The importance of core strength for everyday mom life with Dr. Jena Bradley of Live Core Strong

The importance of core strength for everyday mom life and how to find time to stay consistent with exercise in the chaos of motherhood with Dr. Jena Bradley of Live Core Strong. Dr. Jena is a physical therapist with Jena Bradley, LLC, Live Core Strong, and The Fit Postpartum Mom Podcast. She also discusses why traditional workouts don’t work for postpartum moms. 

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Transcript

Kristin Revere talks with Dr. Jena Bradley of Live Core Strong about the importance of core strength for everyday mom life and how to find time to stay consistent with exercise in the chaos of motherhood.  Dr. Jena is a physical therapist with Jena Bradley, LLC, Live Core Strong, and The Fit Postpartum Mom Podcast.  She also discusses why traditional workouts don’t work for postpartum moms. 

Hello, hello!  This is Kristin Revere with Ask the Doulas, and I am thrilled to chat with Dr. Jena Bradley today.  Dr. Bradley is a physical therapist with Jena Bradley, LLC, and Live Core Strong and The Fit Postpartum Mom Podcast.  

We are going to talk about the importance of core strength today for everyday mom life and how to find time to stay consistent with exercise in the chaos of motherhood. 

Before we get into it, I’d like to fill you in a bit more about Dr. Bradley.  She is a mom of four and helps moms feel empowered to live that fit mom lifestyle easily amongst the chaos of motherhood so they feel confident and strong in their own skin.  Dr. Jena Bradley’s expertise is shared through her blog and YouTube channel, Live Core Strong, and now she has a new podcast, The Fit Postpartum Mom, where she teaches quick workouts for busy new moms with an emphasis on core strengthening before all else. 

She’s most known for her superpowers: scheduling and routines.  She juggles life with her four littles, volunteers at her church in the women’s and children ministry, and continues to work as a physical therapist while running an Airbnb on the side.  She does all this while maintaining a healthy lifestyle and growing her own online business.  If you want to stay motivated, Dr. Jena will surely help you reach your fitness goals faster, all while being a busy mom. 

Welcome, Dr. Bradley! 

Hi!  Thank you so much for having me! 

I am thrilled to chat about the core strength focus and the importance of it.  I feel like it’s not a topic we have discussed in quite some time on Ask the Doulas.  I would love to have you share your expertise.  With all the lifting moms, it’s so important to focus on that core strength. 

Absolutely.  The core is the foundation to everything, yes. 

So what are your tips, other than of course joining your programs and looking into your workouts on YouTube? 

Well, the core something that I think a lot of new moms are looking at, we’re thinking about it.  We are trying to fit our clothes on every day around our new mom belly, and it’s a part of our life as a new mom that things are stretched out; our muscles are stretched out.  The extra baby weight is still there, and that’s all okay.  But when it comes to the weakness, the residual weakness from our core after having the nine months of pregnancy and going through childbirth – that weakness starts to settle in and moms start to realize, I need to do something about this, and I can’t live my life with this weakness anymore.  It’s making it harder to do the daily activities of just carrying a laundry basket, doing the dishes, bending over and lifting up different things from the floor, cleaning up toys.  Our core is engaged with all of that, but when we have a weak core, it makes everyday life so much harder. 

I am a big advocate for starting with core strength when you are a new mom and you’re ready to finally do something good for yourself, do some self care, really get your body to feeling good again.  Not necessarily back to normal, but when you’re ready to feel good again in your body – I always say start with the core.  The core, like I said, is the foundation.  And when you have a strong core, everything else falls into place naturally and easily.  

I have a lot of great exercises that engage the core in a safe way.  As a physical therapist, it’s really important to me that I teach moms how to do exercises safely because we don’t want to have any other complications.  Maybe you had a C-section, and you don’t want to complicate that healing process with your incision.  Or maybe you have diastasis recti, and you have this gap in between your abdominal muscles, and you don’t want to just jump right into crunches and cause that gap to get worse.  So safety is key.  

And I always start with the basis, which is engaging the transverse abdominis muscle.  And that might be a really big term for a lot of moms who are listening, but the transverse abdominis muscle is the deep, inner core muscle that is sort of like the corset of our body, our core.  And it’s underneath our six pack.  It’s underneath our rectus abdominis muscles.  And so that transverse abdominis muscle is weak; might not even be functioning, is stretched out.  And this muscle is what holds our organs in place, our uterus in place.  Our uterus is stretched out, but we need muscles to bring everything back together.  And that transverse abdominis muscle is the key muscle. 

