The Barbell Mamas Podcast | Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pelvic Health
The times are changing and moms have athletic goals, want to exercise at high-intensity or lift heavy weights, and want to be able to continue with their exercise routines during pregnancy, after baby and with healthcare providers that support them along the way.
In this podcast, we are going to bring you up-to-date health and fitness information about all topics in women's health with a special lens of exercise. With standalone episodes and special guests, we hope to help you feel prepared and supported in your motherhood or pelvic health journey.
The Barbell Mamas Podcast | Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pelvic Health
Early Postpartum Training Framework
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Waiting for a single “all clear” date after birth leaves a lot of active moms stuck between fear and frustration. We walk through the early postpartum exercise framework I use with clients, starting from the first couple of weeks and extending into the messy middle months when progress feels slow. If you’re trying to return to strength training, CrossFit-style workouts, cardio, or just basic movement with confidence, this gives you a practical path forward that respects healing and your identity as someone who loves to train.
We talk about when you can begin postpartum rehabilitation, including gentle pelvic floor contractions, bracing, and core canister retraining, and why I push back on the idea that you must do nothing for six weeks. Then we get specific: bodyweight exercises like squats, step-ups, and lunges can often work early for both vaginal delivery and C-section recovery, with simple modifications if scar tissue or pulling shows up. We also cover “green light” options that can feel amazing mentally and physically, like low-impact cardio on a rower or bike and lighter seated upper body work, so you can train without constantly second-guessing every rep.
The heart of the episode is learning your “clinical buoys,” the key signs that guide your return to impact exercise, running, jumping, and heavier lifting. We break down what matters most, including increased bleeding, clotting, pain, pelvic floor symptoms, and heaviness, and how these cues help you balance work and rest while you rebuild capacity. We also zoom out to the real-life factors that shape recovery, sleep, stress, feeding demands, tearing severity, and the comparison trap, especially during the tough five-to-nine-month window when you think you “should” feel back to normal.
Subscribe for more evidence-informed pregnancy and postpartum fitness guidance, share this with a mum who is ready to move again, and leave a review if the framework helps. What part of postpartum training feels hardest for you right now?
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Welcome And Medical Disclaimer
SPEAKER_00Hello everyone and welcome to the Barbell Mamas Podcast. My name is Christina Prevett. I'm a public school physical therapist and researcher in exercise and pregnancy and a mom of two who have competed in cross-fit, powerlifting, or weightlifting, pregnant, postpartum, or both. In this podcast, we want to talk about the realities of being a mom who loves to exercise. Whether you're a recreational exerciser or an athlete, we want to talk about all of the things that we go through as females going into this motherhood journey. We're going to talk about fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum topics that are relevant to the active individual. While I am a pelvic floor physical therapist, I am not your pelvic floor physical therapist and know that this podcast does not substitute medical advice. Alright, come along for this journey with us while we navigate motherhood together, and I can't wait to get excited. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Barbell Mamas
Why Book A Two Week Visit
SPEAKER_00podcast. Christina Previtt here, and today I wanted to go through my framework that I am often working through when I have a client who is very early postpartum. I love doing a two-week postpartum visit. I tend to put something on the books that can be either in person or online via telehealth two weeks from your due date so that it is already penciled in and we can move it if we need to, right? Life happens and delivery can be unpredictable, but we try and get it on the schedule so that we have an appointment that is truly dedicated to mom. Within that first session, whether I get to see you at two weeks or eight weeks or eight months, the goal is always to start you on a rehabilitation program to help you understand how your body is feeling. And of many of my moms, the question that they keep asking is, is this normal or is this a feeling I should be feeling based on where I'm I'm at in my postpartum journey? And then giving you buoys on how to progress exercise when I am not there. Obviously, we also have our postpartum programs through the Barvell Mamas that try to do something very similar. It's like trying to have my guidance kind of in the app where there is filters, right? Of if you're failing this, do that. And we do that on purpose because how somebody progresses is going to be very individualized. And when individuals are doing these postpartum programs, one of the things that for me is a is a criticism, but like in a constructive way, is that oftentimes they go really slowly because you aren't there with them. And so because of that, you have to go a little bit slower to try and make sure that you're covering everybody versus being able to make those individual modifications. So I have, let me see, one, two, three, four, five, six points that are on my framework for early postpartum rehabilitation.
