

23 Jan 2026 · 35m · 14 chapters

Hosts: Zoe Hardman & Georgia Dayton
Gemma Folkard, a certified Pilates instructor and strength trainer
Every Tuesday & Friday
Pre and postnatal health and fitness, specifically addressing questions surrounding fitness regimens, pelvic floor exercises, and building confidence after childbirth.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes.
Hosts discuss the importance of personal resets in January.
“We're putting more into ourselves, into our bodies, into our minds.”
Get to know today's guest, a certified pilates instructor.
“Thank you so much for agreeing to do this.”
How daily habits impact fitness and the importance of small changes.
“So we're thinking about how much am I actually active in the day?”
Discussing practical ideas for incorporating movement into daily routines.
“And okay, I'm not sweating, but it's sustainable and I'm consistent.”
Importance of walking and everyday physical activity for health.
“He parks at a car park that is 15 minutes away from the station that he gets the train from.”
Discussion on the effectiveness of Pilates and the role of weights.
“So you're lifting your mind, you're lifting your body.”
Expert advice on managing abdominal separation post-pregnancy.
“And I don't have to think about these big things, particularly in January that we need to implement.”
Learn about the interconnectedness of the pelvic floor, diaphragm, and jaw, along with tips for improving pelvic floor strength.
“So that might mean an internal examination, which if you've had a baby, it's nothing.”
Get practical advice on pelvic floor exercises and recovery tips for postnatal women, including c-section insights.
“Visit the ProDesk or Lowe's.com slash terms for more details.”
Explore the impact of menopause on body composition and the importance of diet and exercise.
“And I was thinking, oh my God, there it is.”
Explore the challenges of balancing fitness advice and personal well-being after childbirth.
“And then go home and sit in front of your TV or look at your phone.”
Discover how personality traits influence fitness preferences and relationships.
“And then we did a personality test and you can do it so that it links them.”
Discuss the impact of competition in fitness activities and personal experiences.
“It was like we were smashing it and hilling back and like I was trying to make it run as well.”
Get insights on managing pain and recovery after a cesarean section.
“Welcome back to this episode of Made by Mamas.”

Get the gist, explore an idea or ask about something said.
On Made by Mammas: The Podcast, what are the key points of this episode?
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.
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1:23Hello and welcome to Made by Mamas, the podcast. I'm Zoe Hardman. And I'm Georgia Dayton. And this is your parenting safe space where no conversation is off limits. With five kids between G and I, we have seen a lot. We really have. Each week we'll be joined by some famous faces and experts and we'll chat about the brands and products that have saved us along the way. In short, we're the parenting podcast for you. Before we get started, hit subscribe or follow so you're the first to know when each episode lands. And they're on Tuesdays and Fridays. And it really helps if you leave a rating and a review.
1:55You can also find us on Instagram. We're on at Made by Mummers. But for now, George, should we get into it? Hello and welcome to Friday's episode of the podcast. Obviously, January is one of those times a year where all these kind of, I don't know, turns of phrase arcs sort of banded around. New Year, new me, all that kind of stuff. We don't buy into that. At the same time, Georgia and I have done a bit of a reset this year. We're quite enjoying January. We're slowing down. We're putting more into ourselves, into our bodies, into our minds. So we thought we would kick off a really lovely kind of fitness Q &A today.
2:28And it's gone down really well, George, hasn't it? Yeah, I think we wanted to leave you for a few weeks to bed into January before we started bombarding you all with fitness messaging. But I think now's the right time, isn't it, to have a little bit of a catch up. And there's been loads of questions. so um yeah i'm excited for this chat me too before we get into the questions we obviously need to introduce today's guest um i've only met today's guest about 10 days ago but i just said to george off mic you could see that she was quite threatened by the relationship jealous jealous uh that me and this uh lovely jemma we met about 10 days ago she is um a certified pilates instructor a strength trainer she has an incredible pilates app called shape pilates it's jemma folcard yay oh my god Oh my God, it's getting nostalgia, like thinking back to, I don't know, TV shows in the noughties now.
