3 tips to a speedy post-partum recovery, and more, in a Q&A

 As I'm still waiting on a response from some people about an episode I had planned about menstrual cycling and menstrual mapping.
This week I'm answering some more of your questions and emails, covering a rather wide variety of subjects.

What are my top 3 tips for a successful, and fast, post-partum recovery?

Why resistance training for your upperbody is key if you want to recover post-partum. (And why there is a lot of it in the HPNB program)

The importance of "dynamic training" rather than the standard "up and down" type of training you see in most post-partum programs.

Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions or comments or want me to interview a specific person

As always; HPNB still only has 5 billing cycles.

So this means that you not only get 3 months FREE access, no obligation!

BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.

Though I'm not terribly active on  Instagram and Facebook you can follow us there. I am however active on Threads so find me there! 
 
 


Playing us out; "A letter from Paris" by Elise Solberg 

Transcript

Peter Lap: 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert, peter Lap. That, as always, would be me Today. It's just little old me answering your questions again, peter, at HealthyPostnatalBodycom. If you have any questions or comments, just type up a little email, send me the thing, or if you subscribe to the podcast, just respond to the podcast email and it automatically comes to me. So what am I talking about? My top three tips to a speedy postpartum recovery, why resistance training for your upper body is key if you want to recover postpartum and why there's a lot of it in the HPMB program, and the importance of what some people call dynamic training rather than the standard up and down type of training. I don't call it dynamic training, but we do it a lot, moving across several planes and all that sort of stuff, and why that really really matters. To be honest, I was originally going to do something about period mapping and menstrual cycling and all that sort of stuff, but I'm waiting to hear back from someone who claims they've done a study into the products that they are selling. So you know I'm waiting on that. We'll do that next week, no matter what. So that'll be fun. Look out for that, but without further ado, here we go.

Peter Lap: 1:30

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Post Natal Body podcast. This is the podcast for the 30th of June 2024. And I am joined by little Kitty, who's the one snoring in the background. I have little Lola asleep here as well, but she's a lady. She doesn't snore, whereas Kitty was actually, you know, raised in a barn, so she kind of does. I hope you're well. I hope you're crushing it, Peter, at healthy postnatal bodycom, as always, if you have any questions or comments, I hope you've been enjoying the interviews I've been doing the last couple of weeks. I know I get one or two emails back, but if you have any one that you're like, hey, pete, I'd like to have a chat with this person, or you should really talk to this person, because I think your listeners would like it send me a little email. I recommend it. I always reach out to interesting people and, of course, people also reach out to me. So if you'd like to be a guest and you're an expert in your field or all that sort of stuff, peterhealthyplusnatalbodycom, that's what I'm here for, right? So I was asked three questions.

Peter Lap: 2:33

This week I was asked more questions, but these are the three that I'm going to delve into because I thought they were quite interesting my top three tips for a speedy postpartum recovery. I was asked a question during a chat this week with someone. They said what are the three things that I can do when I have my kid this person was five months pregnant when I have my child, to get back to full fitness as fast as possible? And that is an excellent question. I love that question what can I do to get back to full fitness as fast as possible? So the top three tips that I but the things I love and that's why I do it to sleep. So it's got to be a message of the first cycle, and I think no, no, it doesn't. What message of the first cycle is all the other stuff in between that you also have to do, so to speak. And this is where that for those of you who have been listening to this thing for the past, I don't know 100-odd episodes or something like that I did an interview with Guan Ming Whitney a while ago about the Chinese practice of Sao Ye Tzu, which is sitting the month, and they have this in lots of other cultures, and all that If you're five months pregnant, if you're currently pregnant, then preparing for the first month postpartum is key to your postpartum recovery.

Peter Lap: 4:06

So for fitness, so making sure that that first month is as easy as possible for you. Of course there are various degrees because obviously if you already have one or two kids, it gets a bit more difficult. But, for instance, making sure that you don't have any meals to cook, that there's someone there to help, you're not doing the cleaning, you're not doing the washing, somebody else is doing that stuff. Accept as much help as possible. Entertain as little as possible. So people want to come around to have a look at the baby. Yeah, no, so to speak. It's awesome. People want to come, come around, but only if they're helping out. It's not up to you.