Start As Soon As You Want
SPEAKER_00Number one, start as soon as you want to. That can be one day postpartum, that can be one year postpartum. As soon as you want to start getting ready and doing some movement, you absolutely can. And you can kind of start some of that early core canister retraining. I would argue as well that I want to prioritize or try and get individuals to prioritize early movement earlier than our previous recommendations, right? I've done plenty of episodes in the past about how I am very anti-the six-week wait. But we can start as soon as you want to, right? Doing core contractions, doing pelvic floor contractions hours after delivery. It might not feel very strong, right? Pumping your pelvic floor, but it is absolutely okay and safe to do that. So you can start, especially those early kind of contract abwall, contract pelvic floor as early as you want to. So that's number one.
Simple Bodyweight Moves That Work
SPEAKER_00Number two is that early on, our body weight movements are often okay. This is true for vaginal delivery and for C-section. If moms are like, I just want to move my body a little bit, getting them to do things like squats and lunges, step ups as three lower body exercises to get you started is wonderful. Squats and step ups are totally fine for both vaginal delivery and cesarean. Um, the lunge, the only thing with the C-section is that at the lowest range, when knee is getting close to the floor, sometimes people may feel some gentle pulling. Gentle pulling is okay, but big sharp pulls, I just get them to lower their range and do like a half lunge versus a full lunge, but but then that's okay too. And so I often at that first appointment have individuals doing every minute on the minutes or as many repetitions as possible for three to five minutes just to get your body moving around a little bit. The great thing about squats, lunges, and step ups is that if baby starts to fuss, you can put baby in your arms and it's a little bit more weighted, but you're already going up and down stairs, changing diapers and going to bed with baby anyway. And so, again, these are all things that I am giving green lights for in that early postpartum period.
Green Lights For Cardio And Upper Body
SPEAKER_00This kind of leads me to number three is that whenever I get to see you first, I love giving some green lights, right? We're doing a lot of modification the early postpartum period, where it's not going from I'm not doing any exercise yet postpartum to you can do whatever you want, right? We're we're kind of always working within buoys and we'll talk about those buoys in a second. It is so invigorating when I get to say to you, go as hard as you want and let your fitness be your limiter. Right. And so an example of that is as soon as you feel comfortable after vaginal delivery, um, going on the rower. Because you're on your sits bones, it usually feels pretty okay on your perennium. I'm not really worried about core wall. Just don't kind of crank it all the way back. Let your fitness be your guide. You can get on a rower. Recumbent bike is another one. For the concept two or a seated upright bike, as long as it feels okay on your perennium with stitches after vaginal delivery, it's a green light for my mama's after a C section, um, because you don't have the same suturing that you're healing from at the perennium side. I can give you a green light on the C2 bike right away. And so having those couple of things that I'm like, you don't have to consider your healing postpartum, fill your boots, like do as much as you want to, and you know, kind of feel that intensity in your body if that is something that you desire is a really powerful thing. Having that can just kind of feel like you're getting that part of your identity back. And I know for a lot of really active women, um, that is something that is really important to them. And so I love giving green lights. When it comes to early exercise, we've talked about lower body exercises and cardio. The other one is upper body. Um, many upper body exercises, um, especially if you're doing them in sitting. So things like uh overhead pressing, bench press, bicep curls, tricep extensions, rowing, many of those are fine, especially if we go a little bit lighter on the weights in that early postpartum period. And so that can be another kind of cluster or grouping of exercises that you can kind of return to earlier. The ones where we're gonna have to be really intentional or to just kind of progress within clinical buoys are gonna be stuff that keeps you upright for long periods of time, especially with impact. So things like running and jumping and heavier loaded exercise. And this is true of vaginal delivery and of cesarean section. Um, with C-section, the biggest consideration is when we go out of neutral on that return and how your scar is healing. Um, and so there's slight differences if we're doing uh cesarean recovery versus vaginal recovery. Um, but those are our areas of fitness that we're being a bit more intentional with our recovery and we're not getting the green light as early on. And so this kind of leads to my next point. So so far we've talked about start as soon as you want to, and I'm gonna push you to start early, right? Bodyweight exercises early are often fine. Um, light or, you know, especially seated upper body exercise is also a great way to get early exercise in. I'm gonna try and give you green lights, especially on the low impact cardio side of the equation. That's number
