When can I start sports after cesarean section?

Tidying up your figure and appearance after giving birth is a task that almost all women who become mothers have set themselves. Pregnancy brought with it extra pounds, the skin on the abdomen and thighs has changed, it may look sagging. A cesarean section performed on a woman makes it quite difficult to exercise after childbirth, but there is a solution. About when you can return to active sports after surgery and how to organize such classes correctly, we will explain in this article.

Caesarean section is a complex, abdominal operation, during which the skin of the abdomen, muscle tissue, and uterine wall are dissected. Each layer is then sutured separately, and it takes a lot of time to recover. The nerve endings, the blood vessels disturbed by the surgeon’s scalpel, the cells of the tissue that underwent surgery should recover.

After a cesarean section, for the first 8–10 hours, a woman is shown complete rest, since internal sutures are actively formed during this period. The edges of the wounds stick together, the fibrin threads create a sticking effect. In a day, the production of the first cells begins, which should replace the damaged ones, and blood vessels are restored in 2–3 days. After a week, collagen begins to be produced, which makes both internal and external scars more elastic. At 8–10 days, the sutures can be removed if non-self-absorbing threads are applied to the woman.

The complete formation of the internal scar on the uterus takes about 2 years. Its initial healing takes about 2 months. On the 20th day after surgery, the external suture usually heals. Any negative impact, including improper physical activity, can lead to the development of early or late complications: scar hernia, the formation of an insolvent uterus scar, the development of fistulas, adhesions, and even a divergence of scars (internal or external).

It is precisely because of the likely difficulties in the postoperative period that the rehabilitation program after cesarean section does not imply intensive physical activity. It is forbidden for a woman to lift a weight of more than 3 kilograms, she should not bend down or sit down sharply, she is not allowed to return to sex lifeIt is forbidden to strain the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall.

The choice of means and methods for losing weight after childbirth, if they were surgical, is thus significantly limited. It is impossible to ignore the prohibitions, because they will help to preserve health in a general sense and reproductive health in particular.

The right approach to gaining good physical shape after a cesarean section should be perfectly safe for a woman. The following action plan is recommended:

• balanced diet;
• restorative gymnastics;
• traditional gymnastics;
• return to certain sports;
• the use of external tools and fixtures.

In the concept of "sport" you can put completely different meanings. For women who have not been fond of them before, and a walk along the public garden can be a sport. For women who systematically engaged in any kind or did it professionally before the operation, returning to sports has a different meaning.

A trained body of a sporty and fit woman recovers somewhat faster after surgery, but it is still not recommended to practice professional sports in the first 8–10 months after surgical delivery. Intense loads of big sports require full recovery of both physiological wounds and immunity, which after the operation has been undermined in 100% of puerperas.

Restorative therapeutic gymnastics are recommended from the first days after surgery to all women, regardless of their physical form. To traditional gymnastics should go only 3 months after surgical childbirth. The first allowed yoga, Pilates, exercise on fitball. Three months after childbirth, a woman can begin to visit the pool, do water aerobics.

Strength training, including pumping up the press to get rid of abdomen remnants, is recommended not earlier than six months later, and training on simulators, intensive dynamic fitness - 8–10 months after a cesarean section.

Lifting weights - not earlier than in a year, and better - in one and a half. Any sport associated with intense tension of the abdominal muscles, jumps, falls, is not shown until one year after surgery. This means that practicing big tennis, volleyball and basketball, weightlifting, pole vaulting in the first 12 months is under strict prohibition. After the expiration of the year, a doctor should give admission to classes, who will determine whether a woman has postoperative complications, which are contraindications.

Unreasonable attitude to their health in pursuit of a beautiful figure can lead to serious complications, which can not be told. If a woman starts experiencing severe physical exertion too early, problems can arise not only with an external postoperative suture, but also with an internal scar on the uterus. As a result, an insolvent scar is formed, consisting of rigid connective tissue. With such a scar, it will be difficult to endure a subsequent pregnancy if the woman wants another baby. There will be a high risk of uterine rupture during pregnancy.

The risk of uterine rupture during subsequent labor will also be increased if a woman wants to give birth herself (if there is only one cesarean section in history). An insignificant scar, which cannot be felt, but can only be established with special diagnostics, can cause habitual miscarriages, infertility, placental insufficiency and delayed fetal development.

Any exercise after cesarean section must be done with great care. Up to 6 weeks after surgery, only restorative therapeutic exercises should be followed. After this period, it is possible to complicate the program a little, but traditional gymnastics should replace the restorative only 2.5-3 weeks after surgery.

It is possible to twist the hoop to restore the figure in 4–5 months, and it is better to add exercises with abdominal muscles after half a year.

Restorative and traditional gymnastics can be held at home. Also at home a woman can practice yoga, if she has experience of such classes. But any more active sports should be practiced under the supervision of specialists: the minimum is the trainer, the maximum is both the trainer and the medic. Even if there is a simulator at home, to start classes, when the time is right for this, it is better in the gym.

The main objective of the very first gymnastics operation after surgery is to prevent the decrease in muscle tone more than this has already happened. Therefore, within a few hours after the operation, a woman is recommended to make circular movements with her feet, hands, and turns from back to side. This will help reduce the likelihood of edema of the limbs, and will also facilitate an easier and early climb to your feet. It is recommended to conduct such gymnastics in the first weeks after discharge from the hospital.

