Lower Back Exercises Every New Mom Needs to Do

One of the (many) things you might not hear about postpartum is how much your back will hurt. It turns out, the “new mom backache” is absolutely a thing. And it’s no wonder—your body has been through a lot. Specifically, your abdominal muscles. When your uterus stretches to create that oh-so-fun baby bump, your abs loosen and stretch. At this point, they’re not as effective at holding your spine and hips together. For this reason, backaches are common during pregnancy. During postpartum, your abs still aren’t back to normal, and they don’t even have your swollen uterus to rest on anymore. They become even more unstable. Hence, the “new mom backache.”

But not to fear fear—there are things you can do to help. There are a few back pain exercises that are tried, true, tested and 100& effective. We’re sharing 3 of them below!

1. Cat-Cow

It’s famous as a gentle flow pose in yoga. Cat-Cow warms your body and brings flexibility to your spine. It’s a good exercise to do postpartum because stretches your back torso and neck, and softly stimulates and strengthens the abdominal organs. It also opens your chest, encouraging the breath to become slow and deep.

2. Forward Fold

In a forward fold, you’ll want to stand upright, place both feet together, legs straight, and bend over at the hips. There’s no need to actually touch your toes—you’ll want to relax your body as much as possible in this position. You can swing your arms back and forth or side-to-side. Breathe deeply as you let your upper half hang over at your hips. What this is doing is using your body weight to stretch your spine, relieving your hips and lower back of all the weight of your torso that it usually holds. It’s also stretching your hamstrings—which is a big bonus. Tight hamstrings can lead to tight hips and—a tight lower back. It’s all connected!

3. Pigeon Pose

This one looks more complicated than the others, but once you get the hang of it, its not only a breeze—but a huge relief. For pigeon pose, get into a plank position and pull your right leg forward, bringing your right knee to meet your right elbow. Next, swing your fight foot up toward your left hand and plant it on the floor. Your leg will no be perpendicular to the rest of your body. Lower yourself down so you’re laying flat with your right leg bent and tucked underneath your body. Make sure to push your hips back a little bit until you feel comfortable. You should feel a tug on your right hip and inner thigh—that’s good. This stretch helps relieve both your hips and IT band of excess pressure, and this is one of the only exercises that helps you relieve both. Watch this YouTube video for a demo on how to get into this position—you’ll thank yourself later!

The new mom back ache is very real—and painful! And while it’s very easy as a new mom to hyper-focus on your little one and try to ignore the pain, don’t. Take care of yourself so you don’t have even more problems in the long run. Plus—you deserve to feel good. Go stretch, mama!