Any CrossFitter out there knows that the community just finished up the annual CrossFit Open (https://games.crossfit.com/open/overview). I knew from the time I got pregnant with my 2nd child, that I wanted to make every effort to participate in the 2024 Open. Based on the timing of previous year’s opens, I assumed I would be about 3 months postpartum. So I tried to kick my pregnancy workout routine into high gear (I’ll post more later about my CrossFit experience while pregnant). Pregnancy training went very well, but I also knew I was going to be having my 2nd c-section. I trained up until 4 days before my c-section. I would have trained up until the day of, but didn’t have a childcare plan for my older child those last few days. Initially post c-section, my recovery was going very well! I felt strong and my pain went away very quickly. I was up and walking a lot by 1 week postpartum and I was back in the gym doing body weight and very light weight movements at 2 weeks. About 3.5 weeks in, I started to get some concerns. My c-section incision became a bit sore and I started to get pelvic floor symptoms that concerned me. I stopped working out, aside from walking, until I could see my provider 5 weeks postpartum. After pushing for a complete exam and specifically asking about the possibility, I found out I had milk cystocele, or bladder prolapse. Later we will dive into whether my level of activity during and post pregnancy was a problem given this finding and what I see as the pros and cons.
Between my cystocele diagnosis and some major illness with my two children, I didn’t make it back to the gym for over 3 weeks. During this time period, I also found myself struggling with Postpartum Depression. Between the way my body was feeling, two children being scarily ill, getting only a few hours of broken sleep, and not being able to use my go to outlet of fitness, I was struggling. When I finally made it back into the gym around 7 weeks postpartum, I tried to jump right back in. I needed it for my mind and my soul. But only a few short weeks later, around 10 weeks postpartum, I started having intense back pain. This pain was not new to me. I had had similar pain many times. Early in my twenties, I injured one of my glute muscles and found out that I also had low back arthritis. It typically didn’t bother me after initial rehab, but had bothered me postpartum after my first pregnancy. I was devastated this time though because we were less than 4 weeks out from the Open and I knew this was going to significantly impact my ability to compete at any level. I immediately started chiro, got into a pelvic floor PT, for both my pelvic floor symptoms as well as my back pain and got more valuable information. As I suspected, I also had mild diastasis recti. I immediately added a postpartum ab program to my CF routine and started and ended every day with stretches. Slowly but surely, I saw definite improvement. on February 29th, when the first workout got announced, I had mixed feelings. Since my back pain had arrived, dumbbell work had actually been better for me then barbell, but I had not done 35lbs since pre-section. No matter what, I wanted to try and stay RX’d as long as possible in the Open. I was not able to complete the workout until March 4th, which meant I got to hear everyone’s agony as they went through the WOD. As I made my way through the workout, I couldn’t help but think, how this would have been so much easier for me a year ago, but I kept plugging along. 35 pounds felt so HEAVY, and historically, strength was wear I shined the most in CrossFit. It was a hard pill for me to swallow that I was and am not where I used to be physically, but I kept reminding myself, any reps I could get would be impressive at this stage Postpartum. Its actually the very few elite athletes who can pop right back to their pre-pregnancy self. I ended with 149 RX’d reps.
Fast forward to a week later when 24.2 was announced, I just about had a panic attack. Even at the height of my fitness in my early twenties, 24.2 would have been what I feared the most. Rowing, deadlifts, and double unders have always been top of the list for my least favorite movements. I immediately grabbed my jump rope and started practicing. And thanking my lucky stars that my pelvic floor was starting to be much improved. I finally was able to get a few double unders and knew I would try for RXing again as long as my back held up for the deadlifts. Once again, I was super thankful that my new lifting belt had just arrived. My goal was to finish two rounds. I ended with 3 rounds and 160 reps RXd.
I did feel it in my back the next few days, but honestly, I think it was from the jumping more so than the deadlifts. WOD 24.3 was about to be announced and I knew in my gut it was going to have a thruster with a gymnastics element. I am one of the crazy few who really doesn’t mind a good thruster, but the gymnastics rig is not where I shine and I pretty much didn’t use it at all during pregnancy. My heart dropped when the WOD was announced, I really did not know if I could RX more than 10 reps. Every day I walked at the park with my children and would stop by the rig there and see what I could do. I was maybe grazing my chest to the bar once every few attempts…maybe. When I walked into the gym on March 18th, I really hoped I could get through 10 chest to bar pullups. Something I had not done since my early 20s. 20 minutes later, I had made it through not just 1 chest to bar pullup. but 28. This WOD was my best placing of the open, much to my surprise and I felt truly physically accomplished and capable for the first time since the c-section. Two days later my second child turned 4 months old. I managed to place roughly the same worldwide in the Open this year as I had last year (when I was 1 year postpartum from my first delivery). I had had some lows and some highs, but came away feeling like I truly could do hard things and push myself more than I thought I could.
