Knee pain during stepping after pregnancy ???

[candiceo]

Help, I still need to lose 10 pounds after my baby! I've started doing weights and Cathe's step videos. Before pregnancy, I worked out about 6 days a week, with about 3 of those days being a Cathe video, with my step on 10 inches. Now I've got the step at 8 inches and I don't even finish the tape, and my knees are killing me!!! Is it the lunges with the weights, the stepping, or the combination? Maybe I'm doing too much too fast. Can anyone recommend a workout schedule/moves that will strengthen my knees? Thanks!!!
Candice

 

[Sheila]

Re: Knee pain during postpartum workouts

Hi Candice,

How old is little Steven now. I think he is still quite young. From the sound of your post, I think that you have tried to do too much too fast and those knee ligaments are telling you so.

Relaxin, the "loosening" hormone of pregnancy takes from 6 - 16 weeks after you have your baby to clear your system. It is very important during this time to "listen to your body." We have also found, unsubstantiated in the research but seen with my new moms over the past 12 years, that if you breastfeed it seems to take even longer for the relaxin to clear the system in some nursing moms.

I would drop another riser on the step and do half as many lunges without weights and see if it makes a difference. I would also minimize or eliminate any plyometric, hopping or jumping moves for awhile.

Knee extensions are a good knee strengthener. However, I think that your problem is that your joints are still loose from your pregnancy. Don't worry and take your time rehabilitating yourself. It is definitely worth it.

Hope this helps.

Sheila

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Knee pain/relaxin hormone

Thanks for the insight Sheila! It seems as if I have been "haunted" by that relaxin hormone since the early stages of my pregnancy. It first attacked in the first trimester bringing on old injuries such as my achilles tendinitis, forcing me to cut back on my workouts for five to six weeks. Then in the third trimester, it had attacked my groin and round ligaments so hard that all kick boxing had to be eliminated and all other activities had to be seriously modified (especially by the last three weeks). Then after the birth of Eric I tried to ease into exercise after three weeks by doing just a few lunges without any weights(one set of 15 reps per leg)and 15 minutes of stepping on a four inch platform, only to find that my knees bruised the next day.

Now, as I continue to breastfeed with this relaxin hormone obviously still in my sysyem, I truly wonder what I will be faced with as I return to work and start to teach again. I have been treating our move to our new home as a "break in"(being very careful not too carry too many boxes per day and not too heavy of a box per trip up and down the stairs) and doing a few crunches and push ups in addition to help prepare. The stairs in the house seem to have built up my endurance enough that now my knees do not bruise when I do a few lunges. But I will obviously have to return to exercise using much caution and modification.

Bottom line: It is very important to not do too much too soon when returning to exercise after having a baby. And to be very aware of that relaxin hormone(which can effect some moms much harder than others) which can still linger around in the joints(postpartum) making them very vunerable to injury during all activities.