Chasing Strength is Making Us Weak

Something hit me a few weeks ago after reading comments in a CrossFit mom Facebook group. During pregnancy and postpartum while chasing strength, we are only making ourselves weaker.

Both CrossFit and competitive CrossFit changed my life in so many amazing ways. I am beyond grateful for those experiences and the coaches that changed my life; it truly made me a better human. I did things I never imagined were possible.

However, pregnancy is an entirely different beast and requires a completely different mentality. Listening to my OB and my coaches just wasn’t enough. OBs are not trained in evaluating pelvic floor muscles and nerves. And, unfortunately, most CrossFit coaches are not aware of the pre and postnatal considerations. So, like many women today, I just couldn’t see outside of the CrossFit bubble, and I had no clue about pelvic floor physical therapists.

As a result, CrossFit moms go into pre and post pregnancy with the same mentality as before, and this is creating a lot of harm in the community. Pregnancy and postpartum has turned into a competition to see who can do the most and/or who can have the quickest comeback. Messages about “listening to your body” and “doing what you have always done” are hurting many because that just isn’t enough guidance when it comes to the pelvic floor and the complexities of pregnancy.

I have recently read comments in the CrossFit mom groups that are making me more and more concerned. For example, one mom stated,  “I recovered so quickly because I was doing CrossFit up until 40 weeks.” Being active and healthy is always a good and can definitely help with recovery. However, it also largely has to do with genetics, what happened during delivery, and what you during 4th trimester and beyond. The misconceptions about how we heal postpartum are concerning.

What concerns me the most are comments like these. Women in the community are….

• So scared to be weak that they are straining their bodies during postpartum when they are the most vulnerable and prone to injury
• Joking about peeing themselves so they don’t have to modify certain movements
• Pushing through pregnant pelvic pain so as not to look wimpy
• Going hard on workouts at 6 weeks postpartum because they are “cleared” and were “fit” pre pregnancy
• Ignoring advice because they may feel like they are above it because they are “fit”
• Posting videos of themselves at X amount of weeks doing squat cleans at X  amount of weight with bad form but feeling proud they can still do the movement Rx
• Climbing ropes at 20 weeks pregnant and encouraging others to do the same if they “feel fine”
• Looking for ways to diet at 1-2 months postpartum while breastfeeding

...and the list goes on.

I am not criticizing these women because this used to be me on a few of these things. However, we need to spread awareness about this issue because women are not getting the right guidance within their communities. And, well, my heart hurts when I read this stuff.

The transition to motherhood is intense.  I instantly gave up a career and a competitive CrossFit life. None of this was easy for me, and we all crave our former identities before embracing our new one. However, all of those postpartum years of chasing strength, only made me weaker in so many ways.  

In order to regain that strength I had to learn how to….

• meet my own self where I was at
• be okay with lots of modifications
• workout to heal, not prove that I am tough or to feel strong
• choose sleep over the workout sometimes so my body could heal
• change movement patterns and habits I have had for years

I feel this has been another test, and I will rise as the strongest athlete that I have ever been. I want each and every Crossfit mom out there to have a better experience than I did, but we need to change the message, culture, and information provided. It is no small task. Please help me spread the word.

**Please follow me at my NEW blog site called "Helping is Healing" at lisaryan22.blogspot.com**

The Silent Majority

Anyone that knows me, knows I have been Crossfitting for a really, really long time. I don’t plan to stop. I love it. However, as in anything in life you need to question and be critical of the things that you love the most.

Lately, there has been a lot of push back in the CrossFit community against the "if you work out, you will hurt your baby." This is great and very much needed so people can stop being afraid when they see a pregnant lady working out. It can be scary for people that haven’t seen that before. I get it. These things are all relative. Keeping my heart rate down might look different than someone else, just as a weight that is light for me might look heavy to someone else. However, with all of this focus on the health of the baby one important thing has been missing…..

What happens to all the Crossfit moms that don't end up happily every after like the mom featured in the latest CrossFit Journal video?

