Postpartum University® Podcast

Postpartum Core & Strength Recovery: What Every Provider Needs to Know | Dr. Jena Bradley EP 213

• Maranda Bower, Postpartum Nutrition Specialist

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We’ve got to stop telling moms to “just wait six weeks and then you’re good to go. 

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Jena Bradley, a postpartum physical therapist and core restoration expert. Together, we’re unpacking the biggest myths around postpartum movement and Dr. Jena reveals what providers really need to know for effective core and strength recovery.  Learn how to assess readiness for activity, why core health is about so much more than aesthetics and has everything to do with strength, energy, and functional healing. This conversation will reshape how you approach core rehab and early postpartum care and healing.

Click HERE to check out this episode on the blog. 


Key Time Stamps :

  • 01:16: myths about postpartum fitness 
  • 02:21: The importance of movement in initial six weeks postpartum. 
  • 06:17: Using pain as a key indicator for appropriate activity levels. 
  • 07:29: bleeding patterns as a sign of exertion in postpartum. 
  • 10:55: Critical assessment signs to gauge readiness for movement. 
  • 11:40: Identifying the source of pain (diastasis recti, pelvic floor, C-section scar). 
  • 13:20: Shifting from aesthetics to functional healing and core strength. 
  • 18:27: The interconnectedness of nutrition, sleep, nervous system regulation, and mental health in postpartum fitness. 
  • 18:50: The crucial role of nutrition in muscle rebuilding. 
  • 20:32: Addressing motivation and consistency in postpartum exercise.

Connect with Dr. Jena:

Dr. Jena Bradley is a physical therapist, postpartum core restoration coach, and proud mom of 4 girls. With over a decade of experience in physical therapy, Dr. Jena empowers moms with quick, effective workouts and expert guidance tailored to busy schedules. Her approach emphasizes core strengthening as the foundation for rebuilding a strong, healthy body after pregnancy.

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Speaker 1:

The postpartum care system is failing, leaving countless mothers struggling with depression, anxiety and autoimmune conditions. I'm Miranda Bauer and I've helped thousands of providers use holistic care practices to heal their clients at the root. Subscribe now and join us in addressing what modern medicine overlooks, so that you can give your clients real, lasting solutions for lifelong well-being. Hey, hey, everyone, welcome to the Postpartum University podcast Today Dr Jenna Bradley. She is a physical therapist, postpartum core restoration coach and a proud mom of four girls who understands firsthand that challenges of balancing motherhood, fitness and self-care. And she is joining us today with a decade of experience over a decade of experience in physical therapy and she's got a passion for helping moms regain their strength and their confidence and their energy and has become a trusted voice for postpartum wellness, which is why she is here on the podcast today. Welcome, I'm so glad you're here, jenna.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited for our conversation today.

Speaker 1:

I am excited because we're going to dive into some of the harder conversations around this, because I feel like I've talked to a lot of incredible. You know PT therapists and oftentimes we go into that like the nitty gritty of how Kegels are not always like the best thing and sometimes they can, you know, obviously cause more damage than good and you know all of those little nuances about it. But I feel like there's still so much misinformation out there when it comes to postpartum fitness in general and I want to hear your take on like what's one of the biggest myths providers are still believing and how is this impacting moms?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think the number one thing that a lot of moms are being told after having a baby you know, we're in the hospital or wherever you are giving birth they're told don't do anything and wait six weeks, wait six weeks to move. But it's it's not that we. We need to educate moms, and this was something that I struggled with when I had my first baby.

Speaker 2:

Even as a physical therapist, I really didn't know what to do after I gave birth and I'm thinking well, I'm nervous to move and you know I had some tearing, but what am I really supposed to do now that I gave birth, now that I'm home and I have to take care of my baby, what am I supposed to do with my own body?

