2 Exercises you should start within a week after childbirth

So, here I am 7 days postpartum, a few days out of the hospital and settling in at home. I am still wearing my abdominal binder – I feel much more secure and strong with it on, and I have a hunch it is continuing to help my belly shrink. In the interest of practicing what I preach, I have started doing 2 things: pelvic floor exercises (because I don’t want incontinence or prolapse!) and transverse abdominis activation. I am shocked at the fact that I cannot feel my TA fire, and my obliques are kicking in 100% of the time. This is an issue I see with many of my postpartum patients, but I didn’t think it would happen to me as I was so aware of my TA before. Well news flash: it is still SUPER stretched out and floppy, and at day 7 is still not kicking on when it should (another reason to keep wearing the abdominal binder for household chores etc.)

These 2 exercises are generally safe and beneficial the first week, regardless of whether you had a C-Section or vaginal delivery. I do want to mention that I had only grade 1 tears (3 of them), but if you had deeper tears – grade 3 or 4 – you may feel some pain with the PF contractions. Just do them more gently or hold off until they feel reasonably comfortable. Likewise, if you had a C-Section, let pain be your guide. Contracting the muscle helps the scar tissue to form in a more productive pattern. However if you have any incisional pain during the contraction, be more gentle or hold off until it becomes comfortable.

Enjoy the video and I hope you will continue to join me for my postpartum workouts in the weeks ahead. I plan to post at least once a week so that you have some ideas and guidelines to follow for your own postpartum rehab and exercise progression.

Have a joyful recovery,

Dr. Sheri DeSchaaf, DPT