Postpartum University® Podcast

A Safe and Healing Approach to Postpartum Fitness and Strength | Desiree Bartlett EP 199

• Maranda Bower, Postpartum Nutrition Specialist

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Postpartum fitness isn’t just about “bouncing back” or crunching your way to a flat stomach.

It’s about honoring the body’s transformation, healing, and regaining strength from the inside out. In this episode, Maranda sits down with fitness expert and prenatal/postnatal specialist Desi Bartlett to discuss what’s missing in traditional postpartum fitness and why so many programs fall short for moms.

From understanding the core's "inner cylinder" to exploring how breath directly impacts the pelvic floor, Desi shares actionable insights for postpartum providers and moms alike. Learn how to create movement practices that heal rather than harm, and why slowing down can lead to faster, more sustainable recovery.

If you’re a postpartum provider or mom ready to rethink fitness and rediscover joy in movement, we know you’ll love this conversation. 


Check out the episode on the blog:
https://postpartumu.com/a-safe-and-healing-approach-to-postpartum-fitness-and-strength-desiree-bartlett-ep-199

KEY TIME STAMPS:

00:02: Introduction to Desi Bartlett and her expertise in postpartum fitness.
02:17: Understanding the “inner cylinder” of the core.
06:48: Pelvic floor health and the importance of breathwork.
11:22: Critical postpartum fitness adaptations for safe recovery.
15:08: Transitioning to perimenopause and menopause movement considerations
20:13: How societal pressures harm postpartum recovery and what to do instead.


Connect with Desi:

Desi Bartlett MS, CPT E-RYT, is passionate about sharing the joy of movement with over 25 years of experience in health and wellness. She holds advanced certifications in yoga, personal training, prenatal and postnatal fitness, and has worked with celebrities like Ashley Tisdale and Kate Hudson. An internationally published author of "Your Strong, Sexy Pregnancy" and co-author of "Total Body Beautiful," Desi brings her expertise to Desibodymind.com, offering transformative content for physical and mental well-being. Desi, originally from Chicago and a proud mother of two, now resides on the picturesque island of Oahu.

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Speaker 1:

The postpartum care system is failing, leaving countless mothers struggling with depression, anxiety and autoimmune conditions. I'm Miranda Bauer and I've helped thousands of providers use holistic care practices to heal their clients at the root. Subscribe now and join us in addressing what modern medicine overlooks, so that you can give your clients real, lasting solutions for lifelong well-being. Hey, hey, everyone, welcome to the podcast. Today I have Desi Bartlett. If you don't know her, you should. She's an M-S-C-P-T-E-R-Y-T, which is a lot of letters there. Basically, she's passionate about sharing the joy of movement, with over 25 years of experience and health and wellness, and she holds advanced certifications in yoga, personal training, prenatal and postnatal fitness and has worked with celebrities like Ashley Tisdale and Kate Hudson. She's an internationally published author of your Strong, sexy Pregnancy. She's the co-author of Total Body Beautiful, and Desi brings her expertise to desimindbodycom. She offers transformative content for physical and mental wellbeing. She's originally from Chicago we were just joking. I'm in Alaska and she's in Oahu. Hello, hawaii, like we're, we're totally neighbors and not neighbors at the same time, right.

Speaker 2:

Desi, welcome, I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you so much for having me and aloha from Hawaii.

Speaker 1:

Yes, Okay, I want to dive deep into this conversation. Let's just go straight into it, because we can talk about fitness, we can talk about mental health and we can talk about all of the things, but I think that's oftentimes really general. I want to know from you and your experience what do you feel is often missing in traditional prenatal and postnatal fitness programs? Missing in traditional prenatal and postnatal fitness programs? Like what do you think that women and providers need to know in order to create, like, a safe and effective movement plan? That's often missing for moms.

Speaker 2:

So what I find a lot is that most people don't understand what's happening inside of our bodies, and so I love the Paul Cech model, and he talks about an inner cylinder.

Speaker 2:

So at the top of the cylinder we have the diaphragm, at the bottom we have the pelvic floor, in front we have the deep abdominal muscles and in the back we have multifidi, the lower back muscles, and all of these muscles work together in harmony like a symphony. But most people just think like, oh, I shouldn't do crunches and I'm like, oh, my goodness, we have this whole beautiful interior network of muscles that supports you as a mom. It supports your baby when your baby's inside and then, after the baby's born and you're holding that beautiful baby, it's going to assist you with your posture all functional movement. But we don't teach moms about what's happening on the inside. So where I really like to begin is simply breathing and talking to moms about how are you breathing and are you enjoying that deep, full, diaphragmatic belly breath, or are you breathing from up here and does your voice sound like this? Let's pull the breath down and let's learn about how our muscles work and support us.

