C-Section Weeks 4-6
The last two weeks has seen another flare up of mastitis, which was frustrating to my recovery. As soon as I feel the fever come on I stop exercising which kills me. It takes about 3-4 days on antibiotics and some anti inflammatories until I feel like myself again. Fever is the one symptom I won’t train through, and unfortunately I’m more likely to keep having mastitis attacks because I’ve had it before.
Exercise wise, here’s where I was at:
The last two weeks (as soon as I was healthy) I progressed all my exercises to adding a bit of weight through my squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, lunges etc. I still wasn’t cleared to go over 15lbs so that was my max I was lifting. All my exercises have me standing at this point.
One thing that surprised me was my walking ability- I thought with the amount I walked, hiked, and ran (my main mode of exercise before, during and after pregnancy), I still had some ache if I pushed intensity of walking past 30 minutes. I could walk at a normal pace for probably up to an hour and that was my limit. Pushing my intensity limited me to around 25 minutes. I was hoping speed walking could start to push my cardio, but clearly it was a bit too much load for me to handle at the moment.
This meant I was at the point where I wanted to get my heart rate up with some effort, but I needed to reduce the load going through my lumbo-pelvic area. I’m very grateful I had purchased a spin bike, this has allowed me to start to push myself and work my cardio without being too much for my hips and low back. I should note that the symptoms I noticed were so mild that I think if I wasn’t a physio I wouldn’t have picked up on them… I’m more concerned about my future pelvic health and the integrity of my abdominal wall, which is why I am erring on the side of caution.
In summary, all the exercises I’m doing for the last two weeks have been spin classes for cardio, and prep for return to CrossFit and running. Goals for where I’m at to return to Crossfit and running: thoracic spine endurance, single leg strength, overall muscle endurance, abdominal wall control.
I progressed my squat to a weighted squat, and added pauses at the bottom with arms lifting overhead
I progressed my deadlift to full range and with holding 15lbs
I progressed to single leg step ups with 2 step height, added in a hop
I added in single arm sumo rows as prep to snatch/clean
I started to really work my abdominals. I focused on anti extension for now (meaning my ribs are pulled down to my pelvis with movement), but I need to slowly be working on the contraction of my abs from an extended position AKA ab mat, hollow body, etc.
Today I had my 6 week appointment with the OB and it was very quick and efficient. I was told I had healed fantastically and asked if I had any questions, and I was probably there for a total of 5 minutes. When I talk about the lack of guidelines and support postpartum (particularly c-section), I in no way mean any critique on doctors or OB’s. My care has been phenomenal. Ortho surgeons rarely discuss rehab with their patients, they refer on to physio, which I guess is my point. If you birth a child, you should be referred to physio.
I’m hopeful at least documenting this journey will help someone out there, but I would highly recommend getting recommendations for a physiotherapist you trust to walk you through this journey. I can’t emphasize how many symptoms are treatable, and how many persist years after childbirth and women just accept as normal. One of those is incision/scar pain.
6 weeks is enough time for a scar tissue to start to form, so that’s when I start to teach my patients about desensitizing the scar area and rolling around the incision. I will do it for some patients, and then teach them how to perform it themselves at home. One of the easiest ways to begin scar desensitization is by picking a texture which is comfortable but just borders on irritating. This could be fleece, a tissue, scratchy wool, etc. Trace this over the scar for a couple minutes and once the texture becomes strictly comfortable with no other sensation, you move up to a different texture.
At this 6 week mark I was really tempted to just start our clinics run/walk program that I love so much (perfect for beginners!) but I put myself through the usual running assessment I do in clinic and I didn’t pass with flying colours. I think a couple more weeks of intensive strength rehab will set me up for better success in the future. I definitely could’ve done it now, but I care about the health of the tissues during future pregnancies and through getting older.
This has also been enough time where I feel it’s safe to start blood flow restriction training for some of my exercises…. I’ll likely write a post about BFR all on it’s own in the future J