After having a baby, many women are itching to get moving again. Maybe running is your therapy, lifting is calling your name, or you just want to get back on the field with your team. That excitement is exactly what we love to see.
But postpartum, your body is still recalibrating. Jumping straight back into high-impact training before you’re ready can do more harm than good. However, with the right approach, almost every mum can return to the activity she loves. It just has to be done in the right order.
Strength before speed
Every type of movement carries its own risks and rewards, and understanding both is the key to a safe return. Take running, for example, most women are surprised by just how much strength is required before it’s safe to lace up again. It’s not just about your cardio fitness; your joints, core, and pelvic floor all need to be load-ready first.
That means strength work comes first, and single-leg strength in particular. Exercises like these are deceptively simple but do a lot of heavy lifting (pun intended) for your hips, pelvis, and core stability:
- Single-leg squats – build the hip and knee control you need before any running or jumping
- Glute bridges (progressing to single-leg bridges) – wake up the glutes and support your lower back and pelvis
- Step-ups – mimic the single-leg loading of walking, running, and stairs (which, let’s be honest, you’re doing a lot of with a pram)
- Dead bugs or modified planks – reconnect your deep core and pelvic floor before adding heavier loads
- Standing rows or band pull-aparts – rebuild upper back and shoulder strength, especially handy for all that baby-carrying and pram-pushing
If you’re hoping to get back to running, you’ll likely need more single-leg strength work than you’d expect. It’s not the most exciting part of the process, but it pays off in fewer niggles and a much smoother return.
Bring the baby along
The best part? You don’t need a babysitter to get this work done. Pram walks, baby-weighted squats, or carrying your little one during floor-based exercises (think baby on chest during bridges, or babbling away beside you on a mat) are brilliant ways to fit strength work into nap-time gaps and feed schedules. It keeps your baby close, makes the most of the limited windows you’ve got, and turns “exercise time” into “time with bub” no extra childcare required.
Why it’s worth the patience
Research backs this up: targeted strength work doesn’t just reduce injury risk, it helps women feel genuinely stronger and more confident in their postpartum bodies as they return to sport. Skip this step, and you’re more likely to run into aches, pain, or setbacks that make the whole process more frustrating than it needs to be.
Getting back to exercise after having a baby is absolutely possible — it just needs the right foundations first. A physiotherapist can guide you through safe progressions, targeted strength exercises, and practical strategies (including how to fit it all in with a baby in tow) so that when you’re ready to run, lift, or get back on the field, your body is ready too.
If you’d like that guidance in person, our Mums and Bubs classes at Mosman and Balgowlah are designed exactly for this: physio-led sessions where bub comes too, so you can rebuild your strength without worrying about who’s watching the baby.
Move smart. Move strong. Your body (and your pelvic floor) will thank you. 💪