18 Jun POSTPARTUM FITNESS AND DIASTASIS RECTI HEALING : Strategies I’m Using to Rehabilitate My Core and Pelvis + Lose the Extra Pounds From Pregnancy
“Everyone needs to rehabilitate their body after having a baby. Period.” – Jared Beckstrand, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Carrying and birthing a baby is amazing. The body is coping with so many physical changes during those 9 months, however, whether we’re a first time mom or having our eighth baby, it is so important to rehabilitate the body after birth. After having my fourth baby in 5 years I headed into the postpartum recovery phase patient with myself and committed to ease into things when I felt ready for them. It was so important to me that my body knew how grateful I was for what it had just done for a fourth time and that I loved it for bringing me some of my greatest blessings.
Fortunately, COVID-19 relieved any pressure of doing too much too soon in all areas of my life. I took full advantage of staying home, resting, snuggling my baby and social distancing. Six weeks passed and I felt a desire to ease into more movement and rehabilitate my body, especially my pelvic floor and core muscles. I had never put so much thought or emphasis on this idea of rehabilitation because I always recovered and returned to a pre-pregnancy state quickly. I just assumed my body was rehabilitated if it looked like it did before getting pregnant, but I realized that’s not the case. Everyone needs to rehabilitate their body after pregnancy, no matter how quickly you “bounce back.”
Here’s where I started after baby number 4…
I eat a whole foods plant-based diet and preform low intensity/moderate workouts and diastasis recti friendly core exercises 6-7 days a week. I LOVE the food I eat and truly enjoy my workouts. Low Intenisty Steady State (LISS) workouts are energizing and fill my body with oxygen. My joints feel good, I dont feel fatigued or exhausted and I feel like I can achieve my other health goals because I’m not exceeding the intensity my body is ready for. It’s a lifestyle I can maintain even while I have four LITTLE kids at home.
I do all of my workouts barefoot in the living room in the comfiest clothes I can find. Often, baby Lily isn’t napping so she becomes my 17lb. weight and I modify the moves. If she still hasn’t fallen asleep, then I’ll lay her on the floor by me while I do the core exercises. You dont have to be jumping, moving fast, or doing high intensity workouts for it to be effective. Precision, form and using the muscles correctly will get the heart pumping.
100% of the at-home workouts I have done to this point (10 weeks in) have come from four YouTube channels:
1. Tone and Tighten
2. BodyFit by Amy
3. Sydney Cummings
4. Jessica Smith
You can make the core work functional and do it while holding your baby, blow drying your hair, sitting in the car, nursing your baby, etc. Sundays I usually walk or we go for a family hike, but I’m not too worried about being in a certain zone.
My first priority was to focus on diastasis recti friendly core exercises and LISS Workouts. I used Tone and Tighten’s LISS workout videos and all of his Diastasis Recti Exercise videos, I chose 4-5 exercises and did 10 reps of each exercise and 3 sets. It takes me about 20-30 minutes. Jared Beckstrand is a Doctor of Physical therapy and he specializes in postpartum fitness. Your foundation for all the exercises is engaging the transverse abdominis. He calls it “the suck it in muscle.” and he teaches you how to do that in all of his diastasis recti videos.
I have also really liked BodyFit by Amy Postnatal workouts for the first six weeks and even some of her pyramid and cardio HIIT workouts as I have built up my endurance and strength. I have mainly done her postnatal workouts because they keep my heart rate right where I want it and I dont have to worry about performing core exercises I want to avoid while my diastasis gap is still healing. She gives three levels of intensity. A low impact option to the highest impact option. If my body is feeling up to it, I altenate in between the low and high impact options.
I have incorporated some of Sydney Cummings cardio HIIT workouts on days I want to reach a higher intensity, but at this point in my recovery I still need to modify some of the moves. Most of her videos give you lower intensity options which is great, especially when I want to stay in the moderate/LISS activity zone. I incorporate her workouts once a week or once every two weeks.
Lastly, I really like Jessica Smith’s 30-40 minute walking videos. She is really good at what she does and has a lot of wisdom on how the body should move and teaches how to preform the exercises correctly in a simple way.
Core Exercises (The Right Ones)
The first thing I did was train my transverse abdominal muscle to activate during all the core exercises and workouts I was performing. It is the foundation for everything else. It will bring the torn halves closer together plus protect your core and back. You have to master activating the Transverse Abdominis to get the most bang for your buck. To learn how to activate the TA and learn the exercises you need to avoid if you have diastasis recti, I recommend watching any of Tone and TIghten’s Diastasis Recti videos such as, “AB Workout After Pregnancy” or “The four best moves for Diastasis Recti.” Most of his videos do a good job explaining diastasis recti, how to correctly activate the TA and how you can heal the gap. He’ll help you avoid the wrong exercises to close the diastasis gap and strengthen your pelvic floor Your deep core muscles INCLUDE your pelvic floor so that makes it a key area to focus on post-baby.