Peter Lap: 4:48

When you're recently postpartum, you're not a performing monkey, right? You don't have to dance for people. It's perfectly okay to tell people why can't I come around to see the baby a couple of months from now. You, jackass, I'm sleeping, I need to rest, I need to recover, taking that first month especially longer, of course. I need to recover, taking that first month especially longer, of course, if you can, but mainly that first month, getting your sleep in, getting your bonding time in with the baby. So all you have to do which is actually quite a lot and is very important, but all you're doing the first month in an ideal world is recovering and bonding with your child, right, that is in an ideal world and it is a top tip, right. So we have to kind of go with the ideal world. Sort your sleep. When the baby sleeps, you sleep. You don't do the washing. Someone else can do the washing. Else can do the washing.

Peter Lap: 5:41

If you have a husband, if you have a partner or another wife or a partner or uncle or nieces and aunties and all that sort of stuff, a mum, the parents as a support network Great, you use them. Especially in the West. We are very much underusing our support group. We kind of see the postpartum support group as the group of people from your antenatal classes as if that is your support and they're nice people that you can grab a coffee with after a few weeks and all that sort of stuff. But that is a different kind of support. So if people, if you have friends that want to say, hey, what can I do to come around when the baby's there, oh, bring me food, just accept it, even if your friend's a relatively lousy cook, accept free food, accept cleaning stuff and all that sort of stuff.

Peter Lap: 6:47

Do as little as possible yourself other than, like I said, recover. That is what that first 30 days especially, you'll feel a big difference. The studies that have been done into this sort of stuff are fairly clear. I mean, logic dictates right If you eat well and if you eat healthy and you take that first 30 days to recover, you'll go back to full fitness full health and fitness significantly faster than if you don't and if you're tired all the time. So sleep is my first tip. Do as little as possible. Second tip eat well and eat healthy.

Peter Lap: 7:27

I know there's some things that you can't have when you're pregnant and the temptation for a lot of people I talk to is to get back into eating certain things. You're like ah, I can finally have that again. Really, for that first month only. Focus on hyper healthy foods. I'm not talking about like salad and all that sort of stuff only. I'm not talking about your lettuce cucumber. I'm not talking anything weight loss related.

Peter Lap: 8:02

I'm talking about quality of food, good quality food. There's a quality of food, good quality food. There's a bang right here. Good quality food and the healthy options as much as you can. Now. Again, this is obviously easier if you don't already have too many responsibilities. But again, if you can prepare this in advance, a lot of meals you can cook in advance, a lot of soups you can cook and freeze during your pregnancy and they'll still be all right after you've given birth. So you use a freezer, use a slow cooker, use a freezer, do whatever Use. If someone else in your area is a good cook, you know use them. A good cook, you know use them.

Peter Lap: 8:43

And finally, for the first, after once we get past that 30-day stage and you've had your check-up and all that sort of stuff. Obviously this is a tricky one. The last one I'm talking physical recovery here now is work through. Make an appointment with a apologies, make an appointment with a postpartum specialist, just one Postpartum physio, mommy, mot, whatever you want to call it. Postpartum personal trainer, whatever you want to call it. Make the appointment and then have them do an assessment of where you are and then choose a program that matches, gets you from a to b. I'm working through a program. As I always, always, always say and everybody listening to this several times will be fed up with me saying this working through a program is better than following random people on the internet or doing a random bunch of exercises. So those are my top three things. You sleep well, get as much rest as you can within the first 30 days. Eat as well as you possibly can Quality food, hydration and all that sort of stuff really, really matters. And then make an appointment with someone who knows what they're looking for, and you should always make this.

Peter Lap: 9:59

I'm not talking about your six-week appointment with your GP.

Peter Lap: 10:03

Book something in with a women's health specialist so they can have a look at everything.

Peter Lap: 10:07

Does your pelvic floor hurt? Do you have bladder problems, incontinence, do you have prolapse? Do you have diastasis recti? Yes, you do, but you know how bad is it. Do you want to address it? That sort of stuff? Do you have back and neck pain, everything that isn't working? So they can have a look. These appointments usually take 45 minutes to an hour. They don't take that long and they should give you a list of all the things that they would recommend and then you can go in your merry way, right? Those are the top three things that I would definitely definitely do, and I find that everybody who does do those things recovers a lot faster, especially when I've worked with one or two athletes and tennis players and all that sort of stuff, and if they do those things they're back on track with their training a hell of a lot quicker than people who don't do those things Right. So next, a question I was asked this week from one of the HPMB members. We had a little Zoom call.

