General Cycling Discussion - Post Pregnancy cycling

Question for the moms out there: Did you pre-pregnancy bike fit after baby?

My daughter is two, I've been back to pre-pregnancy weight for 18 months. I had to go for some physiotherapy to help my hip joints after I delivered, but I thought I had my pre baby body back last year. Except my bike doesn't fit anymore. It's a commuter type. It was my dream bike before I got pregnant. Now my joints hurt when I ride it. If it were just my muscles hurting, I would blame it on being out of shape. It got worse as the summer went on.

I have tried having it adjusted. I have tried adjusting it. I tried replacing the saddle. The fit looks the same as it did before. Seriously, I don't know what happened. It's like aliens replaced my wonderful bike with some bad knock off.

Any tips? Anyone have this happen to them? Or their wives and girlfriends?

I'm a woman, who has never had a child ... but I have had some very serious injuries over the years. After one such injury which kept me off the bicycle for 3 months, I discovered that I had to readjust everything in order for the bicycle to fit properly. I'm still not sure why, but I have heard of others who have had to do the same thing.

The other thing is ... when you first got the bicycle, had you been riding something else already? And now, how long did you go without riding anything at all? There's a lot to be said for just simply getting used to being on the bicycle.

The bike, a Giant, was new when I got it. I did tough it out all last summer. I started out sore all over and that got better once I was used to biking again. The pain in my hips and back did not better with extra cycling though.

Not a woman, but married to one :)

Wife went through something very similar, and asked the Dr about it. She's extremely small in stature to begin with, but we had to go back to square one on fitting after the first child. According to the Dr the birth of a child totally reworks a womans pelvis configuration as a matter of course. So much so he explained that Dr's can tell simply via x-ray whether a woman has ever gone through childbirth due to the physical changes.

And my wife had ours via C-Section to boot.

Edit.. Found this on the web..
By Robert M. Freund, MD
While abdomenoplasty does not seem to affect pelvic anatomy, pregnancy does. At the time of pregnancy, your body releases an enzyme that loosens the attachments between the two sides of the pelvic bones. This enzyme allows the pelvis to widen for birth. The only problem is that the bones may not return to their position after birth. Thus, pelvic anatomy is changed.

Have you considered the possibility you went in too hard at first? I suggest waiting until all feels good then just do 5 mins on a stationary bike. Wait 2 days and of ok try another 5 mins. When you have worked up to 5 mins every day of the week, then go up to 10 one day.

009jim - Thanks for your imput. We have darn cold winters here and getting back into cycling in the spring has to be gradual. The first ride of the season is generally only a few blocks because then you run into a completely flooded block and need to turn around. I was expecting to be out of shape so I tried to ease back into it.

CCrew - That actually makes sense. Was your wife able to be fit back into her existing bike or was the "back to square one" a shopping trip? I really liked my pre-pregnancy bike. I am loathe to give it up. I keep going back and forth on the "just sell it and start over" or "I love that bike, I HAVE to find a way to make it fit again."