As some of our readers may know I became a Mum a year ago and have been whinging about it ever since! I did not know how long it actually took to recover.  I mean, I had been told it does and it was advice I often gave… ‘give yourself time’, ‘having a baby is a major change to your body’, ‘it takes time to heal’.  But I just did not know it. Initially, it was just about getting bits of my body working again and trying to get back into running.

Now I have got back into my trainers and I don’t get any day to day issues with back pain or other post-natal issues. But I am WEAK!! I can’t believe how weak I am.

Just the process of pregnancy and birth literally wipes everything out. I was pretty fit pre-birth with working and teaching my pilates classes, walking, some cycling and running up until I was about 5-6 months pregnant. Then it all just went. No idea where but it just vanished. It could just be dis-use, but I haven’t got back to anything like the level of activity I was doing before.

So, I participate in some of my classes; Physi-go mum, Physi-go run and Plym Pilates but I’m teaching more than doing it myself. I’m running regularly again because I was getting annoyed of being so slow and sluggish when I know what my body can do, well could do, before…

Reassuringly I am getting quicker. I’ve been doing Parkrun (I always forget my barcode though!) and my time has gone from 33mins to 28mins. Having done a fair bit of running biomechanics I do know what should work, which is essentially strength training.

 

 

 

This is me, my dog Nellie, and a regular Physi-go runner Lou at Parkrun

 

 

 

 

I overheard someone talking at Parkrun on Saturday that their time isn’t improving. So, the basics are that by strengthening your muscles they can absorb and produce more force. This has a couple of beneficial outcomes: