After C-Section Exercise (Postpartum Workout After C Section)

Welcome to Pregnancy and Postpartum TV. Today we're doing after c-section exercise or a c-section workout. We're going to gently get back into fitness at the same time as keeping our core and where we had our c-section safe after our pregnancy. A c-section is a major surgery and so you want to make sure that you've checked with your doctor and you get clearance before starting any new exercise routine. Some physiotherapists and doctors will allow pelvic floor and gentle core exercises a few weeks after a c-section and others will wait six to eight weeks before getting back into gentle exercise but it could be nine to twelve months before you're back to your regular intense workouts and traditional ab exercises like crunches and planks. The first part of this workout is going to be gentle pelvic floor and core exercises and then we'll progress into some gentle standing exercises. So check with your doctor, feel what's safe for you, none of the moves or the exercises should cause any pain especially around your incision. I release new postpartum videos every week so if you like videos like these please subscribe and hit the notification bell. If you're looking for more workouts that are safer after a c-section but maybe a little bit more intense, get your heart rate up or great for losing the baby weight, I have a whole playlist of videos that are safe for diastasis recti which we have the same goal to prevent any internal pressure so they're also very safe for after a c-section so I'll link to it up there and also in the description box below if you wanted to check out that playlist as well. You don't need any equipment however I will do some modifications with a chair just to stabilize yourself so if you wanted to you could grab a chair. I'm not wearing any shoes for this workout but if you're more comfortable in workout shoes you could absolutely wear your shoes. Let's come to a seated position to get started. I'll get you to place your hands on your ribs, we're going to practice some diaphragmatic breathing. I can also link to another video if you want a better explanation of it but we want to be able to keep our core engaged, our lower belly drawing in and breathe into our ribs as we're doing the exercises to keep our core safe so let's take three big inhales and exhale out again one more time. When you blow out as if you're blowing out a candle you can get that extra engagement that's great for core healing as well. When we're doing the exertion part of an exercise or the difficult part we're going to exhale and contract and then as we come out of the pose we're going to inhale. This may be opposite to a lot of yoga practice but this is going to protect our core while we're healing after pregnancy. Placing your hands on your knees we'll do some shoulder rolls just warming up going the other way good and let's round out the back as if we're holding a big beach ball pressing our hands forward ballooning out our back and then inhale open up our chest exhale ballooning out our back inhale opening up our chest perfect coming to hands and knees we'll do some hip circles going the other way coming on to our back we'll get down safely going down on your side and then rolling over onto your back we'll do some bridge with kegel so fully relax and then as we press up we're going to activate our glutes pull in so picture a blueberry at the opening of your vagina and we're sucking it up at the same time as we are engaging our lower belly pulling it in and pressing up into bridge and inhale release coming down again exhale lower belly in picking up our blueberry pressing up and inhale release and fully relaxing our pelvic floor at the bottom. I'll let you do a few of these on your own moving with your breath beautiful now we're going to do some heel slides so we can bring our heels in a little bit place our hands just inside our bony hip protrusion there and as we suck our lower belly in we should feel it tighten on the inside if you're not sure you're engaging your core I'll link to another video there to know that you're engaging your core properly and then we are breathing into our ribs our lower belly is staying engaged and we're going to slide out our heel and bring it back in again our lower bell and core are working really hard here on the side good relax take a breath moving to the other side feeling your core engage draw in sliding your heel out re-engaging your core if you need to last one on the side and release coming up onto our elbows we're going to do an exercise where we are pretending we have a glass of water on one knee engaging our lower belly engaging our pelvic floor picking up our blueberry and then we're going to open up one knee to the side just until we start to feel our body trying to roll over but not rolling over and bringing it back in again core is engaged and working hard we're balancing our glass of water on our other knee so our body and our leg that's not moving are totally still you're doing great one more bringing your feet up release taking a breath before we engage on the other side and engage pelvic floor lifting other side last one release rolling over onto our side we're going to do some clamshells so you can come down and if you wanted to support your head with your hand bringing your knees a little bit forward engaging our core engaging our pelvic floor and we'll open up for clamshells here last one good let's do a quick quad stretch while we're here releasing your foot now we're going to do broken clamshell