C-section recovery training

[DeriHughes]

TL;DR: My wife is having a c-section and wants to plan her return to training. Any advice from those with relevant experience appreciated.

The detail:

My wife is pregnant with MCDA twins, to be delivered by c-section imminently. She has two prior natural deliveries, the second of which was 2.5 years ago. She started lifting for the first time about 3 weeks after that, with me coaching her (our relationship has survived ok, so far!)

She was still training up to about two months ago when she just got too exhausted. Pre-pregnancy she was close to 200x5 for squats and deads, and also doing Crossfit WODs twice a week. She PR'd her bench a couple of months ago but has been at maintenance weights (135 x 5) on the other lifts.

Post-delivery she wants to get back "in shape" as quickly as possible. This primarily means being able to safely return to Crossfit, getting back to her normal bodyweight - 155-160 pounds (she currently weighs c230!), and safely shedding some excess fat whilst breast feeding two babies.

She's planning to run some kind of modified LP. I suspect starting with benching before anything else, but I don't have specific relevant experience to understand the risks and what she can do when properly.

Other than 'be conservative, rehab like any other injury', are there specific things she should bear in mind post c-section?

She's 35, 5'10 if relevant.

[Simon Rest]

Wow, that came up quick!
My wife also had both delivery types and she says the recovery from c section was significantly more difficult. Your wife may have to be limited to walking for a while, and then have to work closely with the obstetrician to get back to anything lifting related. Consider it's a separation of the abdominal wall and then sewing it back up, so maybe lifting might take a while to get back to.

[Chebass88]

Awesome! My wife had MDCA twins via C-section also. The hospital recommendations went out the window the day we came home (we have a 2 story house). Walking (slowly) helped - I think we were out walking within a couple of days. She didn't have the same training goals, so the analogy stops there.

Off topic to your question, but please pass on some good luck from my wife and I re. breastfeeding. My wife breastfeed our twins. It is a LOT of work and time, but a strong determination will help. The mechanics of nursing two at a time can be a little challenging, but certainly not impossible. Good Luck!

[DeriHughes]

Wow, that came up quick!
My wife also had both delivery types and she says the recovery from c section was significantly more difficult. Your wife may have to be limited to walking for a while, and then have to work closely with the obstetrician to get back to anything lifting related. Consider it's a separation of the abdominal wall and then sewing it back up, so maybe lifting might take a while to get back to.

Awesome! My wife had MDCA twins via C-section also. The hospital recommendations went out the window the day we came home (we have a 2 story house). Walking (slowly) helped - I think we were out walking within a couple of days. She didn't have the same training goals, so the analogy stops there.

Off topic to your question, but please pass on some good luck from my wife and I re. breastfeeding. My wife breastfeed our twins. It is a LOT of work and time, but a strong determination will help. The mechanics of nursing two at a time can be a little challenging, but certainly not impossible. Good Luck!

Thanks guys.

Yes, I'm thinking it will be c2-3 weeks minimum post-partum before she is able to start lifting at all. She'll be pretty active as soon as she can tolerate pain. Just not sure at what point even bodyweight squats or light presses become safe in the context of risking rupturing repairs, particlarly internal ones.

Ian - thanks for the good vibes re breast feeding, that is definitely our plan if we can make it work! Apparently a special pillow for dual feeding is the key..

[thejosef]

Thanks guys.

Yes, I'm thinking it will be c2-3 weeks minimum post-partum before she is able to start lifting at all. She'll be pretty active as soon as she can tolerate pain. Just not sure at what point even bodyweight squats or light presses become safe in the context of risking rupturing repairs, particlarly internal ones.

Ian - thanks for the good vibes re breast feeding, that is definitely our plan if we can make it work! Apparently a special pillow for dual feeding is the key..

I think walking regularly will the first thing and see how that goes after 1-2 weeks and start increasing walk times/distances. Definitely heed the surgeon/doctor's advice, at least a little, with recovery time. You really don't want to have to take steps backward if something ruptures. I would imagine it would be more like 4 weeks before any squats or main lifts could be performed, but that's just my educated guess.

We just had a little one last week, but a natural birth (at home!, unplanned!!!! LOL.). Best of luck to you all. Breastfeeding can definitely be a challenge (for everybody), but it's well worth it if everyone is on board.

[ChrisRozon]

2-3 weeks is pretty aggressive coming off smajor surgery, complete life rearranging and probably getting 2 hours of sleep a day.

[DeriHughes]

I think walking regularly will the first thing and see how that goes after 1-2 weeks and start increasing walk times/distances. Definitely heed the surgeon/doctor's advice, at least a little, with recovery time. You really don't want to have to take steps backward if something ruptures. I would imagine it would be more like 4 weeks before any squats or main lifts could be performed, but that's just my educated guess.

We just had a little one last week, but a natural birth (at home!, unplanned!!!! LOL.). Best of luck to you all. Breastfeeding can definitely be a challenge (for everybody), but it's well worth it if everyone is on board.

Congrats on the baby!

Well, she started squatting 3 weeks after our second kid was born via a pretty nasty forceps delivery. She'd never trained before that either so was learning the movements from scratch. What I don't know is how long a c-section takes to heal enough for full ROM movements to be safe, and I don't trust that we'll get an informed answer from her midwives. 4 weeks may well be about right.

2-3 weeks is pretty aggressive coming off smajor surgery, complete life rearranging and probably getting 2 hours of sleep a day.

We'll see, might be. She wants to be moderately aggressive without taking stupid risks. We already have two young kids so not as much life rearranging as you might think, and we are already pretty acclimatised to lack of sleep.