The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
“Don’t stretch postpartum!! Only do strength training!” Oh really?
In a change from the forecast interview with Hallie Yanez, which we're now bringing you next week, I bring you a FTV episode on whether you should listen to people who say you should NEVER STRETCH POSTPARTUM!!
And; is it good news if your muscle hurt after exercise or does it mean you're not very fit?
And, a slight rant about the "best personal trainer in THE WORLD (or just your town)" nonsense that is always popular on websites and in the press.
Just a reminder that HPNB only has 5 billing cycles!
So this means that you not only get 3 months FREE access, no obligation!
BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS!
This means you can sign up after your first child, use the program and recover and then still have access after giving birth to child 2 and 3!
None of this "pay X amount a year" nonsense, once you've paid..you've paid!
This makes HPNB not just the most efficient and complete post-partum recovery program, it's also BY FAR the best value.
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Visit healthypostnatalbody.com and get 3 months completely FREE access. No sales, no commitment, no BS.
Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions or comments
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Hey, welcome to the Happy Person Matter Body Podcast. Hopefully, Person Matter Like for people after that, as always, will be me. This is the podcast for the 23rd of November 2025. And I'm doing something different this week because I had quantum release an interview which I did with Hallie Yamez, which is now coming out next week. She's a doctor of physical therapy, she's a physical therapist. And that was delayed because the people that do things do sound delayed for some reason. So I couldn't send it off in time. So from the vault, I am bringing you an episode which relates to questions I get a lot. Should you stretch or should you strengthen postpartum? And is muscle sign uh muscle soreness after exercise? Is that a sign of of how fit or or or fitness or um or lack of fitness, you know, the old the late onset muscle soreness? Um like I said, I I I I get the question relating to uh stretching or strengthening postpartum a lot, and and there are some very firm camps out there that say you shouldn't stretch, you should only strengthen postpartum. Um I disagree. Why I disagree, why is much more nuanced than that? I am talking today about one of the things I'm talking about today is to stretch or to strengthen. I had an interesting conversation with somebody this week. And I say interesting, I mean interesting for me. For you, maybe not so much, but you're going to need to listen to it anyways. Um and we were talking about the need to stretch postpartum, whether you should be stretching postpartum, because what she had been told in her uh this was a personal trainer, by the way, and what she had been told in her personal training school, or her personal training class, postpartum class, is that you don't need to stretch postpartum, you should just focus on strengthening um the muscles. And by the muscles, I'm guessing she meant core, or they meant core, because it wasn't her. Um she was just telling me what's happened in the course and all that sort of stuff. And I said, well, you hear that a lot, right? I am not a big fan of useless stretching, anyways. Um, but there is a trend within uh postpartum recovery that people should say you shouldn't stretch because you still have relaxing and all that sort of those sort of hormones uh running through your body, and therefore you're already more flexible. And part of uh things like diastasis recti and postpartum issues are caused by too much flexibility and too much weakness in the muscle. Now, technically, yes, but no. Um, right, that is technically maybe true, but technically also very much not so. The fact there is a difference, and we have to kind of so I'll I'll start at the beginning. We have to understand the difference between muscle weakness and flexibility. And muscle flexibility. Um, we have to understand the difference between things like muscle dysfunction, muscles not functioning properly, and not activating properly, and flexibility. And only when we understand that will we kind of know what we're talking about. So things like diastasis rectile and core issues and postpartum back pain and all that sort of stuff, postpartum posture problems, even, tends to be caused not by being too flexible, it tends not to be caused by stretchy muscles, so to speak. Um, it tends to be caused by muscle weakness, and that's a different beast altogether. Um, and muscle dysfunction. So muscles just not doing what they're supposed to be doing. Now, of course, what happens when muscles are not doing what they're supposed to be doing is that uh they're just not firing up. So stretching isn't going to help with that. Uh, and just going