Pear Team Tri Blogs: Amanda Ravenswood - From C-Section to Triathlon

Amanda Ravenswood is one of our senior Women's Health Accredited Exercise Physiologists on the team here at Pear.
Amanda loves all things women’s health including pre, during and post pregnancy conditions, rehabilitation following cancer treatment, prevention, treatment and management of chronic conditions including back pain, arthritis, diabetes, heart conditions. She is Pilates trained and prior to her AEP career, she spent nine years working as a Recreation Officer with children who had physical disabilities. 


I was about 4 months pregnant when Esme hit me up to compete in the Noosa triathlon as a team and complete an individual event also. It has been on my bucket list to compete in this event, so I thought what better time than post-bub to commit and give me some focus for my return to exercise!
 
At about 6.5 months into my pregnancy I got quite unwell with parainfluenza and some rib cartilage pain from coughing (good ol’ relaxin hormone). I was unable to upkeep my regular weekly training due to the serious fatigue and the rib pain (weights x 3, cardio x 2, swim x 1), only able to occasionally go for a small walk. I got very de-conditioned, but by the 8th month I did manage to get back to 3 easy swims/week in the lead up to delivery. Due to the rib pain in conjunction with a rather traumatic recovery after my first pregnancy, I decided to have an elective c-section. I thankfully had a very smooth, straightforward experience.

Since becoming a mum, I have a new respect for barriers to exercise. I LOVE exercising and will prioritise it as all costs. I enjoy it, I love the health benefits – mental and physical, and it’s just my thing! But as a mum of two, barriers are REAL. The biggest things I have struggled with is:

• Energy levels: Lack of sleep, body healing from c-section, breastfeeding, looking after my new bub and the other ‘general mum duties’ had a major impact on my energy (more some days than others). As an AEP, I know that when energy is low exercise can be beneficial or detrimental. So, the biggest barrier was determining (honestly) whether exercise was going to boost my energy or deplete it even further.
• Time: It’s surprising how much time you don’t have with a new bub! Finding ‘kid free’ time so I could leave home and train in the pool / go for a run was a real challenge. Even trying to fit my home exercise program into the day - when bub sleeps and my eldest is at kindy or otherwise entertained/happy to join in with me, was quite the challenge. I’ve become an expert at exercising with interruptions!
• All or nothing mentality: I’m a big planner and I really struggled to go into the day open minded with my exercise plan. Being able to adjust ‘my plan’ to fit in with however the day pans out, and just getting a little rather than it all done, was a mental barrier for me.​

Over the past 6 months my training has progressed through 3 phases to get from the acute rehab to functional stage. It looked like this.

• 0-6 weeks: I did my own basic pelvic floor and abdominal wall exercises with the focus on managing intra-abdominal pressure in conjunction with some hip stability strength, thoracic & hip mobility exercises, and a slow progressive walking program (daily). During these weeks, I listened to my body - discomfort around scar line, energy and muscular tightness determined what I did.
• 6-12 weeks: I had my Physio assessment with Sami at Pear and got my new pelvic floor/abdominal/glute program to progress through (4-6 days/wk), attended Pear Mum’s & Bub’s reformer class (1/wk), basic progressive strength program at home (starting at body weight progressing to the weight of Harvey 2-3/wk), swimming (1/wk) and walking (3-5/week). Each week looked very different!
• 3-6 months: At this point I introduced a more specific strength program to focus on my Left lower limb weakness/hip stability, swimming specific strength (lats, lats & more lats!), along with seeking professional advice in regard to my loading during running and new orthotic prescription from Justin at Foot Faults. My week was roughly this: swim (1/wk), introduction to jogging program (1/wk), Progressive strength program (2-3/wk), cardio/walking (daily), core/glute strength & mobility (daily).
  
  Now I am looking forward to the next steps, joining the Pear team for some more specific triathlon training!