3:19It's me. It's Gemma Volgaard. Gemma, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this. It's obviously your total area of expertise. I imagine through your app and through your Instagram and stuff, this is obviously a hot topic. But people do feel at certain periods of their life, maybe a bit overwhelmed with training. they're not sure how to get back into it if they've had a period off obviously pre and postnatally things can get a little bit tricky just talk to us about that yeah oh well I've got so much to say about this I think we all we're looking at some of the questions that come in as well I think people focus on the big things they focus on how many workouts they should do every week and you know what diet they should go on and what's best and it's actually thinking about your day-to-day habits and that's going to give you more results and it's going to be more effective and more sustainable than thinking about those big things.
4:16So we're thinking about how much am I actually active in the day? How much am I sitting? And so just taking it from a very minimal point of view, if you're less, if you're more active than you are sedentary, then you're doing a good job right so if we're sitting at a desk all day and then we're not even walking up the escalators to work there's a bit of an issue there but then you do three HIIT workouts a week and you think oh that's enough because actually you're not going to be able to sustain that until you're 90 and for me getting into my 40s now it's all about that longevity sort of training um I know it's a little bit different when you're in the kind of pre and postnatal era of your life because everything's changing and it can feel very overwhelming and you're looking at all these pictures of people who look amazing and we've got to just focus on ourselves our own personality our own genetics and our own resources to make sure that we've got this realistic point of view of what we're trying to get to and why because it's like why are you doing this like is it Has you seen a picture or what?
5:30I really love that you say that you've started this chat with you've got to look at your daily habits and your lifestyle, because I think that is personally something I have done for years and years and years. I have literally thought in my mind, I've got a desk job, so I'm sat down a lot. And in my mind, I'm like, oh, but it's fine, because as long as I run a couple of 5Ks a week and I do like some training, then, you know, I'm all right. But actually, the last six months, I've done a bit of a U-turn and I've thought, you know what? I need to not do that. I need to incorporate movement into my every day.
6:08And it's actually so much easier to stick to. Yeah. And sometimes I don't feel I've done loads. You know, like I've just done a reformer workout for half an hour in between meetings or something like that. And okay, I'm not sweating, but it's sustainable and I'm consistent. and you enjoy it like we're thinking something that we have to do and that we shouldn't enjoy it's like when you get into when you open up your body and movement it's going to give you information and that will tell you stuff it will either tell you really important stuff like I'm not feeling quite right what is there something wrong with me and I need to check that out or god my mind really needed this reset why is that and it's that opportunity that peace in your mind to connect into your body.
6:58And I think like you said, these sustainable daily habits. If somebody said to me, what was the biggest thing you've done in the last few years to change your lifestyle or whatever? I would say I ditched the supermarket online shop and I walked to the supermarket instead. And I got that from my 82-year-old dad because I was like, really? oh god you're so inefficient you're always walking to waitrose you never like buying everything you need you always forget something you always go back and then we started thinking oh my god this is actually brilliant like the more efficiency because it gets him out and it gets him moving yeah and he talks to people right so he talks to everybody in the shop he walks on the way but like it's social and in a nutshell that is like just a daily basic movement but it's giving you so much more and um yeah that's more of a habit for us now is to walk to the shop instead and do that day I know it's not not everybody can do that or has the time to do it but it just shows that I think inefficiency in our life gives us more opportunity to grow to work out etc yeah and be active whereas you know what my husband does which I think is like if you haven't if you feel like you haven't got time to watch the shops.
8:16He parks at a car park that is 15 minutes away from the station that he gets the train from. When he first started doing this, I used to be like, oh, you're so annoying. You're actually just so annoying. Why can't you just park at the station car park? That's just ridiculous. But he said, because some days I will only have that half an hour walk and I'll be sat on my desk for the rest of the day and I won't be moving and it's actually because it's become like a nothing to him now it's like it's not like it's just what he does there is no thought it just happened but but anyone listening who you know might have a job like in the city or you know a desk job and can't walk to the shops there then that's like another little idea but similar this is why I love dancing so much this is why I always talk about dancing and you don't have to get to a dance floor to do it you know I always say to the kids let's put the tunes on let's have a kitchen rave we dance around I'm always talking to them about movement because like you said Gem you're if you're just sitting sedentary not only is it terrible you know let's have a look at what it does to our postures and stuff but you're right you're not getting in any steps are you and sometimes you cannot get to a gym or you can't get a workout done but just going for a walk you know we both just got dogs haven't we all three of us have um and Gem has too um George so it's like we have to go out now and do some more walking yeah and also the dancing thing is great because if you can be in the kitchen you love dancing I know lots of people who find music I mean there's just so many studies about music being so wonderful cognitively as well um but if you can incorporate your like jumping around which you will be doing when you're dancing because I can imagine what kind of dancer you are if you could incorporate jumping around and just knowing that maybe you've done 50 jumps in a day that's going to be brilliant for your bones as well.
