Chartered Physiotherapist Louise

By Louise Towl

RIDING FITNESS: POST NATAL

One of the first things I realised after becoming a mother, was that my body was very definitely no longer my own! There is the obvious aspect that literally overnight I became EVERYTHING to my baby, but my body had changed shape in an instant, and parts of it felt like they would never be the same again. I’m sure most, if not all, new mums can relate.

I found this a shock. Honestly, despite doing ante-natal classes, and treating a number of pregnant women and newmums over the years, I was so unprepared. Add in the immense hormonal changes that happen in a very short space of time, post-labour exhaustion, lack of sleep and a change in identity, and it’s clearly a lot to deal with! Even thinking about appropriate exercise is daunting on top of this, whether you are desperate to get back in the saddle or not. Whatever path you choose, the main thing to remember is that your body needs both time and work, to regain the strength and fitness you had before pregnancy. There is a real lack of research when it comes to women and the return to fitness after pregnancy, but it is a good idea to allow yourself a year. For many of us, aside from a general lack in fitness and strength, there can be a real feeling of disconnection around the tummy (abdomen), which results in a feeling of instability. This can then create difficulties with maintaining movement with the horse, secure leg aid application, and consistency in the contact. For others, there is also the added concern around continence. From the word go, unless you have specific medical reasons not to, you want to start doing your pelvic floor exercises. As the foundation of the pelvic and abdominal area, if you can regain a semblance of normal function here early on, you are making it easier to build strength and movement control throughout your body. Initially, this can seem a gargantuan task, so aiming for even just 4-5 reps, 2-3 times a day is enough. Once you get started, and as your body starts to settle – with swelling going down and hormone levels returning to pre-pregnancy status – you will suddenly realise that you actually have a functioning pelvic floor. As we are all individuals, and our birth experiences will vary wildly, there is very definitely no set way of planning your recovery. Your sleep quantity and quality, the amount of help you receive, whether you breast or bottle feed, whether you had a vaginal delivery or c-section – all of these will impact on the time it takes for healing to occur, and your energy levels to start to rise.

My Post-Natal Fitness for Riders programme is aimed to be worked through no quicker than 12 weeks, and this course will get you to a good baseline of low back and pelvis strength and control (dynamic stability), upper body stability, and balance. However, for some people it may take 6 months to reach the end of the course, and that is absolutely fine. Your body has to dictate the time it takes. The best way to deal This can be very frustrating, but with all of this, is to provided you are making steady progress, please don’t let this getconsider your body as you down. The early weeks and being in recovery mode, months of parenthood are at and allow yourself to times tough, but they do fly by, rebuild accordingly. and if you can manage to take the pressure off when it comes to how quickly you want to be back at your best, this will help enormously. Next time, we’ll go through ways of structuring your post-natal exercise to maximise the benefits in a small amount of time.

www.readytoride.online

CHARTERED PHYSIOTHERAPIST LOUISE TOWL IS FOUNDER OF ‘READY TO RIDE PHYSIOTHERAPY AND PILATES’ AND HAS CREATED ONLINE COURSES THAT OFFER HELPFUL ADVICE FOR FEMALE AND PREGNANT RIDERS.