straight into strengthening exercises is also not going to help with that, right? So we can ignore that bit a little bit. Uh, what we need to do for that is the muscle activation bit, and that is what every good postpartum exercise program starts off with. Every single one of them, there isn't an exception to this. Uh, whether you're talking Mutu or Healthy Postnatal Body or Jesse Mandel or any of the other thousands of exercise routines out there, a good one starts with muscle activation. End of discussion. Right, okay, awesome. On to the next. So then we only have to deal with um muscle weakness. Now that's an interesting one, at least interesting again for me. Um maybe not so much for you. Um but it'll it'll explain what's happening. If you if you stretch a weak muscle, you're lengthening a weak muscle, and you're not doing anything to strengthen that muscle up, then indeed you can create a bigger imbalance in the body. So let's take let's take posture muscles, for instance. If you look at people's uh upper backs and all that sort of stuff. So when we're talking posture, in this for this specific example, we're just going to be talking about uh shoulders that are forward and around the back and all that sort of stuff. So the posture that everybody knows about. Um, if it is indeed correct that it tends to be that the muscles at the front of the body are too short, strong in some cases, and the muscles at the back of the body, so uh at the top of the back, uh, run by just your shoulder blades and all that sort of stuff being out of position means that those muscles are weak and too long, so to speak. So if you look at, and I'm really oversimplifying this deliberately, just before I get another email, complaining about how I oversimplify stuff. Um, the reason that in the healthy postnatal body program we do a peck stretch, so a stretch for the pectoral muscles, is because quite often uh women's posture postpartum is quite poor because they're breastfeeding and they're pushing buggies and all that sort of stuff, and they're they're falling in on themselves a little bit. So, what we then want to do is stretch the muscles at the front out a little bit, and we don't need to do too much exercise to strengthen those muscles. Right? I personally find that the the chest muscles in most people are overdeveloped, anyways, compared to their back muscles. And I'm not I'm only talking about this for balance, right? Before I get an email saying most people are not muscular enough, anyways. I I understand that, but I'm just talking about an alignment and posture ish uh perspective at the moment. So compared to your back muscles, most people tend to be um tend to be dominant on their on their chest side. So those muscles on the chest side are shorter and stronger than the muscles on the back are in the back are. Um and that's a problem because the muscles in the back are actually significantly larger. Um and when we're talking good posture, that is the fastest route to good posture. And again, we're talking about the top-level uh top posture, so that your shoulders are back nicely and all that sort of stuff, and you don't have what I call nerd neck and all that sort of stuff, is by building up the muscles in the back. So we're doing a lot of exercises, resistance band T's or TRX T's and Y's and all that sort of stuff, row exercises, rowing exercises, pulling exercises, kettlebell bent over rows, all that sort of stuff, right? Squeezing that back is a really good way to open the chest up and and and um and improve posture. Now, what you then want to do is at the front you also want to stretch those back muscles, those pectoral muscles out a little bit so that they get used to being a bit longer. Right now, when we do that, we're not weakening the chest muscles, right? There's no you're not you don't magically get weaker if you stretch a muscle that you've uh that is too strong for what your body is, for that is too short, sorry, for for what your body is, right? You're just creating a bit of balance in the back. So when we're saying you shouldn't stretch, yeah, you should stretch certain muscles. Uh, that doesn't mean that um you you should just do yoga classes or something like that, again, depending on the sort of yoga you would do. Uh, you know, there's more than one type of yoga out there, and a lot of it is strength-based. But what my point is, is you want to be strengthening the right muscles and stretching the correct muscles, and that stretching a muscle that is too short does not necessarily weaken that muscle. That's the point I'm trying to get across, and that I just spent nine or ten minutes waffling on about. So, what we focus on in the beginning in the healthy post-natal body program is strengthening activation exercises first, then strengthening exercises, and then we uh of course the whole way through, we focus on some mobility stuff and all that sort of thing, but we'll really get into the dynamic stretching, so stretching