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Health & Fitness Redefined
Health and Fitness Redefined with Anthony Amen. Take a dive into the health world as we learn how to overcome adversity, depict fact vs fiction and see health & fitness in a whole new light.Fitness Is Medicine
Health & Fitness Redefined
Throwback: Breaking the Postpartum Mold
What happens to a woman's body after pregnancy goes far beyond what most fitness professionals understand. Dr. Carly, a sports chiropractor specializing in postpartum care, joins us to reveal the hidden complexities of the postpartum journey and why traditional approaches to "bouncing back" often miss the mark.
"You're not the same person anymore," Dr. Carly explains, describing how she performs complete re-evaluations on patients after childbirth. This fundamental truth sets the stage for a fascinating exploration of postpartum recovery that challenges conventional wisdom. While diastasis recti (the separation of abdominal muscles) affects nearly all pregnant women, Dr. Carly dispels the fear surrounding this condition while providing practical guidance for rehabilitation that can begin within days of delivery – far earlier than the standard six-week checkup.
Did you know that the hormone relaxin, which loosens your joints for childbirth, remains in your system until you finish breastfeeding? This explains why joint instability can persist for a year or more after delivery, affecting everything from workout performance to everyday activities. The conversation takes a surprising turn when Dr. Carly introduces her company's motto: "Every mom is an athlete." She paints a vivid picture of the athletic demands of motherhood – from the deadlift-like motion of picking up a toddler to the postural challenges of nursing – and explains why posterior chain strengthening becomes crucial for preventing pain and injury.
Whether you're a fitness professional working with postpartum clients, a pregnant woman preparing for birth, or someone supporting a new mother, this episode delivers invaluable insights into the profound physical transformations of motherhood and the thoughtful approaches needed for true recovery. Subscribe now to join our growing community dedicated to redefining health and fitness through evidence-based, holistic approaches.
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined. I'm your host, anthony Amen. Join me today as we take a dive into the world of health and fitness. We're going to overcome adversity, pick back restriction and see health and fitness in a whole new light. Guys, we are three weeks in talking about this. Our online training program is live. I highly recommend you go check it out. Wwwredefine-fitnesscom. Wwwredefine-fitnesscom.
Speaker 2:Whether you're looking to get back into the gym, to track your workouts, to hit new PRs, to work on power lifting, to work on strength, to work on weight loss, this all-encompassing app that we designed for you guys will help us get you onto the next level. Or maybe it's even getting into the gym. Or maybe it's those small-scale victories that we work on in our in-studio that we're now branching out all over. Maybe you want to learn how to ride your bike again. Maybe you have some things in your life you need to help get over. I highly recommend checking out that online training program. It's all on our website, wwwredefine-fitnesscom. Without further ado, let's hop into today's episode. For all my female listeners out there, we're going to have a jam pack, don't worry, guys. We'll also have some really cool information for you, too. We have a great guest. She's coming all the way from Seattle onto our show, dr Carly, dr Carly, how's it going today?
Speaker 1:I'm great Thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 2:Absolute pleasure. For those that do not know, she is a doctor of chiropractic medicine and we are excited to have her on. I personally love having chiropractors on because you guys are more in that holistic realm kind of steering away from just prescribing medicine all the time. I'm personally a huge fan of that and a big shout out to I know if any of any doctor of osteopathic medicine doctors listening you shout out there too at least. But with that Braylon, do you want to explain to us why you got into the chiropractic field in the first place?
Speaker 1:field in the first place? Yeah, thanks. Well, my history with chiropractic goes back quite a ways. I've seen a chiropractor since I was a baby. Actually, my mom had a pretty severe scoliosis so she wanted to just get us in as little babies to get checked out and just kind of make sure that our spines were moving well. And I saw that chiropractor all the way through high school, through college, playing collegiate volleyball. Every time I'd go back home I'd make sure to get into him. And as I was looking to what I wanted to do as a profession, I started to learn about the field of sports chiropractic, which is a little bit different than traditional chiropractors. We mix more of like physical therapy modalities, chiropractic, personal training, athletic training, kind of massage all into one treatment plan, and so that seemed like a really good fit for what I wanted to do and a way to help people, get people to move better, make them stronger, healthier, and seemed like a great fit for me. So there I went off to chiropractic school.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. How long have you been doing it now for?
Speaker 1:This is, let's see. I graduated in 2010. So I think this will be my 12th year in practice and I finished my. I sort of did it backwards. I finished my doctorate and then I also did a master's in human biology, so I stuck around my school and finished that and worked with some high school teams that we were working in the training room with. So, yeah, it was a long road, but it was definitely worth it.
Speaker 2:So I loved what you mentioned. By the way, you do an all encompassing program for massage personal training, so it's an all-inclusive approach, what helps stem that idea, as opposed to just hey, we can fix everything in office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think if you understand the human body, then it makes sense. The joints are connected to the bones and the ligaments, the muscles and everything works together. So I don't think you can really just look at the bones and the joints and not address everything else. And then, if you're going to address everything else, you know you're going to work on someone's trap, you're going to work on their scaling. Let's say you're going to work on, you know, the muscles of the of the neck and the shoulder perhaps.
Speaker 1:Well then, you better give them some exercises to do to help them move better, feel better, kind of take care of it on their own, so that they're not just constantly coming back for the same issue. So we always kind of joke that my practice in Seattle is called Seattle Sports Chiropractic. We always kind of joke that you know, we don't want to keep seeing you over and over for the rest of your life. We want you to get better and go out and tell everyone how quickly you got better, you know and and then we'll see you again down the road If you screw something else up, you know.
