QuestionI am 2 months post partum, was VERY active prior to being pregnant and tried to be as active as possible during pregnancy (walked every day, at least for an hour, or took a "barre" class, called The Dailey Method, which I am also an instructor). I got the green light to run at my 6 wk appointment. I took a pilates class with a lot of inner thigh work on Friday, tried to run Sat and felt my groin muscle on my left leg kinda feel pinchy, tight. That night it was sore to stretch when I stretched in the "butterfly" position stretch. I tried heating it today to stretch it again and still tight, is it possible I strained it? Could it be that it's still recovering from labor? I pushed for 4.5 hours! Thanks!
AnswerUntil about 6 months postpartum, your joints will be more lax, and so provide less than adequate support. It's possible that when you ran, that you needed to recruit your inner thigh muscles to provide stability for this high impact exercise (and that this muscle has been over working during normal locomotion too.) Generally, unless a woman has ran throughout her pregnancy, I advise women to put off running, and other high impact activities until the 6th month pp.
But, postpartum groin pain can be associated with pubic symphasis dysfunction too. Normally, the pubus joint has no movement, but sometimes during pregnancy, or labor, this joint can become unstable. This can also occur with or with out sacroiliac instability.
A Pilates mat (I assume) class with a lot of inner thigh work would place strain on both your pubic and sacroiliac joints, so if you've been relying on your inner thighs to provide stability, then they would be going into this situation in a hypertonic state.
Gentle stretching, where you feel it in the belly of the muscle should be OK. Gentle massage, to increase blood flow will help speed healing. Don't try to stretch your hip sockets, in any position. Hopefully, this is just a tweaked muscle and will heal normally on it's own.
But in case you do have an underlying joint problem, keep away from moves that can strain the area. No straddle stretches, butter fly, "mermaid" positions, no hip rotation, or hip extension. No high leg extentions in 2nd position. Don't cross you legs when seated. Breast feed with your spine in the neutral position.
You should be able to perform basic postpartum exercises for your abs. Make sure that you start by rebuilding strength in your Transverse Abdominis, and then perform basic dynamic stability moves where you can maintain functional control of the muscle, i.e., with a perfectly flat abdominal profile, no abdominal bulging. This is how to (re)train the muscle to function as a stabilizer.
Don't perform any upper body flexion exercises until you've completed the above. Isometric exercises are also ideal for you at this time. Swimming, if you like it and have access to a pool, would be good too.
The hallmark of the postpartum body is not weak abs, like most people think, it's functional instability.