whilst moving rather than stretching whilst holding a position. Um, and by that holding a position, I mean, for instance, reaching for your toes and holding that reach for I don't know, 30-40 seconds. We're doing things a bit more dynamic, we're moving things around a little bit more so you have strings and all that warm up uh and stretch differently. Um, and the same goes for your rotational stretches for your back and all that. We're not doing an awful lot of cat-camel stuff, we're doing much more sideways stuff, anyways. Um, more rotational stuff, sorry. Um, anyways, what we're trying to do, for instance, with the core, because you see, this comes back to a lot of a lot of this core stuff. People will say you cannot do yoga class because you have the cobra pose or whatever it's called, you know, that that's where you really push up from arms, you know, downward-facing dog, upward-facing dog, and all that sort of stuff. And uh that in itself will not cause your diastasis recti to get worse. It will if that's all you do, um, because then you're not doing anything to strengthen those core muscles up, but you're kind of missing the point if you think that that will significantly weaken a muscle if that's short. The problem with diastasis recti is that the muscle is weak, it's not that it's short. So we don't necessarily need to stretch that. It doesn't mean that exercise itself will make your diastasis recti significantly worse. It just means that it's not going to do what you want it to do, uh, and it's not going to help. So, in the beginning, you want to focus on tightening that whole lot up a little bit. So, stretching is not necessarily something that you want to be doing too much of, but it's not going to hinder your recovery. I know it sounds like I said, it sounds yes but no, but but that is kind of what it is. All this stuff is a little bit yes but no, but right? This is why I always say that postpartum exercise is more complex than it looks. It's not just a case of doing your core exercises and not stretching, and and and and you will be fine. Right? You want to be able to do your core exercises, work your obliques, and also stretch your obliques a little bit, but in a dynamic way, so that they you're moving nicely. The whole point of any sort of rehab exercise or postpartum exercise is rehab exercise, right? That is for me, that is just as it's just that simple. It's that your body is getting back to the way it should function optimally, right? The best way for your so that you feel the best way you could possibly feel about your body. That is the point of rehab exercise. It is not to get one group of muscles super strong and to get another group of muscles a lot more flexible, it's to get muscles to do what they should be doing and be nice and strong, and be nice and flexible, and just so you can feel content within yourself. So what tends to happen quite a lot is that people will start stretching their lower back, for instance, uh, cat camel, and all those sort of uh all those sort of stuff. Um and they do that in yoga classes because it feels a lot better, and it does, it feels amazing, right? If you have diastasod recti or you just postpartum, stretching feels phenomenal. Stretching alone, however, is not going to help, right? And then you have the other side where you just do strengthening exercises and you strengthen up your obliques and and your glutes and and your TVA and all that sort of stuff. And that will help your say your lower back pain, your postpartum back pain a little bit, but it's also not going to be enough. You kind of need a combination of both. It's just about timing these things properly and making sure that you start and do things in in the right order. And as I always say, like I said earlier, you start with activation, then you start with, then you continue with strength and endurance, and after that, it's just general upkeep, which includes a lot of mobility and stretching. Because stretching is still good for us, right? We tend to oversimplify stretching a little bit. We tend to oversimplify things like yoga a little bit as well, to be honest. Um, there's more happening than just lengthening a muscle when you're stretching, especially if you have a nice like yoga flow, like a 21 flow or whatever they call it. Tibetan is a Tibetan rights or death by a thousand cuts, whatever it is. I am not that much into yoga myself. Um but if there's a nice flow to it, then everything strengthens, everything gets tested, but everything moves and flows as well, which opens up your lymph system, uh, your lymphatic system, and and all that sort of stuff, and that's why you feel better. Right? Everything moves and everything gets going. That is kind of the whole point. I think it's to better something or other. Uh seven exercises, do it 21 times or something like that. Anyways, that's that sort of flow that helps, it just doesn't help your recovery from specific muscular issues. So, should you