Postpartum Return to Run

You have been cleared to exercise…but what does that mean and how do you get back to that?

You have hopefully been staying active by walking and childcare but now the fun begins. Remember that it is important to stay on top of selfcare with quality sleep, hydration and health food choices. At your 6-week postpartum appointment, you were cleared to resume what you were doing before becoming pregnant but that was over 10 months ago so it is important to ease back in.

Starting with lower impact cardiovascular exercises including:

• Swimming

• Cycling (stationary)-if in class setting make sure to ride your own

  ride and not get pushed to hard too soon

• Elliptical trainer

Make sure that you have introduced strength training into your sessions as well. Muscle strength is important with returning to running and higher impact exercise. Key areas to focus on for strength training include:

• Lower extremity: Squats, lunges, heel raises, bridging, dead lift,

  step downs

• Core: plank, side plank

• Upper body: rows, lat pull downs

As you progress through these areas and feel stronger, adding in plyometrics can be helpful. Trialing some of the following:

• Jog in place

• Double leg hop in place, double leg hop to front and sides

• Single leg hop in place, single leg hop to front and sides

• Jumping jack: legs only then and lower arms and lastly full range arms

Running progression can begin once you have been cleared but keep aware of any signs of leakage of urine or feces, pelvic heaviness or pressure or pain. Goal would be to start with a run/walk interval. Make sure not to progress faster than 10% per week. If you have some of the symptoms listed above, this may benefit from a referral to a pelvic physical therapist.

If you think you are having some pelvic floor dysfunction, contact us or your local pelvic floor physical therapist for treatment. You can also contact me for help finding someone local to you.

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