When can I start exercising again after having my baby?

drkelsydemelo
Jan 20, 2025
4 min read

Updated: May 14, 2025

I know mamma... your body has been through a lot, and you're anxious to get back to the activities that make you feel like YOU again! I've got good news, and I've got bad news....

The bad news 👇🏼

There's no one-size-fits-all answer. The right time to resume physical activity after childbirth depends on several factors, including your physical condition, your birth experience, and how your body is recovering ❤️‍🩹.

The good news 👇🏼

In this post, I'm going to break down not only WHEN it’s safe to start exercising again, but also outline what an ENTIRE YEAR of exercise after baby might look like for you 🥳.

What Factors Affect Your Return to Exercise?

Several factors influence when you can safely begin exercising after childbirth. Let's discuss ⬇️

Type of Delivery:
- If you had a vaginal birth with no complications, you might be able to start gentle exercises, such as walking or pelvic floor exercises, sooner than women who had a C-section.
- After a cesarean section, your body will need more time to heal. The incision site as well as internal healing requires a little bit more TLC than a vaginal birth. Always get clearance from your doctor before starting to exercise!!
Postpartum Recovery:
- 🚩 Red flags like: bleeding (lochia) with activity, fatigue, back or hip pain might indicate that more time is needed before increasing your activity level.
- If you had any complications like perineal tearing or a pre-existing health conditions, it’s even MORE important to take things slowly and consult your doctor before getting back into exercise.
Physical Condition:
- If you were active throughout your pregnancy, you might be able to ease back into exercise a little faster than someone who was more sedentary. That said, even if you were fit before pregnancy, you should still listen to your body and take it one step at a time.
- Support, mental health, sleep quality and other metrics may also factor into your ability to be active postpartum, as they effect your time, availability and energy levels.

Your Postpartum Return to Exercise Plan 👇🏼

0-8 Weeks Postpartum: Healing Phase

In the first few weeks after childbirth, the focus should be on recovery, which includes: diaphragmatic breathing, light walking and gentle core engagement. If you're not familiar with diaphragmatic breathing, check out my Pre+Postnatal Core Guide!!

6 to 12 Weeks Postpartum: Bridge Phase

Around 6-8 weeks postpartum, most women will have had their postpartum checkup, and if everything is progressing well, you may be given the green light to start increasing your physical activity. At this stage, it's crucial to take a gradual approach to exercise. Here's how you can safely move forward:

Low-Impact Cardio: Activities like walking, swimming, and cycling on a stationary bike can help build endurance without putting too much stress on your body. 👟
Core Strengthening: Your abdominal muscles, especially the deep core muscles, may be weakened after childbirth. Focus on gentle exercises like pelvic tilts or abdominal bracing to start rebuilding core strength.
Strength Training: Start with bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges, and modified push-ups. Avoid lifting heavy weights until your body has fully adjusted to activity.

12 Weeks to 6 Months Postpartum: Increasing Intensity

By the 3 to 6-month mark, if your body has been healing well, you can slowly incorporate more intense workouts back into your routine. This includes activities like running, higher-intensity interval training (HIIT), and strength training with weights. This is usually the time frame most of my clients are starting to get back to activities and forms of exercise they really enjoy ☺️.

However, always be mindful of how your body FEELS - listen to your body and if you experience back pain, hip pain, dizziness, fatigue, food cravings or increased bleeding it’s essential to stop 🛑 and decrease your exercise intensity. These are all signs that you need to scale back and rest.

Major Takeaways

If you learn ANYTHING from this post, I hope it's THIS 👏🏼⬇️.

Look out for these red flags when you start a new exercise protocol or increase your exercise intensity: back pain, hip pain, dizziness, extreme fatigue, food cravings or increased bleeding. These can all be signs that you need to scale back and rest 🚩.
Prior to 6 weeks postpartum, any kind of intense exercise or weight lifting is heavily discouraged because it can increase bleeding and delay healing. My Pre+Postnatal Core Guide can help you start with gentle breathing exercises during this time.
For women who had a cesarean section or experienced complications during childbirth, the timeline by which they return to exercise may be longer.
Remember that no matter what your birth story is, your body has just gone through a MAJORLY HARD THING - during your first year postpartum, you probably won't be able to do even a small fraction of the activity you were able to do pre-baby, and that's okay.
After baby, you simply do not have the time, energy or availability for the exercise routine you maintained in the past. During postpartum I often find that less is more so be KIND to yourself if you need more rest than you needed previously 🫶🏼.