Pie with peas

Since exercise for today is all about strengthening the core, I thought I’d share a bit about what’s happening with me here.  So pregnancy basically plays havoc with any core strength and pelvic floor muscles.  They get stretched to blazes, your abs separate, towards the end of pregnancy a lot of women can get problems with the pelvic floor and have to be careful when laughing, sneezing, etc…  All in all, it aint pretty!  I was pretty lucky I reckon.  My abs separated, but not too much – when you’re pregnant you can see it is a ridge down the centre of your belly if you try to do a crunch (don’t keep doing it though as that just makes it worse).  My pelvic floor stayed strong the whole way through and I never had any issues with that side of things.  The muscle was still stretched big time though and it all takes time to get back to normal.

I initially went to the physio to get checked out as I wanted to take part in a Mums n Bubs pilates class.  The class didn’t end up going ahead, but the physio gave me some exercises to help strengthen my core without putting strain on my pelvic floor or pushing things too hard too quickly.  I was doing these exercises for about 3 weeks before the 12wbt started.  I decided to go back and see her again this week as I had some baby-free time available and I wanted to make sure that doing the exercise program wasn’t making anything worse!

We went through the exercises I had printed out for the week and was given the go-ahead for most things.  A few exercises she made me do them for her to make sure my form was correct and I was told to only do as many as I could with correct form.  Not to push myself to the point of fatigue on them as this is when I would get sloppy and could potentially do damage.  That was for things like push ups, planks and especially burpees!  Some exercises we modified – double crunches I just can’t maintain the “lift’ on my pelvic floor at the same time as doing the exercise, so the compromise here is to just do the legs part of it as other exercises picked up the top half.  Then there were some exercises that were just out altogether.  These were all ones where you have your legs wide apart such as the sumo squats.  I had been doing these for the first couple of weeks, but I Guess hadn’t been paying attention to me pelvic floor.  The test was – stand in position, engage core, lift pelvic floor, now try the squat.  Just could NOT keep the pelvic floor lifted while it was stretched wide.  So this exercise is out for me for now.  Same happened with the clams but more so – I actually push down on my pelvic floor doing those, can’t keep it lifted or even neutral.

The physio was otherwise happy with what I was doing and amazed at the intensity of the exercise we were doing in the program.  I did ask when I would be able to add the exercises back in and was told to give it a few more months to give things time to get back to normal.  She was very impressed at the dedication needed to attempt this program while only a few months post-birth, but warned that putting too much strain on the pelvic floor just yet could lead to permanent damage and I’d suffer the consequences later in life.

So all you new mums out there doing the 12wbt – give yourself a pat on the back, this is even harder for us!  But get that pelvic floor checked out by someone who specialises in post-pregnancy recovery (they may advise something different to me).  I want the results of this program but not at the risk of damaging my pelvic floor and possible future incontinence!