Pelvic Pain - Pre / Post Pregnancy & how I can help you gain confidence moving again.
Lucy’s Mini Guide Included
Let’s talk frank guys, I’m about to share my personal experience, what I hated, what I did and what I love now. So grab a cuppa or lock yourself in your bathroom (depending on your situation) as this is going to help change your body and mind when it comes to pelvic pain.
“oh my g*d, why can’t I walk?”
This sound familiar? Well I think this was my daily dialogue especially 4weeks pre brith. Being a fitness professional, I thought I’d breeze through pregnancy and labour but wow, how wrong I was.
My not so GLOWing experience with pelvic girdle pain caught me out many times and I’ll be happy at the thought of you laughing alongside me while I share a few. One of my not so great ones was when I was teaching… I was all for looking cute with a bump but I was not this, on this particular day. I genuinely looked like I had pooped myself, hobbling & waddling my way through the reformers to find my safe space… the box! But even sitting down wasn’t glamorous as I looked like a fish sucking a sherbet lemon whilst I moved around trying to get comfortable (I won’t even go into the fact I couldn’t catch my breath, it’s lucky these little things are cute right?).
My next, was not my best moment and actually, truth be told it scared the B-Jesus out of me. My partner was at work (he is a seafarer so there’s no, quick best get home moments, although he did appear 3days later!) but this one really got me and made me feel weak, feeble and vulnerable. I was going on about my normal routine, getting into the shower and BOOM… no it wasn’t the basin breaking because of the large lump that had just got in it, it was me, naked on the floor, in the shower, cold, wet and home alone! I remember crying in pain, my pelvis felt like it had split in two and I had to somehow get myself out of the basin, crawl along the landing (still naked here guys) and grab my phone and call for my parents to come and save me.
Well this was my final straw, I had to do something…
Breathing 360 - video tutorial (Part of Mum Hub)
What Pelvic pain is… (apart from being a pain!)
In short when we get pregnant our pelvis has to expand to make room for baby to grow & exit. With excessive weight being put upon our pelvis as baby grows, our changing hormones, maybe previous multiple births or even injuries from years before, pelvic pain really can vary from woman to woman.
Approx 45% of us suffer with this, it tends to show up in walking, standing, sitting, or even resting in bed and although the degree of pain will vary, what’s for sure, is that it is super uncomfortable and alien to our bodies, leaving us thinking “Why am I broken”. Good news…
You’re NOT broken…
You’re pregnant/postpartum and you’re AMAZING. This is one thing I didn’t really ever give myself credit for. Our bodies are incredible, they’ve given us the most beautiful thing we can have in this life, yet we shame our bodies that aren’t working like we knew them… you just created a human… I think we can give ourselves some slack! (want to read more on this, read my article here).
So what did I do?
I moved! Small simple steps that didn’t ‘cure’ me but relieved the pain enough to get me through my day. You can try these small classes I put together in my ‘Mums Hub’, I’ve got some great mini workouts on my site that will help you. But for those of you who want some simple quick exercises here you go, I’ve popped them in the order that I enjoy the flow of but you can totally freestyle depending on how you’re feeling. Descriptions are at the bottom of this post.
You can sit on the floor, maybe on a bolster or take a seat on a dinning chair.
Footwork
Breathing (video available)
Hug the baby
Blooming flower
Squatting
Cat / Cow (video available)
Movement for function
Mindset MATTERS…
How you talk to yourself will massively help with how your body reacts. If you feel yourself saying;
❌“My body is failing me”
TRY
🥰“My body is changing and growing something incredible”
I’m not saying you need to be happy, clappy all the time but it is AMAZING the effects of how we talk to ourselves can change the tone of our whole body experience. Also if you can, find someone you can speak to, maybe a fellow mum friend or a trained professional, maybe even me. I’ve helped lots of mums create positive habits for themselves, it doesn’t have to be slamming the gym or calorie counting, it’s the small simple things you can do to make your everyday easier, so you can do the best job in the world, being Mum 🤍.
Mum Hub - Pilates classes designed for new mums wanting to discover their new body 🤍
The Exercises - Explained
Footwork
Many people disregard the feet but they’re your passport to how the rest of your body functions, this can massively affect what happens to your TMJ joint, which is in your jaw. During pregnancy you hear of women’s feet growing when actually this can be down to the ligaments lengthening as the arch of the foot drops and fluid retention grows. Our aim here is to keep the feet active so we can strengthen from the ground up.
Explained…
Take a space, you can hold onto a wall for balance if needed. Stand tall and notice where your body weight lands naturally. Try and find your centre point.
Lift your toes, try to spread them as wide as you can, notice how your abdominals naturally involve themselves as you do this… pretty cool ey. Repeat this 8 times.
Now start to lean side to side, forward and back. Notice how your body has to adapt as you move your weight round. Once you have done this a few times start to link them together in a continuous circle, noticing how this ricochet through the body.
Party Trick…
You can use a towel or a Pilates band for this next one. Place the band or towel in front of you length ways and then start to lift the toes and pull the band / towel towards you, NO HANDS ALLOWED! As you do this you might start to feel the mid of your foot, it might even cramp up on you. This is how we are going to keep your arch and strengthen your feet.
I love my party trick of being able to pick the whole towel up!
Breathing 360
Breathing might seem simple but when was the last time you actually gave yourself some time to really focus on your breath? Our breath is AMAZING and really does work wonders for healing the whole body. If you just stop for a moment, notice how you breathe, most probably you’ll find your breath is to the front and potentially in the chest. Don’t be alarmed there’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing, we just want to create a breath that wraps around the whole body, like an umbrella opening and closing. So instead of short and shallow breaths we take longer, deeper and fuller breaths.
