"Life Specific" Postpartum Rehab is key, especially when you have a disability or impairment

I had a wonderful conversation with someone this week where she asked if a post-partum recovery program should be LIFE specific, if not sport specific.

This was because she did not have use of her right leg, after an amputation, and she wondered if this meant that a postpartum recovery program would have to be amended to reflect this.

This is an excellent question for anyone with a disability or an impairment, in fact it's soo ridiculously good that I'm surprised I hadn't thought of doing an episode about this before.

I have spoken before about sport-specific postpartum programs not being required, so I don't spend a lot of time on that, but LIFE specific is very important indeed..so that's what I'm going into  bit today.

How can you plan a life-specific program?

When do you need a personalised program instead of a cookie cutter program, like HPNB?

Can you work it out for yourself, and how?

And why you should never ask ChatGPT for one.

And much more.

As always; HPNB still 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! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.

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.

Though I'm not terribly active on  Instagram and Facebook you can follow us there. I am however active on Threads so find me there!


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 
 
If you could rate the podcast on your favourite platform that would be a big help. 

We're played out today by; "First Love" by Schimmer

Transcript

Welcome And Quick Context

Peter 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your Post Natal Expert Peter Lap. That, as always, would be me. This is the podcast for the 29th of March 2026. And I know I said the day before the music, there's no guest. We're going to what am I doing today? I'm talking a little bit about uh we're back on sports specific um postpartum rehab or life-specific postpartum rehab. Let me let me put it that way. Um, I had an awesome email from someone through the other day as buddy Russell's in the background. Um, asking about the importance of incorporating certain exercises for movement that is specific to your life, and that is such a ridiculously good question that that is what I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about. Uh, so without further ado, here we go. Hey, welcome to the Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast with Little Old Me. Um like I said, this is one for the whatever of um what are we 29th of March 2026? Uh and I'm recording this as we get on. Uh, again, apologies for the last few weeks. Things have been a bit uh have been a bit hectic. Um, you know, a month or so ago, um Lola, my my Yorkie passed away, and that was a thing, and then then I got a new dog because her space had space, and then all of a sudden, you know, a new dog moves in because that is that isn't my that is my life, right? So that and she took a while to settle, and then I was sick, and there was just loads of loads of excuses. Um I did a wonderful interview by the way with Becky Gleed, um uh who came onto my podcast. Uh a few well, we recorded that a few months ago, to be honest. Um wonderful interview with her about um postpartum recovery for, like I said, for for her podcast. Um, you know, Becky was the one we I did interview with on the uh episode of the 1st of March 2026. Uh she's the founder of the Perinatal and Reproductive Wellness Group, and has like the Perinatal Reproductive Perspectives podcast and all that sort of stuff. Lovely lady. Um and um yeah, so did a wonderful had a wonderful conversation with her about postpartum recovery. I'll let you know when that comes out. Speaking of coming out, John Pabon, one of my favorite, favorite people, um in that has ever been on my um on my podcast. He came on an episode a while ago, and I'll probably re-release that in in like 2023. He's a sustainability expert. Uh and we did a whole interview about sustainability for uh for we call normal, what I call sustainability for normal people. How how you can live a more sustainable life without you know making life particularly uh difficult for yourself. Um he has a new book out. Um if you have a business, um, then he has written a new book called uh strategic sustainability, a pragmatic blueprint for responsible business. Not the most catchy of titles, but like I said, John is a John is a phenomenal, phenomenal guy. Um and and he really um he really knows what he's talking about when it comes to sustainability and some good ideas about this. Um and that book comes out on April 3rd, uh in the rest of the 28th of April in North America. Um and it's it's yeah, I mean, I know John. I suppose well, I spoke with John and he he is like the guy on on this. So check that out. I will I will link to it in the podcast uh description. And again, I mention it, I don't get a commission or anything like that. I'm not selling his book, I'm telling you that if you're going to buy a book about sustainability with regards to um how it relates to your business, this is the book you're buying. Because John is just uh yeah, lovely bloke, amazing guy, and you know, we should all care a little bit more about sustainability, right? Um that was a lot of waffle. Peter at healthy postnatal body.com. By the way, we are now four minutes in. I haven't even started on the subject yet. I'm sorry. Um if you have any uh any people you'd like on the podcast, by the way, or subjects you'd like me to discuss, just send me a little email. I think we do fan mail now. Someone someone mentioned someone mentioned that uh with regards to what it's what you can do in the in in the yeah, you can you can