It has been almost 4 months since our first son was born and now my girlfriend wants to get back to strength training. I assume I can safely have her start her novice progression over with the empty bar – which she did on Wednesday with good form. Maybe you have experience with training females postpartum? Anything special to consider (movements to avoid for instance)?
I am asking because I almost got scolded by a PT at the gym because he thought she should only do breathing exercises and planks to strengthen her "messed up core." Heated discussion because...he is the healthcare professional, you know...
I Googled but the Internet is full of "postpartum warrior workouts" with every plank variation imaginable, bulgarian split squats and hip-thrusts.
Were there any complications in the delivery?
No complication. Just an episiotomy. She saw the midwife two weeks ago and it has healed well. She was cleared to practice sports again.
Sounds like she's ready to go. Actually, she has been for about 3 months.
I been training for a good 6 years now and only recently I began to have some sleep problems that weren't related to working out or playing sports. I noticed that I had the same kind of symptoms and bad sleep after lifting heavy. I am doing Texas Method 3 and the night after doing the high volume day, my body simply does not want to go into shut down mode. My sleep is very light, I wake up after 4-5 hrs and it’s really hard to go back to sleep after that. Meanwhile I feel like I didn't get any recovery whatsoever.
I don't want to go to doctors again because they think I have anxiety or depression and just want to give me anti depressants for god knows what reason. I sleep fine otherwise. I just notice that if I exert my body rigorously, I don't get really tired later on. I just get into this sort of heightened state of limbo where it does not shut down and go into recovery mode like it used to normally in all my years of playing competitive sports and lifting weights. Do you have any advice here?
I know of a few guys who use ZMA for this reason, to improve length/quality of sleep.
I had very similar issues after the volume day workout too. It didn't last too long though, after a couple weeks, I moved my rest time to 8 minutes instead of 5 and it made a night and day difference in how I felt after a set and the rest of the day after the workout.
After working nutrition with Jordan & mentioning my poor sleep, he suggested a "good whack of protein & fat before bed" (he suggested Natural Calm too, which I also use). I started working 2-3 tbsp peanut butter, and a scoop or 2 of whey into my macros as a pre-bed snack (literally before I brush my teeth and head to bed). Had immediate improvement effects on the quality of my sleep. Even my wife has noticed how much my sleep/restlessness has improved since this simple advice.
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