Musculoskeletal soreness is extremely common postpartum. Not only have you just spent the past 9 months growing a little human (and giving birth to that human!) but you’re also having to spend a lot of time in forward/flexion-based positions taking care of your newborn.
So what can you do to help decrease your risk of developing postural soreness?
One simple solution is to follow every flexion-based task with a “backwards” (aka extension-based) task.
For example…
👶After every time you feed your baby (whether breastfeeding or bottle feeding), perform 10 gentle shoulder blade squeezes (i.e. scapular retraction).
👶After placing your baby down in his/her crib, perform 3-5 reps of thoracic extension.
👶After every diaper change, perform 5-10 reps of hip extension (whether in standing or a tabletop position).
Extra benefit of these exercises? You’re more likely to be consistent with these posture “rechecks” if you incorporate them throughout the day vs. trying to carve out one larger block of time (because let’s be honest, if you have more than 20 min of spare time in those initial hazy postpartum days, you should be sleeping 😅).
Hope this helps some new mamas out there! Send us a message to learn more.
Note: this is not intended to be medical advice. Always consult your local PT prior to beginning a new exercise regimen.
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