so bringing your knees apart and then doing that same movement of rotating that upper leg core is engaged last one release down coming up into a modified plank we'll push up take our hands to our hip again you can feel inside your hip bone engage your core and we'll hold here breathing into your ribs you can either keep holding or if you want to do an advanced move you could do a couple of hip dips here good releasing down let's carefully switch over to the other side clamshells on this side core is engaged last one stretching your quad broken clamshell now engaging our core last one release down modified plank feeling it being tight inside your hip bone good engaging feel free to stay here or if you wanted to do the advanced hip dips you can dip down using your obliques release down that might be enough for you but if you wanted to do a few gentle standing poses we'll make our way up to a standing position we're going to do some squats here so you can either do full squats you can do little squats to make it easier or you can sit up and down on a chair to do a modified version spreading our toes and sitting back as if we're sitting back in a chair if you're not and sitting back core is engaged and up so we're exhaling engaging as we go down and inhale engage coming back up great let's do one more release and shake it out from here we're going to do some static standing lunges so if you're comfortable you can just do them standing in place if you wanted to hold on to a chair to stabilize yourself you can we'll take our feet wide apart and then sink down into a lunge again engaging pulling our lower belly in and bending down you shouldn't feel any pain you're doing great a couple more here last one shake it out move to the other side again if you wanted to use a chair to stabilize yourself finding that 90 degree ankle from both your knees as you bend down engaging inhale up exhale engage down inhale up great job last one shake it out before we move into our side froggy leg lifts so we'll take our feet wide apart here we're going to take our arms up shift your weight to one side engaging your core and especially on the side here and bring your elbow and knee together or for modified you don't have to bring it up as far whatever feels good you can also use a chair and stabilize yourself on the side and engage exhale engage inhale up last one preparing on the other side engaging using your obliques last one perfect shake it out if you want to take a sip of water you can we're going to do some modified jumping jacks next or if you're ready for jumping jacks you can bending your knees we will tap out as we bring our arms up core is engaged you can go as fast or as slow as feels good for you a couple more and release shake it out let's get back down onto the ground we're going to do some all fours push-ups which protects our core as it's healing so we have shoulders above wrists hips above knees spreading your fingers engaging your core and pressing down and up again we'll do some push-ups here last one and release let's take our knees wide apart and stretch in child's pose a couple of breaths here good walking your hands in let's come to a comfortable seated position we'll take our hands behind us fingers pointing forward we're going to stretch up on our knees for a nice chest opener this is great if you're breastfeeding as well and coming back down let's round out our back one more time opening our chest beautiful coming back and rounding out the other way pressing your hands away ballooning through your back let's come to all fours tuck our toes press into downward dog stretching out the backs of our legs and lift one heel at a time pressing both heels down let's take some tiny steps all the way forward core is engaged when you get to the top of your mat we'll roll up one vertebra at a time good we'll cool down taking your feet apart inhale up exhale release one more time let's take a quad stretch again if you want to hold on to a wall or a chair you can here beautiful let's switch sides taking your feet wide apart inhale your arms out place them on your hips do a little chest opener fold forward you can take your hands and place them in front of your face we'll open up to one side gentle twist here bringing that hand back down opening the other way bringing your top hand down let's bend our knees and then roll up again to a standing position we are done you did amazing it is not easy to recover after a c-section so feel really proud and good of yourself for finishing that workout i would love to know in the comments below how you're feeling after your c-section and how that workout was for you i will keep making videos like these every week so if you like this video please subscribe and hit the notification bell and to support me share this with another mom group or mom friend that you think would enjoy this i also have lots of free resources for postpartum moms i have a monthly postpartum workout plan i also have a free weight management course that i put together as a bariatric educator and a registered dietitian i have a complete guide on how to heal or how i healed my forefinger diastasis recti gap after my pregnancy i mentioned before the playlist of diastasis recti exercises that are also great after c-section there is the playlist right there if you click on that you can save it for later and come back to it and again if you haven't subscribed yet you can hit the round button up there and subscribe thank you so much again for joining me i really appreciate you and i'll see you in the next video