The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
The benefits of exercise during pregnancy. Why do it, what to do and for how long
This week I talk about the many benefits of exercise during pregnancy.
I mention the story of one of my clients who came to me after the birth of her first child, what we did and what her condition was like that the time.
The we fast forward a few years and I talk about the difference she noticed, and felt, postpartum because we had done a bit of work during her pregnancy.
I mention the type of exercises we had done and the overall effects.
I also briefly mention the CycleSyncing episode as I've had some emails about this and what my main issue with the vast majority of them is.
Let me be very clear, as this is something I try to live by; When someone sells you something they should do that from a place of honesty and integrity.
Having said that;
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!
And, of course, you can always find us on our YouTube channel if you like your podcast in video form :)
Visit healthypostnatalbody.com and get 3 months completely FREE access. No sales, no commitment, no BS.
Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions, comments or want to suggest a guest/topic
Playing us out; "We will Rise" from Ty Blackwell
Welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert, peter Lap. That, as always, will be me. Today I am talking about exercise during pregnancy what you should do, why you should do it, how long you should do it for the type of exercises you should do and why and how it helps with your postpartum recovery. I'm also going back a little bit on the cycle syncing to the cycle syncing episode from, I believe, two weeks ago. So it'll be fun, I promise. Right here we go. Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Buddy podcast with little old me. This is the podcast for the 25th of August 2024, and it shall be another relatively quick one because I, my friend, am in a rush. It shall be another relatively quick one because I, my friend, I'm in a rush. I am still miles behind. If you're waiting to get an email from peter at healthy postnatal bodycom, if you've asked any questions, you'll have had the email back already. If you're looking to come on to the podcast, it might take a little while longer. I'm still trying to sort out some scheduling stuff. I've got a million things on my plate but, like I said, if you've answered in with questions and you still get an email quickly, I just have about 59 little red flags next to stuff, next to emails that I still need to deal with. It's just absolutely crazy. Usually, during the school holidays, things calm down a little bit, and this year they didn't, for God knows what reason. I hope you're well. I hope you're all right. Only three dogs today, only three little dogs and a cat. So you know, hopefully, hopefully, it should be relatively quiet. What am I talking about today?
Peter Lap:Exercise during pregnancy. You know, I had a client who came back to me postpartum this week and she first came to me about four years ago, about a year after giving birth to her first son, and she had quite severe diastasis recti, her core function wasn't great and basically she had done no exercise during the pregnancy of her first child other than one or two last-males classes, so nothing targeted. And obviously towards the end of the pregnancy, because there wasn't anyone guiding her and helping her and she didn't quite know what to do, what was safe and what wasn't. Um, she stopped exercising, which is very, very common um, and then, for the first year postpartum, she tried going back to exercise a little bit, but that was wasn't really successful, and by going back to exercise I mean going back to the things that she used to do, less meals, a bit of gym time and all that sort of stuff, a bit of running. We did one of my postpartum packages which is 24 sessions, and I only mentioned that. You know, it took about three to four months and then she was okay to go back on her merry way, but she was in quite the physical, physically, in quite the state, and she wasn't really happy with herself. Fast forward, right, that was the last time I saw her Fast forward four or so years, I think it was the start of this year.
Peter Lap:She got in touch with me saying Peter, I'm pregnant with my second child and I'd like to do some training during the pregnancy this time. And so we went back to training. Right, she did two, she did 20 sessions. She did two times 10 sessions, I'm fairly sure two times 10 or two times 12, something like that. Basically, three and a half months of training, two sessions a week and bits and pieces that she did by herself, nothing too much. She had an elective C-section planned, which really helped as well, to be fair, at least it helped with the stress of pregnancy and the stress of labor and all that type of stuff. Her first child was born through an emergency C-section and the second one was a planned one, like I said, and after eight weeks she was originally planning to come back to me again a year later based on her first experience, but after six weeks she got in touch and I am feeling a lot better. And after eight weeks she was originally planning to come back to me again a year later based on her first experience, but after six weeks she got in touch and I am feeling loads better. And after eight weeks we just did her first welcome back type of stuff last week.
