic floor contractions -first master then then use them when feeling the urge

👉 Relax and practice deep breathing

👉Use the clock and distractions to retrain.

👉Identify irritants- caffeine, coffee alcohol

👉Identify pelvic floor tightness or nerve irritation

Give these a try next time you have an urge or experience leaking with exercise!

Need help retraining your core and pelvic floor? Check out our link in the bio on how we can help you 🙂

HOW YOU TRAIN POSTPARTUM MATTERS💗

While pregnant with my 2nd I remember coming across a pre & postnatal course and thinking who has time for that? It’s so slow and boring, I like to go hard or go home.

Fast forward to 4 years postpartum when I ran a half marathon (21km) race and my shorts were so soaked and my core was painful at my belly button. It was after that I realized ok I need to figure out how Im going to fix myself because there wasn’t any support for my situation at the time. I knew I had a Diastasis and hernia. And I knew that the way I was training myself up to that point was obviously not benefiting me. I was just making my symptoms worse which ended up resulting in me to get a hernia repair and regress in my training.

There is a reason why it’s called Postpartum Fitness. Its not just because you’re exercising after a baby it’s HOW you move your body. It’s not about beating up your body more by pushing the crap out of it with burp*es, planks, push-ups, sprinting, lifting heavy and leg lifts. It’s about moving and choosing exercises that feel good for your body and movements that will benefit you and build your body back up in a safe and effective way with progression!

Postpartum exercise should be slow to start and different from how you were exercising before your body because your body is DIFFERENT now and that’s ok!! Learning how to use and work your new body includes should include variety and moving in ALL different planes of motion.

Train for how you want your long term fitness to look like🙂

YOUR CORE IS MUCH MORE THAN JUST A 6 PACK

The core is the central region of your body that provides you with strength and sturdiness that hold your body upright. It’s a dynamic system of muscles that work tirelessly throughout the day to support your body while you do heavier tasks.

👉Diaphragm is the top of the core that contributes to stability while contributing to breathing.

👉Pelvic Floor is the bottom of the core that supports the bladder, uterus, re**um keeping contents off your bowel and bladder inside of you.

👉Re**us Abdominis is in the front “6 pack muscles”

👉External and Internal Obliques are the walls of the core.

👉Transverse Abdominis is the deepest layer that responds to pressure and stability.

Muscles of the core are grouped together based on similar functions. The pelvic floor, diaphragm and transverse Abdominis work together and create THE INNER CORE💗

The muscles of the inner core work together to create, contain and regulate intrabdominal pressure.

In the Mommy Muscles Program you will learn about these muscles and how to connect to them, engage and use them not only individually but also how to get them working together to manage abdominal pressure inside exercises and daily activities that can help you decrease and prevent pelvic floor symptoms of incontinence and increase function of your Diastasis.

That sturdiness you feel in your core when exerting yourself is due to pressure that is produced by your core. If it has been awhile since you felt that you will learn how to strengthen your core so you can feel that again!

ATHLETE BRAIN 🧠 IS REAL

I know it’s SO tempting to try and get back into routine as quickly as possible once you get that 🟢light at 6 weeks postpartum.

BUT if you want to achieve sustainable fitness and function long term, it’s highly suggested to master the basics of control and recovery before building into strength and dynamic efforts. It’s a process, and important to remember that the gym will always be there, the roads will always welcome you back for a run,the miles, weights lifted and accomplishments are earned with time, efficiency and intention. Know it’s okay to have an off season so that you can perform better when the time is right!

UNTUCK THAT BUTT!!! 🍑🍑

So our bodies were stretched to the max during pregnancy and now we need to lift our kiddos!

The thing is, our core’s are still so weak from pregnancy that they don’t have the strength to help us carry kiddos so out glutes and back do all the work instead🙈

What happens is because we lack core strength we use our glutes by tucking or griping them and arch our backs to help compensate for lack of core strength to help us carry our kids! This posture can create tension in our pelvic floors increasing symptoms of incontience (leaking), tension on our healing Diastasis making it worse and low back pain.

