Building Muscle For a Lifetime of Adventure
How our bodies work and the knowledge to meet your unique needs.
The term “fluffy” was how one mom in my class recently described herself feeling, 18 months after delivering her first child. It can be so confusing to experience a sudden and unexpected loss of firmness and muscle tone. There is always that nagging voice in the back of your mind asking, “what has happened to me?”
This week, I’m answering that exact question. Because NOT knowing is the hardest place to live in your body and health and at RM, we’re here to empower, educate, and uplift you. The truth is, muscle loss postpartum isn’t just about time passing—it’s about how your body has adapted after pregnancy. A structured pregnancy workout program can help build and maintain strength during pregnancy, setting the foundation for a smoother recovery. And if you’re already postpartum, intentional movement can reactivate dormant muscles and restore balance.
Here’s what you need to know about how your muscles work, why they deactivate at different points in your life, and how to turn them back on for long term health and vitality!
You can not strength-train a tight muscle. A tense muscle moves in a restricted range of motion, so it is not fully functional. If you then try to lift heavy weights, the restricted muscle pulls and puts tension on the respective joint. A tight bicep that is not able to fully extend and contract will pull on the attachment near your shoulder instead of building strong upper arm strength. This can lead to pain and injury within the shoulder joint.
Your body is very intelligent and efficient. It is wired to adapt and keep going. When a muscle becomes weak due to under-use, restriction or injury, your body will grab the nearest muscle to perform the necessary function, resulting in what’s called a “compensation pattern.” The weaker muscle becomes more passive, while the over-working muscle gets stronger and more stressed which over time leads to asymmetrical strength and often chronic pain, stiffness, and injury.
Understand your anatomy first. In order to build long, lean muscles that are functionally strong, you need to understand a little bit about your anatomy and cross-train to continually catch compensation patterns (they are normal parts of life and everybody has them) and re-pattern how your body is grabbing and accessing strength for movement.
Your core is your entire trunk. Your core consists of muscles from your chest cavity to your glutes and pelvic floor and is composed of many joints, bones, and fascial tissue. It is a system and needs to be maintained throughout your life by focusing on activation, strength, and flexibility. A well-structured pregnancy workout routine can help prepare your core to support your growing body during pregnancy and lay the foundation for postpartum recovery. After childbirth, postnatal ab exercises play a key role in rebuilding deep core function, helping to close diastasis recti and restore balance to the entire body. Your core is 3-dimensional and needs to be worked in dynamic planes of movement, balance, isolated strength, and length training moves. For instance, just one modality will not get you over the finish line. Fusion cross-training that incorporates fascial hydration and mobility with dynamic cross-body strength and balance training along with educated lifting and bodyweight resistance are the best workouts. Check out my ultimate cross-training method on the RM App here.
Your transversus abdominals are the secret to success. It all begins with your breath—it truly takes mindfulness and focused attention to workout well. By being ,entally, physically, and emotionally present and attentive to how and what you’re doing in your workouts is when the payoff really starts to show. Instead of zoning out and just going through the motions, invest your mental energy by learning how your body works so that you have the knowledge and tools to meet your unique needs year after year.
Most women were never taught how to workout. Meaning, how to perform different exercises like planks and sit ups. We weren’t given the knowledge of how to access the muscles we really want to activate (for example, core, back, glutes, and chest). Being told to do different exercises or that we need to maintain muscle for longevity is great, but without a roadmap and specific instructions on how our bodies work and how to actualize this advice, it’s not very helpful in the long run. This is the beginning of a whole landscape of new knowledge for you, your health, and your fitness. Structured postnatal ab exercises are an excellent way to rebuild strength intentionally and set the foundation for a lifetime of movement.
This is the beginning of a whole landscape of new knowledge for you and your health and your fitness will forever feel better, deeper, and yield stronger results for it, I promise. If you’re feeling disconnected from your body, know that you’re not alone. Recovery is a journey, and understanding how to move in a way that serves your body’s needs is the key to lifelong strength. Whether you’re currently pregnant or in the postpartum chapter, a pregnancy workout program and postnatal ab exercises can help you reclaim your strength and confidence, one mindful movement at a time.