And the way to engage that muscle is by doing something called abdominal bracing.  And I do teach this in my program, Postpartum Ab Rehab, and I teach it in a free class that I have because I feel like this exercise is the number one exercise that all moms should learn after having a baby.  So I do have a free class at Live Core Strong, and you can watch me teach this exercise and learn how to engage this muscle the right way.  This is the exercise that I learned in physical therapy school, but no one reminded me after I had my baby that I should be doing this exercise.  And for moms who are just coming home with their newborn baby or just finally figuring out how to breastfeed and now they’re thinking, I need to do something; what should I be doing?  This is the exercise that you should be doing.  This is the exercise that I wish that every mom was taught when they went through their childbirth and when they were done with childbirth.  I wish that everybody just knew, I need to start doing this exercise eventually to restore my core strength. 

Yes, this exercise is a simple exercise that you can do lying down on your floor.  Just roll out a yoga mat; maybe lie on your bed if you don’t want to get on the floor.  And you tighten your belly button.  You pull your belly button down towards your spine, not sucking it in.  It’s not a hold where you’re holding your breath.  But you want to engage your deep core muscles while breathing at the same time.  So it’s tricky to do.  It’s not easy; it takes some practice.  That exercise alone can do wonders for restoring your core strength after having a baby. 

I love that it’s easy to do and doesn’t take a whole lot of effort, no matter where you plan to exercise.  You don’t need to go back to the gym, for example, and the fact that you offer this free resource is so wonderful. 

Yeah, I think that’s why this exercise is also so effective.  Not the fact that it’s really good at engaging the muscles, but it’s so simple, and it doesn’t cause moms to sweat.  You don’t need a sports bra.  Doesn’t take a lot of thought.  And obviously, us as new moms, having a baby, we are in this mom fog.  It’s hard to focus.  It’s hard to think about a whole workout program.  So why not just start with something simple but something very effective?  And that’s why I always start with that exercise.  It’s just that easy to do, and it only takes two minutes to get started.  It doesn’t take hours.  It doesn’t take 30 minutes.  You can just find a random moment in your day.  Maybe you’re waiting for the microwave to beep, and you’re like, okay, I might as well just lie down and do this exercise.  So it’s that simple, but you can really get your core rehabbed in an easy way. 

Beautiful.  And I feel like people go back to the workouts they did pre-pregnancy once they get that restriction lifted from their provider, and as you’re mentioning, the workouts should be much more focused on the core and certainly a different focus.  I think that when people are so caught up in getting back in their old jeans and how they look versus how they feel – and you’re describing a different focus but also being able to reduce that belly. 

Yeah, a lot of moms have a confidence issue where they don’t feel confident in their new postpartum body.  And it’s not necessarily the looks, but it is just the feeling and the feeling of weakness.  When you’re going around throughout the day and you feel like your energy is low – well, your energy is low because you don’t have the strength to sustain the activities that you’re doing throughout the day.  What I have found – I’m not a coffee drinker, but I have found that when I exercise first thing in the morning or early in the day, that my energy just shoots through the roof, and I feel empowered to do my job as a mom.  I have four kids, and I am a busy mom.  Exercise alone is what gives me the strength and the energy to do my activities throughout the day.  And then the confidence comes with it.  When you feel that you’re capable of moving and moving quickly and thinking, what do I have to do next, and I can go do that next, and I can do that with energy – your confidence will come along with it. 

Absolutely.  So what is it like to work with you through the Live Core Strong program?  

So my program is a six-month group coaching program that starts with that core exercise, abdominal bracing.  That’s the beginning step, and that’s stage one.  And then from there, we go into stage two, which is a little bit more of an advancing program of exercises that still focuses on gentle movement where C-section moms or moms with diastasis recti can safely go through stage two, and it is a progression of exercise.  So that’s the beauty of physical therapy is we’re preventing any kind of injury.  We’re preventing any kind of pain or discomfort.  And we’re also not jumping into things that are high intensity too soon.  A couple reasons why: obviously, we don’t want to cause any problems or any injuries, but also it can get very discouraging.  So there are a lot of workout programs out there or YouTube videos out there that involve exercise at a high intensity where you think, oh, wow, this is an amazing workout.  I feel like I’m going to get a lot accomplished in this workout.  Well, a lot of women that work with me keep telling me, this is so easy.  Can I have more?  Give me something else!  And I say no, we’re going to keep it easy because I want you to come back tomorrow wanting more, wanting to do the exercises.  I want you to feel that this is so easy that it’s easy to show up the next day. 