stretch? Yes, when the timing's right. Should you just strengthen? No. Only when the timing's right, if that makes any sense whatsoever. Uh, apologies, that was a bit messy. I'm not I'm not completely with it today. Uh second one though, because we will crack on. Uh, because to be honest, it's 10 to 4 now, and usually get this thing out by four o'clock so that it's up on on your feed in time for six. Right? But that's what happens when puppies visit my house, it all goes horribly, horribly wrong. Uh, and my whole schedule goes out the window. Question I had this week: someone, one of my clients, uh, did a Pilates reformer, uh, reformer Pilates class, uh, or induction to reformer Pilates or something like that. It was a one-on-one session. Um, and she said, Oh, my muscles really hurt afterwards. I'm guessing that's a good thing. Uh, or I was surprised my muscles really hurt, uh, because it means I'm not as fit as I thought I was. Um, and this client's been with me for six or seven years, uh, and she is as fit as a fiddle, really in remarkably good shape. She just wanted to try something else. Uh, in addition to the in addition to the PT stuff. So the idea that you try a new kind of exercise and your muscles hurt afterwards, does that mean you're not very fit? Or does it mean that the exercise is more effective? Um and the question to that is no. What it means is that you've done an exercise that you haven't done before. Um I can put an Olympic level gymnast on a horse and have her go horse riding or have him go horse riding for an hour and a half, and the following day they'll barely be able to walk. Anybody who's ever gone horse riding for the first time will know this. You'll hurt for days afterwards, and it genuinely isn't because you're not in good shape. It's just because you're working the muscles in a different way from what you've from what you're used to working them. You're doing something new, and the body needs time to get used to them. It doesn't mean your fitness levels suck. It also doesn't mean that that exercise is better than any other form of exercise. Uh, because I get this quite a lot with people that come to me for the first time and they say, Oh, my core is never hurt this way. Uh, and by hurt we mean stiffness and and tightness, right? Um, core is never hurt this way before, this must mean uh that this type of exercise is better. And it usually isn't, and I always tell them that as well, it usually isn't. It just means you're were actually paying attention to using the right muscles at the right time, and it's a new type of exercise for you, right? If you've never done bicycle crunches before, and you you do 10 and you do them correctly, your core will feel tight the following day. If you are capable and you do bicycle crunches all the time, you can do 100 each side or whatever it is, uh and then it doesn't hurt afterwards. So it doesn't mean that you're not fit, or it doesn't mean you're not doing them correctly. It just means that I mean it does kind of mean that you're not doing them correctly because it means you're moving too fast if you can do 100. But um, generally speaking, it just means that your body is good at something, your body's already capable of doing what you're doing, therefore it's not a bad idea to mix it up, right? You want your body to be good at the things you want it to do, but it would also be nice if it got good at things you're not that capable of yet. So, like I said, with the horse riding thing. If you are an Olympic level gymnast and you go horse riding for the first time, it'll still hurt the following day. If, however, you go two, three times a week for two or three weeks and you're an Olympic level athlete, really there won't be any pain after the third time, you'll be completely fine. Your body just knows what to do then and it adapts accordingly. The late onset muscle soreness or DOMS, as it's uh as it's called, it's one of the biggest. Um the biggest, and I I don't I'm not quite sure which word to misunderstood things by the general public um when it comes to exercise in the health and fitness world. Personal trainers all understand it, or at least they should. Um but for some reason the general perception is still that either that muscle pain is a good thing and that means that you had a good session, or it's a bad thing and it means that your fitness levels suck. And it means neither of these things. If you train with me and one day you have incredible soreness the following day, as in you're a bit stiff, uh, because we're just talking muscle soreness, right? And you find walking up and down stairs a little bit difficult, that doesn't mean that you're you were in terrible shape. Uh it doesn't necessarily mean that. I have had I've had people that were in terrible shape that were in bits the following day. So it can mean that, but generally speaking, it doesn't mean that. It just means that you've done something that you haven't done for a while. And it can even