3 Weird Things About Returning To Running After A Baby That No One Tells You About
After pregnancy, your body is forever changed. You just spent 40 weeks growing a human inside of you and another day (or maybe two) giving birth vaginally or via cesarean section. It’s a lot to wrap your brain around, we know.
But just because you’re navigating all of these changes doesn’t mean you can’t get back to the types of exercise that you loved pre-pregnancy. You’ll just need to give your body the time it needs to heal and get stronger — plus modify your routine so that it works well with your changed (and still changing) body.
Here are three things about returning to running after having a baby that nobody tells you about, plus some tips for getting back to running safely.
1) You might be cleared at six weeks postpartum to run, but your body might not be ready until week 12.
It’s exciting to hear your doctor tell you that you’re ready to pound the pavement again after six weeks, but it’s important to figure out how ready you actually are before putting that kind of stress on your body postpartum.
In fact, we normally don’t recommend running until you’re 12 weeks out. Having this extra time gives you a chance to build the strength you need to avoid injury or conditions like prolapse.
A huge factor in being ready is your pelvic floor and other muscles that attach to your pelvis to create stability. These muscles are super important when you’re running, but they can often become weak, stretched out and asymmetrical after giving birth.
Before getting back to running, we want to check the pelvic floor and muscles around the pelvis for flexibility and strength. And if you find any imbalances, you need to fix them as soon as possible.
In the Expecting and Empowered App, these checks are a built-in first step in creating your personalized running program.
Our app includes an “Are You Ready To Run?” assessment to evaluate if your body is ready to return to running, and if not quite yet - don’t worry! With our professional expertise, we will create a personalized workout plan to get you there. We’ve created a 12 week Return To Running Program and also beginner, intermediate, and advanced a la carte runs. Find the app here.
2) Your body is more prone to soreness and injury.
During pregnancy, your body shifts and moves to make room for your growing babe. That means that your posture and alignment are different than they were pre-pregnancy. This can lead to SI pain, pubic bone pain, pelvic floor pain, and back pain.
On top of that, a hormone called relaxin — which is the hormone responsible for softening the ligaments around your pelvis to prepare for childbirth — is still present, especially if you’re breastfeeding or pumping. Having this hormone present makes your body less stable, since it’s “relaxed.”
Both of these factors make you more prone to increased soreness and injury, so it’s important to work on fixing your posture (more on that here) and creating stability in your body before you can get back to running.
Note: If you’re feeling a ton of soreness after each run (like over-the-top soreness you’ve never experienced before), your body might not be ready for running. Instead, you should focus on building the strength and balance needed for running first.
3) You’ll need to spend a lot of time managing your breasts.
Your boobs might look a whole lot different now that you’ve had your baby, so you need to treat them differently than you did pre-pregnancy:
Try feeding or pumping prior to working out. If you’re breastfeeding or pumping, your boobs are going to be bigger because they’re full of milk. That means they’re heavy, so try feeding or pumping before exercising. Mamas with high supply or multiple babies will benefit from this especially. We recommend working this into your normal feeding routine rather than adding an extra pump — especially for exclusively pumping mamas.
Try a good nursing sports bra. A sports bra that’s specifically designed for high-impact activity (like this one from Senita Athletics) can help support your breasts while running.
Take off your bra after running. Sports bras use compression to support your breasts — which is great while working out, but can also cause mastitis if you wear them for too long (compressing the mammary glands can lead to clogging, inflammation and potentially infection).
Stay hydrated. You’ll need to increase your water intake to account for exercising and milk production. You’ll feel the thirst, so listen to your body!
In the end, we’re asking you to focus on logical progression and preparedness before diving into running. Trust us: a relatively uneventful progressive return to running will be a much more pleasant experience than diving right in and potentially getting injured and discouraged. You got this, mama!
Expecting and Empowered App - Apple App Store or Google Play Store