10:04So you're lifting your mind, you're lifting your body. We know all of this, right? But I think sometimes you just have to pull back and go, actually, I am doing a lot of the stuff that's going to maintain my health as I grow older. And I don't have to think about these big things, particularly in January that we need to implement. It's like, just carry on. And do you know what? Sometimes it is boring because you think, I want a new thing to follow and I want this, but you're never, you're kind of setting yourself up for a little bit of failure you're there aren't you yeah little daily habits I love that listen let's get into the questions because we've got loads to get through um and we we know that um we haven't got that long with you so let's get going is Pilates and walking enough or should heavier weights be included within the week that's from Hannah so Hannah is it enough for what like for me um think about what your goal is so if you really love Pilates keep doing Pilates you love it it's great for you walking is like one of the best forms of exercise, as we've just discussed, completely maintainable, sustainable until you're 90, 100 beyond.
11:08So I would say, what is the lifestyle you're wanting to lead? Is there a goal you have in mind? Or is it just general health and longevity? And if it's just general health, then I would say I would add some weights into that. Because we do like to have a little bit of load in our body just for our bones and our muscles. Pilates is like looking after your full system and weights are like stimulating the bones and the muscles, right? Pilates does stimulate muscle. I don't want anybody to come at me like on the Pilates front. Of course, we're using our muscles, but it's like this whole body system.
11:47It's from the inside out, our organs, our brain, flow, balance, all of that good stuff, breathing. but load is really important particularly as we age so if we can start lifting stuff up and again pull back a little bit people go I don't lift anything I can't lift it's like well do you lift the shopping do you lift your children do you like lift a car seat you're lifting all the time so you can you just need to progressively build that up and start small and if you're worried about going into the gym and picking up weights because there's loads of like guys around and they're all they're very friendly but you're just not feeling particularly confident there then maybe you could get a one-on-one session with a trainer if you don't have the resources to do that like most of us then yeah you can find stuff online potentially and see how you feel just listening to your body but Pilates is a great gateway into strength training because it allows you to get really familiar with your body and how everything works so the precise movements are making you more aware.
12:49So when you do something like a deadlift or a squat with a weight, you know how to hold yourself through your tools or your powerhouse. Yeah, that was around the answer. No, no, no, that was great. That is really helpful. There have been quite a lot of questions around ab separation. Can anything be done for a flared rib cage? I'm 10 months postpartum. How to solve ab separation three and a half years postpartum. And can you answer that? Yeah. Yes. So with abdominal separation, that's your diastasis recti. So it's the muscles pulling apart. It's completely normal because as we grow our babies, the ribs go laterally out and they flare up as well.
13:35And that's just to allow space for your diaphragm, which sits kind of here, to expand so you can breathe because you've got a baby inside you. Okay. So when that happens and the abdominal wall gets lengthened, it can weaken. And so that's where that kind of separation can happen. So the first thing I do is go to the doctor and ask them to refer you to a postnatal physio. It has to be a postnatal physio. Just don't go to any old physio that's going to. yeah so they should if they feel that you have separation that is not just wide but mostly it's about how deep it is so that the actual flexibility of the muscles between the abdominal wall then you can go and start your physio so that's where I would start and And you want to also just get a really full, rounded opinion on what is going on in your body.