Speaker 2:I like that approach, though, because that's kind of the same thing that we get as trainers. It's we have a stigmatism that we don't want to teach people, so cause then we'll have a client for life, and I totally disagree with that.
Speaker 1:I'm with you.
Speaker 2:I'd rather get you moving, teach you everything I know, maybe teach you more than I know, by just having you steering in the right direction, so then you can do it on your own and then all I really want is that will come back double. So that's a big perk you get with a lot of people and I do absolutely love that you guys do this. I know there's a lot of a stigma to chiropractors. There's two big ones, and I think the one of them is a lot of people tend to think, hey, they're going in, they're doing the same manipulation techniques on my cervical, my thoracic and my lumbar spine and then that's supposed to heal every condition I have. Can you walk us through that a little bit and maybe debunk that stigma a little bit?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I always try to recommend that people look for a chiropractor that has some additional certifications. So usually a sports chiropractor is who I recommend they look for, just because that person is going to be looking more, like I mentioned, at the whole person. You know all the pieces that are encompassed there. So it's much less like get in, get cracked, get out sort of thing, come back for the rest of your life, and it's more of like here's your treatment plan, you know, here's your diagnosis, here's what's actually going on. You want to make sure they're always getting an answer of like okay, what's wrong with me, you know.
Speaker 1:And then what's the plan? You always want to plan and that's going to change. Right, treatment plans change for every sort of doctor, even personal trainers. You know you make a plan and then it's like oh wait, you're, you're better sooner, or maybe we need to extend the plan a little bit longer, or whatever the case is. So that's usually what I recommend people do to sort of avoid that, just like going in getting maybe the similar treatment to a lot of other people and just making sure that you're getting something that's tailored to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really important to kind of take a whole body approach to how you guys are kind of doing everything, and I've personally been to a few chiropractors myself that I'm just like, but that's also personal trainers in my industry, so it's every industry you're always going to have bad ugly Totally yeah. There's, you know, there's people in every industry, so it's every industry you're always going to have bad ugly, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's, you know, there's people in every industry that aren't awesome at their job, you know. And so that's why I always say, like, don't just go to the the doc down the street, like, do a little research, look for a sports chiropractor. There's a lot of good ones actually in New York and New Jersey, Um, and that seems to be a better fit, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about OMM. I'm totally transparency. My whole family's DOs yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I hear it every day, but I know, I know a lot to do with muscle energy and warming up techniques, and then you guys do things as far as STEM goes before you go ahead and actually move into the manipulation, while some people just do manipulation. Do you think you need the warm up warming up of the muscles before you go into the actual technique or not? What's your opinion on that?
Speaker 1:I mean, my personal opinion is is usually yes, of course it. Every person depends, just like in, just like in every profession dealing with humans. Right, it depends, is the answer. But I think with adjusting, yeah it, for me it normally goes better if we can get in, you know, make sense, loosen up the muscles a little bit, in whatever way the person tolerates it best, and then it makes the joints move a little easier.
Speaker 1:Another thing is that it shouldn't hurt to be adjusted. It's you know. So if it hurts, that could be because the muscles and everything around it are so tight. So, okay, you take five or 10 minutes and you loosen things up, or warm them up, however that looks, and then do an adjustment. Well then, maybe it goes better, maybe it doesn't hurt and people aren't going to guard as much, you know. That's the thing is. If you're, if they're guarding, a, it's harder for us to to adjust and to move, actually move the joints. But B, it might hurt a little bit. So I think if you warm things up, get things loosened up, it usually goes so much smoother and people have a much better outcome. So for me the answer is usually it's better. But for some people, you know it's maybe fine to just get in there and get a quick adjustment. You know every it depends for everyone.
Speaker 2:So Love that answer and I'm going to ask you. The question you probably get from every single client ever is why do you hear a popping noise? What is that?
Speaker 1:is why do you hear a popping noise? What is that? Yeah, so it's just some gas being released from the joint. And we always say like, don't you know, don't focus on the crack, it's not all about the pop. You know, things move without having loud pops and clicks and all that sort of thing. But sometimes you hear it and some people but some people get really focused on it, right, like they're like, oh, it didn't crack, and I'm like, yeah, man, but like I'm palpating your spine and I can feel that things have shifted and moved. So it doesn't always have to crack. That's my, that's my word of advice. It doesn't always have to pop.
Speaker 2:I love that. It's cause. It's totally true. The pop though, the sensation that of that, with the actual feeling, your joints kind of relax, just the noise, just adds to it yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you get a little, you know, you get sort of a little like endorphin high from that too, you know, but it's it's not necessary to feel better and move better.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to ask you to kind of pop into the second stigma. Then we'll get into, like the meat and potatoes that we're going to talk to and that is schooling for you guys. And you kind of answered it pre a little bit how you look for ones with separate degrees, but do you think a lot has to do with that? Your schooling is done a lot different than it is for medical doctors and doctors, doctors, doctors, medicine. You think that has a lot to do with how people kind of approach your industry.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that people don't really understand the schooling that we go through. A lot of times we actually spend much more time in an anatomy lab than medical doctors do, which you know makes sense. They're not necessarily. Most medical doctors are not like as hands on as we are, right? So our schooling is four years after undergrad. It can be done in three years if you go straight through without taking a break in the summer, and so I think that's maybe something that that people don't understand is you go to undergrad you still have four years after that.