4 weeks after the operation, the woman may complicate the program. Enter:

• walking on the spot;
• torso torso left and right, gradually - back and forth;
• walking on the spot with high lifting of the knees;
• rotation of the hips in a circle.

After removing the stitches, the woman will benefit from walking. Walking with a stroller can be combined with this, the main thing is not to stand still while walking, not to sit on a stool, but calmly and steadily walk forward. Gradually the steps should become more and more intense. An hour of active walking per day helps to lose up to 3 kilograms per month, and therefore should not be neglected. The only thing you need to pay attention to is your own well-being: the walk should not tire the young mother much.

It is possible to restore a good physical form due to performing a set of exercises at home. When about 3 months have passed after the operation, you can also enter trainings in the daily training program. For a start, 10 minutes a day will suffice. Lesson time can be gradually increased, but not more than 1-2 minutes per day. The optimal intensity of training - 3 times a week. Exercises for the press add in the last turn, when it takes about six months.

Dumbbells, which are quite a natural addition to the traditional gymnastic complex, are contraindicated after a cesarean section. Therefore, classes should be planned with the use of effective, but not debilitating exercises.

• "Bridge". This exercise will be useful for abdominal muscles and thighs. Starting position - lying on your back. Bend your legs, put them on the feet, try to raise the hips as high as possible, hold for a few seconds and gently lower back.

• Kegel exercises. To a greater extent, this set of exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor and vagina is important for women who gave birth naturally, but after cesarean section the muscles of the pelvic floor are somewhat relaxed. It is possible to bring them into shape and thus improve the quality of sex and your own self-esteem with the help of several simple techniques. Squeeze and unclench the vaginal muscles. After a 10-second load, do the same for a break and repeat the exercise again.Gradually increase the time of compression and reduce the number of approaches.

• "Strap". Everyone has heard about the benefits of this exercise. After a cesarean section, it should be injected into the gym no earlier than after 6 months. From a prone position facing the floor, a woman needs to raise her torso on elbows and toes. The body should be parallel to the floor surface. In this state, you need to hold from 10 seconds to half a minute.

• "Mill". Circular movements of the arms from the shoulder can be useful for maintaining muscle tone not only the shoulder girdle, but also the hips. The main thing is to keep the posture and increase the diameter of the circles with each subsequent stroke.

• "Vacuum". This is an exercise from yoga, and for untrained women it can seem incredibly difficult. In fact, the exercise "Vacuum" is much easier than it seems. It helps to reduce the waist, and also strengthens the abdominal muscles, including those that were incised with a scalpel (aponeurosis and rectus abdominis). It is recommended to do it on an empty stomach before the morning meal. A woman needs to take a deep breath and exhale with her mouth so as to free the lungs from air as much as possible, after which the anterior abdominal wall will begin to approach the spine.

• If earlier you didn’t play sports and thought about choosing some kind only after a cesarean section, stop the choice on aqua aerobics or Pilates. In the first case, all the loads when performing exercises are “smoothed out” by the fact that gymnastics takes place in water. Abdominal muscles will not undergo dangerous loads. Usually, the program of such exercises includes exercises for all muscle groups. For those who are not able to swim, they use special safety holding belts. Gradually, as she recovers, the woman will be able to use special weighting materials - boots, in which you can be in the water, cuffs. In the arsenal of trainers in aqua aerobics there are plenty of ways to make your muscles regain their former tone.
• Pilates is a type of gymnastics in combination with special breathing techniques. And in fact, and in another case, it is better to engage not in video tutorials, but under the supervision of professionals.

• Combine gymnastics (any kind of it), as well as any additional physical activity with proper nutrition. Avoid fried, fatty, spicy, flour, sweet and salty. Drink more pure water (preferably at least 2 liters per day). Steam, boil and cook. Up to 40% of the diet should be vegetables in any form (except for pickled and canned). Eat often and slowly: 5–6 times a day, 300–400 grams of food at a time.
• Do not work on days when you have a fever or any signs of illness.
• Do not focus on the end result. Since recovery is much slower after surgery, there is no need to wait for quick results. Wrong expectations can lead a woman to a dead end and cause postpartum depression.

On the Internet there are many reviews of women who play sports after a cesarean section. It is alarming that those who started to press the press too early (after 2-3 months from the moment of the operation), in almost half of the cases pain is felt in the area of ​​the scar, the scar becomes purple and hurts.

Many young moms are content with advice from the Internet, don’t see Dr. Komarovsky’s broadcasts and consult doctors about their own weight loss. And this is a big mistake. Quite often, after childbirth, the hormonal background changes, and it is precisely in it that the extra kilograms are stubbornly reluctant to leave.Sport in this case, like a diet, will be powerless, and only an experienced endocrinologist will be able to find an imbalance and make the correct correction.

The load on the body in trying to quickly lose weight without the prior consent of the doctor, and then the stress due to the fact that the kilograms do not go away (they leave slowly, stop leaving or increase), often causing a decrease in the amount of breast milk. Lactation is disturbed, and the child has to be transferred to artificial milk formulas.

For information on when you can play sports after giving birth, see the next video.