14:32So that might mean an internal examination, which if you've had a baby, it's nothing. So you want to see what's going on with your pelvic floor. And then after that. Because the two are linked, right? Yeah, like it's all to do with breathing, the diaphragm. Oh, get this. This is a good one. The jaw is connected to your pelvic floor. so you've got jaw diaphragm and pelvic floor oh there's a ribs jaw diaphragm ribs and pelvic floor so then you're all interconnected not just kind of um through the fascia of your body the connective tissue but through other neurological connections that's so interesting breathing is the biggest thing and I think we're probably in a in a bit of a zone in society where a lot of people think they've got a weak pelvic floor but actually it could be tight and this is why we're talking about the jaw the gripping the stress and it's all connected so if you can't expand your diaphragm connected to your pelvic floor then you're going to have tightness so we want a flexible pelvic floor not necessarily strong which we've been told kegels kegels i'm just like just move just squat jump on the trampoline and if you are leaking that is it should be seen as not normal it's not normal to leak it's common but it's something that you can do something about you don't want to live with that no it's really interesting when you start thinking and talking about your pelvic floor i mean you only have to look at say the french for example and their aftercare postpartum you know the fact that they get physios and and that's really part of their sort of rehabilitation i guess whereas here in the uk you know it's kind of like all six week check get on with it but also and they don't examine you at the six week check either no they don't they don't and it can be really embarrassing like i've definitely suffered from you know really bad leaking i remember that first time on the treadmill with you george but still now you know seven or eight years postpartum i still leak sometimes when i run and then when someone says oh you know you've got to be doing your pelvic floor and you think you're doing it but actually you're squeezing your bum you're not doing your pelvic floor so it does somebody does need to be out there talking about it and helping us otherwise it's something we will live with and it's ridiculous and sad yeah it's really sad because it's it's your confidence it's yeah just how you carry yourself in the world it's always going to have that little kind of shadow of oh I could leak at this point or I can't go too hard in the gym this might happen yeah you don't want to wear a certain color leggings in the gym because of you know yeah yeah it's so true yeah like you say activation is so important and I think they did an experiment with like a hundred I don't know if this is the exact stats but they they took a section of Pilates instructors and they they actually monitored them internally and they all got asked to activate their pelvic floor in breathing and stuff and I think like quite a low number got it correct so actually we don't really know what we're doing even though we're trained.
17:38So for me, I wouldn't even cue the pelvic floor in my classes. I would just cue breath and relaxation because once everything can relax and open and the fascia can expand and do what it needs to do, then you've got more of a chance of sort of not curing, but helping that issue. We'll be right back after this short break.
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19:44Welcome back to this episode of Made by Mamas. Now, where were we? So your top tips for pelvic floor issues. Okay, first of all, breathing. So lateral breath. And you can practice this by putting your hands around your ribs and taking a breath into the sides of the body. and then as the ribs come back in, you think about them stacking over the pelvis rather than flaring up. Okay, so they're just sliding back and this is just so relaxing anyway to breathe into the sides and back of your body. This is expanding your diet, allowing your diaphragm to have space and therefore the pelvic floor can relax as you inhale and as you exhale, it comes up, draws up naturally.
20:21You don't need to pull it up, you don't need to squeeze, you just let the breath do its thing. Number two is maybe some exercises you could do to activate it or find some awareness. I like to just say to people to do heel lifts when they're cleaning their teeth because it's more sustainable. So lifting your heels up and down or in the kitchen or at work, anywhere on the tube and by your feet, your foundation. So connecting your feet to your pelvic floor up and down it activates just very naturally um little pilates ball between your thighs the inner thighs are connected to the pelvic floor so you can lie on your back with the ball between your thighs and just think about squeezing the hips together inhaling and then exhaling as you squeeze love that great brilliant yeah love really good and just small things as well like you say like lifting your heels up when you're making a cup of tea every day or whatever is like the little things that you actually can do and if you want to go a little bit further with that you can grab a bath mat with your toes oh yeah interesting and from the floor with your toes and as you do that you'll feel your pelvic floor just lifting slightly because it's connected yeah amazing um so this is actually around c-section tips for post c-section i'm due in a month and we'll be having a c-section what can i do after yeah i would say again find that physio that postnatal physio um scar massage is something that a lot of people find very helpful so people that do that and potentially getting an osteopath um but all these things are like kind of preemptive right because you might have a c-section and just be absolutely fine and i think we're are we're in the world of like pre-medicating pre-treating everything and actually when you start thinking about what could go wrong in your brain you almost take yourself to that place and so then your body starts to be a bit fearful and what we want to do before we go into you know giving birth is to be super relaxed I know it's impossible however again fascia in the body making it flow making your nervous system feel really safe all of those things are probably really useful to do before you go into birth and then just see see how you are Gemma, help.