Speaker 1:I did an additional master's program that took another two years. So yeah, I think hopefully it's changing, that people will understand a little bit better what that looks like. But yeah, so I'm not sure, I'm not sure what that it seems like the stigma of chiropractors is changing a little bit. Anyways, as we're working more closely with PTs especially. You know that used to be PTs and chiros used to be sort of at odds with each other. I'm sure they still are somewhere, but I work really closely with some great pelvic floor PTs, some just regular sports PTs that we work together with on patients and share them and, you know, send notes back and forth and really try to have the best, like well-rounded healthcare team, for the patient.
Speaker 1:Um, and I work with a great set of physiatrists here. Which a physiatrist is basically? I usually explain it to people like uh, because no one ever knows what a physiatrist is, uh, step between a orthopedic surgeon and me, so they're an MD, they do a bunch of orthopedic stuff but they don't do surgery. So I have been the team chiropractor for the CLC Wolves, our rugby team, here for the last four years. I took this year off as I just had a baby, but we work really closely with them and that's been great too, because we can all contribute to the health and wellness of patients, whether they're athletes or not, and we all can work together. And I think that's the most important thing is that all these different types of doctors can start to work together more for the benefit of the patient.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and two just to kind of add to your point. One my brother's a physiatrist, so I'm just laughing.
Speaker 1:I was like I know exactly what that is. Yeah, when I send people to them, no one ever knows, though. So I'm always like do you know if a psychiatrist is? And they're like for the feet, I'm like, no, no, not a podiatrist. So I just have my like spiel of explaining it down, cause I feel like I think they're such a great healthcare provider that some people underutilize, you know so.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then the second point which is just funny is you talked about physical therapists, how you guys kind of had a stigma with them. Welcome to our industry.
Speaker 1:That's where we're at now Physical therapists don't want to talk to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so hopefully we can like do the same thing and start working together, which is what I've been trying to do for the last four years same thing and start working together, which is what I've been trying to do for the last four years, trying to break that gap.
Speaker 1:I know I'm always saying I wish we had. It's hard to find good personal trainers who have availability. You know a lot of the personal trainers here are too busy for us to send patients to. But there is that kind of gap between where someone like me, as a sports chiropractor or a physical therapist, sees someone and then gets them to a point where, okay, now it's time for you to get back into actual fitness, but you need someone to help you a little bit. You need that like stepping stone and that's like perfect where personal trainers come in. But I know if you can get in with the I mean sports chiropractors, the PT is like we need you guys. If they don't want to work with you, that's, they're crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a lot of the times too when, like we have a policy, like if we have someone coming out of PT, it's when a patient comes in and I'm sure you get this a lot. It's oh, I did the thing. You know this thing. Yeah, I'm like that's so cool, I'm. So I'm like can you like let your PT know that you want to sign HIPAA forms and so we can see your program? Cause that'd be great yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, totally so it's the same kind of like continuing it, if we like, if we can all work together and really teach the patient that we want to share your programs and do that.
Speaker 1:It would really go a long way.
Speaker 2:I want to start tying into where your specialty is, which we've talked a little bit pre-show and that's that postpartum. And that seems to be for the last this season. Pre and postpartum have been like the main talking points for our show.
Speaker 2:So it's just funny how like that seems to be the theme of season three for us. So postpartum is after pregnancy, for people that may or may not know after you give birth, what happens A common thing we've talked about uh happens to women is something called diatosis recti, which is the abdominal wall kind of coming apart, and it's important to note certain do's don'ts for that. So walk us through for, uh, what that looks like for somebody coming to the chiropractic side of things and how you would treat it, because that's something we haven't talked about yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure. So diastasis recti, like you mentioned, it's a very normal, natural thing to happen during pregnancy. It has to happen right as the abdomen grows, the baby grows in there. It's like 99% of women some studies have even shown 100% during their pregnancy have diastasis recti. So I just say that because I feel like you know it used to be. No one knew what diastasis recti was and now in the last like I would say like five years, it's become this big buzzword and if you look online there's all sorts of people that are sort of fear mongering about it a little bit, and so I always like to just clear that up that like it has to happen, it's a very normal.
Speaker 1:The deal with it is we want to just limit the movements during pregnancy.
Speaker 1:That can make it worse and it can make it harder to recover afterwards, and it's not dangerous to the baby, it's not dangerous to you, it doesn't hurt.
Speaker 1:It's just if you do certain things during pregnancy, most notably like anything that is flexing the spine, so like a sit-up, you know, if you're in like the CrossFit world or HIIT world, like toes to bar kipping, like that sort of thing, like toes to bar kipping, like that sort of thing, even moving heavy weights over your head, because you lose control of your core because it's so stretched out.
Speaker 1:That can also make it a little bit worse during pregnancy. So it's just avoiding some of those things and being mindful of them, making modifications and then afterwards, in the postpartum phase, finding someone to or you know, whether it's online or whether it's in person, whether it's a, like I said, a pelvic floor PT or sports Cairo or I have an online postpartum rehab plan that I started during COVID because people couldn't come in and see me or see you know people as easily. But finding something like that that teaches you how to re-engage your core, how to use your transverse abdominis, which is that big kind of flat muscle that wraps around the abdomen, and also use your breathing as a technique to help heal up the diastasis and just basically recreate tension so that you can be nice and stable through your core.