Each day in the program is a simple exercise, and it’s a lot of repetition where you start to memorize the exercises and it doesn’t take a lot of thought.  Again, I had four babies.  We have such a hard time staying focused on ourselves.  We’re so focused on our children.  When it comes to the exercise, it doesn’t take a lot of thought.  There’s a lot of repetition.  And then your body starts to get used to these exercises.  You start to see the changes.  With three weeks to a month, you start seeing dramatic changes that you end up feeling amazing about it.  You start to see that your belly is strong. 

Now, not everybody loses weight right away, and it’s not about the weight loss.  It’s about feeling strong in your core.  And when these women start feeling strong in their core, they’re so much more motivated to keep going.  

Then I have a third stage.  My third stage would be more of the advanced exercises that you would never think a C-section mom could ever get back to doing.  But since we got through stage two and we made sure that the deep inner core muscles are fully restored, we can then now advance to more difficult exercises, more core-strengthening exercises that are still safe.  More of that deep toning, strengthening exercises.  But at that point, the moms are so motivated that they just want to keep going with this routine that they’ve established.  

So I would say my secret sauce is routines and schedules.  I really like to help my students to create this perfect routine in their life, even with a baby, even with a baby that doesn’t have a routine.  We’re able to figure out the best time to do these ten-minute exercise routines.  They don’t take a very long time.  And they’re able to fit it into the chaos of motherhood.  And it’s just really fun to watch how they can go from complete weakness, never worked out during their pregnancy, and then coming out with a really toned, strong core.  And then they’re motivated to go beyond the core.  So that’s the fun part is when we start establishing that core strength, we then branch out from there, and now we’re ready to work on the arms and the legs and the more advanced cardio or running programs. 

Yes.  And ten minutes is easy to carve out.  You can have a doula care for an infant or your partner or a grandparent, or you can work out during nap time.  I love that you talk about carving time out within the day, and you use the example of working out in the morning to get more energy.  But sometimes new moms have to fit it in wherever they get the moment, so the fact that they can go to your program and get some strengthening and focus, and as you said, that repetition is so helpful. 

And having the accountability of a group within my program, having other moms going through the same thing that you’re going through and then me motivating you, but also helping you work through the difficult times.  Maybe you started back at your job again, and you don’t know how to manage your schedule getting back to work but also working out and also taking care of your baby.  And sometimes I’ve had a lot of moms who are getting sick and they’re just like, oh, I was on such a good streak of working out, but now I got sick, and how do I get back to doing things again?  They don’t know how to start back at the program.  And so I’m able to ask them more individualized questions, like how are you feeling with this, or how are you recovering from your sickness?  Let’s go back one or two stages and start back again.  

And that’s the nice thing.  The program is a ten-week workout program, so you can accomplish everything in ten weeks; the whole program with me with coaching for six months.  Because we know that life can cause some delays or maybe you go on a vacation or maybe it’s a holiday.  It’s not a cut and dry, you have to get it done in ten weeks.  You have six months to work with me throughout this workout program.  It really gives you a lot of freedom to go at the pace you’re comfortable at.  But if you’re one of those motivated, really go-getter kind of women, then you can get it done in ten weeks. 

And then with future pregnancies, do they have access, or do they join all over again?  How does that work? 

They would get an alumni discount.  Once you join, you are then officially an alumni, so we definitely provide a good discount for those who want to come back again the second time around.  The workouts are something that I always tell women to keep for the rest of their lives because it is so key to keep your core strong just for a lifetime, you know?  I see so many people who have SI problems or disc problems or any kind of back pain.  These exercises can prevent all of that.  I never want anybody to stop doing these exercises; they’re that good!  And some of these exercises, you can actually do during pregnancy, as well. 

Beautiful.  So any other tips for our listeners, whether they are in pregnancy and want to plan for that postnatal stage or they are halfway through their maternity leave and want to start exercising and focusing on their core? 

The tip that I would have – I have a lot of tips, actually, but I would say start with, what is the best time to fit in these workouts?  Because a lot of women come to me and they say they are just struggling to stay consistent.  So if you want to develop the fitness habit in your life as a mom, you need to start with the time of the day that you have the most energy and that you can consistently show up to.  I like to do something called time blocking where you have five time blocks in your day, but which time block is the best time block to work out in?  And I always recommend the morning time block, which is the first thing in the morning, or the a.m. time block which is sort of the time when your baby is waking up and you’re around your family.  So find the time block that is your go-to time block for exercise. 