Peter Lap: 11:08

Every now and again you know, people get in touch via email and the situation is too complex to deal with via email. There are too many gray areas that it's easier for me to have a Zoom call with people. So I throw that in right and I don't charge for these things. And you say, let's have a Zoom call because I get interesting feedback from these things. So I had a chat with her and we were talking about she'd asked the question why there was so much upper body training in the Healthy Postnatal Body Program.

Peter Lap: 11:36

Now, once you get the start of the HPMB program, it's pretty much the first month or so. It's pretty much the same as most other good programs. We focus on the same things. Exercises aren't exactly the same, but we focus on the same things. Then in months two and three and four we do a bit more, because the HPMB program isn't just a diastasis recta program. It also helps heal. That Of course it does, but it's more than that. It's also dealing with potential back pain, potential back pain that might flare up and all that sort of stuff neck pain, pelvic girdle pain, all that sort of stuff. And she was asking why there were so many exercises such as bent over rows, kettlebell, bent over rows, bicep hammer curls, bicep curls, arnold presses all that sort of stuff is in there and, as I was explaining to her, life means that the way your body functions in daily life means that you need X amount of upper body strength or you're going to compensate for not having enough upper body strength, and you see this especially in women lifting children and women carrying kids all the time.

Peter Lap: 12:55

If you don't have the strength to lift properly, chances are you'll start, for instance, not breathing properly for exercise. When you lift something heavy, such as a child, or when you get up off the floor, you do that rolling thing that other postpartum people recommend. You know, when you're sitting on the floor, roll onto your side and then roll up to get up, in the same way that you would roll out of bed and all that sort of stuff, which I personally think is almost ridiculous, because you know what we should be focusing on is building the strength, so you don't need to do that anymore. Now I always talk about exhaling through the exercise, right? Anybody who's done the Healthy Postnatal Body Program or has even had a look at any of the YouTube clips will know that I always talk about the core breath and how you should exhale through the effort and all that sort of stuff, when people don't have the upper body strength to lift something. You know and that includes toddlers and travel systems and all that sort of stuff. You know, lifting those things out of the car, so to speak, takes quite a bit of work.

Peter Lap: 13:59

If you don't have the strength for that, what then tends to happen is you have to make an effort to do it. More of an effort, and part of making more of an effort, usually for most people, they automatically start to hold their breath, they start to brace their spine, they start to brace their core, and that, of course, goes against everything that I try to get people to do. When it comes to diastasis recti recovery Right, I need your core to function. I don't. It comes to diastasis recti recovery right, I need your core to function. I don't need you to brace your core. I need your core to stabilize, I need your core to work, I need your core to do what it's supposed to do at the time without you bracing it. I need those muscles to do what they need to do, and one of the ways we can do that is by making sure we perform motions.

Peter Lap: 14:46

We perform, we do exercises that are somehow replicated in daily life. So, looking at one of the combinations that I do a lot on and it's on YouTube as well, I might link to it in the podcast description, and it's on YouTube as well, I might link to it in the podcast description is the bicep curl into a hammer curl, into an Arnold press with a dumbbell. The reason for that is that combination, first of all, is an exhausting combination. Secondly, a bicep curl is just picking something up with your palms facing you. A hammer curl is like lifting a baby up, and it really is and an arnold press is just having a baby and pressing it up in the air. Right, that's what shoulder presses are like. So by doing those things, we're teaching your body and we're strengthening. Obviously we're strengthening your body, but we're teaching your body and we're strengthening. Obviously we're strengthening your body, but we're teaching your body that these are movements I expect you to be able to perform.

Peter Lap: 15:48

So if you can do that with a five kilogram dumbbell, you can do it with a child. If you can do it for repetitions with a six kilogram dumbbell, which is the lightest. I tend to go with my clients when I'm working with them. I haven't used a weight below six kilogram in years when I'm working with them. I haven't used a weight below six kilograms in years. But if you can do a six kilogram for 10 reps, you're not going to have a problem lifting a 10 kilogram child up in the air. Throw them up in the air a couple of times. You know for shits and giggles, the way that most men tend to do when they play with a baby. You know that kind of round of wee sort of thing. Well, I want you to be able to do that as well.