Speaker 2:Have you seen women, after having maybe more of like a severe end of it, get full recovery? Is that something that can happen? If so, how long does that usually take, and what kind of program should those that have a worst case of it I guess? What kind of approach can they take?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I definitely have. And what I always try to remind people is even if women aren't totally what we call like closing the gap quote unquote which is that gap between their abdominal muscles where those two rectus muscles come together, kind of the line of where six pack might be. Even if it doesn't close anatomically, what we're trying to do with them is close it functionally, which means you're teaching them how to create stability through their core by using their breathing, using their bracing and using their entire core, right. So the pelvic floor, the diaphragm, and then, you know, thinking about the pelvic floor is the bottom of the quote unquote core, the diaphragm is the top, and then all the muscles surrounding, you know, the abdominal muscles, the low back muscles, and really teaching how to re-engage those. Because what happens is a lot of women become like you can't really connect to those muscles because they're so stretched out. So you have to be kind of like a reintroduced to them sort of, and that can be done with breathing exercises and then some really simple specific diastasis exercises.
Speaker 1:I like to have people get in, especially if you're you know, like you mentioned if it's an extreme case quote unquote like they have a pretty big gap where they had more of a traumatic birth.
Speaker 1:I like to recommend people get in to see a pelvic floor PT or a sports chiropractor who specializes in postpartum care, and then you know there's lots of stuff you can do at home. You know there's lots of exercises that you can follow along with, but I think getting seeing someone is important because you want to there. There's so much tactile feedback, right Like you need to be able to. You need to have someone touch your transverse abdominus and say here, this is what this feels like it when it's firing, you know, and and kind of walk you through that. So I always recommend that if possible. If not, like I said, there are some great online plans. There's some great online pts, um, that have stuff out there and and yeah, there's a lot of work that can be done. I would say almost, I would wager to say no one uh cannot improve from diastasis after postpartum if they have the right training and you know they follow the right sort of guidelines.
Speaker 2:Just a question that kind of popped into my head while you were talking. You pointed to the trans-abdominus and said they're kind of engaging this muscle. Obviously I've never been pregnant before in my life, so do you lose that mind to muscle connection while you're pregnant or, like, does that just kind of disappear?
Speaker 1:no-transcript core engagement here. This is like arms and legs. From now on, you know, and you, just because those muscles are so stretched, you, you, just you do lose some feedback and so obviously you know that happens slowly, over nine months, so it doesn't come back right overnight once that baby comes out. So it takes some, it takes some work and it takes some understanding of what you're trying to do, uh, to to get back to a level of of high fitness especially, you know.
Speaker 2:And then the last question, kind of just related to this topic, is is there anything pre and during pregnancy that someone can do to help prevent getting such a severe case of it or maybe make postpartum easier?
Speaker 1:Yeah, a couple of things. One thing is just like with surgery you know any surgery they tell you basically, the stronger you go in, the better your outcomes, right. So you don't, let's say, you're going to have shoulder surgery, you want to keep strengthening the opposite shoulder, you want to keep doing as much as you can on the shoulder You're going to have surgery on, even because the stronger you are going in, the stronger you will be coming out and the easier quote unquote rehab will be right. So same thing with pregnancy you want to be as strong as you can going in. So I always recommend especially women that are trying to get pregnant or plan to get pregnant, eventually work on their glutes a lot, their posterior chain.
Speaker 1:You know squat is really important for pregnant patients and even you know postpartum really are all around the perineal period. I think squatting is super important and so you can do that. And then during pregnancy it's just limiting some of those movements, as I mentioned. So at some point, usually after the first trimester, is when I recommend people start evaluating whether or not they should be doing certain movements still. So lots of times they can do them right, but it's looking at, I can do this, but should I do it? What's the benefit, what's the kind of cost benefit analysis of doing sit-ups right Like, am I really going to make my abs that much stronger? No, but you might make it a little bit harder to recover later. So that's when we start talking about modifying movements, changing things up, and I always want women to keep working out during pregnancy. It's super important. But there's just different things that we can sub in for some of those movements that are harder on the ab muscles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really couldn't agree more and I want to dive a little bit more now, going kind of into the postpartum, how it affects your spine. I have a kind of a lot of questions just knowing, obviously from watching from the outside. But we're going to take a quick break from our sponsor guys and we'll see you on the flip side. We'll be right back For us. We know what it's like to feel unhealthy, depressed and downright defeated. We want to show others there is a right way and through fitness you can do anything you set your mind to. Fitness can give you that motivation, confidence, energy you need to bridge that mental gap and prevent you from missing important life events. We understand it's about feeling better, living longer and being good examples for our kids. We understand this because we live it and for us that's the Redefined Difference. Hey everybody, and welcome back.
Speaker 2:We got Dr Carly here talking all about postpartum. We're going to really dive into, I guess, a lot of things that I can say. I observed in my industry, maybe not experienced personally. So I guess I have a chock full of questions today, just kind of getting my brain moving on this topic. The first one I want to talk about you give birth right. That's a lot of pressure on your pelvis area, especially your hips. Is there a relationship between giving natural birth and having hip issues, slash, lumbar issues right after pregnancy, or maybe things that can continue later in life? Or is that just something I made up in my head.
Speaker 1:I think it really depends.
Speaker 1:It depends on what the situation is going into the pregnancy.
