3 Low Impact Postpartum Exercises

“When and how can I resume cardio after baby?”.

That’s one of the most frequently asked questions I got from my postpartum clients.

Your body and mind might be craving more movement, but are you really ready and what are the steps you need to consider?

In the following video, I show you a series of low impact postpartum exercises that are safe to do after baby. 

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Leslie Abraham

By Leslie Abraham

low impact postpartum exercises

Here is an overview of what I’m going to cover in this blog post:

Table of Contents

When to start low-impact postpartum exercise?

Common guidelines advise women to wait after their 6 weeks check up to resume any kind of postpartum exercise. 

However, there are some activities that you can do before this. It’s absolutely no problem to begin your pelvic floor and core recovery with gentle and specialized breathing exercises. You can check out this blog post on how to start your early postpartum recovery. 

When it comes to low impact postpartum exercise, you can perfectly begin slowly without engaging in super sweaty cardio routines. 

The ACOG, the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists, advise that postpartum women get at least 150 minutes of physical activity throughout the week. It can perfectly be cut in 10 minutes chunks throughout a day.

Low-impact, means that these exercises are easy on your joints and your whole body. What I will add to this, especially for postpartum, is that it shouldn’t bring any feeling of pressure on your pelvic floor and/or your abdominal wall. Especially if you had a c-section or have diastasis recti. 

Most importantly, your best cue will be to ask yourself “How do I feel when doing this?”. Do you feel any pain, discomforts, weaknesses? These are all cues that it might not be the right kind of exercise to do for now and that you need to spend more time on your postpartum recovery.

It shouldn’t bring any feeling of pressure on your pelvic floor and/or your abdominal wall. Especially if you had a c-section or have diastasis recti. 

Pre-requisites:

As I just mentioned, spending some time on your pelvic floor and core recovery is a must before engaging in more demanding activities with coordinated movements. 

Mastering what I call DCP breathing is one of the pre-requisite. You want to be able to protect your pelvic floor and safely engage your abdominal muscles before bringing the intensity up by walking for extended periods, cycling or swimming.

If you had a c-section, a complete healing is preferred. However, you can still work on your pelvic floor and core recovery by using the DCP breathing method.

How to start low impact postpartum exercises?

Once you feel comfortable enough and up for it, slowly increase the intensity of your exercise regime.

You can then safely transition from your postpartum recovery program to more cardio activities. 

You want to begin with very low-impact type of exercises:

  • Start by walking, a little more each time you feel up for it and see how you feel during and after
  • Start with 10 minutes a day, and then, add 5 minutes more every 2 or 3 days
  • Once you feel fine walking around and for an extended period, and you have more energy, you can add more activities like the ones I show you in the above video. Always keep in mind to protect your core and pelvic floor before beginning a set of exercises and thoroughly warm-up
  • Choose exercises that safely bring your heart rate up without building more pressure against your abdominal wall and pelvic floor
  • Stay away from any kind of jumping or plank like movement, especially in the first weeks of resuming physical activity
  • Begin by moving slowly and mindfully before focusing on moving fast. Posture and safety first Ladies!
  • Stay hydrated throughout your workout
  • Swimming is a good option as long as all scar tissues are perfectly healed. See your OB-GYN for this
  • Cycling is a bit more challenging. Posture is an issue for most. I see a lot of women cycling with their back rounded resulting in a build-up of abdominal pressure and thus more pressure on your pelvic floor. I will advise to begin with a thorough pelvic floor and core recovery and follow a strengthening program to work on posture before going cycling more frequently.

3 low-impact postpartum exercises:

Here is a step-by-step detailed guide of the exercises shown in the video:

1. March in place, 30 seconds:

The secret here is to stay focused on your posture. Keep your shoulders down and away from your ears, your shoulder blades together and most of all keep breathing.

Bring your knees at a height that feels comfortable in your hips. Monitor your pelvic floor and core muscles. See if you feel any weakness, and protect your pelvic floor by gently lifting it from the beginning. Engage your deep core muscles by breathing out.

low impact postpartum exercise

2. Side steps and rows, 30 seconds:

This exercise will help you to work on your posture even more.

By adding a rowing motion while stepping side to side, you’re engaging even further the muscles in your back and opening your shoulders. It will help you to fight against the rounded shoulder position that we tend to develop postpartum.

Again place your focus on the muscles between your shoulder blades but also your pelvic floor and core muscles.

This whole body movement will definitely bring your heart rate up!

low impact postpartum exercises

3. Squats and knee up, 30 seconds:

Let’s finish this circuit with out most challenging movement, now that your body is ready for it.

Breathe in, and go down in your squat.

Breathe out, come up and pull one knee up.

Repeat on the other side.

You want to monitor how your pelvic floor is feeling when going up and down. Don;t try to go too low too fast. Try to see how it feels first. You want to be aware of your deep core muscles too and keep them engaged throughout the whole movement but especially when breathing out.

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About Leslie Abraham
She is the founder and owner of Bonjour Baby, and the creator of the prenatal and postpartum Bonjour Baby online courses. Leslie is a prenatal and pediatrics Osteopath DO (France), certified pre and postnatal personal trainer and women health coach. She has devoted more than 10 years of her career to help woman be ready for birth and recover from it in the following months and years.
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Get your FREE Postpartum Guide
And start your Postpartum Recovery now!
SEND IT TO ME!

Again, if you need more help and assistance to start your pregnancy support journey or your postpartum recovery, you can always reach out to me to schedule a free online consultation. Always a pleasure to help and support Mamas during their journey!

Disclaimer: Bonjour Baby strongly recommends that you consult with your physician before beginning and enrolling in any exercise program, even if you are in good physical condition, not suffering from any complications, and able to participate in the exercise.
Bonjour Baby is not a licensed medical care provider and represents that it has no expertise in diagnosing, examining, or treating medical conditions of any kind or in determining the effect of any specific exercise on a medical condition.

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