happen after doing squats. If you haven't done any squats for three or three or four months, but you've done other stuff and then you go back to squatting again. The following day you'll be sore. Even if you've done leg presses, for instance. If you've still done leg presses, um, and you go to the gym and you do leg presses on the leg press machine, and then you go back to squatting two, three months later, you'll probably get some sort of uh muscle soreness again the follow a day or two afterwards, anywhere between 24 to 72 hours with Tom's. Um, you get some sort of muscle soreness 24 to 48 hours afterwards because it's something you haven't done before. You've made a similar movement, but it's not completely the same. That doesn't mean you're weak, you might be stronger than you were three, four months before that, because you've spent ages doing leg presses. It just means that your body's like, ah, we're doing this again. Thanks for that. I haven't done this for a while, right? I am cracking on, we're coming up to the 24-minute mark. Um, a very quick one. The best personal trainer in the world, um, or just your town. I had an email, I'm not going to name who it's from, uh, or the company that it's from that said, uh, would you like to be included in our article listing the best personal trainers in Edinburgh? And I get these regularly. Um, and it's not because I'm the best personal trainer in Edinburgh. Uh, I'd I like to think I am, I'd like to think I'm in the top in the UK. Um but you know, who knows? I don't know anybody, everybody else, or indeed hardly anybody else. Um, right? It's not like there's a PT convention where we vote on this sort of stuff. What happens, as I finish my coffee, apologies. Um what happens is you get an email from from companies that say, listen, we're doing a top 10. Uh would you like to be included on the list? And in return, we would like XYZ. In this case, it was we would like you to mention our website on your website. And that doesn't mean that I'm one of the best personal trainers, it just means that their website is smaller than mine, and they would like a backlink. They would like my more popular website, uh, in this case the Council Personal Training one, to link back to them, going, Hey, look at that, you know, and that gives them more kudos overall. In return, I then get an honorable mention in the top whatever it is of best personal trainers in Edinburgh, and they can tell everybody that these people that don't know me can tell everybody I'm one of the best, which is just ridiculous, right? It's the same as best PTs in the world. I um and I know Dave Gorman, the comedian, and I know I cite a lot of comedians on this podcast, but you know, those are the guys I listen to, and the guys I watch. Dave Gorman, the comedian, did a wonderful thing about, you know, the good housekeeping magazine, best I don't know, iron or best washing machine or dishwasher, and which does it as well. Apologies. Um, which magazine also also does it um where they basically they have competitions and they test loads of stuff, and they don't they don't charge people to enter these competitions, they're very clever about this. Uh, because then it would be bribery, right? Uh, if you if you say enter the competition, then all of a sudden fewer people could enter. Uh, if you say make 20, say we'll say we hold which magazine holds a competition to find the best personal trainer in the world, and the entrance fee is 2500 pounds. Now, first of all, most PTs would not be willing to pay now. So that rules out a lot of good PTs, and then you get some sketchy PTs that aren't really that great, but they have 2500 pounds, so they'll pay. So you get a distorted field. So they don't do it that way. They say it's free to enter, right? So these competitions, air quotes competitions, are free to enter, and then a panel of judges decides who becomes in which case I think it's gold, silver, bronze, or platinum, gold, silver, whatever it is. One, two, three, essentially. And then what they do is they send an email out, and I've had some, not from which, but I'll hasten to add, they don't do a personal trainer edition, I don't think. Um, they they send out an email saying you have won this competition, and the competition is usually narrow. So in my case, it would be uh, so in in uh it would be like postpartum personal trainer or online postpartum personal trainer or Dutch-speaking online postpartum personal trainer, something like that. The more narrow you make a category, the more categories you can have, right? Um, say British-based postpartum personal trainer. There aren't that many of us. So they say you've won that competition. Uh, and I go, Yeah, I've won the competition. This is amazing. I'm so proud of myself. Um again, not sure how they test it, but there you go. Uh, and then what they say is, now we would like to announce you as the winner of the competition, but you need to pay us 2500 pounds because you've won the