Speaker 1:I do see if people have hip issues or low back issues going in, those don't necessarily go away right, we have relaxin in the system that comes in. That's a hormone that starts to loosen up the ligaments and the joints to give birth, but it doesn't loosen up just the pelvis, it loosens up all your joints. So if you have an issue sometimes not always, but it can get worse it doesn't usually get better with pregnancy, you know, and then it does take some afterwards, you know, the relaxing is in your system until basically you're done breastfeeding, and so people sort of hope to feel better right away or think you know, okay, maybe a month or two or three. But really if you're going to breastfeed for you know, nine, 10, 12 plus months, uh, you have to consider that that things aren't necessarily going to be as stable as as they were before. So that's what I see is really if there's an issue before, it doesn't necessarily get better and it might take some, some, some care and rehab and strength building really postpartum to help with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can imagine being pregnant right, I see it a lot with just individuals, so I can just imagine it's 10 times worse when you're pregnant, especially like month eight, you're leaning back trying to compensate with the weight, so that in itself is putting a lot of pressure on your spine. What are some ways that specifically you can give advice to pregnant women right now to help not break their spines and I know that was a little overdramatic, but just you know exactly what.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about in general. Yeah, that like kind of sway back position.
Speaker 1:I think that's what you're talking about, because the belly is pulling so far forward and so you get into that really big called lumbar lordosis, you know, like really like accentuated.
Speaker 1:So what I usually recommend is they basically try to feel the extreme ends of both of those so really tilt the pelvis, so it's forward into that extreme kind of sticking the belly out and then really tuck your bum under and so you can feel what that feels like and then meet in the middle and that's like your neutral spine position, and so that's really important to find in general right, but it's especially important for pregnant women because it, like I said, it gets so hard to feel what's happening through there.
Speaker 1:So I always recommend they try to find that and then really, if they're lifting weights and doing that sort of stuff, still really using that neutral position. The other thing that a lot of pregnant women do is they end up kind of really tucking their bum under and like tucking their glutes, and so I really try to teach them not to do that and so that's that's sort of almost a compensation for that belly sticking out so far, and so that's where you know, remembering and learning to squat, learning to, you know, doing some, some deadlifts, doing some glute work, all that gets really, really important and valuable, because if you tuck those glutes under that now you know changing the way that your spine is working, making you a little more unstable. So those are a few things that that they can do right away is not tuck the glutes and then find that neutral position between the two extremes.
Speaker 2:This kind of goes back to your original point about squatting Getting the glutes activated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I was like everybody squat.
Speaker 2:Everybody squat, everyone get some hip thrusts and glute bridges, please Now thank, you Totally. Yes, yep, my favorite exercises, and that's a guy saying that. You never don't hear that often yeah and then you give birth. Right, you're in that postpartum stage. Uh, this is the look that I see all the time you're carrying your kid, your hips tilted out to the right or the left, depending on what side they're at.
Speaker 2:And your spine's basically just totally held out and I can only imagine the kind of pressure you're doing that. Is there advice to help? Like, hey, you're picking your kid up, maybe sit up a little taller. What's some things that we can help in that postpartum, especially with the young kids? Kind of picking them up, karen, as opposed to your spine kind of pick them up, karen, as opposed to your spine.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I'm glad you mentioned that, because that actually ties in so well too. So, and maybe we can talk about a little later but the postpartum athletic brand that I have it's called Jen and Carrie, and our motto is every mom is an athlete. And where that came from was basically what you're just describing of moms do crazy stuff, you know. They're like carrying a car seat in this hand, a toddler on this side, a backpack on this side, and then they're like, you know, walking the dog and carrying their coffee, and it's like that is so athletic, you know. And so that's we.
Speaker 1:We came up with that slogan a couple of different ways A we want moms to be able to get back into whatever type of fitness they want, right. And B not just a mom. Not that being a mom is the most amazing job in the world, but there's so many other things too, and if an athlete's one of those, we want them to be it. But B, everything a mom does is athletic. So you think about putting the kid in the crib, right. Well, that's a hip hinge, that's a picking the toddler, screaming toddler, up off the floor, that's a deadlift, right. So it just translates so well the stuff in the gym to motherhood. And so that's where we say every mom, no matter what she's doing, is an athlete, right. And same thing as you're mentioning that, that kid on the side of the hip, that's a hard position for the body to be in. So normally what I recommend is it's hard not to do that, but I recommend trying to switch sides. Most women hold their kid on their less dominant side so they can use their more dominant hand to do things right, and so, as hard as they can, as hard as it is, trying to switch sides and hold on the other side.
Speaker 1:I also often coach women on how to use, especially if it's a smaller baby, how to use like a front pack so that they can have their baby on the front of them and how to keep a nice neutral spine while they do. That is more in line, so they can keep a better position of their spine and and their shoulders. You know, cause that's another thing is they're like moms are rounded forward so much, holding babies, breastfeeding, doing all kinds of stuff, so that can keep them a little more upright. Using the front pack and then just being aware of it, you know, and trying to do some things to counteract. Just like anything else we do in life.
Speaker 1:We try to counteract some of these, these poor movements that we do throughout the day, with exercises in the gym, you know, stretching, strengthening that sort of thing. So, especially for moms, important to do some strengthening of, like, the pulling muscles. So the lats, the rhomboids, you know, the lower traps, everything on the backside because they're so rounded forward, and the pecs and everything are pulling so far forward. So that's where we try to really encourage some, you know, and really, who doesn't need strengthening of the pulling muscles? Right, our posture is so horrible as a society in general, but it's even, it's even elevated during motherhood, with just everything pulling you so far forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the importance of the posterior chain is something I drove into everybody's head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally. And I think people forget that the posterior chain is not just the glutes and the hamstrings, it's all the way up the back of the spine, you know, all the way up the back. It's the whole posterior, not just the lower half. So, yeah, it's important to work on some of those muscles too.