Quick explanation on Diastasis Recti and what muscle to AVOID activiating:
The RECTUS abdominis is the “six pack” muscle that’s right in the front. You want to AVOID exercises that activate this muscle such as sit ups, crunches, push-ups or planks. The two sides of the rectus abdominis are joined in the middle by connective tissue. Pregnancy or other stress on the abdominal wall causes that connective tissue/ligament to stretch out and even tear in severe cases (Diastasis Recti). You want to AVOID activiating the rectus abdominis until you have healed the diastasis recti condition.
What are LISS Workouts and How do they help me burn more fat?
LISS stands for “Low Intensity Steady State.” I believe it is nature’s gift to mamas because you can most likely preform a LISS workout while cleaning the house, going for a walk with the kids or doing yard work. The intensity of a workout is always referring to heart rate. Working out at different intensities or exercise zones yields different results. You can look up a chart to see the different exercise zones. The zones are based on percentages of your maximum heart rate. The harder you workout changes the way your body uses energy for fuel. If your heart rate is above 70% when you’re exercising you are using carbohydrates as fuel. If your heart rate is below 70% when you workout your body uses fat as fuel.
Dr. Jared Beckstrand says…
- The HIGHER the workout intensity – the less oxygen there is available to your body (breathing is shallow and breaths are more rapid).
- The LOWER the workout intensity – the more oxygen available to your body as you’re able to sustain normal breathing with deep breaths (you’re not as winded at lower intensities).
That means when we workout at lower intensities (50-70% of maximum heart rate) there is more oxygen available and our body is really good at using stored fat as an energy source. Your body needs an abundance of oxygen to metabolize fat.
When we workout at a higher intensity (above 70% maximum heart rate) there is not enough oxygen available for your body to metabolize fat efficiently so it converts over to a different energy source – carbohydrates.
Finding Your LISS Heart Rate Range
220 – (your age in years) = Maximum Heart Rate
Maximum Heart Rate x 0.5 = Low end of your LISS range
Maximum Heart Rate x 0.7 = High end of your LISS range
So for example, I am 29 years old. In order to find my LISS heart rate I would do the following…
220-29 = 191 heart beats per minute
191 x 0.5 = 96 bpm
191 x 0.7 = 133 bpm
I want to keep my heart rate between 96 and 133 beats per minute for the duration of my workout. It’s recommended at least 25-30 minutes.
What A Week Looks Like For Me…
Don’t let anything about the week below throw you off. It’s really simple… I just choose a 25-40 minute workout from one of the four people/youtube channels listed above and then after I do 20-30 minutes of diastasis core exercises.
Monday LISS Workout (Tone and Tighten)
Monday Core Exercises (Tone and Tighten Lose your Love Handles)
Tuesday: 40 minute HIIT workout with Sydney Cummings (Keeping it lower impact and lower intensity by making modifications)
Tuesday Core Exercises (20 minute Tone and Tighten “Ab Workout After Baby”)
Wednesday LISS Workout (Bodyfit by Amy Postnatal Cardio HIIT 2 Workout after Pregnancy
Wednesday Core Exercises (Tone & Tighten Lose your Love Handles)
Thursday LISS Workout (Tone and Tighten with Resistance Band)
Thursday Core Exercises- I choose 4-5 diastasic recti specific exercises from the Tone and Tighten videos and do 3 sets of 10 for each exercise. I do 3 rounds and choose my favorite exercises from these videos…
Friday LISS Workout (30 minute fat burning indoor cardio full workout- no equipment)
Friday Core Exercises (Tone and Tighten Lose your Love Handles)
Saturday LISS Workout- Hike OR any at home LISS Workout found on YouTube + core exercises
Sunday LISS Workout- Family walk or hike and core exercises (If I feel like it) Sunday has also been a rest day.
Other LISS Workouts:
Walking, hiking, elliptical, stationary bike, at home workouts, swimming, stair stepper, cleaning, etc. Basically anything where your heart rate is at 50-70% of your max heart rate for about 30 minutes counts as a low intensity steady state workout.
If you have questions…
or want more details on anything e-mail me at stoneandseedco@gmail.com or DM me on instagram @stoneandseedco
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