Speaker 1:

I love that. It's beautiful. And how we breathe and maybe you can speak to this too is directly related to our pelvic floor and how we hold our pelvic floor. Okay, I learned this. I would love for you to explain this to everyone, because I'm not gonna be able to explain it, but a tight pelvic floor and the way we breathe is very much related to our constitution and like how we're holding our breath and maybe not going pee for several hours because we're a mom and who has time, and all of those things.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. When we inhale, we fill the belly, we fill the chest and everything just kind of moves down. So the diaphragm moves down and the pelvic floor moves down and then on the exhalation, we release that air. The abdominal wall draws in, the pelvic floor lifts, the diaphragm lifts and we expel the air. What does all that mean? It means that every time we breathe, we're quite literally massaging all of our organs and everything is just moving in the way that it should.

Speaker 2:

When we're not breathing deeply, when we are holding our breath, when we are holding our pelvic floor either the front of the pelvic floor, the front diamond or the back diamond too tight things get backed up. And it might be that you're holding it. You know you don't take the time to go pee because you're a super busy mom or maybe you're leaking because you have held it for so long. So there are all these conversations about, you know, the pelvic floor and urinary incontinence and what's happening during labor and delivery. And are you actually sighing and opening your mouth? Because this mouth relates to the other mouth. Everything opens at the same time.

Speaker 2:

So just for today, for everyone who's listening today, I'd like to invite you to bring your hands onto your abdomen and close your eyes and now, as you breathe in, fill your belly and fill your chest with breath and feel the diaphragm and the pelvic floor gently moving down. On the exhalation, you can move your hands in towards your spine, feel the abdominal wall engaging, feel the pelvic floor and the diaphragm rising and gently pressing the breath out. Let's do that one more time. So, as you inhale, feel the belly, feel the chest, fill everything that's happening inside and then, on the exhalation, as you release that air and gently press everything out and up the belly, muscles draw in and then we can open the eyes.

Speaker 2:

So imagine if you're going for a run and you haven't gone pee and now all of a sudden you're leaking and you're not breathing. It's a whole thing. So how do we speak to moms about this? I like to simply ask you know, how are you doing? How's your pelvic floor? Are you peeing when you sneeze or when you jump? And let the conversation be so open and so natural. So it isn't. It's like taboo of being ashamed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm so grateful for people who are serving in your capacity and who are doing the work that you're doing, because I feel like women are starting to recognize that peeing is never okay, you know, especially when we're not meaning to pee, right it's. It's so interesting because I look at my mom's generation and she talks all the time about oh well, I've got to go tinkle again, you know, 15 minutes after she's already been to the bathroom or you know that leaking that's like a normal thing for her generation and they it's so taboo to like say anything about. I was just at a trampoline park with my kids I've got four kids and another mom was like how in the world are you bouncing like with your kids? I can't do that, I'm going to pee, you know.

Speaker 1:

And then a bunch of other moms were laughing about it and they're like oh, have you tried physical therapy, you know? And it was like a whole natural conversation and I just love that that is starting to occur and that we're starting to see like, hey, yeah, this, this does happen for us and there's something that we can do about it to make it go away, because it doesn't. It's not OK that we're, that we're suffering through these problems. It's not OK that we're we're feeling these things.

Speaker 2:

I agree 100 percent, miranda. There's a big that we're we're feeling these things. I agree a hundred percent, miranda. There's a big difference between common and normal. Just because it's common doesn't mean it's normal. And if, if you can go see a pelvic floor specialist, please do. There's no reason not to.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you know you've worked with women at all stages, from pregnancy to perimenopause. Can you share some of the fitness and wellness adaptations that are critical for like each of these phases, particularly for those who are maybe going through the journey of pregnancy and postpartum?