Speaker 2:I loved what you said moms are athletes because I just had this vision in my head. She has three kids. They're all screaming, yelling. She's trying to downlift one off to the right side while they're running away, grabbing the other by the shirt and trying to hold them, and the other kid's running. So she's running while doing all of this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah. It's like not an uncommon scene, right.
Speaker 2:This is. This is why you need to keep moving into your life, so you don't end up hurting yourself. We see it a lot with, especially kids. I can't tell you how many clients that come to us because they were chasing their kids and rolled their ankle. They're trying to play sports. They're not good at it anymore. They were picking their kids up, moving the wrong direction, they were taking their car seat and blew a disc, and these are just the most common injuries that we see and it's usually right after having kids and I don't know if you agree with me on that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, often, yeah, and it's like, just like we were saying, you know, things are a little more unstable and I think also, sometimes people aren't they aren't like thinking so much about that, right, because that's not like. It's not like they're going and trying to, like, you know, deadlift 300 pounds. They're just trying to pick up a car seat. But even in my job as a chiropractor it's usually the same thing not always, you know, wrapped around kids. But you know, people come in all the time with a lumbar disc herniation and it's because they try to put on a sock or because they try to pick up a pencil and it's like that's not really the act. That did it right. It's like all these times before where you were rounding the spine or doing something you know, and that was just like the little straw that breaks the camel's back sort of thing. You, that breaks the camel's back, sort of thing, you know. So I think it happens even easier in postpartum because things are now a little bit unstable. You know, you have basically this new body.
Speaker 1:I tell all my moms that come back in after giving birth. I I do a whole new evaluation on them. I set aside an hour of time because I'm like you're not the same person anymore. You're not the same body. It's a whole new setup. So we need to, like, get a better you know, a new feel for it and see what you need now, as opposed to what, how you were during pregnancy and how you were pre-pregnancy. It's just, it's a new body. It's a new person in a lot of ways, you know mental, physical, all the things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's totally true. You're just a brand new person kind of coming out of it, and I love the fact that you're doing an extra eval with people, because that really goes a long way. And I think the question I get the most is you can be pretty brief with your answer is how far soon should they get back to doing stuff and creating movement after giving?
Speaker 1:birth. Yeah, so that's a big topic. I mean, we could actually talk about that, for you know, I could talk about that for hours, but, um, but I think one thing that I would love to stress to people is you can start some really simple stuff very early. So some breathing exercises, you know, some deep belly breathing, trying to get that diaphragm working again, some simple glute bridges maybe, depending on if you had an uncomplicated birth Some really simple stuff really early on within.
Speaker 1:Stuff really early on within. I mean I started that stuff within three or four days with both of my pregnancies and are both of my, you know, after birth, and you don't have to wait for that six week mark from your doctor to say, Okay, now you can exercise. You can be doing a lot of sort of rehab stuff really soon. So I usually like to recommend that to women, and the other thing about that is that it's nice to have something that you can work on, because it feels so. Your body feels so foreign often and so it's nice to have. Okay, I'm going to do, you know, these two sets of breathing exercises, some like hip hinging and some, you may be like foam rolling of my glutes, and that's my little like workout, quote unquote you know for for the day and you can do that without you know worrying too much about it. So, earlier rather than later, with some of that, you know breathing and and starting to work on a little stability, I think can go a long way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just to kind of add to it, to those that say well, I didn't give natural birth, I had a C-section. What would be your answer to that one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I actually had a C-section with my, my second son. He was breech and we couldn't get him to turn that little sucker, so he I had a planned C-section and it's different for sure. Right, you're having abdominal surgery. There was some stuff that I couldn't do that I could easily do after my first birth, but I think after you know that week, the first week, your scar is pretty sore. It's pretty hard to move the first two weeks really, but you can still be doing the breathing exercises, you can be lying in bed doing breathing exercises. So I always recommend people start there and then, just, you know, listen to their bodies, don't try to rush things, and if you can get advice, help from you know, like I said, someone in your area that specializes in this, then that's usually the best way to go, you know, so that you have someone who can kind of be on your team and help you through that process.
Speaker 2:How do you feel about, after a C-section, specifically working the opposing muscles? Very, very, really, very lightly, obviously, but just kind of get those moving.
Speaker 1:You mean as far as like opposing muscles, like like the low back muscles or yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm all for it.
Speaker 1:The problem is the way that people do that. It's difficult to not put pressure on the front of the, you know, on the scar. So, like I was trying because you know, of course I'm like my own test case, right so I was like, ok, now I had a C-section, I got to test out all this stuff and so, you know, I tried to do some Superman's, I think, at like week two and I was like, oh, oh, no, we cannot be laying on this scar yet, you know. So, um, I love for people to work some of those muscles, but it it definitely you have to take into effect that scar. Um, it's a little easier to work the glutes. You know, like we're saying with like a glute bridge or something that's like that. But, um, but even doing like a low back hold on what do they call it, like like off of a GHD or something, is too hard because there's pressure on the scar. So you just have to take that scar into consideration a lot of times.
Speaker 2:Love that answer, thank you, and I want to kind of go into what you mentioned a little earlier, which is the whole nursing, breastfeeding side. You were referring to your clothing company, but kind of why you started that a little bit.
