Why Is Returning To Running After Having A Baby So Difficult?
Factors that affect Running After Having A Baby
Just like how every pregnancy is different, every postnatal healing journey is also different. As hard as it is to hear, taking it slow in the beginning weeks of your postnatal journey can really help to speed up your recovery in the long run. But what if you feel like you have been doing everything “correctly” and running still feels hard? Hopefully this blog post will bring awareness to you about some of the many factors that affect your ability to run (or exercise) again after pregnancy.
Here are some of the life factors that are affected in recovering after pregnancy and things you can do to help with recovery.
Pregnancy:
As hard as it might be, staying active while you are pregnant will keep your body strong and healthy, help during labor and delivery and will allow for an easier transition and recovery for your body after birth.
Labor and delivery:
This is an incredibly athletic event and is extremely taxing on any mom’s body. But, if your birth was exceptionally long or complicated, you will need to give your body additional time to heal before you start trying to run again.
Recovery after labor and delivery:
Your body just grew and then birthed a human, it needs time to heal! If you start doing ,even the simplest, tasks or exercises too soon you may be slowing your healing process down and prolonging your recovery time.
Sleep and stress:
These two factors play a huge role in healing and recovering and need to be acknowledged. Having a newborn baby can drastically change these two factors for parents. If you are not going to bed at a reasonable time and getting a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, this will affect how your postnatal body recovers.
Not all stress is bad stress, but having a new little human to feed, support and protect is a huge task and can be pretty stressful at times. So go easy on yourself and give it more time before you start running or pushing your body too hard.
Nursing:
If you are breastfeeding, you are expending a lot of additional energy and nutrients to produce breast milk.
Even if you aren’t breastfeeding, feeding your baby can seem like a 24 hour job and can be very hard to attend to other important tasks, such as taking care of yourself.
Diet:
Not only are you having to spend a lot of time feeding your baby, you also need to make sure that you are eating nutrient dense foods to help replenish your energy and nutrient storages to aid in postnatal recovering.
Before baby is born, try having a food train set up by friends and family. You can also try to make meals and then freeze them for after baby is born.
Even during the craziest of days, try to eat at least one nutrient dense meal a day.
Time dedicated to fitness:
While pregnant your core muscles get stretched to the max and once baby is born, your core muscles are still stretched and might need a little TLC. Setting aside some time throughout the week to dedicate to retraining your core muscles is so important. A few minutes a day can go a long way!
Dedicated fitness time post baby can look a lot different, being able to adapt and try new things will make the transition much easier. Try getting out for a daily walk, you can wear your baby or put them in a stroller.
Not sure where to begin? Check out The Running Mama’s Training Plan or work with me for one-on-one coaching.
Mental Health:
It is estimated that about 30% of moms have some degree of postpartum depression following the year after birth. If you feel like you are having any symptoms it is okay, but make sure to seek help. Being a new mom can be really isolating at times, try finding a local moms support group and try to make friends with other moms so you can talk to them and share current daily experiences.
Also don’t forget about you and your needs, try setting aside some time for yourself at least once a week (even for just a couple hours). This can be great reset for your mental health.
Body work:
Mommy Posture is a real thing, ever heard of it? Holding, feeding and caring for a baby all day long is taxing on your body. The best way to prevent or reverse this is by being more mindful about your daily postures, for more information check this out this blog, or The Posture Course.
But nobody is perfect and even if you are doing everything right, it is still great to have a professional exam and treat you to make sure your postnatal body is healing correctly. Can be a chiropractic adjustment, massage, physiotherapy, acupuncture and etc. Or maybe even a combination of all them. You could even try to plan a body work session during your ‘You Time’ you are incorporating into your weekly routine.
One more thing…
I recently read a blog post with Emelie Forsberg (if you don’t know her, she is a badass mountain athlete who now has a child) and I highly recommend that you read the blog. In the blog, she talks about finding balance, not working out the way you did before kids, allowing more time to recover, getting creative and so much more!
These are just some of the many (many) factors that can affect postnatal running moms. Remember to be gentle on yourself and give yourself a break, you just grew and birthed a human! Remember every postnatal journey is different, so try not to compare yourself to another moms on social media who seems to have it all together or may be running sooner than you.
If something doesn’t seem right during your postnatal healing journey, please consult with your provider.