Peter Lap:Her diastasis recti right now is three and a half of her little fingers at the top, two and a half at the bottom and her fingers are roughly centimeters the roughly centimeter each. So say, three to four centimeters at the top and a little bit at the bottom. But her core function is really really good, as in all the muscles are doing what they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it, and she can feel all of them Right. That's what I mean by core function. And and she can feel all of them Right, that's what I mean by core function. And she has full range of motion, no pelvic girdle pain and she feels a hell of a lot better within herself. Pardon my little swearing to my American friends she feels a heck of a lot better, as they say. Right, all that has changed for her is because she was really big during her pregnancy.
Peter Lap:She got quite big with her second one and, like I said before, the size of your pregnancy, the size of your belly during pregnancy at least, has very little bearing on how your postpartum recovery will go. Sure, your initial separation is a lot worse, but because you're during the pregnancy, but that doesn't necessarily translate to it being terrible postpartum right Now. The difference for her was that we did about 12 weeks, two sessions a week of work, and these are not intense sessions, right? A lot of the stuff that you do during pregnancy should not be focused on air quotes here. Keeping your fitness up it's great if you can. If you do, and if you want to I don't know keep your cardio level and cardiovascular levels up and all that type of stuff and you want to keep your strength training up at a high level, you can do that. It's completely safe to do so. But in an ideal world, the closer you get to giving birth, the more you start focusing on what your postpartum recovery will look like.
Peter Lap:So in her case we just did a ton of squats, because that's what I do with everybody. We did a ton of core work, and by that I mean we kept working the obliques. We did a lot of wood choppers. I know people are really unhappy about core presses or payload presses these days, but I like them. I'm not saying they build a strong core, I'm saying they are really good for helping you feel what should work when and all that sort of stuff. And people don't necessarily postpartum and at least feel that as effectively as they do in some other exercises that people might use. So I like payload-off presses, I like core presses. Like I said, woodchoppers, downward woodchoppers. We did a ton of squats and reverse lunges. But we also did a lot of shoulder work because this was her second child. So you're going to have a toddler, a five-year-old and a new baby, and the toddler will want to be picked up. You need to be strong enough to do that and you need to make sure that your core is strong enough to support that right, that you're not constantly lifting with your back.
Peter Lap:So we did a lot of pullover exercises, some tricep extensions, dumbbells and resistance bands, front raises and lateral raises and all that type of stuff, and it's all remarkably straightforward stuff. Not one of those sessions um was at the level that you would say, oh, this is an extremely difficult session to do. It was all, at least cardiovascular wise, it, it, it wasn't. There was very little sweating happening. I think a lot of the time people mistake exercise, think exercise should always be at an 8, 9, 10 intensity and I find that you know 6 or 7, level of six, seven intensity is actually more than enough for if you do it during your pregnancy to help if you're postpartum recovering. But there is very little research has been done in this and this is a bit of a pickle, I shall admit. This is a bit of a pickle, I shall admit. All right, this is a bit of a pickle.
Peter Lap:There isn't an awful lot of research done in the type of exercise, intensity, levels and all sorts of impregnant women and then how that affects their postpartum recovery. Mainly because it is so and I've spoken about this before mainly because it's so remarkably difficult to measure, you cannot predict from the pregnancy and how active you are what your postpartum recovery will necessarily be like, like I said before, you can be really big in the belly and have huge diastasis during the pregnancy right. That gap at least can be huge. But that doesn't mean that it won't heal by itself. Postpartum. It doesn't mean that it will heal quite quickly. Postpartum Chances are it won't. But you can't predict it and you don't know what people's overall recovery with regards to range of motion and all that type of stuff, well, that will look like postpartum. You can't, it's difficult to measure.