Speaker 2:So obviously this is something that I'll never have to do again, but how does that nursing side of it you were mentioning with weightlifting, the way clothes are designed. They're not ideal for women who are athletic and maybe that puts a damper on people who are breastfeeding, cause at that point it's like why would I do it if the clothes aren't made for me to do it? So kind of walk us through how that kind of started that idea and the benefits of having this kind of sportswear as it comes to actually exercising, yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:So after my first son, the way the company started basically was my, my co founder and I. She's a good friend of mine. She was over and asking how things are going and I was just getting back into the gym and working out and I was like I just wish, like I hate all these sports bras, I hate all these nursing sports bras. I hate the clips. I don't want these big zippers. You know, I really love weightlifting. Like I don't want to do a power clean and knock my bra off because there's this big clip in the way. You know I don't want to go running and have it come on clips. So, anyways, we started kind of looking around at the nursing sports bra industry basically and could not find anything good. So we we developed one and it took a long time and, um, it took a lot of iterations, but we really wanted to create something that allowed women to get back into the gym, feel like themselves and just be able to take that time to feel empowered and feel like the strong, capable, confident woman that they are. And you know, it's wonderful being a nursing mother, but a lot of these women have so many other things that they love to do and they want to get back to. And so it was A. It was a convenience thing, like it's. You want a nice sports bra that you can work out in and immediately go to feed your baby. You don't want to like be trying to rip, want a nice sports bra that you can work out in and immediately go to feed your baby. You don't want to like be trying to rip off a sweaty sports bra and there's a crying baby and it's like a whole thing. Right, but B. We just really our goal at Jen and Carrie is to empower women to, to get back to whatever activity is that they love and trying to, you know, in any way possible make that easier.
Speaker 1:So, basically, what we did is we made a sports bra that looks exactly like a regular bra. It has a different technology, so it it pulls up from the bottom and then pulls down from the top, so to, especially to someone who doesn't isn't nursing someone like maybe you, anthony, you'd never know that it's even a nursing bra. You just think like whatever, like Shelly is in her sports bra today, you know, and that was our goal. We had a couple of friends that don't have kids and they were like we had them try it on and see how it fit and they're like, yeah, it just looks like a regular bra and we're like, yes, that's what we want. Like you don't even know, you just said the right thing, you know. So that's kind of where it stemmed from. Is is me not having the tool that that I felt like I needed and wanted to just make getting back into athletics and fitness, into working out and feeling a little more like myself, to make that more possible.
Speaker 2:I love that Very, very good vision and model, so that's really something I recommend people kind of check out. I have a nursing question, just kidding Is there a certain does your metabolic rate increase and if so, how much? Because I've always been told that it does, but they've never really explained beyond that. Is that active breastfeeding? Is that in general, like? What does that look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. I wish I had a number for you, but I do not know exactly what that increase looks like. I can tell you that it does increase, just like during pregnancy, because you can imagine you're, you know you're creating something from, not from nothing, but something that you weren't creating before, right, so you're creating a baby and then you're creating breast milk constantly. So that's where you know it's super important to stay really hydrated, it's super important to be eating enough calories and if you don't do those things, you do see that drop in in breast milk production. So, yeah, definitely the metabolic rate increases and you can ask any nursing mom. She's like I'm so hungry all the time, and so you know that's anecdotal, but I don't know the number. I don't know exactly what that looks like, but I do know that that is that. That is true, that it does increase. So it's important. I always stress it's so important to be.
Speaker 1:A lot of women will get kind of hung up on wanting to get the baby weight off, that sort of thing and like there's lots of time for that. I always just try to stress like you have to eat, you have to be nourished, you have to be not just eating crap, but like getting your nutrients in so that you can you can nourish your baby. And even if they choose not to breastfeed or some people you know try to breastfeed, it doesn't work. There's all sorts of stories, you know things that happen. Even if women don't choose to do that or aren't able to, it's still important that they're nourishing their body right, Because they're still recovering from giving birth, they're still recovering from losing a lot of blood, and so there's all these things that it's just important for that during that postpartum period, that period, that they're really nourishing their body, whether they're breastfeeding or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, just kind of understanding that it's milk, right, milk is heavy in proteins and fats, so I can only imagine that's kind of what your body's craving is, fueling it with the proper types of fats, so meaning more of an unsaturated form, as well as increasing your protein intake. And higher amounts of simple carbs probably aren't going to matter too much, because that's what you use to make the milk. Is that a good understanding?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, it's always important to try to get, you know, and it's hard, I think, to get enough protein. So that's where you start looking at, okay, we have to. We can't just think about our protein, as you know, just eating meat, right. We have to start looking at our whey protein, maybe doing a shake or whatever type of protein shake, protein that people can tolerate. Uh, we have to start thinking like, okay, what other sources of protein are there? You know there's tons of vegetables. Peas are really high in protein, obviously.
Speaker 1:So, looking at like, okay, how am I getting my, how am I getting these nutrients? And not just thinking like, because who wants to just be like chomping on turkey and chicken all day? You know, like there's other ways to do it. Yeah, okay, maybe, but there's other ways to do it. I think, especially during that timeframe of, like you know, we can add collagen to things. There's, you know, lactation cookie recipes that you can make that are healthy, that there's all kinds of ways to do that. So I think it's getting a little bit creative and not just getting out of the mindset of like, okay, I just have to crush chicken all day. That doesn't necessarily sound so good to a newly postpartum nursing mom, but there's other ways to do it.
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to redo my protein episode I did two seasons ago about what to intake, and add this postpartum side to it, Cause now that I've learned a little more about increasing the amount of protein and maybe we bump those that general like 0.6 per pound that we have usually for females up while you're breastfeeding to me with that like 0.8 round, we usually see some meds sitting. So I love that. I recommend you guys go back and check that episode out. You'll learn all about BCAAs what are the essential ones that your body already doesn't produce, the non-essential ones that we already do produce.
