Mummy Mobilisors

We’ve talked previously about the “mummy moves” and strength training inclusions that I believe are important for all mums programs, which if you haven’t seen before you can catch up on Why Mums Should be Working Towards Olympic Lifts here, Mummy Moves here, and in our free course here.

We have also already talked about why I won’t go straight to stretching in women, when they complain of pain in a part of their body, you can read my reasoning here.

However there are common “stucknesses” and areas of restrictions that I do see in commonly in women who have had children, and this month I will be sharing what I see and why I think a particular stretch/mobility exercise is important for this population.

Chest and Biceps

If we’re considering the activities of daily life for a mother, then you have to concede the obscene number of lifts she does every single day. She lifts babies and toddlers off floors and change tables, she lifts car seats and prams, she lifts things in to and out of the car, and so on. Almost every one of these requires her arms in front and her elbows bent – a “closed” posture.

This posture will show itself as hands that are rotated inwards, a “winging scapula, a forward head, and/or a kyphosis.

My favourite antidote?? The Jesus stretch (through a doorway) and and banded revolutions.

Mobilising this posture this way will also make your seated rows more effective, as she’ll be more able to use the target muscles!

Week 2) Femur rotations

Mums who have given birth often have scarring in their perineum with various levels of tears and cuts during the birth process, and various compensations as a result. Scars don’t just knit back where the tissues tore, they do a contemporary dance throughout your abdomen.

Think about a C-Sections, which involve cutting through14 layers once the uterus retracts…

Think about the proximity of the bowels and bladder to the perineum and uterus.

Without diagnosing, you can see a misalignment, which may present as a hip tilt, twist, or shift.

My favourite antidote??

• Step over a fence exercise,
• Figure 8 balance exercise,
• Windscreen wipers.

Anytime you’re moving the femur in any direction you’re mobilising, releasing, strengthening, and/or coordinating the pelvic floor, whether there’s known scars or not!

Week 3) Inner Thigh

The angle of the femur from the hip to the knee is called the Q angle. The average Q angle for men is 14 degrees, and for women it’s 17 degrees. An excess of 15-20 degrees in Q angle is associated with knee dysfunction and pain in the kneecaps¹, so it follows that women may be more likely to develop knee problems (although it’s obviously also multifaceted, with varying levels of Oestrogen also playing a role because it contributes to joint laxity).

One of the most common “fixes” I see from trainers and physio’s alike, is to increase glute med strength and stabilise from the hip; exercises such as clams and single leg squats with the knee against the wall, butterflies and monster walks.

While I agree with this in many respects, as women are often less stable than their male counterparts, there is one area missing from this pattern – and that is the inner thigh.

Women, with their higher average Q angle, and their increased joint laxity, have flatter and more mobile feet and ankles². Incidentally, they’re also at higher risk of foot and ankle injury than their male counterparts. By the time you have an injury, especially a ligament injury, you have an imbalance – tighter/stiffer/less responsive one one side or in one area than the other But that’s besides the point, look at what happens at my hip and knees when I flatten my feet…

Many women, particularly mums, will also have scars on and/or in their pelvis, and as we’ve discussed before, scars are rigid spots and/or bands of inelastic tissue, which will have a consequence in the women’s pelvic function. Watch my shirt…

If you want your female clients to perform the glute strengthening exercises you’ve prescribed her, then you need to address the tension in her inner thigh.

Look for internal rotation of the knee and/or ankle.

These are my favourite mobilisers to mitigate this tension, and improve her success at strengthening the target muscles:

• Turkish lunge with 3D arms
• Sitting inner thigh stretch with ballet arms
• Seated butterflies
• Seated or standing knee drops (from legs spread position)

Try them out and let me know how you go!

Week 4) Ankles & Feet

You have nearly ¼ of all bones and joints in your entire body in your feet – each foot is made up of 26 bones, 30 joints, and more than 200 muscles, tendons, and ligaments³. In Australia, many of our clients, male or female, mums or not, have spent their lifetime with their feet bundled up into shoes, the consequences of which are hard to quantify.

What we do know is this⁴:

• Habitual shoe wearers have a flatter foot placement and increased knee flexion on initial contact with the ground (walking).
• Walking barefoot allows the foot to spread and habitual barefoot walkers have wider feet.
• Barefoot walkers have a shorter, faster stride.
• Barefoot walkers have lower plantar fascia pressures, while shoe wearers have higher plantar pressures.
• Footwear changes the way we walk.

If we just discuss plantar pressures alone today, we know that plantar fascia length and thickness varies throughout the menstrual cycle, that stability and posture change throughout the cycle, with both plantar thickness and decreased stability coincide with ovulation⁵.

Plantar fascia injuries have a worse impact on a woman’s quality of life than a man’s, although the reasons why are unclear⁶. Plantar faciitis is most commonly diagnosed in women between the ages of 40 and 60 years old^{7 8}.

For this reason, I like my mama clients to mobilise their ankles and feet – but in a specific way for two reasons:

1. The outcome we’re after is not flexible feet – it’s feet that can stabilise through a range of motions.
2. The outcome we’re after is not necessarily stiff and strong feet either – it’s feet that can stabilise through a range of motions.
3. Women’s mobility, stability, and strength in their feet is variable throughout the cycle, so repetition over time is important!

So here are my favourite foot and ankle mobilisors for women, especially mums:

• Press/Release on a ball (not rubbing up and down – for the fascia elasticity)
• Full squat on heels – roll over toes (knees down) – alternating sides
• Alternate Turkish lunge with curtsy
• Alternate forward and backward crouch
• Alternate T-Step to Pirouette

You’ll notice many of these are about balance, movement, and controlling momentum??? Yep, that’s why.

Just because women are more mobile than their male counterparts, does not mean that they do not need stretching or lengthening. However, mobilising is particularly effective for this population because of the stability, range of motion, and added “control” aspects of mobility movements (as opposed to static stretches).

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