Exercise after c section?

[Wanderluss]

ive got a one month baby now and feeling good. Scar has healed well, I’m out for 30-45 min walks daily now and have been doing pelvic floor exercises and belly breathing

im intending to start doing slightly longer core workouts - Pilates type stuff like glute bridges, clams etc. I’ll have a 6 week checkup and see if I can get the all clear to start some gentle resistance workouts building up to more weights etc as I get to 3-4 month period

does this sound sensible? What did others do exercise wise post c section?

i don’t want to do too much too soon but am desperate to get moving!

Bump?

I was walking my dogs 45 - 1hr carrying my baby in a sling about 6 days PP. That was all I was doing until my 6 week check, when they told me everything appeared to be healing really well so I could resume low impact exercise and try to jog if I wanted - which I did, as soon as I got home and handed the baby to my husband 😂 it was a slow 5k but I did feel a bit odd the next day so I stuck to yoga and walking until week 9 when I started running again and since then it’s been totally fine. After 12 weeks I started Body Pump again. I’m 19 weeks PP now and starting to feel like I can manage longer runs.

congratulations and good luck with it!

I’ve had an ELCS 8 days ago and still fully resting, but this is what I did after my EMCS three years ago, which worked for me:
First two weeks - nothing
Weeks 3-6 - little walks, and started pelvic and diastasis recti exercises
Weeks 6-12 - longer walks, very light housework
Week 13 - started using my cross trainer every morning (fasted, started doing 16:8 at this point to kickstart weight loss), had to build up gradually because at first even 5mins wiped me out.
I think I waited 6 months to start lifting weights, I was too scared.

The main thing to remember is - don’t do crunch type exercises that contract the stomach muscles for 12 months.

The main thing to remember is - don’t do crunch type exercises that contract the stomach muscles for 12 months.

I have had two cesareans and never heard this? What is the reason? I certainly did crunches within 12 months - do you mean weeks?

Sorry to get sidetracked. Anyway OP I started off very gently, walking, mild cardio and after that started building up more to 'normal' when I had time (which wasn't much).

Check out bodyfit by Amy on youtube she does lots of great post partum videos with a focus on cesareans as she had one herself.

Crunches push on the abdominal muscles and encourage diastasis recti (muscle separation).

I had a postnatal DVD (Erin O'Brien) but these days there's a lot on you tube. I liked the DVD as there were 3 stages to develop strength.

I started the DVD at about 6 weeks, went to a post-natal class from 10 weeks and conventional classes from 5 months. I felt a little fragile until 3 months but had had an EMCS and other complications in pregnancy and at birth so there was a lot to recover from.

I was gently working out after 4 weeks, lots of walking from day 3+ though.

If you don't have a good knowledge of abdominal separation and how to ensure this recovers well then make sure you look into it. As pp said, crunches etc are not advised until you know these muscles are OK and knitting back together.

At my six week check I was given the ok to resume exercise, including running, but told to avoid ab exercises for 12 weeks.

I had an elective c section and walked pretty much every day about 8 days PP for approx one hour, after 8 weeks I started exercising again properly (cardio & Pilates). I saw a womens health physio privately as I had diastasis recti. Would really recommend as she gave me lots of tips to get back to fitness after a c section gently. Now 10 months PP and pretty much back to pre baby fitness.