Peter Lap: 16:28

I also want you to be able to lift a travel system uh, you know those child carriers and all that sort of stuff into the car. That's what a bent over row is for you pick up up, pick up a heavyweight 12, 16 kg. You pick up a row, you lift that, shift that into the car so that it's bent over well into a sideways motion, which I'll talk about in a little bit. To put it into the car, that sideways motion is essentially works with similar muscles that the kettlebell, side dips and all that do in combination with, say, a bicep curl and a bit of a shoulder press or dumbbell, front raises and side raises and all that sort of stuff. So the more we train that up, the easier your daily life will be. First of all because you'll be able to do it and you get great looking arms right. That's a bit of a bonus, um. But secondly it's because your diastasis recti will simply heal better and your lower back will simply be better protected if you get good at performing that type of exercise.

Peter Lap: 17:30

A lot of postpartum programs only focus on diastasis recti in a very narrow way, in that they'll in that they'll focus on their glutes and they'll focus on the core stuff, which is fine. If you think that there is just if diastasis recti can't get worse anymore, or you can't, or functioning of the body doesn't matter, right? It really. For me it really does. I want you to be able to do all those things whilst making your diastasis recti better, because otherwise you're just. You can do an hour long core and glute exercise program and that will help. But if the other 23 hours of the day that you're doing stuff, or at least 15 hours, assuming you sleep for eight, if you're then working against your body hours, assuming you sleep for eight, if you're then working against that hour that you just did because you're holding your breath or you're bracing or your core isn't activating properly because your upper body isn't strong enough, then you're just working against yourself. And I've always said this you cannot when it comes to because, let's be honest most of you don't do an hour's exercise every day. So if you do 10, 15, 20 minutes every day, but then you have 15 hours that go against that, you know you're going to struggle to recover, you just are. So this is one of those sort of things that I think more postpartum programs should really be incorporating this stuff, not at the beginning, not at the initial stage.

Peter Lap: 19:10

Initial stage is about activation and all that sort of stuff Muscle activation, teaching the body to function at the right time, and all that sort of thing. But even then, if you look at the program, there's curtsies in our program which are a leg exercise, but it's a leg and a core exercise. So, and that's that dynamic training that I spoke about earlier. That's the importance of dynamic training. I was asked by somebody who said well, pete, what is dynamic training? And I had to look it up because I don't call it dynamic training. You know it's not fit for life training.

Peter Lap: 19:50

Dynamic training when people use that phrase they quite often talk about moving across several planes of motion. So you know, you can move straight up and down, you can move straight forward and backwards and side to side and all that sort of stuff. Those are basically, you know, those are your planes of motion. If you just do up and down type stuff, bicep curls, you know, when you just go from bottom to top, from bottom to top and that sort of thing, shoulder presses are the same, squats are the same, squats are the same Then you have to wonder how much of that type of movement you perform in daily life. And again, I don't know about you, but if I pick something up off the floor, I don't position myself very carefully in front of it, brace, or you know, set myself up properly, legs shoulder width apart, and all that. Then lean forward, lift from the hips and all that lift with your hips, that sort of thing. Now I walk past and grab something, I pick it up uh, usually at an awkward angle and that kind of matters. Because, again, if for that baby buggy, that's not the travel system that needs to go in into your car, if you want to do that as, and you can if you want to get that in your car in just straight up and down motions, that requires repositioning yourself five or six times Right, because you need to stand up properly, drop down, make the thing compact, turn it at a 90 degree angle, walk forward, turn it at another 90 degree angle, pick it up again at another 90 degree angle, pick it up again. Then lift up in a straight back, walk straight forward. But it's much easier if your body gets good at this, such as you know, by kettlebell training and all that sort of stuff, and if you look again, if you look at the videos in the program and just on the YouTube channel figure 8 to a hold kettlebell around the world. All that in the program and just on the YouTube channel figure eight to a hold kettlebell around the world, all that sort of stuff.