Speaker 2:

Yes. So during pregnancy we want to think about our abdomen as the baby's home, and so we want to be really aware of how we maintain strength around the home, to support the home but also never compress the home. Right between like, oh, I want to maintain my abs and how quickly can I get back into exercise? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, sometimes they're like just so afraid to move because they're not sure what's safe, and so I'm like, all right, let's find the middle way, let's find a balanced way that's going to work for you and your baby. And so what I like to do again is to simply begin with breath and then from there let's is to simply begin with breath and then from there let's start to work the posture muscles, so things like cat and cow or downward facing dog, so that I can maintain all of that strength, or help her maintain all of that strength in her core. Because what happens during pregnancy is, as the baby grows forward, the abdominal muscles are going to pull forward, the lower back is going to get tight in the front, the hip flexors get tight and then the hamstrings get sleepy. Have you ever seen women? Um, sometimes after they've had a baby I I was part of this club I was like my rear end fell off, like what happened, and it was because my hip flexors were so tight in front. And so what I've learned over the years and through my own pregnancies is the importance of things like squatting. So if you're new to fitness, please seek out someone who is a certified professional. If they have the alphabet soup after their name, like I do, even better it. Just it usually indicates more experience and more education.

Speaker 2:

But to answer your question, to go back Miranda breathing core training, smart core training for posture, and then also just enjoying movement. Make it fun, right? It shouldn't be a chore. And if it's a chore, then I'm going to invite you to ask your friends to join you so that it becomes more social Right after you've had the baby. Now, this is a really special and tender time.

Speaker 2:

And same thing, some women jump right back into fitness and sometimes it's a little too fast and that can actually lead to more problems. So, for example, if you, if you jump into fitness, let's say, four weeks later and all of a sudden you're lifting heavy weights again and maybe you don't even have the doctor's clearance, but you're like, oh, I feel good If that little separation in the abdominal wall, that diastasis, has not completely healed to the point that it's going to on its own. To the point that it's going to on its own, we can make that worse by doing things like big leg lifts or just like huge movements that are going to exacerbate the problem. So with new mamas, again I'm going to invite you to call a certified professional and make sure for me. I like to work with someone who has had the experience of pregnancy in their own body. Make sure that the person understands these markers right.

Speaker 2:

So it isn't just about the six-week checkup. Six-week checkup can be like five minutes with your OBGYN and they basically just check to see if you have any prolapse and if God forbid if your organs are not falling out. Then they're like okay, cool, yeah, go exercise, is that?

Speaker 1:

that it, though, Right Cause they're not trained. And and what pelvic floor like you falling out looks like, or prolapse looks like. They just want to know if your organ is coming out of your body. That's it.

Speaker 2:

Yes. So in other countries and this is not in any way diminishing the power of the US, I love our country but in many other countries around the world pelvic floor therapy is a given. And so if you have insurance which I hope everyone listening does have some kind of insurance go ahead and call your provider, or call the insurance number and find a pelvic floor specialist in your area. Most insurance will cover at least a few sessions so that you can begin to regain that strength. Fast forward, perimenopause and menopause. Again, this is a time that's really tender. So think of all of these points of transition as like tender times right when we need a little bit of extra TLC and usually a little bit more support.

Speaker 2:

So during perimenopause and menopause, that's when we start to see things like what I call the big three, hot flashes, which can lead to sleep disturbances, which can lead to this is a terrible term, but it's what it says in the scientific literature waist thickening. Generally, this is because of the decline in a specific kind of estrogen called estradiol or E2. A whole host of symptoms can accompany that besides just the big three. But where do you begin as a woman, like if you're, if you're all of a sudden sweating. You know, please have the conversation with your doctor, please get some blood work so that you know if you're in perimenopause, so that you can get the support that you need. And please also know that things like yoga and more like zen, parasympathetic nervous system response kind of movement anything that's gonna help you chill out is going to help with all of those symptoms.

Speaker 2:

And it can feel really counterintuitive to like relax to get rid of belly fat. It's like wait, no, no, I'm supposed to be pushing and running and doing a thousand crunches and what are you telling me? To relax for? If you relax, we're going to drop your cortisol and you can actually see a reduction in waist thickening. So lots of information all around the transitions. Please take care of yourself, please consult with your provider and if I can assist and support you in any way, I'm here.

Speaker 1:

If I can assist and support you in any way. I'm here. This is fascinating because oftentimes during this, these very delicate periods of time in our life, we are told to like oh well, if you want to be healthy and clearly you're experiencing these symptoms and therefore something is wrong. And you got to get in balance, you got to, you got to work hard, you got to eat better, you got to go work out, and so I think the natural inclination of people within, especially the U S culture, is like I got to go work hard, I got to, I got to hit the gym, and what I'm hearing you say is like that's, that's not going to be helpful. That's actually especially in postpartum and other areas of our lives that can be pretty delicate. That's going to be harmful.

Speaker 2:

It can be harmful and you can still enjoy, like the more intense training, but it's going to be in specific dosages, if you will. So that's when we get into something called polarized training. So at the one end of the spectrum, I might have you lifting heavy or enjoying more intense exercise, but that might just be like 15 minutes every other day, and then the other hour or so that you give me on those off days, I'm going to have you in restorative yoga, I'm going to have you in deep breathing and I'm going to have you in deep breathing and I'm going to have you in exercise and movement practices that restore you so that everything can start to repair on a cellular level. Your body has just gone through like a thunderstorm, so why am I going to add more, more fire to it right away? No, no, like. Let's take the time, let's breathe together, let's heal and let's make sure that you can move forward in such a way that you feel great as a mom.

Speaker 1:

I love that so much. You know, I think our society and I've talked about this many times we're so wanting to get our body back, we're wanting to look good, we're wanting to be sexy during this time and drop the baby fat and all of this, and so I think oftentimes we have this idea that if we're not working hard and not doing this, then we can't meet those, those goals and those societal pressures that tell us that's what it means to be a good wife, that's what it means to be a good mom, that's what it means to look good and look pretty in your body. And we, we fall for that over and over and over again. I'm I'm just as guilty as anybody else. How do we meet our goals and still yet address this idea of, you know, hardcore exercise and diet programs, which are really just failing women?

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, I agree completely. There are so many programs that fail women, and I think a lot of it is simply because we do not speak to women as individuals. We say, like here's this blanket program that's going to work for everyone. No, we need to wake up in the morning and like check in with our bodies. How do I feel today? Did I just have a baby? Am I still bleeding? Am I feeling like my boundaries aren't being honored by the people around me? Am I nourishing myself enough to even produce breast milk?

Speaker 2:

There's so many different elements that we need to look at before we can even think about like oh, how do I look at my genes? What? Let's start with? How do you feel? How do you feel in your offer, gratitude to your body for all that it's just done for you. My goodness, you co-created a baby inside of you. You made organs like lungs and a heart and a spine. That's a miracle. So let's take the time to appreciate what your body has done. Then let's move on to breathing correctly, into postural training and then, once you're standing up a little bit taller in your power and your strength, you're gonna feel sexier. Anyway, you're gonna feel like oh wait, yeah, I've got this Instead of that, like sort of melting forward posture that so many moms can take on, and this isn't diminishing moms in any way, this is simply mechanical.

Speaker 2:

We lean forward all day long, whether you're nursing or taking care of the baby I call it baby adoring pose or pulling the car seat out. There's all this forward like kind of hunching over movement. So we need to sit up tall like Queens, engage our core, find our breath and then find our strength from that place of confidence. Instead of I should, I could, oh gosh, why didn't I?

Speaker 1:

I don't know if anybody listening in has ever tried this, being in the early stages of postpartum, but if you're able to sit up straight and take those deep breaths and just slightly engage your core, that in itself feels like the biggest workout ever. It truly is. It truly is. It is a massive workout for your body because our bodies are not attuned to do that, even those you know. I worked with not too long ago, an Olympian and she was absolutely amazing and in postpartum we were working on her nutrition and she was telling me about okay, I never. I you know I'm hardcore on all of my workouts because that's what I've trained to be, but she's like the most powerful thing that I've done recently is just step back, sit up and take deep breaths and she was like that is like so exhausting and it's like you could feel the muscles working when that happens and that in itself is what really helped me with my own diastasis recti. It's so healing, it's so healing for us.

Speaker 2:

Very much so. And let me ask you, miranda, when you were experiencing DR I just I shortened it because it's easier to say that way when you were experiencing that, did you feel like exercising?

Speaker 1:

No, and I was terrified to exercise and every single and I knew that every single time that I did like get back to the weights and I love weightlifting it was always making things so much more worse, even if I was staying off my stomach so much more worse, even if I was staying off my stomach.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, so diastasis. When we talk about the separation and the abdominal wall, so we have this connective tissue in the center of our belly and it's something called an aponeurosis and it's just like thick tissue, and so there's there is always going to be a little bit of separation. It's just the way that our bodies are built. We've got two sides of the abdominal wall, but when there's more space than serves us, then we need to take the time to heal that. But that space can occur in three landmarks, so like up near the sternum, at the base of the sternum, just above the belly button, or down near the pubis. Additionally, it can be a question of depth, like not just how many fingers wide is the separation, but how deep can you go with those fingers. And if you can go really, really deep, then we've got another issue with DR.

