I was a lifelong competitive athlete and really considered myself in shape before I became pregnant with the boys! Before I became pregnant, I truly never knew about the demands of motherhood. Today, we are only going to talk about physical demands. The emotional, mental, and spiritual demands are a great topic for another post. I had only babysat a couple of times and played with younger cousins. I did not realize the strength required for carrying car seats, loading and unloading car seats, carrying my babies everywhere, getting up and down from the floor, pushing the stroller, and many many more. These demands only grew as the babies grew into toddlers and now young children. Throw another twin pregnancy in the mix and it is time to do it all over again!! Even with a significant diastasis I am better able to handle round two with twins than I was with round one. Why is that? Because I am training for function this time! That is the goal of the Essential Mom Movement Circuits, to help moms train for function!!
EXERCISE: 1
Moving from the ground to standing is a fantastic pattern that has everyday life carryover. Positioning yourself in unconventional positions trains your body to increase resilience for all of the unexpected demands of motherhood.
Enjoy 5-8 reps of this pattern as a part of the circuit.
EXERCISE: 2
Training the core and pelvic floor in upright function are key positions for life function. Your body responds and reacts to a stimulus or a driver, not a conscious brain communicating, saying “turn on”. Reintegrating the core for life function following the trauma of carrying one or more babies is an integral part of a long-term recovery plan!
Enjoy 8-10 reps of this movement!
Exercise: 3
We are kicking mobility up a notch with this exercise! We are increasing the demand from the hips and core to decelerate the load. If we only train in one plane of motion we only get stronger in one plane of motion! Variability with load, speed, and angulation will create a more resilient pelvic floor and core! Adding load into your mobility routine helps your body remember the movement and hold onto the motion.
Enjoy 8-10 cycles with a light load.
Exercise: 4
Pivot matrices involve standing on one foot and using the other leg as a driver to go somewhere. The stance leg receives most of the benefit! Especially if you are wearing shoes that allow your foot to react, like Vivobarefoot!
You can start with small steps without an external load and progress. Pivot matrices like this put a safe subconscious load through your pelvic floor and core!
Pivot matrices have been a key component in my diastasis recovery program! The ViPR Pro allows for a variety of hand positions and lets you reach along many vectors to create an external overload!
Enjoy 5-8 rounds per side
Exercise: 5
The Coretex is an amazing whole body reactive trainer that uniquely activates the deep stabilizer system. This is very important if you have a diastasis because that system is not fully intact in the postpartum period and a diastasis further disrupts the connection. Like core training using the slippery surface of the 3ACT Slide the reaction of the Coretex stimulates the proprioceptors and whole body that is subconsciously reproduced in everyday live.
Enjoy 5-15 circles per direction per side.
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