send us a fan mail, um, a voicemail and and uh and and and whatever uh is what my uh my podcast people tell me. Uh instead of a text message is now a fan mail. I don't know what the difference between the systems is. I someone sends it on to me. That's all I know, right? I I do this thing, and then the people that do stuff do stuff, and then they send me uh stuff. And one of the questions I had was from uh from someone I had a conversation with this week because she sent an email. Um, so she does the healthy post-natal body program, and she sent an email saying, Hey P, can we have a quick chat? Because she um she has one leg, or she doesn't have one leg. Whether you look at the thing, the glass is half full or half empty, she's missing her right leg, um, amputated just above uh above the knee. Um and she said that she moves differently in her life, and therefore, are there specific things, specific exercises that she should incorporate in her postpartum recovery to make sure that her um that her movement is effective and sound and and safe. And I've I'd not come across this question before. We've we've discussed sports-specific stuff, right, with regards to tennis players and all that type of stuff, and I'm not that fast about athletes doing particularly sports-specific postpartum um recovery programs. I always think that you know you do your postpartum recovery programs separate and then you start focusing on the strength and conditioning for your sport, so you you right, everybody kind of does the same. But this was an interesting question because what if you have a disability um or you're missing a limb, or you have a condition that almost forces you to be really dominant on one side and to move differently? And I just thought that is such a ridiculously good question. So I um that I had a little uh Zoom call with her. I do that sometimes with people, by the way, if you email and you're like, want to have a chat. And again, this is not a sales thing because there's no there's no sales, right? I don't sell stuff because I don't do online PT. Um, but if you have a question and you want to discuss stuff, then if I have a bit of time, we'll take a bit of time, right? Um, and this was a fascinating question. So, so I we spent an hour, hour and a half um on the Zoom, um just discussing this, seeing what the deal is and and and what bits and pieces she was um not struggling with on a day-to-day basis, but how she moved differently on a day-to-day basis compared to someone who has two complete working legs, right? Um and and that was an excellent insight because what I always say with regards to um postpartum recovery is you are trying to just get stuff moving in the right order for the right muscles, right? Um, and fundamentally that is the same for 99% of people, or 95% of people, how however whatever percent you want to stick to. Um, but what happens if you're part of the one or the five percent that moves differently because you have a disability or you have an impairedness or impairedness is not a way if you're somehow impaired, uh physically impaired from moving um the way, let's say in in a conventional way, let me put it that way, and um and that becomes a different beast, then right? Because for the first four to six weeks of any postpartum program, we're usually just looking at muscle activation, and by muscle activation, I just mean having the right muscle do the right thing at the right time, and that also means the muscle switching off at the right time when it's no longer required. But if you're particularly dominant on one side, then we have to find a way to incorporate that. Um for instance, if you're losing, if if you're if you if you're not using two legs, you're almost by definition less stable. And that impacts your daily movement a little bit, and of of course, there are again there are degrees of prosthetics and and and all that sort of stuff that that we discuss as well. Um, so she has pretty good ones. Uh she has a pretty good one, but you know, not everybody has access to the same level. So should you encode the question is fundamental, I'm not going to discuss her case specifically, but should you should a good postpartum program take that into account? I think yes. Um we we we do need to work around that a little bit. Because if, for instance, I like I said, she was missing her right, but if for instance you're missing your left and you're really right side dominant, um, which a lot of people are to some extent, anyways, but you're even more pronounced, more, more, more on the right side, then we do need to figure out with some exercises how to compensate for that a little bit, because we don't want one side getting much, much stronger than the other side, right? We want there to be some um some stability there, so that for instance, from from the pelvic floor and upwards, you're not just much stronger on on one side, because that just creates a little imbalance that for recovery purposes is a little bit tricky. So when you're looking at so, first of all, if you have any sort of um disability or impairedness like that, or you're in a for instance, you're in a wheelchair or you're missing limbs, or you don't have full function of of one of your limbs, um and you can swing it, I would always work with a specialist when it comes to designing your specific program. Um because we're going to need to make some adaptations and everybody's different, right? Um, if you can't afford that, then just do basically, you know, you can you can um you can work with a standard box cutter, uh cookie cutter type program, and ask a PT to have a look at it. Um just say, hey, what would you change about this and change about that? That is how a lot of uh people would just