Speaker 2:Understanding that if you're not eating animal products, you're not getting complete protein. So learning how to balance things together like rice and beans is a complete protein if you're putting them together. So those things are already naturally made. So I do love that and I'm just happy. We're like trying to walk in through this, because I got a lot of females that I trained coming out of pregnancy. Now I can be like super more confident with them. Like this is exactly what your body needs to work on. I guess the last nursing question I really have in general is alcohol and smoking. I mean maybe not so much smoking, but more alcohol, more things you're putting inside your body, Does that leak into breast milk? Could it? I really don't know, and I'm going to let you answer that one.
Speaker 1:It does. Yeah, I think the kind of standard understanding is that like, it's like 10% of what you intake can go into the breast milk. So I believe I haven't looked at that for a little while but I believe that's the percentage. So it's a really small amount, right. Most it's interesting because people have very different takes on this and it depends on what country you're in, because in Europe, you, you, you know, tell a French woman in France, or an Italian woman, um, not to have their glass of wine during pregnancy. They do it all the time, you know, and here we're very um, anti-alcohol during pregnancy, during postpartum. And so it really depends on who you're asking, on what country you're in and what your, your comfort level is. You know, we can't do, we can't do testing on pregnant and postpartum women, you know, with their babies, so we can't do double blind studies obviously. And so in America we've, we've gone the most conservative route and said no alcohol during pregnancy, during postpartum, if you're nursing, sort of the standard there is, the most understood safest time, like, let's say, if you're going to have a glass of wine and you're nursing, is actually while you're nursing, because by the time the, your body is processing the alcohol the baby has done nursing, and so then you know that's your body's kind of processing through that. But again, like, it just depends on who you ask, what you know, what your doctor says and what your comfort level is.
Speaker 1:So there there's a book that I really loved. What is it called? I read it during, I think crib sheet. I read it during my I think Cribsheet. I read it during my pregnancy and oh no, it's not Cribsheet, it's her other book, cribsheet is the second one. Anyways, it's a great book, basically about this economist who does all this research on these topics. Right, it's like can we eat lunch meat during pregnancy, can we eat sushi, can we drink alcohol, and so it's all these as much study as there is out there, kind of combined together and what the research actually says. So that's not my area of expertise, of course, but that's a good resource for people to look at if they have more questions on that. It's called Expecting Better that's what it's called, and the author is Emily Oster, I think.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Definitely something you guys should go check out. And then, is there anything else you want to add to this postpartum before we wrap the show up? So are there other things you see often as a chiropractor with women that are breastfeeding, that are postpartum Anything else you really want to throw and say, hey, this is something I see often.
Speaker 1:maybe do this do that, not that kind of deal. Yeah, one thing you know, especially maybe for personal trainers actually who are working with this population One thing that I do see a lot is called mommy wrist, or you know, people have start to have pretty bad pain in their thumb or in their wrist and it's from holding the baby.
Speaker 1:You know, in this position, a lot everything again being rounded forward so people can also start to have some elbow pain with that. So one thing that I often recommend people do is do some strengthening of those forearm muscles, uh, starting during pregnancy and then continuing into postpartum. You know, the wrist rollers, um, however you like to strengthen those muscles, that can be super helpful. That eccentric, concentric loading of both the flexors and the extensors, uh, the forearm, uh, that's one thing that takes a lot of people by surprise is, you know, sometimes women are expecting, okay, some pelvic pain, some low back pain, even upper back pain from nursing, but the thumb or the wrist pain really can take people by surprise and can be really extreme and limiting if not taken care of or addressed properly. So that's one thing that I always try to mention and have people work on in advance, just because that's one problem you can avoid pretty easily with the right exercises.
Speaker 2:Really good to know. Thank you for that. It's definitely something we can focus more on. Love the kettlebells for forearm strength and balance of them Super fun. But I'm going to ask you the same two questions. I ask everybody at the end of the show. First one is if you could wrap this show up in one or two sentences, what would you take on message?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know I hear you ask this question. I'm like, oh, that's tough man. Hear you ask this question? I'm like, oh, that's tough man. Yeah, I think for me it would just be. You know our motto that every mom is an athlete and my goal in life really is basically to empower women in that postpartum time and if there's any way that I can do that, I'm happy to have people reach out to me so that I can be of assistance.
Speaker 2:I love it. And then the second question. You probably know exactly what I'm going to ask. How many people find you get ahold of you? Give us all the good stuff, go for it.
Speaker 1:Of course, yeah, yep, so online of course. Our website is jenandcarycom J-E-N and K-E-R-I. Funny story on that is that the reason our company is named Jen and Carrie is my name is Carly and my partner's name is Jess and no one ever gets our names right. They always call her Jen and they always call me Carrie. So Jen and Carrie is our like pseudo. You know pseudo names of like your fun mom friends, you know all the things sort of backfired now because everyone calls us Jen and Carrie, like even more because now we've like named our company that. But anyways, online there, also on Instagram, jen and Carrie. And then I'm on Instagram at Dr Carly, k-a-r-l-i-e and also online at carlycozzicom. So that's the easiest ways to find me.
Speaker 2:I love it and I love the company name. We're just laughing about that Hysterical. And thank you guys for joining us on this week's episode of Health and Fitness Redefined. Don't forget, hit that subscribe button and join us next week as we dive deeper into this ever-changing field. And remember fitness is a journey, not a destination. Until next time.
