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The Process - 2 to 5 Months Postpartum



Back to my training journey. My last post on this topic was 10 weeks postpartum. I'm gonna be honest with you and share with you that I made a few mistakes. Whilst admittedly I did my due diligence, was well-read and fully-loaded into this passion project, I still did things I shouldn't have. How easy it is to make little mistakes. I don't think I should've gone for that little jog at 7 weeks postpartum and I shouldn't have been trying out skipping then either. This next comment could come across as imperious but I actually believe that the women's health physio gave me the incorrect advice. Yep... even when I've been banging on about going to see a women's health physio, turns out they're not even 100% spot on. I think she held way too much confidence in my ability to do impact work so early. Yes perhaps my pelvic floor was in tact, but she didn't assess the functionality of my diastasis (see previous blog) or look at my body as a whole, she never assessed my back, my quads strength, the state of my knees or ankles. I think so much more needs to be finely tuned after pregnancy than just a pelvic floor (but of course pelvic floor and deep muscle slings first and foremost). This goes to show how important it is to learn the signs, learn what to look for and yes I guess at this stage - although I hate the phrase - 'listening to your body' and your instincts comes in handy. Choose a reputable physio. Ask questions. Be cautious and stop if you feel any discomfort or weakness at all.




I was actually grateful that after my little run and skipping practice I felt a bit of niggly back pain and a few tweaks in my knee. I guess it was my body's way of telling me to 'slow down, Kat' 'this isn't a race.' I might've not been peeing myself and had been pain-free at the time, but the fact of the matter was my midsection simply wasn't strong enough to control everything during a jog, and my quads simply weren't strong enough to take the impact on the jump. I'm grateful that I could respond to those little niggles, reign it in and re-set with no harm done but it was a warning that even with the best intentions, and a body that feels strong and pain-free, when rehabbing postpartum it's a process that takes a long time.

I would even suggest that in a strange and convoluted way, in the postpartum phase you should pretty much ignore how your body feels and just do the process. Your body may feel fragile and frail. Do the process. Your body may feel amazing at 6-8 weeks post... still, do the process.


What is the process?


Did you read my last blog about connecting with your deep muscle system? This is the beginning of the process. Until you can connect to these muscle groups you shouldn't really begin to train at all. So, at 10 weeks postpartum I began the process again. From scratch.

My 'process' took another 12 weeks. The long and short of this rehab phase looked like this:

  • 12 weeks of dedicated, mindful rehab
  • Core: Each day I walked in the gym I'd commit to a mash-up of carefully selected breathing and core exercises and a good 20 minutes of this, on the mat, before I even thought about anything else. If I didn't do this I wasn't allowed to move on to the next bit.


  • Strength: Another good 20 mins of mindful strength and accessory components. These look more traditional strength pieces you see people doing in gyms - starting on machines, and progressing to free-weights. 
    • Legs: involved a lot of single leg and three-dimensional patterns and some travelling work. 
    • Arms: Pushes, pulls, a LOT of single arm work: this works on your anti-rotation strength and stability, you'll hear me talk a lot about this in my program. 
    • Full Body/Compound: Loads and loads of rotary and anti-rotary strength patterns and full body control work such as graded plank variations and functional multi-level work (high kneel, half kneel and patterns which take you from the floor to standing) 
  • Reward: A shortish reward at the end. I know, I know, but if you're a athletic and competitive you'll understand. The reward workout is a little carefully chosen piece of work to give you that hit of sweat, serotonin and that all important swagger. ;)

And there you have it. At two days shy of 5 months postpartum, and after some testing of my diastasis in various positions including some video visuals to make sure I was controlling everything, I tried it on for size. I had a little jog and a did some gentle skips. And it felt abso-bloody-lutely wonderful. I now feel ready to begin to integrate some of my trusty favourites into my workouts - shorter sets of double-unders and some Olympic lifting drills. Exciting times. 

I've now made the decision to put this together and share with you. It's already in a file on the desk on tiny torn up bits of paper. You've spoken and said you'd be keen... so I'm now setting to work on curating the program just for you. It's going to be designed for the postpartum modern athletic female, for someone who already understands the jargon and the lingo and has enough of a head on her shoulders to be able to integrate the principles of the program and apply them to her unique body. I've already given you a snippet of what it might contain. Certainly the themes of core, strength and reward will feature and it will also give you levels to chose based on your pre-pregnancy fitness level.

I'm so friggin' excited!

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