Speaker 2:

And so I think it's important that moms and providers are really aligned with what happens that first six weeks and if we can explain to the mom that it's okay to move, don't be afraid to move. Movement is going to help your body heal and, as a physical therapist, that's what we're all about. We're all about moving to heal our body instead of being afraid to move and letting our bodies heal with just rest. Yes, we do need to rest, but there's a, there's a balance of some rest with some movement, and I I hope that the providers that are listening can be a little bit more detailed, just giving some explanation of what movement is good and what movement is not good at the first six weeks.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, let's, let's dive into that, because this is a little bit different than what we normally talk about in terms of like, resting and finding like. How do we find that balance? What does that look like? Because we want moms to rest and oftentimes they're, generally speaking, moving way too much and and most of our opinions right they're three, four days postpartum and they're going grocery shopping or, you know, they're doing laundry and they're up cooking and doing dishes, like, is that, is that a part of this, or is there? Is there something else that we should be looking at, or is that too much Like? Let's, let's dive into this.

Speaker 2:

Let's dive into that. So everybody's different. I always take all of my clients and I, you know I look at them as just one person. It's not a one size fits all. So if you have someone who had a really traumatic childbirth, they're going to need more rest and someone who had the most amazing childbirth and is up and walking day one postpartum, we might treat them a little bit differently and encourage them to walk a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

And I'm not talking about big workouts. We're talking about basic movements, the deep breathing, the breathing exercises that we talk about, just walking alone. You know we can classify walking as cardio because it's movement. We're getting our heart rate up. So things like that is what we need to tell these moms and they might think to themselves wait, I'm not allowed to do anything. But if you just say you're allowed to do breathing exercises, they feel so much better knowing that they're allowed to do that. Or we tell them yes, we want you to walk and do laps in your house. We're not talking about getting on a treadmill, but walking and doing laps in your house is okay to do. You don't have to be afraid to do it if your body is telling you that it's okay. So we have to listen to our body. If we can teach the moms from the get-go to listen to their body and their body is going to tell them what is allowed and what's not allowed I think it would be so much easier to teach the moms what to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I find the conversation of, like you know, listening to our bodies sometimes very difficult and nuanced, because we have so many societal pressures that tell us to get up, get your body back, do the thing or you need to stay resting. If you're not resting, then you're doing something wrong, and so oftentimes, especially in postpartum, like during this very sacred, sensitive time, it's very easy to get lost, and these are the things that I've been taught over the years and I've grown up to believe to be true, or the things that I've learned in my childbirth education class or whatever the case may be, and then that kind of gets convoluted with. Well, I think this is how it's supposed to be and therefore, this is what my body wants. And like, how do you differentiate between the two when you're working with moms?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I, I teach the moms to first look for pain. And if they're having pain, that is that is your body telling you to slow down, to stop, to not do whatever it is you're doing. And if somebody is motivated in their mindset, they're, they're ready, they want to do something, then why not introduce those gentle movements of the breathing, you know? And so let's, let's meet the mom where they want to go. You know, it's a, it's a, you know, just a collaborative approach with the provider and the mom together to figure out what's best for this person. So, figuring that out, you know, after childbirth, whether they had a C-section, of course they're going to be treated a little bit differently or given different advice versus someone who you know is not having any trouble at all. So let's just look at everybody individually. Also, not the six weeks. Don't, don't do anything in the six weeks, because moms will completely halt, you know, halt their bodies and not do anything.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a. I love that point about pain. What about bleeding? Like? Is that a good sign? Like, if you're starting to bleed even more, that you should probably step back and and relax and rest even more?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so what I like to do with the bleeding, because it's hard for a mom to understand wait, I'm bleeding this amount but I'm still bleeding and like bleeding is bleeding to a mom.