23:04How can I get rid of my lower menopause pooch? I think you're supposed to say pouch or pooch. Either way, it ain't good. I guess there's a lot going on when you were going into menopause. I would first of all look at stress and sleep. Again, thinking about cortisol levels. So that will be held in the female place, the stomach. there's obviously a lot going on in that area through menopause as well so it's just our body's way of like protecting ourselves it's really normal I would look at your diet and maybe consult a nutritionist to see if there's anything that you can do to help I mean it's at the end of the day diet is probably going to be the thing that's going to really help 90 % is going to be diet another 10-20 % is going to be your body composition which is your training.
23:58We were talking about it weren't we Jen when we went away together we were saying that it's kind of like maybe 80-20 so you know you could be training loads but if your diet isn't on and you're not really having a look at a complete view on what you're eating you're not going to shift weight and you're not going to be able to maintain it because you just you just can't. People think like we said earlier on in the conversation that goes to gym you know two three times a week but why aren't you losing the weight because your diet isn't isn't right and so yeah once you start really looking at that and that also doesn't mean going on some crazy fad it's not what's not what we're talking about here but like really laying it all out and and it sometimes when i started training it which is now the foundry but it was in state the guy that ran it was like look i need you to take a photograph of everything you're eating in the day i was like easy i was like you know i'm healthy for breakfast healthy for like and then suddenly i was taking photographs of like jammy dodgers that i'd got from the kid's drawer and like packets of you you know, cheese and onion, bloody hula hoops.
24:51And I was thinking, oh my God, there it is. There it is. Yeah. It's interesting. Realize that licking, you know, that, that last bit of the peanut butter or like just, I mean, we've all been there. The fish fingers are there. They've been there. They're on the floor mostly. I'm still eating them if they're on the floor. I do not want to wait for the best things in the world. But yeah. And I think like you say, it's your, your gym workouts, workouts it's your general activity and it's your diet so there's kind of those three main things I actually made up something today that I thought could be helpful yeah the four L's and um we got logistics so how much time you've got in the week to realistically like work out and be active your likes so what do you like what do you enjoy what's what's going to be really maintainable for you and sustainable that you're you're going to keep wanting to come back to you're craving it rather than dreading it um your longevity so what activity are you going to be doing until you're 90 100 beyond possibly walking like our supermarket shops and james's you know extra few minutes walking to the shops um and your logic so why are you doing what you're doing and for some people depending on their personality it could be a long-term goal for me it's like i want to pick up my grandchildren above my head I want to be an active grandparent I want to not you know try and keep dementia at bay etc um for other people it could be like okay I really just want to feel really good in my swimsuit on the beach and that is fine as well I think we've been told we can't we can't about aesthetics but how are we not supposed to think about aesthetics when we just get pounded with it it's in our culture it is how it is maybe we have a bit of both and balance it all out.
26:40Gemma why did you mention dementia there? Why? Yeah because movement and the brain are so connected in fact 90 % of the brain stimulation comes from movement of the spine so this is why we always talk about like corporate businesses and you know people investing in their staff in terms of movement and we were talking about children in school should be having more PE lessons because it activates stuff in your brain in a very uh yeah not very technical sense um but yeah we need to be moving and loading our muscles in order to be stimulating our brain so that's just gonna it's gonna help you know being sedentary looking at a screen all day is not going to help us when it comes to dementia which i think is like one of the biggest pandemics we're seeing now we're alive for longer but are we getting the quality of life so those blue zone programs with the people in different countries who you know they have to walk up the hill when they're 90 to church and they have to cook their own meals and they live in apartments and they're active and they see their families all the time they have a little glass of red wine most nights because they're socializing all these things are going to build into this nice rounded lifestyle that's good for our brain and not making us depressed and like.