Peter Lap:So then all you can go by is, if you put a study like this together, all you can do is select a group of women uh, antenatal and say, okay, we'll give, say, a group of 20, 10 will get an exercise routine and 10 won't. Um, or 10 will do, or 10 will get a targeted exercise routine and the other 10 will do I don't know cardiovascular and mainly walking and just stay active in general. And you measure that for three to four months. And then postpartum you say, okay, we'll go again and then see how fast the recovery works compared to the baseline recovery that we kind of know. And by the baseline recovery that we kind of know, I'm talking about the standard you know, like I spoke about before.
Peter Lap:Like I spoke about before, the 80% of all diastasis heals within the first year by itself, right? We know 20% doesn't. So that would then be a. Can we compare contrast? Right? So we have out of those 20 women, would it now be? And would it now be nine out of ten?
Peter Lap:As I, as I almost almost choked on something? Yeah, would it now be instead of 80%? Would it now be 90%? Right, but your sample group is so small that it becomes relatively impossible. It becomes impossible to get any meaningful answer from a study like that. You need much larger numbers and that becomes expensive and that becomes a whole thing, because you know, like I said, and that becomes expensive and that becomes a whole thing because you know, like I said, it's difficult to predict what will happen postpartum from what someone is going through during the pregnancy, because you don't know what the labor is like. You need to account for the type of birth they're having. Are they having a vaginal birth? Are they having a C-section? Is the C-section planned? Is it an emergency one? All that type of stuff will have some sort of bearing on the result of a study like that.
Peter Lap:So I can only go by. That was my caveat. I can only go by what my experience is over the past 10 or so years and you know most of you the vast, vast, vast majority of you are not listening in Edinburgh, so you'll never train with me anyway. So you know I'm not selling you anything right. I'm not selling you a prenatal exercise package. I don't have one, right. I don't do online coaching and any, any of that type of stuff. But I'm telling you from my experience working with someone during your pregnancy will have its rewards when it comes to your postpartum recovery. It will just make things so much easier.
Peter Lap:Like I said, the difference in her just feeling the muscles working when they should be working eight weeks postpartum, compared to when we were doing things like, things like and you might have seen the the healthy postnatal body program, but if you're looking at heel slides, if you're looking at glute bridges and if you're looking at leg raises or dead bugs or whatever you want to call them, um, you know whatever you want to do their knee raises and side planks and dips and all that type of stuff the difference between someone who can feel their muscle doing its thing immediately and someone whose body is trying to recruit all the muscles in the general vicinity of a muscle, of the muscle that you're trying to work. That difference is huge and it, at least from a program perspective, will shave months of the recovery time. Because, if you remember, as I always mention and you'll have heard, if you listen to this thing regularly you probably heard me mention this before the initial stage of any good postpartum recovery program usually focuses around muscle activation right and muscle function, making sure everything feels like it's moving at the right time when you need it to move at the right time. So during things like heel slides, if your left side is moving out, the left side of your abdominal muscles, that you're feeling it on that side. During a side plank with dips, that your obliques are feeling it on the squeeze up rather than it being more of a hip and a glute push. During glute bridges, that you're feeling it in your glutes, in your bum rather than in your hamstrings and quite often your back.
Peter Lap:And that first stage of postpartum program is usually 4 to 6 weeks. If you can skip all that, you're already 4 to 6 weeks ahead and that initial stage is what I call the boring stage of postpartum recovery and for me there's a clear link between the severity of your diastasis recti and the effort you've managed to put in, for whatever reason, during your pregnancy, compared to if you haven't been able to put any effort in, then your diastasis recti postpartum is likely to be worse, especially if we're not just measuring the gap but we're also looking at core functionality and all that sort of stuff. Right, and I don't like talking about, you know, what they call functional diastasis and all that type of stuff. I'm not a big fan of the phrase, but there's something to it. I think it should just be part. I think all diastasis should be classed as non-functional, because that's the whole point. I think we should bring the muscle functionality into the definition of diastasis, rather than saying, oh, you have a diastasis gap but your muscles are working fine, and you have, or you don't have, a gap, but your muscles aren't working properly, and all that sort of stuff. It's all part of the same package, because the solution is quite often very, very similar, if not the same, although of course caveat here everybody's recovery will be different as well, and this is kind of what is important to remember.
