Let’s build a path from postpartum to performance! Using graded exposure, we can break down an athlete’s sport or daily demands into bite-sized, trainable pieces. Whether it’s lifting a stroller or a barbell, the principles remain the same: start where they are, create adaptive opportunities that look like their goals, add load, intensity, or speed , and build a progressive path back to performance.
Listen in to the clip below as an introduction to the thought process that explores movement and fitness as more than simply the end goal of rehab. Rather by adapting them, they become strategic interventions for addressing pelvic health and postpartum return to performance in athletes. Fitness is the path.
The full lecture (40 min) is available to free and paid subscribers on my Substack. A link will come straight to your inbox to give you access when you subscribe!
Thank you to EIM (Evidence in Motion) for inviting me to provide this lecture at the Elevate Pelvic Health Annual Conference and allowing me to share this recording with my Substack subscribers.
Key Takeaways:
- Graded exposure from a fitness lens – We’re familiar with this concept in rehab, but it applies to fitness too. Expose, adapt, repeat is how we build capacity safely.
- Breaking movement into digestible pieces – Instead of overwhelming the system, we serve up small morsels of movement, allowing tissues, the brain, and nervous system to process and adapt before moving to the next challenge.
- A 1-rep max is relative – For some, it’s lifting a baby or pushing a grocery cart. For others, it’s a 300-pound deadlift. The principles of load, adaptation, and progressive exposure remain the same.
- Fitness as preparation, not just participation – Instead of just “returning to fitness” postpartum at a certain week after delivery, or with the “listen to your body’ axiom as a guide- fit and athletic folks need structured exposure their fitness of choice to restore confidence, neuromuscular control, tissue tolerance, and movement efficiency.
- Building back with intention – By dissecting movement patterns, we can create an adaptive roadmap that gets athletes back to their full demands, not just “cleared” but actually prepared.
- Synthesize the ideas with a side-by-side comparison of a a mom with a functional need and a CrossFit athlete.
Bottom Line
Pelvic health in athletes isn’t about sidelining them —it’s about meeting them where they are, strategically rebuilding their confidence, neuromuscular, and tissue capacity, and using fitness as the tool to get them back to what they love.
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