Speaker 2:

Right. But I like to have a mom get a calendar and write down their symptoms of the bleeding, whether it you know, just putting it on a scale of minimal, moderate or a maximum amount of bleeding. You know, you know, just putting it on a scale of minimal, moderate or a maximum amount of bleeding. You know, they know what a lot of bleeding is. But if they can track that on a calendar and write down, okay, my bleeding's a little less today, maybe rank it down in a moderate range, or then one day it's light, and then they can see on a big picture you know calendar seeing that okay, this bleeding is getting better, rather than it just being classified as bleeding. So I think it's good for a mom to sort of observe the bleeding and keep a close eye on it and then go to their doctor and say, okay, my bleeding is getting better, I'm feeling better Now I feel ready versus, wow, this bleeding has not improved at all and it's still pretty heavy. I don't think my body's ready.

Speaker 1:

Hey, I know you are crazy busy, but if you just have a second, could you simply hit subscribe and leave a review for us? I'd be so grateful. Subscribe and leave a review for us, I'd be so grateful. Yeah, I often see it, especially with exercise or movement in general, where moms are like, okay, I'm ready to get up and I'm ready to do things, and where I have to get up and I have to do things right.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes it feels like it's not a choice to chase your toddler you know toddler around and do the dishes and the laundry, and then they're like, oh my gosh, I'm starting to bleed even more heavier because I am being more active, and I think that's often a really good indicator. You know, along with pain, that this is not what your body needs to do and that there's more rest. But I want to. I want to touch base on how most providers are not getting the type of training that you have whatsoever right Like, or PTA physical therapy. This is not, you know, something that an OB or a general practitioner or a mom going to a six week checkup is ever going to receive right. So what are some of the critical signs that somebody maybe who's listening in. Who does those six weeks checkup or sees mom and, in this period of time, like what should they be looking for when assessing a mom's readiness for movement?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so many things. Right, there's a laundry list of things, but the first thing that I would look for is we're going to go with that pain, but then that pain is going to guide us into what area are we really focusing on. So, as a physical therapist, one of the first questions I ask everybody is how much pain do you have and where is your pain? And I get really specific not just your back, but where on your back, or yeah it's, it's hurting me in my stomach, but wear in your stomach. So we're going to start touching our patients and feeling around. Where is this pain coming from? And is it in their linea alba, which is the diastasis recti gap? We need to look to see if they have diastasis recti. Is it pelvic floor pain?

Speaker 2:

Let's observe them internally, and so let's start with the pain and figure out where it is. So is it their C-section scar and their scar is not healing? Or maybe it looks healed, but the deep tissues underneath the scar are, you know, causing some problems and some internal pain. So let's just go one step deeper into them describing their pain, which a lot of moms have a hard time describing their pain. They might just say I have back pain, but it actually might be their hip. So we need to ask maybe one or two or three more questions.

Speaker 2:

After they explain what their pain is, go a little bit deeper and then, when everything checks out and you figure out what area they're struggling with, then we want to gear them towards movement, specifically for that kind of patient, I would say a patient. So now they have some kind of diagnosis or some kind of classification, well, let's gear them in the right direction. A C-section mom is going to exercise completely differently than a mom who has diastasis recti. So we need to be able to steer these moms in the right direction once we figure out what is causing pain or what is causing lack of movement in their body. Now, if everything checks out fine and they're not having any pain, well then, give them the go-ahead to get started. But I always start with those gentle exercises. So if you're not sure how to educate the mom on how to get started, I always tell them to start with the core and some light cardio. We can go on and on about that.

Speaker 1:

You know, I feel I'm so glad that you brought this up because I feel like society is obsessed with the mom pooch and they're obsessed with getting your body back and you know, we have all of these harmful things that moms say to themselves and society says to mom. And you know, oftentimes I think as providers, that's what we hear in that first six week checkup and beyond Right, about how moms are asking like OK, what do I do? How do I do this? How can providers shift that conversation away from this more aesthetic approach and toward this deep conversation, functional healing that needs to occur?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a great question. I love talking about the core being the foundation to our body. It is not all the aesthetics and the clothing and the bathing suits, but it's the foundation to every single movement we do as human beings. We can't move without our core being strong. And so, if you think about it, if we have zero muscle strength in our core, we're going to put it at a zero. We would be slouched, flopped over, our shoulders would be out of alignment, our hips would not be functioning properly, and then everything we call it the kinetic chain Everything from that point on is not working and it's going to have injuries or pain dysfunction. We're going to be sluggish throughout the day. Everything stems from core strength. That's why I love it so much.