Peter Lap:And this is also important when it comes to the prenatal stuff. I came across someone today who said that they have been taught, they have been told, sorry, to not drive anymore eight weeks before their due date, which I thought was insane For nine out of ten people. I don't see the point. I've never come across that before. At the same time, I'm not going to automatically dismiss that suggestion because I'm not sure why they would have been told that. Right, I do know that you know, when your husband says don't lift heavy things during your pregnancy, you can tell him to bugger off. Or when your spouse says that, right, you can tell him you can lift heavy things during your pregnancy.
Peter Lap:If you feel you're comfortable, lift heavy things during your pregnancy. If you feel you're comfortable lifting heavy things during your pregnancy, there's nothing inherently unsafe about it. The same with exercise, the same with driving, the same with doing anything. But if a healthcare professional tells you to do to not drive anymore, for whatever reason, I'm going to be the last to disagree with that, because it's a health care professional. If it's a proper, like a proper doctor, right, and it has to have that little caveat.
Peter Lap:Um, because I'm not familiar with the situation. You see this a lot in in especially online discussions where people ask questions. Should I still be doing X, y, z? We don't know. Unless I'm familiar with your case. We don't know Nine out of 10 times.
Peter Lap:Driving when you're pregnant is fine. Hill walking when you're pregnant is fine, right, just be sensible and take all the precautions and then some, to account for your pregnancy, especially for hill walking. If you get into a bit of bother, that you can get off the mountain a bit quicker, that you have extra food and water and clothing and all that sort of stuff on you, you need to be a little bit more careful. That doesn't mean there's something inherently dangerous in the activity. More careful, that doesn't mean there's something inherently dangerous in the activity. Which actually brings me to a report.
Peter Lap:You might have seen some in the, something in the news for which I'll hopefully touch on a bit next week, if I have time to read it, about fluoride in the drinking water and high levels of fluoride over the double the recommended amount. And once you go over the double the recommended amount also, it affects the IQ of of of babies and younger children to a degree of two to five points or something like that. The report is 350 pages long and that's a bit of a read and the news headlines are quite scary but also most likely completely and utterly wrong, as in the summary, is an atrocious read. It really is. Like I said, you have to be over double the recommended sort of dosage and all that type of stuff. But the general recommendation with regard to fluoride in water is that people who are pregnant women who are pregnant should have a little bit less. But I will hopefully read that report because I think it's an interesting one.
Peter Lap:I think it's a lot of scaremongering about that type of stuff. It's like I said, it's just 342 pages and that is a bit of a struggle 342 pages and that is a bit of a struggle, especially even since I just told you I have 50 plus unanswered emails and scheduling requests and all that type of stuff that I still have to do. Speaking about them, speaking about that, I will finish with this. I had several emails about cycle syncing from people involved in cycle syncing apps and all that type of stuff that said, yeah, I will come on and I will debate this. And you know, it's not that I don't appreciate people getting in touch, because I love that, but what I've done with almost all of these people is just ask them listen, I would love you to come on. Just send me some of the evidence first, that you have that cycle syncing works, because otherwise we're talking without any evidence on the table, without any reports on the table. I've not seen any.
Peter Lap:And again, if you want to come on, or you have a cycle thinking program and you're like pete, this is amazing, this definitely works. And and you know, for instance, the claim that I discussed a few weeks ago in the cycle thinking episode, that that the website made, that you know you'll get 15 stronger if you just lift heavy things twice a week and then do something else for a two-week period and then you take two weeks off, where you get 15% better results than you do if you lift consistently heavy. And especially when that study didn't back that up at all, the claim itself, all the claim itself, making the claim itself is no good unless you have the evidence. So, like I said, I absolutely love people wanting to come on, but I'm not Joe Rogan and we all know that on the numbers I'm not Joe Rogan, but that's I mean. If you're, if the evidence I found doesn't back up what the claim is and you say no, but I have another claim, then please come with the evidence.
