When Can I Run After Having My Baby?
The age old question of so many moms looking to get back to feeling like themselves again. Maybe you’ve been a runner your entire life or maybe you’re looking for a new way to workout, running after giving birth is not a one size fits all approach. You may see new moms on instagram detailing their fast return to running within just a few weeks and be thinking to yourself “that could be me too”…well it could be but you probably don’t want it to be. We have no idea what that mom on social media is experiencing: Did she leak? Does she have pain? Did she actually run 5 miles or just up the street? Postpartum running looks different for every mom and working with a pelvic floor physical therapist that understands running will help to set you up for success!
Pelvic floor symptoms with running are common but not normal.
Unfortunately women have convinced themselves that certain pelvic floor symptoms are normal. Do you pee when you laugh or run? That’s just part of being a mom…NO! You can fix it! The most common symptoms women may experience in postpartum running are:
Urinary or Fecal Incontinence
Hip Pain
Low Back/SI Joint Pain
Vaginal Heaviness or Bulging
Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to returning to running postpartum.
In order to understand why a slow return is so important you first have to recognize exactly what your body went through. Now you probably haven’t forgotten the difficulty of a labor and delivery experience but put that into terms of a traumatic injury to your pelvic floor muscles. You wouldn’t see a soccer player back on the field a month after a major ACL injury! During birth, your pelvic floor muscles stretch out significantly (and sometimes even tear) to allow for the baby to pass through. Normal tissue healing time for muscles is anywhere from 8-12 weeks and can be even longer for more severe injuries. Your body needs time. In order to not get annoyed by how long things are taking, focus on each little step of the process rather than the end result.
Bringing awareness to the pelvic floor and core muscles after childbirth is a key first step.
Your pelvic floor muscles do not work in isolation. They have a close relationship with your core and hip muscles in order to properly function. After you’ve given birth (whether vaginally or via c-section), the pelvic floor and core muscles need some retraining so that they can be ready for higher demand activities in the future, like running after having a baby. And you can start retraining these muscles in the very early postpartum stages!
Breathing: Sounds silly but man is this important! Your pelvic floor muscles naturally relax and lengthen when you properly inhale. Because you’ve been carrying a baby bump for so long, you probably got used to breathing up into your chest because the diaphragm had little to no room to move downwards. Establishing a good connection breath technique is a great first step!
Pelvic Floor Exercises: Starting to coordinate breathing with exercises that engage your pelvic floor would be what follows. Think simple exercises like a glute bridge or ball squeeze, exhaling with exertion.
Core Exercises: Building a strong core as your foundation before progressing to more intense activity, like postpartum running, is extremely important. You can begin doing gentle core exercises in the early postpartum stages such as pelvic tilts or bird dogs.
Pelvic floor muscles work as part of a larger system. Strengthen the neighboring support muscles to get you ready for running.
Many women that are looking to get back to running or working out postpartum get fixated on only strengthening their pelvic floor muscles. Kegels, kegels, kegels! While it is important that you have the ability to perform a kegel to show you have appropriate strength and control of the pelvic floor muscles, stopping there would not get you very far. When was the last time you met someone that only worked out their biceps muscle for upper body days? You really want to focus your attention to strengthening the glutes, adductors, hamstrings, hip flexors and abdominals. These are all muscles that have a direct connection to the pelvis, thus affecting the pelvic floor muscles themselves. Not to mention their importance in higher level movements such as running!
Make sure your body is ready for impact before you return to running.
Now we’ve established all the things to work on BEFORE you lace up your running shoes for that first postpartum run, let’s answer the question you’re dying to know. A published guideline recently suggested postpartum runners wait 12 weeks before they return to running. That is just a guideline! Some women may start running sooner while others may need more time. The key is that someone is able to pass a series of “tests” to show that their body is ready for the impact and demand of running to avoid any unwanted symptoms when they get back to it. Check out this article for more details