28:02That's so interesting because I really do think and I do really do think at this time of year in particular so much is thrown at you with like you know if this person who said earlier oh is strength you know is Pilates and walking enough well it's because you're but you're being told you need to do Pilates you need to run you need to take a million supplements a day you need to go to bed early you need to drink water you need to be moving all the time you need to be strength training you need to be doing all of this but ultimately if that's causing you stress which that sounds stressful to me it's not going to work like you've got to do it at a pace and something that fits into your life and that you actually like um and that's the hard that is hard that's hard to do you know like but once it happens it will stay with you forever right I think you're almost like rebelling against like the life that we've been told we have to live or the life that has been set out for us to go to the office, sit at your desk.
29:05Yeah. And then go home and sit in front of your TV or look at your phone. You have to rebel against that. It's like, and that's really hard. Brain health is going to be a big thing. So I'm seeing quite a lot of like fitness and health anxiety now coming up. people messaging me with loads of questions but I've been told this and I've been told that and I'm trying to lift heavy but I'm feeling awful and I'm but I know that I should be lifting heavy because otherwise my my muscles are going to disappear so it's kind of like these scare mongering messages that we're hearing these sound bites and we just need to like pull back from all of that and be like why we just need a normal healthy body we don't like us three probably don't want to be doing like like major athletic work we're not athletes right I mean I want to do a high rocks but someone could be yeah no no no no hold on I'm not doing one I want to do one but I'll do one with you there we go because I tried to get Georgie to do it and she said on your high horse no no firm no yeah I'd love to do it but you know what I do is quite extreme where we're going with fitness isn't it and there's yeah that's really great because it's nice to have a goal and a challenge and push yourself out of your comfort zone um we need more of that we need more resilience but on the day-to-day with your average person who's just had a baby 10 months ago and they're trying to get back in to fitness it's just those steps you're absolutely right jem you're totally right and it's also a really ugly side of my personality and i need to stop georgia don't highlight it anymore because i want people to like me not hate me um but i also told me she was going to be like sorry pickleball champion this year as well so not that she's competitive or anything but um yeah zoe next time i'm going to do your personality test we'll do it together well no we can't do it together you have to do a personality test and then you'll see what motivates you oh this is interesting where can you do this personality test i'll send you a link um i was saying to zoe that i did it with Tom, my partner, when we were struggling badly because we were like, why are we so different?
31:21Why are we together? And then we did a personality test and you can do it so that it links them. And it's so spot on. It's like this person may get really annoyed with you doing the dishwasher because you don't do it properly. But then they complain, but then they don't want you to do it. That kind of stuff. That really sounds like me already. Yeah. I mean, this is why we go together, right yin and yang yeah and this is why maybe like you're attracted to certain people because they're the other side of your personality and you then you fit we were playing pickleball at the weekend the kids went off to get like a smoothie and it was just me and doz on the call and it was like you know the the becker boris boris becker sort of like i don't know one of the old tennis players final it was like him and i at the end of the court like and it just got really ugly.
32:13It was like we were smashing it and hilling back and like I was trying to make it run as well. He was an ex-England rugby player so yeah he's slightly competitive. It's awful when we play together so much so that I've ended up hurting my knee as a result of it but I was like limping off going yeah great game. Great game. Yes it's fine yeah. See James would love a partner like that. My husband he would love that. He tries to be like that with me all the time you know like we'll just be I don't know like taking the washing in or something and we've got a paddle um like swing ball thing and he'd be like come on come on first to 100 and I'm like no no no but I'm the same I don't care like I can care less who wins but that's why it works and I know like Zoe like you guys are both competitive but there'll be other things in your relationships that are very very different and that's where you complement each other but also that's why you love like competitive sports and so like you will want to do your high rocks because you you've got that in you whereas like someone like me if I was looking at what fitness like sort of things to get into I know that I wouldn't get into that because the competition would put me off so then I go and do reformer on my own in the garage you know yeah this is why you guys are like best mates this is why it works this is why this is competitive it would be nasty yeah it's really interesting you should do it and then you'll figure and I think this could be oh maybe I'm giving away my my my you know my billion dollar idea but a fitness a fitness sort of app that takes your personality and then because if you want like for like zoe different it's going to be like you have to hit this goal and you'll be like i need to be god i love it it's like gamified and for us it would be like oh you know maybe you'll take this in a couple of months but if you don't worry about it no pressure no pressure yeah pressure this is brilliant and this is what maybe this is the app that we were talking about, George, we can steal Gemma's idea.