charge you one session for that. So then it becomes like a 40 bucks, 50, 50, 50 bucks, whatever personal trainer charges. So the situation then make one or two changes to a standard program and and and you fly away. And if you're really cheap, then you just join the long waiting list of people that I uh that I talk to for free. Um but that is a rather long, I'm I'm I'm a bit behind on my correspondence. I'm not gonna lie, not gonna lie to you. So for instance, if you're dealing to get back to the thing, for instance, if you're dealing with an instability thing where one side is kind of for want of a better phrase, kind of missing and and or or uh more unstable, then you're going to have to add some stability stuff to it, like anti-rotational uh type stuff, so that but on both sides, so that you're not just constantly say trying to keep straight, you're missing your uh left leg, so that means you're you're you're leaning more on your right, so that means that you're the tempt you're leaning more to your right, so that means that the temptation will probably be to use your uh right oblique more, and that is then to the detriment of of the left oblique. So that is the type of stuff that we have to think about then a little bit. Um, so we need to then do a bit more um, like I said, anti-rotational and stability stuff. If you're looking at someone who uses in this case, you know, if you're like I said, if you're if you're missing your right leg, then you're likely to use your right glute less as well. So we need to work on that a little bit because that stability from that whole glute and pelvic floor region is a huge part of postpartum recovery, right? Um, I know I did an interview, oh sorry, an interview, I did an episode a long time ago about um maybe I did a program part of that as well, blog, I'm not quite sure, but it's about um postpartum recovery for people in wheelchairs, right? Time stats recti in wheelchair users, we know it, for instance, is significantly higher. Um because of the because of the way they have to get in and out of of the um of the wheelchair. Uh and that is usually or quite often, let me put it that way, it quite often comes with a tremendous amount of um internal pressure on the core, basically, basically by holding a deep breath in and and pushing themselves up and not exhaling through the motion, right? Uh exhaling through the effort, so of getting out of the chair. So that then becomes something we have to take account of when we um when we program stuff. So in in the case of a wheelchair user, the core breath becomes a lot more important. Um learning how to breathe properly, I would spend more time on that. On someone who's unbalanced, um, because for instance they're missing a limb or they don't have full function of both limbs or of a limb, then um I would try to ensure that they're we're bringing a level of balance back where possible. Um and they're pretty much workarounds for almost every situation, right? Unless you have some sort of like neurological sort of thing. But even then, I've worked with people with um with like palsy and all that type of stuff, where the movement is impaired, right? Because they don't have the same level of control um over their movement than um that um the fully able-bodied people have. It just requires more thought and a bit more a bit more effort. Usually that is that that is the workaround voice, and it is it takes a bit more time to get the same results, because we have to find one or two workarounds, and and the thing about a lot of workarounds is they're just not quite as effective as the straightforward solution. Um but for instance, with uh this lady who I was talking to, we were talking a bit about glue stability and all that type of stuff, and she is like I said, she has use of a prosthetic and all that type of stuff, so we can do certain things, but even um as long as even when you have like just movement, we can still do glute activation stuff without the prosthetic. If you're for instance, if a prosthetic is not as comfortable to exercise with, or something like that, then there are ways around it without the prosthetic. We just have to figure stuff out a little bit. Um, but in that case, I would say, yeah, because it has to be really person specific, uh life specific, um, because your day-to-day life is um is impacting your recovery, anyways. Whereas with say a sports-specific thing like a tennis player, judokas, and all that sort of stuff that I've worked with and that I know, um football players, that type of stuff, um, soccer, not American football. Um, it doesn't really matter for them. We don't have to do sports specific, we do life specific. I mean, that is kind of the whole point about any personal training, anyways. Any personal trainer listening to this and physio listening to this should be thinking, eh yeah, but that's how it should always work, Pete. And you're not wrong. Um, but for postpartum recovery, because there's so much cookie-cutter stuff out there like HP and B, right? It is just the same for everyone. Um, it is very easy with those programs to follow them and then think that you're just going to have to skip certain things, and because you can't do them, you physically can't do them. Um, and that is not the way, right? So if you I don't know, just going for the HP and B program a little bit, if you as in the exercises, nothing boring, but if the first four weeks, there are basically the home program consists of like six exercises, but there are six exercises that you might not be able to do if you have like a sort of disability. So if you then only do the two exercises that you can do, then you're missing out on four exercises worth of muscle activation and and work in