Sometimes being a mom is a pain in the back – literally. Between the bending and the lifting, the carrying and the chasing, contorting yourself to breastfeed and the nights your toddler climbs into bed with you, it can feel like back pain just comes with the territory. If you can relate, we have good news for you. We recently connected with Jennifer LaRoy, Physiotherapist and Clinical Pilates Instructor at The Studio at Treloar here in Vancouver, to talk back pain.

“Definitely, back pain is common for moms. It can be lower back pain or mid back pain. It varies depending on what is bringing on the pain, but certainly it’s very common. It can be from postural changes throughout pregnancy, to the way you hold your baby afterward, to the way you feed, or holding your baby on your hip and trying to do something else. There’s a whole host of reasons,” explains Jennifer. But what can we do about it? She shared four simple exercises that moms can do to help with back pain. If you could use a little relief, read on, because we’re here to help!

Four Simple Exercises to Help With Back Pain

1. Learn to Breathe Correctly

“Your breath pattern is important because if you have a poor breath pattern it can actually increase your experience of pain,” says Jennifer. “Your breath itself can contribute to better posture and alignment, as well as enhanced circulation and oxygenation of your blood.” Jennifer suggests learning to breathe diaphragmatically. This means taking full, relaxed breaths, so that your lungs expand right down to the base. If you put one hand on the bottom portion of your rib cage and one hand on your upper ribs, you want to feel your lower hand expand away from your body as your lungs fill with air. Your upper hand should lift at the end of the breath.

“In my experience, a lot of women have a backwards breath pattern,” says Jennifer. “Instead of allowing their diaphragm to relax and open up, as they breathe in, they’re tightening their diaphragm and lifting it up, so it’s restricting how they’re breathing.” We especially love this tip, because working on your breathing is something all of us can find time for, no matter how busy we are.

2. Find True Alignment

Jennifer’s next suggestion is all about posture, and finding your true alignment. “Don’t allow your rib cage to sink in or pop forward,” Jennifer says. “You’re trying to find that centered position with the rib cage being centered over the pelvis. The other thing is, a lot of women, when they’re holding one of their kids on their hip, allow themselves to just relax into their backs. You get a slouched back, your bum gets tucked under, your pelvis gets tucked under, plus you’re shifting one hip out to the side. You’re really changing the alignment of your pelvis and your spine.” Jennifer recommends a carrier, worn on the front or back, so that if you’re doing something like talking on the phone you aren’t kinking your neck to one side, and your hip out the other way. “If you do that too many times eventually you are going to start getting tight muscles on one side and lengthened muscles on the other side, and they just can’t work effectively.”

If you’re experiencing back pain because you’re out of alignment, Jennifer has an exercise for you. “A really easy stretch that I like to give people for re-aligning and getting your side stretched out is called the mermaid. It’s very easy, and you can do it sitting or standing. If it’s the right side that you want to stretch, you would reach that right arm up and over. Think about creating length through your back, and an even curve, so you’re not hinging at any one level. You’re not shifting your hip out and just bending to the side. Imagine that right from the tail bone all the way to the head is being stretched. When you’re doing that make sure your rib cage is aligned with your hips, and you’re not shifting your upper chest forwards.” Then take a deep breath into your rib cage, and exhale to return to neutral.

3. Squat the Right Way

Jennifer’s third exercise for back pain is a proper chair squat or bench squat. “If you’re at the park you can do 15 or 20 repetitions while you’re with your kids. If you’re at home, depending on the age of your baby, you can hold them for a bit of weight. An easy way to describe a proper squat is to think about your shins staying vertical, allowing your knees and your ankles to stay fairly aligned, and sitting back as though you’re sitting in a chair. You’re keeping your core engaged, and squeezing your glute muscles as you’re standing back up. Often I see people going into a squat where their shins start to come down towards the floor, and their knees are coming over top of the toes, so you’re not really engaging the glute muscles which are really important for the things you have to do as a mom.” Doing proper squats is good for posture and alignment, good for glute strength, and helps to balance out your pelvic floor muscles.

4. Work Your Pelvic Muscles

We’ve all heard the advice about doing your Kegel exercises. But did you know they can help with back pain? Jennifer explains, “I would also suggest for every woman post-pregnancy to learn correct pelvic floor strengthening. Most women are told to go home and do Kegel exercises, but a lot of women don’t feel that they’re doing it properly, or know what exactly they’re doing. Either they’re not having a lot of sense of those pelvic floor muscles, or I see a lot of women bearing down. You’re creating extra intra-abdominal pressure, which is opposite to what we want to do with the pelvic floor exercise. Problems with the pelvic floor can be one of the creators of back pain, because of where the muscles are attached, and how they function in the body.”

Jennifer says that one of the challenges women face is that pelvic floor exercises are difficult to describe, but she did her best. “If I was to give someone some cues, and they wanted to try it at home themselves, and see if they could feel the contraction, one is that you’d want to sit on a rolled towel, like you’re sitting on a bike. Have a feel for those muscles that you sit on when you sit on a bike seat. Can you lift them up without squeezing your buttocks, squeezing your glutes, squeezing the muscles on the inside of your thighs? Can you also do it without holding your breath and gripping with your diaphragm? Those are some of the things you would want to watch for. You can also just lay on your back, bend your knees, put your feet on the floor, and just think about tightening the muscles around your anus like you’re trying to hold gas in. You want to feel a lift in your muscles, and not that they’re pushing out.”

Jennifer had more to add on pelvic floor strength, saying, “If any women are really struggling with pelvic floor exercises, or really struggling with incontinence and it’s been quite a while after pregnancy, I would suggest seeking out a pelvic floor physio. It is common to have incontinence, it’s common to have a weak pelvic floor or a tight pelvic floor, but it’s not normal in that it can be corrected. A lot of people think it’s normal, everybody gets it, so we just deal with it. I say no! The neuro-muscular system can be retrained, just like anything else in the body, and it should be. It’s important, and you don’t have to deal with this.”

Thank you so much, Jennifer, for all of your suggestions on dealing with back pain. Here’s to a life with kids that isn’t a literal pain in the back!

This article was sponsored by The Studio at Treloar, a Vancouver-based Pilates studio run in partnership with Treloar Physiotherapy Clinic. Our instructors are registered physiotherapists certified to teach Pilates. As a Clinical Pilates instructor Jennifer LaRoy combines manual therapy, Pilates and her experience in women’s health to help moms feel stronger, more connected and pain-free before and after birth. We recognize many moms never feel quite the same after giving birth but we can help you get back to a place where you feel confident mentally and physically. Our private sessions focus on strengthening the core, realigning the spine and keeping the pelvic floor strong. Pilates is safe for women who have had cesarean delivery or diastasis recti, however if you have any questions about your specific situation please give us a call or email us at [email protected].