Explained…
Pop your hands around your ribs, thumbs to the back of the body, now as you take your next breath I want you to send the air to hands and notice the expansion of the ribcage all around the body, now as you exhale notice the lowering of ribs all around the body.
Do this for a round of 8 deep breaths, this will help to focus, calm and reconnect you.
NB: I love doing this exercise in the car and just before bed, sneaky little way of getting those extra breaths in.
Hug the baby
And no I don’t mean just hug your baby, although I have to say that can make you feel better (not at all times, preferably after a bath and they’re nice and clean). This is relevant to both pre and postpartum, ‘hug the baby’ is a great exercise in learning how to control the extra wight you’re carrying on the front go the body, not only for the lower back but in the pelvis also.
Explained…
Keeping the 360 breathing in mind I want you to now bring awareness to your ‘baby belly’. On your next exhale I want you to imagine you are hugging your ‘baby belly’ up and in to you. You’re now going to keep this sense of hug as you continue to breathe. I want you to notice how much more support you have in your lower back and how much weight you have taken out of your pelvis. (This exercise saved me towards the last few weeks of my pregnancy).
Notice the difference in the unsupported v supported hug a baby position? When you do this you don’t want to be straining to hold the ‘baby belly’, you want the breath to be able to flow. If the breath becomes forced, so will everything else in your body and this is something we want to avoid. You can do 8 rounds of this, maybe practice is the supermarket or again when you’re driving and see the difference it makes.
Blooming flower
With everything pretty much froward facing its no wonder that our poor chests feel the strain. For myself this exercise came into its own postnatally however, doing this during pregnancy will massively help you in the prep phases before birth, it will also encourage ribcage expansion/ movement which towards the end of your pregnancy will massively help as your bump grows.
Explained…
You can stand or sit for this, find what is comfortable for you, find your breath, hug the baby.
Now I want you to hug yourself crossing your arms over your body sending the hands to the back of your shoulders.
Draw your hands up towards your elbows and then pause, let the body rock gently from side to side, take a nice deep breath in.
Let go of the elbows and reach them up towards the sky.
Bend your elbows down towards the side of your body so you can feel your lats say ‘hi’.
Repeat this but swap which arm you have on top each time. You can also add some pluses with the elbows into the body for some extra spice.
Stretch Squatting
We’re squatting for purpose here ladies. Prenatal squatting is going to help you prepare for birth by stretching the pelvic floor and the surrounding fascia. During your birth if you can squat it will massively help you as it allows the tail-bone to get out of the way letting gravity to help get your little person out. Postnatally its going to help us restore our pelvic floor and it will save your lower back, so we can get back on the trampoline, cough when we want, without feeling we’re going to wet ourselves. Yes, I LOVE a squat.
You can use a wall or chair so you feel safe and comfortable.
Explained…
Take your feet so they’re wider than hip distance, turn your toes to ‘ten to two’.
Slowly start to lower your body down so you’re sitting into your squat, like a little frog. Hold down here for a few rounds of deep 360 breathing and then slowly come back up. Repeat this for 8 rounds.
If you’re feeling comfortable with this, you can try and do your squat unaided. When you get down to the bottom bring your hands to prayer and press the elbows out to the knees, this helps to close your chain, give you more stability and option to widen the knees if you want to.
You can also add some gentle shifts of weight from one side to other, this helps to wakes the fascia in whole body, which if you’ve been to my classes you’ll know will have a domino effect through the whole body.
Cat / Cow
I LOVE this exercise, great for your whole body, if you can I would do this morning, noon and night.
Explained…
Carefully come down to the floor on all fours, roughly hands under shoulders, knees under hips (NOTE If you suffer with stiff wrists you can place a rolled towel under the heel of your hand to raise it, also try the hands a little further forward to reduce the pressure).
Hold your spine long, take a few deep 360 breaths in and out.
As you exhale round your spine, start to look up towards your belly as you ‘hug the baby’, feel the stretch in the back line of your body.
As you inhale, let the belly lower toward the ground, open your collarbone and start to look in front of you - think wide with collarbone reaching to sides of the room, let your ‘hug’ go and really let the weight of your baby belly hang, feel free.
Do a few rounds like this then add in a gentle amount of pressure to your shins as you round the spine into cat, notice now how the front line of your body activates more? I love doing this as it really informs the body that we are connected through and through.
Keep repeating this until you feel you have given your body the treat is deserves. You can even play with this on the diagonal and if being on the floor is too much you can take to a Swiss ball and move through these movement, keeping your feet wide to help support you.
Movement for function
This has to be the biggest. All of the above exercises are great to keep you moving, promote amazing pelvic health and help strengthen your body but it all means nothing if you can’t apply it to your daily life. So I want you to start thinking outside the box. Lets look at a typical day… wake up - take some deep 360 breathing, blooming flower on the side of your bed, brush your teeth - do some toe lifts or hug the baby, picking something up from the floor - take a moment for a deep squat, driving - hug the baby, take the weight out of your pelvis, playing lego - add some cat cows.
Think about all the different ways you can help yourself in the most common movements you do daily and this will help you furthermore with your progression with all the above. How are you sitting right now?
Pelvic pain doesn't have to define your pre or postnatal body, it can be there and under control. Remember you’re not alone, 45% of us amazing women have this situation it’s what we do with it which is what can help us through.
If you’re wanting more ways to keep your body moving in post pregnancy come along join my Mum Hub tribe. We’re fun, friendly and just wanting to feel more intune with our amazing new bodies as we navigate the crazies of new mum life. Movement is fun, we just have to move!
