Postpartum Workout Plan (Gentle Rebuild)

About this plan

Three gentle sessions a week that rebuild from the inside out: breath first, then the deep core and glutes, then movement.

Day one opens with a minute of mindful breathing, then cat-cow, pelvic tilts into bridges, glute bridges and bird dogs. Day two moves to standing pelvic tilts, wall squats, rear lunges, standing hip abduction and kneeling kickbacks. Day three covers lotus pose breathing, sit squats, low glute bridges, bird dogs and scapular wall slides.

Get cleared first. Six weeks is the usual checkpoint for an uncomplicated vaginal birth and longer after a caesarean, but the number matters less than what your provider says about your specific recovery.

Breathing comes first because it is the foundation everything else sits on. The diaphragm and the pelvic floor work as a unit — the diaphragm descends on the inhale and the pelvic floor moves with it. Rebuilding that coordination before adding load is the difference between a core that recovers and one that stays weak while you do planks on top of it.

The order across a session is deliberate: breath, then deep core, then glutes, then movement. Do not skip to the end.

There is no crunch, sit-up or full plank anywhere in this plan. If you have any degree of abdominal separation — and most people do immediately postpartum — those exercises work against closing it. Bird dogs and pelvic tilts do the opposite.

Watch for coning along the midline, any leaking, or a feeling of heaviness in the pelvic floor. Any of the three means back off and, ideally, see a pelvic health physiotherapist. It is the single highest-value referral in postpartum recovery and it is badly underused.