To help decrease these symptoms try stacking your ribs over hips! This increases pelvic floor function, arm and core strength💪

So relax those glutes and untuck that butt!!🍑

YOU JUST HAD A BABY and now the first thing you are looking forward to is that 6 week appointment to get the okay to join that fitness class again to get your pre baby body back

Sound familiar?

You may feel ready to kill it at the gym, but trust me YOU ARE NOT READY FOR THAT. Your va**na is injured and healing. It does not need repetitive impact. Your abs are healing and they are not ready for that difficult core exercise.

You may feel exempt from the need to rebuild capacity, or at the minimum, you’re curious to try. Sometimes even the best athletes, the ones who probably “know better” to an extent, still need rehab and progressive exercise after a knee surgery... why is after birth any different?

You will never regret being strategic, but you will likely regret the symptoms and injuries that can easily aggravated by doing too much too soon during a vulnerable healing phase. 💗

Well said .battles !

4 IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN DO THAT CAN HELP IMPROVE YOUR DIASTASIS RECTI POSTPARTUM 🩷

⭐️Think About Stacking Your Body in a More Neutral Alignment.By keeping a more neutral alignment throughout the day especially when exercising to allow your diaphragm and pelvic floor to work together like the unit they are. This will also allow your deep core to work for you!

⭐️Improve your Core and Pelvic Floor Connection.. After babies you may feel disconnected to your abdominals. Regaining tension in your linea alba can take time but working on the connection between your deep abdominal muscles and pelvic floor muscles could help you regain body awareness and improve muscle function.

⭐️Progressively Load the Abdominal Muscles.It’s all about finding balance! We don’t want to keep things too easy for too long. And we don’t want to dive back into activities our bodies aren’t ready for yet. As you return to exercise , focus on progressively loading your abdominal muscles (gradually increasing the difficulty, intensity, and loafing of your Ab exercises over time). Give yourself a challenge, but make sure to stop before the linea alba begins to bulge.

⭐️Stop If You Experience Bulging at the Linea Alba or Pelvic Floor Symptoms. Symptoms of doming of your linea alba, incontinence or heaviness in your va**na can all I share ineffective management of intra abdominal pressure and an inability to coordinate the deeper muscle symptom appropriately for the work you’re doing. If you experience these symptoms I suggest going I’m to see a pelvic floor assessment with a pelvic physiotherapist.

Although you may have had a completely uncomplicated va**na birth, you still went through pregnancy and birth!

Pregnancy and birth heightens your risk of pelvic floor dysfunction. You still must take the time to lay the foundation of function, strength, and strategy.

Here are some of the reasons why you still need to focus on the health of your pelvic floor after birth.

👉The downward pressure of your baby on your pelvic floor muscles and connective tissues in pregnancy and birth can stretch these soft tissues leaving them more lax than normal.

👉Your expanded uterus puts pressure against your other pelvic organs, including the bladder and re**um, , and can disrupt their normal function.

👉Scarring in the perineal tissues: if there was any degree of tearing during birth (internal or external), this can impact pelvic floor function, leading to such things as urethral burning, feeling like you need to p*e more often as usual, leaking urine, and or pain.

The alignment changes that happen during pregnancy and postpartum (constant tucking butt under when standing or rib cage thrusting upwards) can affect the tone of your pelvic floor can lead to loss of strength.

👉There are hormonal changes that occur in pregnancy and postpartum (especially if breastfeeding) that can affect the function of connection tissues, potentially making them more lax. This could affect pelvic floor and pelvic organ support.

Once postpartum, always postpartum 💗 it’s never too late to give your body the intention it needs before adding the intensity!

Mommy Muscles 6 week online program is here to take care of the rehab for YOU!😊

DEPTH OVER WIDTH

Diastasis Recti use to be diagnosed based on the distance between the two sides of the rebuts abdominis muscles and defined “healing” as closing the gap. However over the years the the understanding of Diastasis Recti has evolved!

