When you have no symptoms (like pain, pressure or leaking) and you’re feeling good, can you just dive right back into your usual workouts after pregnancy?

What about if you are having symptoms? What do you do then?

One of the reasons I decided to focus on coaching postpartum exercise specifically is because – even though more education is out there – there is still a lot of confusion and frustration over, “What can I do? What can’t I do?”

And one of the biggest sources of frustration is when to know it’s “safe” to go back to your usual workouts. Especially if the workouts are more challenging and include movements like running, jumping, heavy lifting, little to no rest…

There will never be a one size fits all approach to returning to exercise postpartum. But there is a mistake I see a lot of new moms commonly make.

And it can cause or contribute to issues now and in the future, so you need to be mindful about this.

I made this mistake after my first pregnancy. I don’t want you to make it too.

[Read more…] about How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake That Most New Moms Make When They Return to Exercise Post-Pregnancy

The other day I was leading a workshop for a local Mommy and Me group and I brought up the fact that, when your doctor or midwife says you’re “cleared” for exercise at your 6 or 8 week check-up, that doesn’t mean you’re cleared for all the exercise.

I talked about how our bodies go through some significant changes in a very short period of time and our entire body, but especially our cores and pelvic floors, need some support before we can expect things to feel and function well when we go for a run, do that HIIT class, or challenge ourselves with that heavy barbell.

We need to restore our core and pelvic floor strength so that we’re actually physically capable of pushing ourselves in our workouts – and even just in our everyday lives.

Mom life is so physically demanding and we need the strength to keep up.

So here are 5 ways you can help restore your core and pelvic floor strength postpartum.

[Read more…] about 5 Ways to Restore Your Core and Pelvic Floor Strength Postpartum

Since returning to the gym postpartum you’ve probably already recognized that things are feeling different.

Maybe you’re getting some symptoms – like heaviness or bulging in your pelvic floor.

Maybe you’re feeling a heck of a lot weaker than you used to feel.

Maybe you didn’t expect to have a tough time doing even a pretty basic exercise like a lunge or plank.

The truth is that your body just went through an insane amount of change in a relatively short period of time.

And if you want to feel stronger, and capable of lifting heavy weights, skipping, running, going to HIIT classes and doing all the fitness and active adventuring you loved pre-baby, then you need to know this.

This is critical to your success in the gym (and it’s absolutely tied to your capacity to feel like a healthy, happy mom).

[Read more…] about Why You Won’t Get The Results at the Gym You’re Hoping For Unless You Know This One Critical Thing

Do you ever see a post on Instagram and think, “YESSSSSS!!!”?

That’s the feeling I got when I recently read a post by Dr. Carrie Pagliano. She’s a women’s and pelvic health physical therapist with nearly 20 years of experience and she’s also a mom (so you know she gets it).

Carrie was posting about running postpartum and I couldn’t help but nod along as she said things like, “OB said you’re back to everything at 6 weeks. Whaa? In most cases at 6 weeks you’re just starting to feel human again. There’s nothing physiologically that says that you’re ready to hit the trails just like you did before baby.”

And I was definitely empathizing with her when she said, “My most horrifying run made me dash into the local gas station convenience store, less than a mile from home, barely making it another mile to a local high school restroom & then just making the final mile back. I was devastated.

The urgency had been excruciating, the leakage constant & my ❤️ was broken. I’d been a runner since 7th grade.

Was it over?

Would I ever run again?”

If you’ve heard or can relate to any of this, then you won’t want to miss today’s interview. It’s full of relatable, actionable advice that will have you shaking your head yes and feeling like finally someone gets what it’s like and has the tools to help you get back into running safely postpartum.

[Read more…] about How to Safely Return to Running Postpartum

A common question I get asked is whether a certain core exercise is safe – especially for things like diastasis recti or pelvic organ prolapse.

And there are so many ideas floating around the interwebs on what core exercises are “mom safe”.

I get how easy that makes things.

You can put certain exercises in a box labelled “safe” and other exercises in a box labelled “unsafe”.

But the truth is that it’s not that black and white. There’s a whole lot more grey going on.

And another truth is that, if you want to feel stronger, faster, then you’ll actually want to avoid this idea of only doing mom safe core exercises.

Here’s why…

[Read more…] about The Fastest Way to Feel Stronger After Baby is to Stop Doing “Mom Safe” Core Exercises, And Do This Instead

Let’s talk about the guilt game going on right now.

You see, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, that swung right into a human rights revolution, that’s caused so many people (myself included) to re-evaluate how we’re doing life, parenting and business.

And this has probably brought up a lot of stuff for you.

Like guilt.

We feel guilty for

… not exercising enough because life feels overwhelming right now

… turning to food, Netflix binges, and hour-long Instagram scrolls to try to distract ourselves

… trying to be the present parent while working a full-time job at home and feeling like we’re failing at both

… not talking about racism with our friends, family, and kids sooner

… making unhealthy choices that we know aren’t good for us but we choose them anyway

… feeling exhausted, burned out, and just done (even though we have so much privilege and nothing to complain about compared to so many other people in the world right now so who are we to feel these feelings anyways, right?!)

And none of this is helping you feel good.

None of this is helping you show up for yourself and your family in a positive, powerful way.

So what do you do? How can you move forward? What steps can you take to feel less overwhelmed, make healthy choices that you know are going to make you feel better, and let this guilt go?

[Read more…] about Here’s the Plan Going Forward