Anyone work out upper body with light weights before your 6 week c section follow up? My dr hasn’t gotten back to me with an answer and I’m just curious if there’s anything I can do while “recovering” aside from walking on the treadmill. I’m 3 weeks post c section and ready to get back into it haha
Also maybe some glute kick backs with no weights ? You guys think that would be ok ?
@oklahomaevangelist Go see a pelvic floor pt once your on clears you. Your ob isn’t really well versed in fitness. A pt can help do an assessment of where things stand in terms of abs and pelvic floor.
I wouldn’t embark on working out without that. The risk is way too high thar you’ll cause yourself problems that don’t surface until years down the line
@anth987 Amen. This is my recommendation for both vaginal and c sections! Even if just going for a consultation, one may not need treatment. Always good to get things looked at more thoroughly than the ob does!
@oklahomaevangelist Hard no. I was also really wanting to but it’s not worth the risk. Just walk. Even at 6 weeks, after being cleared it was rough. I worked out yo until the day I had my baby, and did a very light db only
Leg workout and my legs were jelly and I almost fell multiple times after.
@oklahomaevangelist No! You can do some gentle recovery stuff like breathing and walking, pelvic tilts etc. I was also dying to be active, but the recommendation is there because your entire core has been cut apart. The risk is rupturing your newly put together tissues and bleeding internally. You wouldn’t try to lift, run etc if you had just had a surgery on your Achilles or your knee. This is a commonplace but very major surgery and your uterus and abdominal muscles have been under a lot of stress for months. It sucks, but it would suck substantially more to re-injure yourself.
There’s lots of good stuff out there for c-section recovery but stick to those until a minimum of 6 weeks.
@oklahomaevangelist Even if you feel good, it’s not worth the risk of injury. You can do gentle postpartum breathing exercises and stretches to help your body readjust after pregnancy.
These are some exercises that cultivate awareness and activation of your core without loading anything prematurely. Start here (basically it’s just fancy breathing! Which will help your long term recovery and function!) and then do more once your doctor clears you
@oklahomaevangelist I am 6 weeks post C-section this week and was the same way! I will say I had staples and went back at 1 week to get the staples removed and was told everything was closed up at that point. I went on lots of walks those first few weeks and did some TVA rehab using the Nancy Anderson app starting at about 3.5 weeks postpartum bc at that point I was done bleeding. But I didn’t push it with weights at all.
Another thing I did was start doing some scar desensitization. Not sure if you’ve looked into scar mobilization/massage and that process but the first thing is to help the nerves reconnect after surgery. I focused on gentle massage between my belly button and scar and desensitization of the area. It wasn’t a workout but man it hurt like one! You will be surprised the nerve pain that it produces but now at 6 weeks I don’t have any numbness or really any sensitive areas and was cleared to progress to massaging directly on the scar and get into deeper tissue.
That all kept me feeling like I was doing something and now I’m cleared and slowly working back with body weight exercises and continuing the an rehab program
haha 