And then also I love to habit stack your two-minute workout routine with something else in your day.  Whether it’s your first baby feeding, first thing in the morning, you’re always feeing your baby right away when he or she wakes up.  And then instantly when you’re done feeding your baby, you do your two-minute core workout routine.  So you’re habit stacking those two things together.  Or like you said earlier, maybe during the nap time, your baby has this one nap in the day that you know it’s always going to be a good nap, and you know that the moment that you put that baby down, you’re going to have some time to yourself.  That would be a great time to squeeze in that two-minute workout immediately when you put your baby down for that first nap, the main nap of the day. 

So you want to habit stack the things that are always consistent in your day and just bump this workout right after those things.  That to me is what worked the best during my postpartum recoveries, always committing to the workout at a consistent time.  

Now, it doesn’t mean it has to be 9:00 a.m.  It just has to be that block of time.  Because I think being on a time schedule with a baby is very, very difficult because our babies aren’t on a perfect schedule.  We need to be a little flexible, but we need to be consistent with showing up.  So I would say that’s one of my main tips with creating a habit around fitness. 

But another random tip, if you don’t mind me sharing, is I’m a big advocate for postpartum belly wraps.  So if anyone’s listening and they’re pregnant or they’re newly postpartum, postpartum belly wraps are a really great way to get your core to engage again after having your baby.  So if you’re pregnant, I’m not telling you to get a postpartum belly wrap now, but get one and save it for after you have your baby.  And this is what really helped me engage my core in the first six weeks postpartum, but you can wear it as long as four months postpartum.  

The postpartum belly wraps can really help bring your core muscles back into alignment and also get your uterus to shrink back down and contract down naturally.  And when that core comes back to its place – it doesn’t do fat loss.  It’s not about the fat loss.  It’s about realigning the muscles.  That really helps you speed up your recovery for when you are ready to start exercising again.  I’ve used them.  A lot of my students have used them.  They work really well.  I don’t know, Kristin, if you ever used one, or if you like them, but just curious your thoughts on postpartum belly wraps. 

Yes, that is such a great tip, Jena, and I am a big fan of belly wraps, for sure, whether it’s surgical recovery or a vaginal birth, it’s so helpful.  And there are many different types, of course.  Everything from bengkung belly binding, the more traditional, to the more structured binding wraps. 

Yeah, as long as you get some kind of wrapping, it really does wonders and it can really help with speeding up the recovery, especially for C-section moms who have that pain from the sagging and the incision pain.  It can really help bring that back together. 

Absolutely.  So any final tips on the core before you share the ways that our listeners can connect? 

I really want to remind everybody that core stability and core strength before intensity.  It’s not about going back to crunches or sit-ups or doing the exercises you did back in college.  Our bodies have gone through a lot throughout pregnancy and postpartum.  You really need to think about how you are in this recovery phase.  Think about someone who just had surgery and how they would recover at a slower pace.  So even though you might feel great after having your baby, your body is still healing inside.  Focus on that slow healing.  Work on some breath work.  Breath work is a great way to get started if you’re in pain, but I want you to just take things slower than what your mind is maybe telling you to do.  And it’s okay to go slow.  It’s okay to take a year to recover.  There’s no timeline.  But just focus on stabilizing your core and working on some really good breath work in these beginning stages, if you’re thinking about getting back into exercise for the first time. 

Love it.  So how can we find you?  Obviously, you have a website, and you’re all over social. 

Yes, my website is Live Core Strong.  I have a lot of resources on how to wear postpartum belly wraps and a lot of resources on postpartum exercise, and I have pregnancy exercises as well, exercises that help with childbirth.  There are a lot of resources on the blog. 

I’d love for you to listen to my podcast, The Fit Postpartum Mom Podcast.  A lot of motivation there to keep you focused on fitness throughout motherhood.  And I would love for you to check out my free class.  It’s called Postpartum Abs 101, and that will teach you how to get started with your first postpartum exercise.  And I also have some workout challenges and some other freebies on my blog.  You can get a lot of resources if you’re really focused on getting strong again as a postpartum mom.  I’d love for you to check that out. 

I love it.  And you mentioned your YouTube channel earlier? 

Yes, I have a YouTube channel.  I have a great video.  A lot of women have been asking me for this one.  It’s how to test your body for diastasis recti, so if you don’t know how to test for that, I have a video on my YouTube channel, which is Live Core Strong, as well.  And a lot of other great workouts there! 

Excellent!  Thanks, Dr. Bradley!  We’ll have to have you back on again! 

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