Somehow we only hear the success stories. There are glorified videos of moms doing Crossfit pregnant. Moms trying to one up each other or compare what they can do compared to someone else. Then that turns into how fast they can get back in the gym and continue doing said glorified exercises. These stories of women recovering fast are only part of the story. So what happens to all the Crossfit moms that don't follow this storyline?

In the past two years of trying to find answers and fix my extreme case of Diastasis Recti (abdominal separation), I have found a graveyard of CrossFit women silently suffering with prolapse, incontinence, diastasis, umbilical cord hernia, and other pelvic floor complications. They are either embarrassed that they can’t keep up, feel like they failed, or are just clueless on how to get help because of the lack of information. I found that I am not some random abnormality. And, after my own traumatizing experience, I just cannot let this continue any longer. Women need the whole picture. All of the information. THEN they can choose what they want to do during pregnancy and postpartum.

Pelvic floor health and pregnancy are very individualized and complex, so you cannot just blindly follow one person’s story and think that will also be your own. You must find your own way. Additionally, just because you avoid certain exercises during pregnancy and postpartum doesn’t mean you’ll be problem free. However, with the right information, you can find your own way much easier. For example, when I was pregnant with Chase I had no clue about Diastasis Recti or pelvic floor health in general. If I had, I would have avoided certain exercises knowing that I was already at risk (big baby with a short torso). I also would have implemented some breathing methods, alignment considerations, and loads of other strategies that I have recently learned (Check out Julie Wiebe, PT and Brianna Battles, MS, CSCS, USA W). In fact, some people in the CrossFit community even made fun of me for avoiding certain exercises when I was pregnant with Chase and this was before I had the information that I have now. Why is pregnancy a competition to see what you can do? Why can’t we just move and be healthy for baby and for mom’s health? As I “listened to my body” for many months, I just made my Diastasis Recti worse. Listening to your body just doesn’t always work in this case.

For those of you that saw the former CrossFit Games athlete jumping on a really high box at 32 weeks pregnant, the reason I wrote that cryptic, angry post on Facebook was not because I was worried about her baby. Well, okay, it did freak me out but hey- Her body. Her baby. Her choice. The jump looked effortless for her. Not worth the risk in my opinion but 100% her choice and like I said before - it is all relative. My issue is that Crossfit HQ just posted it there to stir the pot while also looking like they promote a type of pregnant competitiveness that isn't healthy for women. Where is the pelvic floor health information about jumping? Where are the interviews with pelvic floor physical therapists on the CrossFit Journal? I want more. Not just interviews from female coaches that were pregnant themselves and then coached some pregnant women. The scope is WAY more than that. CrossFit is not in expert in this area. Let’s talk to the pros.

We desperately need to break the silence and open up the conversation with moms struggling postpartum. And, no, I am not talking about starting some crazy fear mongering. In fact, it is just the opposite! When you have all the information, it is actually a lot less scary! But we need moms to be making educated choices along with feeling like there is hope if they experience incontinence and/or a weakened core with a protruding stomach. Let’s weigh the risk vs reward in all we do pregnant and postpartum. I did CrossFit almost my entire second pregnancy, it just looked different than the first.

At this point I stop and ask myself: do I want to do this because I just want to do the movement OR will this actually help my healing process? It is hard to reign it in. I get it! However, we need to set a healthy mentality for others to follow. We need Crossfit HQ to set the right example. We need moms to speak out and help support each other. We need coaches to get educated on how to guide these women. We need to encourage women to seek physical therapy* as soon as possible.

As Brianna Battles always says. “ Pregnancy is temporary, Postpartum is forever.” I am now finally embracing my journey of healing. It may take longer doing it the right way, but I will be much stronger for it.

*This is tricky because not all physical therapists understand the athletic demands of CrossFit. Shop around before you settle in with one particular physical therapist. I highly encourage you to check out everything Julie Wiebe, PT has written :) I have seen some terrible PTs before I settled into one I trusted. :(

http://www.juliewiebept.com/
http://briannabattles.com/

**Please follow me at my NEW blog site called "Helping is Healing" at lisaryan22.blogspot.com