"When can I exercise again?" might be the question I get asked most by new mums. And the answer most of us are given is "six weeks". As if a door opens on day forty-two and you walk through it back into your old life.
It does not work like that, and it is not meant to. So here is what that six-week number actually is, what you can do before it, and what a sensible build looks like after it.
As always: I am a yoga, barre and mindfulness teacher with postnatal training, not a doctor or a physio. Your midwife, GP or a pelvic health physio knows your birth. This is a picture to take to them, not a replacement for them.
Before the check: you are already moving
In the first weeks you are feeding, lifting, carrying, bending over a cot and getting up in the night. That is a lot of movement. You do not need to add a workout to it.
What you can add, from the first days if it feels comfortable:
Breath. Hands on your lower ribs. Breathe in and feel them widen, breathe out slowly and feel everything draw back in. It sounds too small to count. It is the foundation for everything that comes later.
Pelvic floor exercises. The NHS suggests building up to ten squeezes, three times a day, some held for up to ten seconds and some quick, breathing normally throughout. You can do them feeding, lying down or waiting for the kettle.
Short walks, when you feel ready, building up slowly.
After a caesarean the same applies, with walking encouraged from very early on and pelvic floor work once your catheter is out. If you had a caesarean, I wrote a whole post on the first twelve weeks here.
What the six-week check is
Your six to eight week postnatal check with your GP is a check on your recovery. It looks at how you are healing, your bleeding, your mood, and it is a good moment to raise anything that does not feel right, including leaking, heaviness or pain.
If you want to get back to exercise, say so, and ask. It is your appointment.
What it isn't
It is not a check of your pelvic floor strength, or of how your tummy muscles are coming back together, unless you ask about them. And being given the go-ahead does not mean your body is back to where it was before pregnancy.
It means you can start building gradually. The word that matters is gradually.
Your tummy muscles
During pregnancy the two sides of your stomach muscles separate to make room. This is normal, not damage. For many women the gap closes a lot on its own, and the NHS suggests seeing your GP if it is still obvious around eight weeks after birth, so they can refer you to a physio.
What matters more than the gap itself is whether your breath, your pelvic floor, your deep tummy muscles and your back start working together again. That comes back through an order, not through crunches.
The order I teach
Breath. The inhale widens, the exhale draws in.
Breath with a light lift. On the exhale, a light lift of the pelvic floor and lower belly. Switching on, not gripping.
Move one limb at a time while you keep that connection.
Add load. Bridges, squats to a chair, carrying with intention.
Build the challenge. Longer holds, more weight, harder shapes. There should be hard work in there. You are not fragile.
Impact last. Running and jumping usually come from around twelve weeks at the earliest, and often later.
Three things to keep checking as you go: can you keep breathing, does your belly stay flat along the middle instead of doming into a ridge, and does anything leak or feel heavy? If the answer changes, make the movement smaller. That is not going backwards. It is exactly the skill you are building.
When to get checked
Speak to your GP, or ask for a referral to a pelvic health physio, if you notice leaking, a heavy or dragging feeling low down, pain during or after movement, or a ridge along your belly that keeps showing up. These are common after birth. They are not a sign that you are broken. They are a sign that you deserve a professional's eyes on the foundations, and a physio appointment is one of the most useful things you can book in this season.
Months or years later
If your baby is six months old, or six years old, and you never quite came back into your body, none of this has an expiry date. Start at the breath. It works just as well now as it would have then.
The timeline
Six weeks is when you are checked. Feeling strong and at home in your body can take most of a year, and sometimes longer. You are not behind. There is no behind. There is only forward, whenever you are ready.
The Postnatal Reset opens on 2 November. Eight weeks, three short classes a week, built around exactly this order and made to be done with a baby in the room. From around six weeks after birth, or eight after a caesarean, and just as valid years later.
Join the waitlist to hear first and get the £47 founding price: she-smiles.com/waitlist
Sources: NHS, Your post-pregnancy body; Tommy's, When and how to exercise after a c-section.
