PostPartum Fitness isn’t as simple as “Don’t do anything for 6 weeks and then return to business as usual” Yet there is not always a lot of guidance from pregnancy, to labor and back into exercise. So today i’m going to give you kind of a rough idea about what it could look like.

Please remember that I am not a doctor and anything I write is not intended as medical advice.

Step 1- Rest and recovery
This is directly after you have your baby, allow for gentle movement like picking up your baby and even going for a walk when you start to feel physically up to it. This is also a time to focus on breath work such as reconnecting your breathing to your pelvic floor.

Step 2 – Return to Exercise
This is following your first 6 weeks when your doctor clears you for exercise. This shouldn’t be done before your doctor clears you. At this point the goals are going to be helping your pelvic floor recover from baby, doing gentle aerobic activity to begin building an aerobic tolerance and working on your postural alignment. Here we will focus on the things we need to do to “Rehab” from having baby.

Step 3- Rebuild
This is between 18 weeks and less than 12 months after having baby. Keep in mind every mama is different and you may feel ready earlier or later than some to begin this stage. This is where you are going to focus on rebuilding your strength and muscle mass.

Step 4- Return to High impact exercises if you did those before or intend to start. This can also be done anywhere between the 18 weeks and 12 months as long as your doctor has cleared you to do so.

Once postpartum, always postpartum (You can’t unhave your baby) so it is completely okay to start your postpartum fitness journey at any given time, even if your baby isn’t such a baby anymore. If you’re ready to get started and you want a women’s health coach and pre and postnatal certified personal trainer helping you along the way, Please feel free to reach out to me HERE.