Getting back into Pole after baby!

SwirlyGirl started this discussion · 1/11/2014

Hi! I will be having my first child in March and very excited!!! I'm also very excited to get back into pole. I've been an instructor for 4 years and the time away has definitely been hard for me. I'm curious to hear from ladies who were poling before having a baby and then how their return went. I'm not sure if I will have a vaginal or Cesarean birth (I'm high risk so its up in the air). Both types I'm sure have their pros and cons, I'm interested to see/hear which one enables you to get back to working out, strength training and pole easier/faster. I've stayed active throughout the pregnancy with yoga and water aerobics but was not able to maintain much strength due to morning sickness and extreme fatigue sprinkled throughout. What I'm really curious about is if you have a C-section, does that take your core strength down to zero because of having to cut through the abdominal muscles? I know everyone is different so there is no "norm" but would like to hear about the experiences. I can't wait to meet my little girl and start back on my path to fitness and poling!! Thanks : )

7 replies

Catherine1819 · 1/11/2014
Hi, I had my baby four months ago by c section and before the doctor finished he told me I had six pack abs. My first question was when can I start working on them again. He said to wait six weeks. So I did nothing but walking for six weeks. I started working out again at the gym and waited 8 weeks to get back into pole. I have to say my abs feel just as good as they did before. Now I'm hoping one day I will be able to see those six pack abs :)
Lyme Lyte · 1/11/2014
Vag delivery u can get back a lot faster than w a c-section!
Maria_T · 1/12/2014
First of all, Congratulations on the coming arrival of your baby girl! I had my baby 7 months ago and I was in a similar situation to yours. I was a pole instructor for a studio were I'd just relocated to for 3 months when I found out I was pregnant and previous to that I was a pole instructor in DC for two years. I also had severe morning sickness most of the time and found out I had a high risk pregnancy situation around my 5th month when I went into preterm labor and almost had a miscarriage. I had to have an emergency procedure and was put on full bed rest but after two weeks I defied doctors orders and took myself off of bed rest because it made me feel physically worse and made me much weaker. I had been very active prior to that. I got much better and felt better but fast forward to delivery date I ended up having an emergency c section. Baby came out completely healthy but man I was so weak. Like someone previously mentioned, I only walked for the first six weeks then I started running and poling around 8 weeks. I have to be honest, I was totally weak in my core. I was surprised and very depressed when I couldn't slowly lower my legs down from a position lying down on my back. Once I started poling I couldn't even do a pole hold and it felt devastating to me because my whole life I've always been an athlete, played on monkey bars, ran track and field, etc and when I started poling, the strength part came easy to me. I had to build my core back with very gentle stabilising exercises that are designed for post partum core strength recovery and the stabilization exercises I learned from my NASM personal training course and resources I found on the internet. For the first maybe 3 and a half months post partum I felt I would never get my core strength back but at around 5 months I really felt it returning and now at 7 months post I feel almost like I did before I had my baby. I'm telling you all this because I want you to know that no matter how weak you might feel or how much strength you may have lost, you will get it all back in no time because you were in shape before and you know your body and what it needs to get strong again. Keep positive and look forward to getting even stronger because, imo, losing strength and getting a little weaker will give you a greater awareness of those muscles that need to be retrained. Also, lugging a big ole baby around will make your arms legs and back even stronger than before you had a baby lol! Ok, sorry for my long winded reply. Have a safe, blessed birth and forever happy mothering. :-)
Jessiepaff3883 · 1/12/2014
I got back into poling 6 months post birth. I agree with the core stuff. It takes time to rebuild properly. You must wait for your abdominal separation to repair before doing crunch type activities. Your abs separate to give you the baby bump. If you don't wait you will make the separation worse. YouTube "exercises for diastasis recti" or abdominal separation and do those before you partake in your traditional core exercises. I've had 2 kids and am now 16 months post birth of the second and my core has never been better.
jesikah6 · 1/12/2014
Hi there! Congratulations on your pregnancy! I have a different perspective than what you're actually looking for as I only recently became interested in pole and I am 30mos postpartum, so I can only speak of my healing experience after my unmedicated vaginal birth. I still hope you find this helpful. Based on things I had read online, I expected I would have a tremendously difficult time healing from the birth of a baby. I thought I would be bleeding for months on end and that I would hardly have the energy to hold the baby in those first days and weeks following the birth. Then I became educated on the natural birth process and that gave me a thirst for more and more knowledge. As I read birth story after birth story of unmedicated births, I learned that it was NOT normal to be so run down after birth and it was not necessarily normal to bleed for weeks and months postpartum. Ultimately, even though my water broke at 35w4d, I was still able to birth my baby out of the hospital, unmedicated, in the water, and completely naturally. We went home less than 12-hours after my daughter was born. I will spare you all the details of my birth (but if you're interested, you can read my story here: http://babycasablanca.blogspot.com/2011/08/1-fast-labor-1-awesome-birth-center-1.html) but what has stuck with me even after all this time, is how I was completely ENERGIZED after the birth. I didn't have medicine head and I wasn't fatigued. It was amazing. I can't emphasize enough the importance of adequate rest in the first weeks following the birth, whatever birth you have. It was because I took this "lying in" period so seriously that I stopped bleeding at about 14-days postpartum; quite a departure from the MONTHS I had expected. I don't know what your specific situation is that makes you high risk and possibly unable to birth your baby naturally, but if a natural birth in your high risk condition threatens your life or the life of your baby, then cesarean is the only option. If you're looking to getting back on to your pole as quickly as possible postpartum, then unmedicated vaginal birth is the way to go (of course if your health conditions allow). You'll be able to begin closing the separation of the ab muscles sooner and once those are closed, back to the pole you go! Feel free to message me if you'd like information on resources to achieve an unmedicated vaginal birth. I'm happy to help in any way I can. Have a blessed and peaceful birth, and HAPPY POLING!
gypsyheartgirl · 1/14/2014
I did not start my pole journey until well after having my son, so I'm not able to speak directly to returning to pole. However, I can certainly share my experience to returning to general activity. I had a natural birth and found my physical recovery happened much more quickly than I ever expected. I stopped bleeding about a week and a half after the birth and would say I was healed up soon after that and certainly by the six week postpartum check up was ready to return to working out. As jesikah6 noted, I took the opportunity to rest and just get to know my baby in those early weeks. I accepted any offers of help and I did not try to do too much of anything. Breastfeeding also helped to return the uterus back to size and things to generally contract in the abdominal area. I will say I should've probably been more diligent about my postpartum belly band but I'll know for next time. Honestly, the hardest part of going back to working out after the birth was not the physical part but the emotional part. I just didn't want to be away from my son for a single minute. Certainly it was this feeling and not my physical state at all that prevented me from trying to get back to working out for about eight months after the birth. I think having a pole in the house will really alleviate that for me in the future, should I have another baby. Ultimately, it really stands to reason that recovery from a natural process, if possible in your case, will most likely be easier and have you back on the pole much more quickly than recovery from abdominal surgery. Best wishes to you for a lovely birth experience and beautiful babymoon getting to know your little girl!
Veena · 1/16/2014
If you can, go with vaginal birth for the fastest recovery!