One of the biggest challenges for me going into motherhood was the shift in my fitness. I was very used to being able to easily go out and train hard. Ugh!! After having babies that were a whole lot different! My mindset was still there. I was ready to train and still am, but I must respect my new shell and do what I need to do to maintain great life function every day.
I no longer have the option of going for a long bike ride and coming home to a relaxing day taking care of only myself. No way! Kids, especially young ones, have constant needs and that means I am on duty managing both the house and tending to the children during the day.
In order to successfully accomplish this, many year-long events… I must have a body that can run around with my kids get up and down from the floor, carry them, their love (blanket), their toys, and whatever else upstairs to bed, and then go downstairs and get what they left behind. All you moms know exactly what I am talking about.
These movements are about life strong!! Not just strong for one event for strong and resilient for all of the many essential mom movements we perform every day!!
Pattern One
ESSENTIAL MOM MOVEMENT SERIES: Exercise 1️⃣
. 🙋🏻♀️A staggered stance ground to standing!! Yes, please!!
🤗Part of my reintegration process after delivering my second set of twins and recovering from a giant 10-finger diastasis was to improve the motion in both my thoracic spine and hips!!
❤️This fun pattern does both!! Walk out, but don’t let one hand cross in front of the other. It’s like a hand “skuffle” (for all of my fellow GIFT Fellows )!
🤚 The hand position puts the upper body into slight lateral flexion and rotation toward the backhand plus a load of gravity on the core!
💥Enjoy 6-8 walkouts of this fun movement!!
Pattern Two
ESSENTIAL MOM MOVEMENT SERIES: Exercise2️⃣
How you, efficiently move odd objects through space can prevent injury!
Look at all of the dimensions trained in this pattern combining three favorite tools: Pelvicore Pro, TriForce and Vivobarefoot.
Each has a unique role and creates a reaction in my hips that up-regulates the pelvic floor and core.
Safely and efficiently training the pelvic floor is not confined to the immediate postpartum period… it extends far beyond!
Movement efficiency for life is my goal!
💥Enjoy 4-6 rounds of 3 lunges per leg!
Pattern Three
ESSENTIAL MOM MOVEMENT SERIES: Exercise 3️⃣
❤️My postpartum journey has been a long one filled with some bumps and many successes! Yours will too!! It’s not a straight line! You must stop and reassess if there is something that is not right and addresses the cause!
❤️Here I am using a 6kg ViPR Pro for a long stride lunge with a shift at chest height! Then transitioning into a hop to balance with a rotational reach. Both trains the pelvic floor in a different way to react and respond to the stretch of the lunge or the impact of the hop.
❤️Initially, I introduced loaded rotation too soon after my first set of twins and ended up worsening my diastasis! Too much pressure! Now my pressure management is much better once I addressed my thoracic rotation. It now actually feeds closure!
❤️There is not a one size fits all prescription for diastasis and pelvic floor reintegration. The ideas in these circuits should be tailored to your body’s response.
❤️The key is don’t give up! Keep learning, integrating, and moving every day!!
Pattern Four
ESSENTIAL MOM MOVEMENT SERIES: Exercise 4️⃣
☝🏼The ability to get up from the ground and move quickly to another place is a must have skill for moms!! Especially moms with toddlers!
❤️Freedom comes with the tools to take care of yourself for the rest of your life! One of the most challenging adjustments postpartum for me was not a huge diastasis, it was a necessary shift in my training and identity that came with my new shell!
💪Now I have the tools to take awesome care of shell and myself for the rest of my life!! That is empowering!!
🤗This pattern is also a fantastic integrative core exercise for those of us with a diastasis! The single-arm rotational reach at chest height, then knee height safely loads the core and hips!
🦶 Look at all of the great motion my feet and ankles are getting in my Vivobarefoot Shoes too!
Strong and mobile feet are ESSENTIAL for a healthy core and pelvic floor!
Pattern Five
ESSENTIAL MOM MOVEMENT SERIES: Exercise 5️⃣
Here I am fixing the upper body and using gravity to create tension through my core. Then, using my feet as a driver I transfer the target (come) to various specific locations.
It’s an excellent pattern to authentically improve shoulder mobility and stimulate the core.
What’s really cool is I can target specific regions where I have movement deficits. For example, with my right hand forward and my rib cage rotated left I have the most difficulty with a left posterior reach. This correlates with decreased range of motion in my right hip and shoulder!
Isn’t movement cool! If one of our goals is pressure management, it’s important to create as much space as possible.
Pattern Six
ESSENTIAL MOM MOVEMENT SERIES: Exercise 6️⃣
Some patterns are just fun! This is definitely one of them! Take a traditional exercise and add a Coretex with a rotational reach plus variable hand position and you have a tremendous integrated exercise!
The Coretex creates a unique environment where every repetition is different!
My body does best in the prone position where I am moving either my hips or thoracic spine.
Although I have good tensioning through my diastasis, I do not manage pressure well in a traditional push-up/plank position. Which means I get a doming through my abdominal wall.
This does not happen on the Coretex or 3ACT slide when I am engaging my whole body through my thoracic spine and hips.
When I approach retraining postpartum or diastasis reintegration, it’s a highly individual process that cannot be put into a mold.
Keep going! Don’t give up! We are highly adaptable and with the right inputs will improve!