Speaker 2:

So what I see is women who are nervous because they don't know what to do. It's like, okay, if I do crunches, I'm making my abs stronger, but wait, now the separation is getting worse. Or all of a sudden I'm going pee. There's just a cascade of things that can happen. So what do we do? We take the time to assess how wide is that separation. We take the time to assess how wide is that separation. I have a video on YouTube you can find that teaches you how to assess it yourself with those three different landmarks. And then, if you're finding that that separation is three, three and a half fingers, let's go see the PT and let's go talk about your health and let's give you the tools to empower you to regain all of that strength so that again you can move forward as a mother, feeling great. I see your beautiful babies on the wall Like you want to carry them around with strength and confidence and and model that for them as well.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, so true, so true. And it's so fun too, because I will tell you, I have a gymnast and in my life she's 11 years old this Friday and she's very competitive. We travel the States for her competitions and she is such a light to like to be able to see how she works and she moves her body and, like all of those girls are just like such an inspiration for just movement and body control in general, and I look at, like what these little girls are capable of and what us women are really, really capable of, and a lot of that was not her working hard, like of course she's working hard, she's in the gym all the time, but it's about knowing, like deeply knowing, her body and where she, like she can tell you oh, I can move my muscle and flex it like, just like this, and this would be the perfect, but when I do it like this, it's not so great, and so I'm gonna have to do it like, just like this, and this would be the perfect, but when I do it like this, it's it's not so great, and so I'm going to have to do it like this in order to learn how to do like she knows her body so well and I'm so grateful for that. She didn't learn it from me, she learned it from the gym and showing up for herself. And I just want to say that, like I, I look at so many of us women and and I'm like, oh gosh, I wish I could be that way. And she has taught me. I'm no way. I like I can't do half the thing, I can't even do 99% of the things that she does in the gym.

Speaker 1:

Right Again, like crazy stuff in the gym. I'm just like blown away. But I have the strength now and and because I've seen that and I know what it looks like to be in my own body and to feel good in my own body. And it doesn't mean hitting it hard in the gym, which it used to. That's what it used to mean. But now it's so different and I just love that perspective shift of like there's so much that we can do to look good. I mean you have, you have two books your strong, sexy pregnancy and total body, beautiful. So about looking good, and that's what we we love to do, that as women, we love to look good and like honor our bodies in that way and just feel sexy and and all of that, and to be able to do that in a way that feels good. Yes, it's just, it's so on point.

Speaker 2:

Amen. That's where I like to begin from is how do you feel? And that feeling is going to express itself externally in your body. So when we talk about like oh, I want to change this, or I want this to be a little tighter or a little stronger, I get it, but let's start with how you feel and again it's going to express itself and I love that your daughter has brought this consciousness of embodiment to you. Our children are our gurus, they're our teachers. My children have taught me so much about just being present, you know, and actually when I'm breathing, staying present, not making the to-do list of like oh, I need to do all these things today. So they're gifts, they're miracles and they come through the physical vessel of our body. So I think it's an important reminder to take care of this vessel and to really show up for ourselves. And I love that story about your daughter. It's beautiful.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, Desi. I love this conversation. I love what you've created here. Where can people find more of you?

Speaker 2:

So my website, my new platform, is desibodymindcom, and you can find the Body, Mind, mind workout on there, which integrates meditation, yoga and fitness. I also have special pre and postnatal workouts on there as well, so I love to take care of the mamas and for your listeners, if you use the code podcast, you get a 10% discount. And then also I'm super active on Insta, so look for me at Mothers Into Living Fit, and I'm also really, really good about getting back to you. So if you send me a DM or leave me a comment, I will answer you, and if I don't know the answer, I have a huge network of people that work in the birthing space and including you now, miranda, and I will be calling my friends to find out the answer for you in any way that I can.

Speaker 1:

Ah, that's amazing. Thank you so much. Of course, all of you listening and you know those show notes will have all of the links that you need to go check out Desi see her programs, her books and all that she offers. Thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you so much. And yeah, big shout out to Alaska from Hawaii. I love it. Beautiful, thanks so much.

Speaker 1:

And, yeah, big shout out to Alaska from Hawaii. I love it, beautiful, thanks so much. Thanks so much for being a part of this crucial conversation. I know you're dedicated to advancing postpartum care and if you're ready to dig deeper, come join us on our newsletter, where I share exclusive insights, resources and the latest tools to help you make a lasting impact on postpartum health. Sign up at postpartumu the letter ucom, which is in the show notes, and if you found today's episode valuable, please leave a review to help us reach more providers like you. Together, we're building a future where mothers are fully supported and thriving.

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