muscles. That's why I I would then say don't buy any sort of standard program. You just you're much better off saving your money. Um and if you can't if you if you if you can um like I said, if you can afford it, then yeah, you can work with someone, but let's be honest, a lot of people can't, otherwise you wouldn't be looking at online recovery programs, right? You'd be working with a PT already. Um so if you're then looking at an online program, it would help if that program explains what the point of everything is. Um, so you could do that for instance with the HPIB program where um where I explain why we do a certain exercise during the video, usually. Um, because the so there's six exercises, and during the exercise during the videos, where I explain the exercise, and they're like a minute long or something. But so for instance, during the squat one, I tell you what to activate and when and what the point of it is, um, or at least what to activate and when what we're looking for, what I want you to feel. If you can use that, and this is this is a bit of work, but if you can use that and then figure out what you're supposed to be feeling, that's kind of half the battle because that will tell you what the next what an alternative is, right again. This is for those who can't afford to go to a PT and say, hey, work with me on this. Um what you don't want to do is just skip the thing you can't do. What you want to do is look at the video and go, okay, I can't do a squat like that. Um but he talks about the glutes and he talks about feeling it in my quad. Okay. When do I feel something in my quad? When do I feel something in my glutes? For that is then the exercise I'm going to do. Right? So I can't squat, but I can do a resistance band. Or uh leg extension. Or I can do a glute cake or a sidekick with a resistance band. Or you know, for the obliques I can't I can do a wood chopper. Or a woot chopper with a hole. I mean all those things are options if you can't do certain exercises. If you can't do a reverse lunge, okay, and and the reason the reverse lunge is in uh for instance um the first few weeks of the HBMB program, it's much more hamstring exercise. Rather than a quad exercise. And I explain in the videos why that is so and how I want people to move. So don't come at me saying it also works. I I know it also works out of stuff, but for the purpose of of the activations, the first four to six weeks activation stage, I use the reverse lunges as uh do you feel your quads on the way up? Do you feel your sorry hamstrings on the way up? But there's an element of stability with that, right? Um if you can't do that move, but you know you need to work your hamstrings out and you want to hit stability or not, then there are other things you can do. You just kind of have to figure that out. Like I said, if you can't afford to uh if you can't afford to work with someone, and this is quite often the problem that people come across when they have uh disabilities or or physical impairments everything is a workaround and that's exhausting, right? Let's be honest, if you have to figure so much out, the the the I I'm well aware that the the labor you have to do, the mental load that you have to carry for just figuring this stuff out is huge. This is why I always say just send me an email. Because it's it's five minutes work for me and it takes you two hours. And if something's five minutes work for me, yeah, I'll just do it. That's what I'm that's what I'm for. It's much easier for me to just go, oh let me think about this, and uh two, three minutes later, boom, boom, boom. I've got it. Um I don't want you using things like chat GPT and all that sort of stuff. I don't want I don't want you using AI at all, to be honest. I think AI sucks. Um it's terrible for the environment, it's terrible for many, many things. But also it gives you it gives you a lot of false information, especially when it comes to postpartum recovery. So uh don't don't put in uh a chat GPT style thing saying um I have no use of my right leg design me a postpartum recovery program. Uh please please don't do that, just send an email to peter at healthypostmatable body.com. It's much easier. And like I said, I don't I don't charge, I don't sell. Right? So that's the that's the whole point of of of the exercise. So enjoyed it. Too long didn't read. After 25 minutes, finally getting to the point. Um if you are looking for sport-specific postpartum programming, you don't really need that. But for life-specific stuff, yes, you really, really do want to get into that a little bit. Um but then you are looking at uh at the personal training element of it. You can't just you can't just use uh a standard program and leave stuff out and and plow through it yourself, um and just go with the well this is all I can do, so this is all I will do then. Um because the point of the exercise quite often is not to get to be able to do the things that you currently can't do. Anyway, so I'm half an hour in and uh it just stops raining here, which is very, very nice. It's the first day of of uh after the clocks have changed, and therefore the Scottish weather goes to pot. But it stopped raining here, so that means I can take my dogs out. So that's what I'm gonna do. You have a tremendous week. I'll be back next week from the vault, and then we've got interviews coming out of azoo. Um and again, apologies to people that have had again public apologies to people that have done recordings with for the last few months. Um the episodes are gonna be a little bit later um coming out, but there's no deadline on any of them anyway, so that is okay. Anyways, Peter at healthypostnatobody.com. You take care of yourself. Here's a new bit of music. Bye now.