Today, the focus is more on the loss of connective tissue density and the inability to produce tension in the linea alba, which can compromise function of the abdominal wall. In other words, there’s less concern with reducing the width of the gap and more emphasis on producing optimal Ab muscle activation and restoring strength throughout the abdominal wall.

Healing = Regaining optimal abdominal wall function.

Healing can also mean different things to different people. One postpartum women may envision “healing Diastasis Recti “ as meaning she can return to lifting heavy weights, which might require both sides of the abdominal wall to function optimal. Another may see it as feeling comfortable and confident wearing clothes or looking in the mirror postpartum🩷

WHAT THE HECK IS DIASTASIS??

Diastasis Re**us Abdomins (DRA) is a widening of the space between the two sides of the recurs abdominis (6 pack) muscle, which is called the inter- re**us distance.

👉The linea alba, which is a fibrous attachment between the two halves of the abdomen, has stretched.

👉The re**us sheath, which is a casing around the re**us muscles, has stretched and the re**us abdominal muscles are weak and thin so take up less space in the sheath.

Diastasis can look a few different ways with the separation below, around above or open from top to bottom.

6 YEARS AGO I was 31 years old. I had a 4 year old and 1 year old, and my body was falling apart. I was running, lifting weights, taking a spin instructor course, doing all the things I thought I needed to do to rebuild strength I lost during my pregnancy years but all I was left with was a protruding tummy, pelvic discomfort, incontinence and a sad disconnect and discontentment with my body. Even though I was a fitness trainer, I had never considered the fact that I could be suffering from Diastasis Recti. When I discovered I was living with a 3 winger wide and 3 knuckle deep Diastasis and umbilical hernia I realized these symptoms might be the source of all my physical struggles I finally began to hope!

However, the lack of helpful information available to me as a mother AND as a fitness trainer was shocking and discouraging. Now 6 years later, after focusing all my attention on this condition and the core related issues, I have been able to make a difference in Diastasis Recti awareness and education. I have concentrated all my recourses on helping others identify what is going on, help prevent it and treat it with my Mommy Muscles 6 week Inner Core Retraining Program!

August is Diastasis Recti Awareness Month and I plan to share with you content to help you feel educated, and empowered to feel strong again!

YOUR PELVIC FLOOR DOESN’T NEED TO BE STRONGER🤯

Instead, it needs to be dynamic, responsive to a variety of tasks and coordinated. Being able to contract and let go is important. This comes down to tension management. This influences function and athletic performance.

It’s not just about doing more Kegals or doing 5 pelvic floor exercises it’s much more!

EVERY MOM AND HER POSTPARTUM RECOVERY IS DIFFERENT.

Some moms can begin running after 12 weeks, but for others, it can be many months.

Without waiting and running too soon, can actually set you back long term. It’s important to consider all the things your body just went through

👉Your body, specifically your pelvic floor went through very real physical trauma during pregnancy and birth. ( Even after a c section!)

👉Your ligaments are looser due to pregnancy and postpartum hormonal changes.

👉Your core needs to be rebuilt after all the stretching and shifting it did as you GREW A BABY!

👉The weight of the baby shifted how you carried your weight, often resulting in weaker glutes, especially in the side butt!

👉More than 2 out of 3 postpartum women deal with pelvic floor dysfunction, including abdominal separation (Diastasis Recti), musculoskeletal pain, incontinence as well as pelvic organ prolapse.

Running too soon can result term pelvic floor problems. Specifically, running before your body is ready may increase likelihood of pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence.

Wait 12 weeks atleast to let your body heal. Listen to your body. Work on breathing, slowly incorporate walking and gentle, low impact exercise that support core and pelvic floor and strengthening.

I also highly recommend working with a pelvic floor physiotherapist to monitor how your healing is going and beginning a individualized inner core retraining program within the first 12 weeks to help you lay a strong foundation to begin a walk/run program on.

DM for my FREE 12 week Postpartum Activity Guidelines and info on my Mommy Muscles 6 week Inner Core Retraining Program.