Getting back to exercise after birth

Movement can be wonderful for your body and mood after birth — but the postnatal body needs a gentle, gradual return, not a rush back to where you left off. There’s no prize for “bouncing back”, and going too hard too soon can set your recovery back.

In the early weeks, “exercise” mostly means gentle walking and your pelvic floor exercises. Walking — starting short and slow, building as you feel able — lifts your mood, circulation and energy without strain. Reconnecting with your deep tummy and pelvic floor muscles is the real foundation that everything else builds on.

Hold off on high-impact exercise (running, jumping), heavy lifting, and abdominal work like sit-ups until your body is ready — often around the time of your six-week check, and longer after a caesarean, which is major surgery. Returning to impact too early, before your pelvic floor has recovered, is a common cause of leaking and other problems.

Listen to your body’s signals. Increased bleeding, pain, leaking, or a heavy, dragging feeling are all signs to ease right back. Progress should feel sustainable, not punishing — and remember broken sleep means your energy and recovery won’t be linear.

Your six-week check is a good moment to ask your GP about returning to exercise, and a women’s-health physiotherapist can assess your pelvic floor and tummy (including checking for separation of the abdominal muscles) and tailor a safe plan — especially valuable after a caesarean, a difficult birth, or if you’re keen to get back to running.

A rough timeline helps. In the first six weeks, stick to walking and your pelvic floor and gentle deep-tummy work. Around the six-week check, ask your GP before adding low-impact exercise. Hold off on running, jumping and heavy lifting until at least around 12 weeks, and ideally after a women’s-health physio has checked your pelvic floor and tummy. That check often includes looking for abdominal separation (diastasis recti) — a normal stretch of the tummy muscles — so you can be shown how to rebuild your core safely and skip the exercises (like full sit-ups and crunches) that can make it worse early on. After a caesarean or a difficult birth, go slower still.

Above all, be patient and kind with yourself. Your body did something extraordinary; rebuilding strength is a season, not a sprint, and the steadiest return is the one that lasts.