Peter Lap:Otherwise it gets really, really difficult to have a discussion about this, because it's not even a debate, right? I'm more than open to being convinced If someone tells me that cycle syncing works and they have a study that shows that people who only lift during the luteal phase will get 15% stronger than people who lift all the time. Oh man, I'm all over that. I would love that. That would absolutely be amazing. But I've not seen it.
Peter Lap:As far as I'm aware, the studies out there say the opposite, and that's because it, to my mind, doesn't make any sense. It doesn't mean that it can't be true, it just means that, to my mind, it doesn't make any sense. So when you're selling means that, to my mind, it doesn't make any sense. So when you're selling, um, when you're selling programs and I'm well aware that I have a postpartum program out there, um and when you're selling an idea as to how people should exercise and all that sort of stuff, stuff, it would help if you would not go against the general accepted consensus. If you don't have any studies that back up why you should go against the general accepted consensus. Now, that's all I'm saying, right? So for any of you listening to this or considering doing psychos syncing and see how it works for you yeah, awesome, listen, if it works for you, it works for you.
Peter Lap:But be honest about what you're measuring. If you just want to feel better, yeah, awesome. You don't need that 15% extra strength. You're not a bodybuilder or an athlete or anything like that Then definitely do your thing. You do yoga for one week and you take it easy for a week and then you lift everything for two weeks. That is completely fine. But if you're selling something and making claims, then in an ideal world you'd have something that would let us all know that you're talking from a place of honesty and truth and scientifically accepted evidence. That is all I'm saying. That's what I'm trying to do to the best of my ability and that's what all my guests that have ever been on for the past 200-odd episodes that's what they're trying to do.
Peter Lap:Now, sometimes evidence can be disputed, right? I've had people on that say don't stretch, because they're talking about something else. Right? Yogi Aron, for instance. He said don't stretch while someone else will say, no, you need to stretch, you just need to do it differently. And what Yogi Aron's point was what Aron's point was was mobility is more important than flexibility, and in my opinion he's completely right. So sometimes I've had people Dr Carly Burton was one.
Peter Lap:She's a functional medicine doctor whom I absolutely love, right, whom I think is genuinely a phenomenal, phenomenal person and great to talk to, and I think I get a lot from her, because her message isn't don't believe what the science tells you. Her message is it would really help if you understood your body better, right, and that is a completely different thing. So I am open to hearing many, many things from many, many backgrounds, but we have to make sure that we come from a place where we all understand what we're doing. Right, you have to understand that, for instance, you know diary of a CEO. What is it, stephen Bartlett, that he's selling the products he's talking about? He's selling them to you, and if he just says that at the start of his program, then nobody has a problem with him selling Huel. If he says Huel is amazing, I own the company and I think you should buy it, then at least we know what he's selling. In the same way that I say postpartum program, and you should definitely try it because I believe it, but at least you know right clues. In the title it is, and my picture is all over that website my handsome big ugly mug is all over that thing. So you know, we have to come from a place where we do the best we can with regards to scientific evidence.
Peter Lap:So, again, if you're in the cycle thinking field, if you're an endocrinologist or something like that, and you're like, hey, pete, actually you're wrong and I would love to talk about this, oh man, please, please, go to healthyposthatalbodycom and, with a bit of luck, in a couple of weeks I'll actually get back to you. Anyways, that's me done. Here's a new bit of music. You take care of yourself and you know, if you're pregnant right now, go do some exercise. All right, take care. Bye now From the broken in the fire. Through the ashes, we will climb, the dust will settle. We will not All together. We will rise Out from the shadows Into the light. All together. It's our time. We will rise, we will rise, we will rise, we will rise, we will rise.