Speaker 2:

I am so passionate about core strength, but a provider would probably explain to the mom we need to rebuild your core, because your core muscles were weak throughout your pregnancy. Because your core muscles were weak throughout your pregnancy and the only way that you can start feeling more energized again after having a baby and being able to carry your baby without the struggle is by rebuilding your core strength again. I always like to say the analogy of you have this all-star athlete who has an ACL injury and there's no way that after they have surgery or after they go through this traumatic injury, which we would classify as like childbirth right, childbirth is somewhat traumatic there's no way that the coach would say, okay, you tore your ACL, but you're going to play the rest of the season. You got to go back in and just do it. Well, us as postpartum moms yes, we went through a little bit of trauma, maybe a lot of trauma, after having a baby and we are just put right back in the game and we have to take care of our baby without skipping a beat.

Speaker 2:

But we need to go through a rehab process, whether you do it with a physical therapist or you do it at home. We need to rehab our core back and get that strength back, or fix our DR gap or fix our C-section you know the incision and just rehab our bodies back so that we can go back to doing our daily lives of picking up heavy laundry baskets, picking up the heavy carrier, the baby carrier, pushing the stroller up the street. There are so many things that we do that we have to engage to the core and so if providers start explaining it in that realm of function rather than the way our stomachs look. I think moms are going to relate more. Every mom can relate to the struggles of holding your heavy baby. As your baby is growing and getting to be 30 pounds, it is hard to carry your baby, but if we have a strong core it is so much easier to hold our babies and it makes life easier and more fun, right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely, and I I totally relate to this because I'm a mom of four as well, and three girls. I know that you have four girls, which is so fun, but after my first kid I specifically remember I had I was a person who loved to move, I ran all the time, I was in kickboxing, I played the clarinet. For years I legit had a six pack, my core was strong and I was like that was like the most impressive part of my body. You know, I was like in my early twenties and I just absolutely loved it.

Speaker 1:

And then I had I got pregnant and I had severe diastasis recti and it was a lifetime Like I could not do a lot of things. I felt so weak, my back was always killing me and I didn't like figure it out because, you know, 15 years ago this wasn't like a conversation that we were all having. But I remember specifically having found somebody like yourself pelvic floor physical therapist and we got to work first with breathing exercises and it was straight up like learning how to breathe again and I remember being so exhausted after my first session of focusing on breathing. It was like mind blowing to me. So I think that is like such a beautiful place to start and I will tell you, I've never had a six pack ever again. Like 20s are over, but I really do focus on those core techniques that you're mentioning and because of those core pieces, my life has been so much better and I highly recommend them.

Speaker 1:

So, I am also curious because so many other factors like nutrition, nervous system regulation, mental health they all play a huge role in how we feel about our bodies, how we feel about postpartum fitness. How can providers be educating their clients on, like, the nuances of all of those pieces and how they kind of come together?

Speaker 2:

Let's start with nutrition alone. There's no way I would be able to work out if I didn't have good nutrition. We would feel so exhausted, and when we feel exhausted we're not going to come back to our workout the next day. We need to have the energy to do our exercise day after day after day. Now I'm not saying we have to work out every day of the week, but just to have the energy to know okay, I'm gonna be working out three days a week. I need to have good nutrition in place, I need to have protein and you can speak more to the nutrition side of things but there's no way that moms are going to have the energy to to work out and also to build our muscle strength back. If we don't have that protein in our bodies, we're not building our muscles, and so those two go hand in hand, no matter what. Those two have to be sort of taught at the same time, because it's not a one size, it's just, it's not all fitness. There's no way that we can just say, oh yeah, you're going to get, you're going to get stronger and you're going to feel so much better just by exercising. They're going to feel depleted, and so we have to put those two together. No matter what their repair, they go together. And then with our nervous system if we are, you know, all postpartum moms are lacking sleep. It's just part of the game. And so with the lack of sleep, it takes a hit on our nervous system.