34:19Yeah. And then we call it Sexy Bratipus. Yeah, we're cutting you out of it, Gemma. I don't care. Yeah. Oh, brilliant. Perfect. Perfect. We'll be right back after this short break.
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36:07Welcome back to this episode of Made by Mamas. now where were we let's finish off with one more question um 19 months post c-section still suffering with lower back pain and hip what is the best exercise for me can you help so with any sort of lower back pain hip shoulders after birth i you know this is really normal first of all um i would definitely consult a physio just to see what's going on see if they can give you a full rundown. But I would really recommend some stretching, lower back, really simple stuff. Just pulling your knees into your chest when you're lying down and taking a big, deep breath into your back.
36:48I mean, that is just such a nice, expansive move. You're stretching out the vertebrae. A lot of the time it's compression of your vertebrae and we're trying to like really pull them apart with our breath and our movement um it's really stressful having a baby and that will be held in your back and your muscles and your jaw and your hips especially which people do say holds like some emotional baggage as well um some nice hip circles but obviously it just depends on the pain threshold there um be confident that your body is strong it's just given birth and it's resilient and you will get back to that point but aches and pains after birth remember we are pregnant for nine months and then we give birth which is traumatic for our body it's amazing but it's a lot and then after that it does take about 18 months to get back not back to get to a place where you're feeling a little bit more like yourself but your body's recovering at a point so 18 months get to that before you start worrying about all the other stuff yeah so she's already 19 months post c-section yeah so she's got to do a bit of rehab here I think that's key isn't it like Georgia we've spoken about this so many times about you know for example yeah my knee my knee pain feels like such a big thing to have to keep rehabbing and keep doing but I know the benefits and sometimes you just think do you know what fuck it I'll just live with it or I can manage I can manage the pain.
38:24And it feels slow as well. It feels so slow it feels really slow in our life doesn't it because everything's so quick and we want a quick fix and actually back pain is something that a lot of people have to just maintain for the rest of their lives and that's fine but in this case it's come from something and her body's giving her a signal saying I don't feel great and she's listening and that's great because then she can go and ask for some help. But don't leave it because it might be really simple. Might just be like do a few stretches, try and do some breathing, do this movement. And then before she knows it in like three weeks, she'll just feel at least 20, 30, 40 % better.
39:04Let us know how you get on. We're here for you. Gemma, thank you so much for today's podcast for all your wonderful advice and expertise. It's been a treat chatting to you. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. I've taken loads. I've been doing my pelvic floor the whole way through. Yeah, me too. I'm really pleased that you said not all clenching. You can do all sorts of other stuff because I think I prefer that. And for anybody looking for a wonderful app that kind of, you know, really has got like a 360 look at your real, you know, how your body works and toning and everything else, Gemma's app, Shape Pilates, is absolutely amazing.
39:35So make sure you check it out. Thank you so much for sending in all of your amazing questions for today's podcast. As always, we'd love you to rate, review, subscribe, and please give our podcast a follow. Yeah, and if you've got any feedback or any guests you'd like to hear from, drop us a DM on Instagram. We're on at Made by Mamas, and we'll be back on Tuesday.
40:43We'll be right back. We must empower mentors, educators, and parents to keep kids happy. Learn more about our commitment to finding lasting solutions at empowerourfuturecoalition.com slash solutions. Paid for by the Coalition to Empower Our Future.
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We've held off on the whole "New Year, New Me" content so far - but Zoe's chance encounter with today's guest recently meant we simply had to get up and start talking about moving our bodies once again. It's time to get back into it!
Today we're joined by Shape Pilates' Gemma Folkard, who answers all of your questions around pre and post natal health and fitness. Whether it's pelvic floor exercise tips or building the confidence to get into the gym after childbirth, we cover it all!
A great place to start your fitness journey this year is downloading Gemma's app Shape Pilates
And check out the personality test Gemma talked about here.
Find a new episode every Tuesday & Friday and in the meantime check out Made By Mammas on Instagram: @madebymammas.
Made By Mammas® is an Audio Always production.
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