Peter Lap: 22:07

Curtises as an exercise is fine, lateral lunges are fine, that sort of thing, all the anti-rotational stuff that we do. The program is full of woodchoppers and core press holds and all that sort of stuff, anti-rotational stuff and rotational stuff. And if you do that and you do that often enough, your body gets good at it. Then you don't need to worry about injuring yourself or hurting yourself or making your diastasis recti a little bit worse or whatever. If you're just have, if you're in a rush and you have your toddler on one hand, you throw him in the car or her in the car, you pick up the travel system, you throw that after and it can all just be done with rotational movement.

Peter Lap: 22:48

If you don't train for that type of stuff and you only do I don't know glute bridges, and well, what else do they do in a particular program? I had a look at this week, some side planks and some front loading planks. Towards the end of this particular postpartum program they did some front loading planks, a couple of press ups and all that sort of stuff and I'm like, yeah, you know, it's all fine, but there's no rotational movement in there. There's no. You know, if one of the things that we have in the system is an alternating side plank right and side plank with reach throughs and all that sort of stuff, balance balls, foot on, foot off, all that sort of stuff tells you, teaches your body to move across several planes and to do more than one thing at a time, if your program doesn't include that type of stuff, you'll never get good at it and you're not actually going to get the results you need from a program. You might get the results you want, you might get a flat stomach and all that, but the result you need is more than a flat stomach. It is being fit for life and all that sort of stuff.

Peter Lap: 24:00

And if that misses it, yeah, like I said, it's going to bite you in the bum, it will do. This is why I have a lot of clients come to me on my personal training side of things so non-HBMB on my personal training side of things and say, yeah, peter, I have a lot of back pain I've done. I've healed my diastasis recti, because I did a famous system but my back is always hurting. Yeah, because what you're good at is up and down stuff and you're not great at anti-rotational stuff and rotational movement and all that sort of stuff. And if we can just teach your body that shifting weight, such as with a kettlebell low figure, eight, higher figure, eight to a hold, all that stuff, shifting a weight from right to left, so, from, say, bottom right to top left, does not require you repositioning yourself five or six times and picking the weight up carefully every single time, make sure you don't twist and turn. So everything is straight up and down, lift with your hips and all that sort of stuff, yeah, it's.

Peter Lap: 25:06

You know, if you just teach your body that that's not the way to do it, but just be in dynamic, grabbing said kettlebell in this case, and swinging it up to the other side, getting good at it, then that means that also the travel system and the buggies and the toddler that throws a tantrum, and all that can just be hoisted up in one foul swoop from left on the floor beside you to up on your hips on the right hand side and your core does what it's supposed to be doing on the right hand side and your core does what it's supposed to be doing. You know most women, when they pop their child onto one of their hips because they're walking around or they're doing stuff in the kitchen, pop them on the right hip, so that means that the hip pops out to the side a little bit. If the child is on the left, it's just a quick pickup, pop them on the hip or pop her on the hip. So just quick up and boom. But if you don't train that stuff, you don't teach your body that this is a completely normal motion to make, then you're going to be doing your back in in in weird places. And I'm not talking about getting herniated discs and all that sort of stuff, I'm just talking about niggles, you know and. But niggles are as most as most parents will tell you most moms at least will tell you. Niggles are so common and they're so annoying that it really helps if you can prevent them. Anyways, that is all I wanted to talk about today, I think. Um, just a quick one. Next week, um, I finally have that interview with re Washuta, by the way, talking about healthy habits, healthy eating, weight loss and all that sort of gump. Rebecca is amazing. You're going to love that one. I said it just loudly, smacked in your ear. Apologies for that New bit of music coming up.

Peter Lap: 26:52

Peter, at HealthyPalsNatalBodycom, I'm trying to get some more interviews to come on. Next month might be one of those where you hear me talking a lot more and I might even take a week off. Oh, you never know. I doubt it, but you never know. So keep the emails coming. The more emails you send me in the less time I have off, and you know I don't know what to do with myself other than walk in the dogs on my time off. So, peterhealthypostnatalbuddycom, give us a little right. What is it? A review on Apple or Spotify? Give us five stars. If you give me two stars, then keep it up to yourself. Keep it up to yourself, right? You have a great week and I'll check in on you next week, right?

Speaker 2: 27:35

no-transcript.