Speaker 2:

So I love to educate moms, one of the first things that I, besides talking about the core and fitness, I go one step ahead of that and that's getting sleep. If we aren't getting sleep, we're not going to have the energy again. Same thing with nutrition. These all go together. They all go together. So we have to get our sleep to balance our nervous system and to take that stress response out. And along with that is, you know, with our mental health.

Speaker 2:

We need motivation. I think one of the number one things that people come to me for they say they're struggling with consistency and they're struggling with motivation. And when we deal with postpartum depression or any kind of stress, we're not going to be motivated to even roll out our yoga mat and to just lie on the floor and do these breathing exercises or to activate our core. That simple step of just getting our workout clothes on or putting a sports bra on is hard enough for moms, and so we need to get that motivation to take those early steps, those simple steps to then work out and then to cook a healthy meal. So all of this plays one big role together and we need to address all of these areas at once instead of just talking about fitness alone, or talking about fitness alone or talking about nutrition alone. They all play a big role together.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful. Okay, I have one other question for you, and I have recently started asking people this who come onto the podcast, and I love the responses. So I kind of want to keep it up. I want to see how I just gonna. I'm just gonna ask if we were to completely rethink postpartum recovery, what would that look like? Oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

Well, postpartum recovery I'm going to have to go back into my memory of this was 12 years ago. My oldest daughter was 12 years ago and what went wrong and how would I change it up? I would first start with taking things a little bit slower instead of thinking so far ahead. So, postpartum recovery a lot of people ask me this how long is postpartum recovery?

Speaker 2:

To me, it can last as long as somebody needs it to last, but you know, when we're in it, we're thinking, oh, three months or four months, or you know the fourth trimester, and then it's over.

Speaker 2:

So I think a lot of times we put a timeline on it and we're trying to rush through all the steps. You know our baby's changing so fast, but we need to slow down right, and sometimes it's hard to slow down. So I would say, for me, changing postpartum recovery would be just living in the moment and taking it slower, taking smaller baby steps, ignoring all the you know the hype that you might see on Instagram or social media, and just just paying attention to your own body and and seeing the little progress that you make, whether it is cooking a healthy meal one day, or maybe it is that extra 30 minutes of sleep, just sort of embracing those little changes and being proud of yourself. For, you know, taking one step ahead and just being in the moment, don't think. Don't think a year from now, think right now. How can you just get a little bit better, a little bit healthier or feeling a little bit better?

Speaker 1:

I love it Okay, where can people find you and connect in with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have a podcast called the fit postpartum mom. We talk about motivation and fitness to keep you exercising all throughout postpartum recovery, and I also have a blog called live core strong and again we talk about all the same things. I'm all postpartum fitness over here and I have a free class that if anybody wants to know how to start engaging their core for the first time postpartum whether you are, you know, newly postpartum or five years postpartum I have a lot of moms asking me how do I start engaging my core for the first time? So I have a free training. It is at livecorestrongcom slash class and you can get that free training and learn how to activate your core in a safe and effective way using my physical therapy exercises.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful. Thank you so much for being here. It's been such a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Thanks so much for being a part of this crucial conversation. I know you're dedicated to advancing postpartum care and if you're ready to dig deeper, come join us on our newsletter, where I share exclusive insights, resources and the latest tools to help you make a lasting impact on postpartum health. Sign up at postpartumu the letter ucom, which is in the show notes, and if you found today's episode valuable, please leave a review to help us reach more providers like you. Together, we're building a future where mothers are fully supported and thriving.

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Maranda Bower

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