Recovery after pregnancy and childbirth is highly individual. Only you can sense when you’re ready to start exercising, and when that time comes there are a few things to keep in mind to give your body time to get used to the load. We explain more below!

Before you take the step to start getting your body active again, it may be good to define what exercise means to you. If you have lived a physically active life both before and during pregnancy, you may see exercise completely differently than if you have not exercised during your pregnancy and before. Regardless, it can be good to start small and try to listen to your body.

If you choose to exercise quite quickly after giving birth, you should be aware that your body has not had time to recover yet, even if you may feel ready mentally. The strain of exercising exposes the pelvic floor and surrounding tissues to stresses that they probably cannot handle because your body’s joints have been softened by the pregnancy hormone relaxin. However, if you start with very low-intensity movements there are exercises that may feel supportive, pain-relieving or restorative.

A good form of exercise as soon as you feel ready is to gently exercise your pelvic floor muscles. There are different types of identification exercises that you can do, watch the video called “preventive exercise – strengthen your inner cylinder” for great tips along the way. Doing these in combination with breathing exercises is a very good form of exercise in those early days after childbirth.

It is also good to start straining your body and gradually return to your regular exercise routine. The goal should be to perform movements correctly and feel control through them, rather than heaviness or intensity. The intensity should gradually increase so that your body has time to get used to that strain.

Only you know what you are comfortable with, but it doesn’t hurt to start at a slow pace and gradually increase. This reduces the risk of getting an injury while gradually strengthening your body.