Clinical Buoys To Watch Closely
SPEAKER_00four. And number five, the really important thing is for you to know your clinical buoys. What I mean by that is as we start getting back to things like impact and jumping and heavier lifting, all the things I want you to get back to. I want you to know what signs I'm expecting. What are signs that your body is giving you a signal that it needs to rest and recover? And what are signs and symptoms that I don't want you to ignore? Examples, early postpartum are a sharp increase in bleeding, especially with clotting. Um, sometimes if you're going from having sat for several hours to standing, you will feel like a gushing of blood or an increase in blood from just the positional change. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you're standing and moving around and all of a sudden you're feeling more of that bleeding. Um, that just might be that you're pushing your body a little bit too far. Any increase in pelvic floor symptoms with moderate to vigorous physical activity based on our international Delphi and our 2025 postpartum exercise guideline in Canada is a reason to get screened by a pelvic floor physical therapist, potentially, also acknowledging that with reconditioning postpartum, any of those symptoms can improve. Any feelings of heaviness around the opening of the vagina is not a sign that you are damaging anything, but is like a DOMS or fatiguing of the pelvic floor often. And so, not a sign to freak out, but a sign that your body is tired and that rest is appropriate in those moments. So having those increase in bleeding, any type of pain or exacerbation of pelvic floor dysfunction with activity and that heaviness sensation are kind of those buoys that I often will give around your body is telling you that it is tired, it is still recovering from an injury, right, with delivery or a surgery if we're thinking cesarean, and we want to make sure that we're respecting that work to rest, and that rest is really important to build capacity over time. So those are kind of those clinical buoys. And oftentimes I'll kind of set a trajectory for humans. One of my favorite is, you know, start with an empty barbell. Every time you expose yourself to that barbell, add five to 10 pounds. Early on, it's gonna feel easy on the quad if it's a lower body exercise, but maybe tougher on the pelvic floor. And then eventually we'll have both of them feeling equal at effort as you get a little bit further postpartum. So give me those clinical buoys. My last consideration, and this is reflected in the postpartum exercise guideline, and I love this, is that your trajectory and
Your Recovery Path Is Individual
SPEAKER_00your path is your own. And we are going to make changes to how fast or how slow you're recovering based on your individual circumstances. And that is physical recovery, yes. Um, symptom profile, yes, but also life circumstances. You have a colicky baby and baby is not sleeping, you're exhausted, you are overstimulated, and you cannot think about doing anything else. That is a very different situation than some of my friends who have had unicorn babies who sleep through the night at four weeks. Like that was not my experience postpartum. Like, and so understanding how much we can push, when we should prioritize rest, how fast we should be recovering, what the body's capacity is for recovering and your individual circumstances when it comes to pelvic floor injury or issue, right? Degree of tearing for some higher degrees can slow down how fast we progress just because your body is healing from a bigger injury than if somebody did not have any tearing at all. And so there's gonna be a lot of capacity to wiggle up and wiggle down based on your trajectories. And postpartum rehabilitation is not linear, right? It's not one of these things where we're gonna be able to add five or 10 pounds indefinitely. Um, sometimes your body may feel a little achy. Sometimes you may have to take a D load week. Like there's just gonna be a lot of individual variation that's gonna be important to respect our body in those spaces in order for you to feel like you are kind of respecting where your body is right now and then progressing as possible. As like a bee of that, comparing to others online, just know that it can be really challenging when you're comparing yourself to other parents, but their circumstances and their situations are not their own, and they are sharing their highlight reel, right? You can see some moms who are in their first deliveries, and a couple weeks post-partum, it doesn't even look like they had a baby. Like some people are like that, others are not. Just like some people get stretch marks, others don't. Some people tear, others don't. Some people get that home birth that they want, others have transfers to hospital. There is so much that is outside of our control, and that comparison game can really crush us. Um, as long as you are doing what you feel is best for your body and kind of respecting where you are in your healing journey, that is what matters the most. And if that means that you need to mute people that you are comparing yourself to, that is also okay. Um, and so using that framework allows you to have kind of an idea about how you can progress and go into exercise in that early postpartum period.
