Why planks, crunches, leg flutters and twists are sometimes the worst exercises to do after pregnancy.
Pregnancy is traumatic on our musculoskeletal system and on the different organs and tissues inside our abdomen. Healing takes time. Don’t rush back to exercising simply because American society pressures women to ‘bounce back.’ Give your body the time it needs to recover from not only childbirth, but the marathon of pregnancy as well. Let’s not forget, we aren’t afforded the luxury of laying around all day healing for a few weeks or months, we’re mothers after childbirth!
Twists and crunches are favorites of personal trainers. Having been a Physical Therapist’s Assistant for 10 years before becoming a personal trainer, I’d never recommend those to anyone, postpartum or not. While they can produce a 6-pack, they can just as easily produce back pain, a bulging or ruptured disc, or arthritis on your spinal column over time.
Leg flutters are too hard postpartum! When we go to an exercise that is too hard for a particular muscle group, we compensate. That means other muscles take over and we don’t actually strengthen the intended muscle group. Leg flutters with a dysfunctional core, primarily work your hip flexors and your paraspinal muscles. Your psoas muscle is a hip flexor that attaches to the bottom of your spine. When it’s overworked, and/or tight, it will cause an anterior pelvic tilt (or make your lower back arch excessively).
Take-away: Leg flutters can easily aggravate back pain, and they do NOT improve core strength if you aren’t properly engaging your transverse abdominis.
“The Core Correction for Moms Program did wonders for retraining the inner ab muscles that I forgot about after pregnancy.”
Planks. Oh, the planks! They seem like the best exercise for our core, right? Imagine for a minute that you place a light bowling ball on top of 1-2 pieces of newspaper. Then you try to lift the newspaper by holding each end. Will that newspaper stay straight or sag under the weight? Well, your organs and all abdominal content act like the bowling ball pushing on the inside of your abdomen with a plank. If you have a diastasis recti, a plank makes it worse! It would be like the newspaper having a tiny slit in it and when you lift the newspaper the bowling ball pushes right through it. If you have a weak transverse abdominis, a plank will make you use mostly your back muscles and NOT your whole core. Plus, usually our shoulders and neck aren’t ready for this for more than 5-10 seconds at a time after baby, and we tend to do 30-60 seconds as a starting point. Then we hurt, then we stop all together.
Hundreds of great exercises are appropriate after pregnancy and childbirth. Planks, crunches, leg flutters and twists can easily derail your intentions of improving your core. Having an assessment for diastasis recti and the function of your transverse abdominis is a necessary starting point for every woman who has been pregnant and wants to start an exercise program. Shoot me an email and let's connect about your core!
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