competition, and you can only use our logo if you pay us 2500 pounds. And I've plugged the 2500 grand out of the air, 2500 pounds out of the air. I know I know magazines and websites that charge roughly that, and I know ones that charge significantly more, and depending on on the category you're in, and all that sort of stuff. And I know some that charge significantly less. Um, basically, they then so they're saying, so I would then say, but okay, I'm the gold PT, I'm I'm I'm the winner of the group. Um, and I would like people to know that, so I'll pay you 2500 pounds because of course I will. Um, and so silver and bronze would also pay this. I'm not sure how many people would be in the category, but it's not going to be that many. Um now, if I, however, say nah, I don't feel like entering that, that I don't feel like paying that, you're out of your mind, which is the case for for most people, then that of course immediately falls to silver, gets gold, and all that sort of stuff, or at least you never hear about you never hear about gold. So these things are not rigged per se, but let's say they make money somehow. There is yeah, and and and you get this with with journalists. I see these lists in in the UK. In in in uh journalists are terrible for this, by the way. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Um, the certain national newspapers, and I'm not naming names, they're London-based. The journalists are not London-based, so their top 10 is always full of London PTs. When I know for a fact that, for instance, the best postpartum PT in the UK, and I'm not naming any names here, it's not me. Uh, or the the high the the person that should be highest rated, in my humble opinion, in the UK, is somebody that uh is not based in in London. She just isn't. Uh, and she is. If you look at the client list, and which is why I'm not named. But she's never in the list. She doesn't make the top 10 in in the personal trainers in the UK. Because she doesn't get freebies in journalism. A lot of this stuff is down to journalists getting a couple of free sessions. And um because these are these are not real journalists, right? These are just I mean it's a filler stuff. Um all these all these best BT in the world, which guy can get into shape, personal trainer to the stars and all that sort of stuff. They they usually get those filler things because they get a couple of free sessions and all that sort of stuff, or they get to spend a day or a weekend or whatever that this person runs these guys run. But so the best personal trainer in the world lists are nonsense and they're hoken, and you should just stop making these lists. Um please, if you're if you're a journalist and just like job, um stop making these lists. Nobody, nobody benefits from that other than the same people that essentially are okay paying to be on a list somewhere, or giving free stuff to be on a list somewhere to get the name recognition of it. Um you know that is just not how you can judge a PT. There, that's my little random. Um maybe you shouldn't have done that, but it fills it up nicely 30 minutes, and now I'm going to get to film the PTs and journalism. Um anyways, that's what we done. Peter at healthy.com the whole month of December. The whole month of December, I'm going to have the podcast interviews again. Um because to be honest, that would mean I have a month of not having to record a podcast live or on the day. And that would actually make my life a little bit easier because I have a lot of stuff to do, as some of you know, with uh with regards to uh to podcast and HBNB and all that sort of thing. And I have a puppy situation to resolve as well over Christmas. Oh yes, oh yes, the puppy day life never stops. Anyways, Peter at healthypostnatalbody.com. If you have any questions at all, if you want, like I said, if you want to call me a jackass, then do so. That's why I'm here. Right? You take care of yourself, you have a great week, and I'll be back next week. All right, bye now.
SPEAKER_00:You spend it alone. I'm getting on my parents, they don't want me to come home. They want me to find a family to come on, but all I see is you all the pictures on my phone. She split up her family back in nineteen ninety-nine. She's still not hurt, but I think it's enough. Sometimes compromise. All the bells and all the trees, all the spaces in between. This year I'll just pretend maybe one day you will spend a holiday with me. I called you up to tell you I was coming back to town. He looks pretty cool. I'm just a face lost in the ground. No one really sees a person that's been me. You could always be, you never let me down. I can smell the pants that float a second ever. All the bells and all the trees, all the spaces and with me. This year I'll just pretend maybe one day you'll spend a holiday with me. This year I'll just pretend maybe one day you'll spend a holiday with me. This year I'll just pretend maybe one day you will spend all your holidays with me.