The Tough 5 To 9 Month Gap
SPEAKER_00Um, and then know that this is kind of random, but um, I always feel like that four or five months to eight, nine months is kind of this weird space because early postpartum, you see pretty big improvements in your physical fitness as your body starts to feel better, right? Because you feel like, you know, you've been hit by a train in that early postpartum period because, you know, big life event with delivery and this new human, whether it's your first or your fourth, your family dynamic is changing and you're trying to recalibrate. Um, but you start to feel a little bit better, kind of in your body, you're not bleeding anymore. You maybe you're getting babies doing a bit of a longer stretch of sleep, hopefully for you all. Um, and you still feel like your fitness isn't the same in that five to eight, nine, 10 month period. That is the hard spot. The early postpartum spot is probably easier, where we kind of expect, you know, you just had a baby, you're in the newborn trenches, you know, lighter movement, et cetera. But there's this belief, and and I'm saying this as a person who felt it so, and I just felt it so strongly. Um, when you are in that five to six months, you're like, it's been six months already, I should be feeling better. Um, just stay the course. I know it sucks. And I know it does not feel like you should still need to modify everything or you're you were hoping that your fitness would be back. And maybe in some arenas it is. Um, it is okay if you still don't feel like you are at the fitness you were at in the preconception um space before pregnancy. And it is also okay if your fitness never goes back there. Um, because you know, a lot of people choose to step away from competition. Some people just want to do fitness for health and longevity, you know. Um those are all okay things. And I just want to kind of finish off this episode of like just hopefully validating your experience if this is you, um, and just allowing you to let go maybe of some of those expectations if you feel like you've been beating yourself up a little bit about them. Um, because I've been there and I've done that. Um and your fitness does come back if it's something that you want to prioritize. I was the fittest I ever was um after my second in my 30s, you know. Um, and and I've stepped away from competition and sometimes I beat myself up that my fitness is not where it was before. Um, but that's because that is not the stage of life that I am in right now, nor do I want to be in that stage of life just because of competing priorities. And and I have to tell myself that that's okay. All right.
Quick Recap And Closing
SPEAKER_00If you have any other questions or comments, please let me know. Hopefully, you found that helpful. Just to do a quick summary. I want you to start as soon as you want to, right? Pelvic floor contractions, bracing, et cetera, are really wonderful. Body weight movements, such as lunges, squats, and step ups, are easy to put in early postpartum and they don't require any equipment. Light upper body exercise, especially in sitting, are also really wonderful options in that early postpartum period. As you go back to cardio-based exercise, I want to give you the green lights and things that you can go as hard as you want to. It still respects your postpartum body and allows you to push into higher intensities early on to just get that good pump, exercise pump, but also that uh feel-good hormone that happens when you push high intensity. When you are going into higher level activities, thinking things like more impact-related exercise or heavier lifting, you have to respect your clinical buoys. Bleeding, pelvic floor symptoms, pain, and heaviness are things that are giving you signals of what your body is ready for right now. And is not sign of damage, but signs of recovery and rehabilitation. We're going to edge into some of those symptoms, postpartum. It is an expectation just because of the way that our body is recovering. And then we are going to make changes up and down on the rate at which you are increasing your load or increasing your running volume, et cetera, based on your personal circumstances from a physical recovery perspective, a mental readiness perspective, and your environment. Have a wonderful rest of your week, everybody, and we will see you all next time.
