When can I start exercising after giving birth?
On this page
When your provider clears you, and that depends on your birth and how you’re healing. Until then, easy walks are where most people start, building up as you feel ready. The US guideline asks for 150 minutes a week through the first year after birth, and activity can help prevent postpartum depression.
There’s pressure from all sides to “bounce back,” and plenty of plans online promise your old body by a set date. Others treat the postpartum check as a starting gun, with no exercise before it and a full program the day after. Bodies heal at different speeds after different births, and a vaginal birth and a cesarean are very different recoveries. The useful date is the one your provider gives you.
What we’d do
Until your provider clears you, keep to walks at an easy pace, a little longer each week as you feel ready, with the stroller if that’s what gets you out the door. At your check, ask about strength work and harder sessions, and mention anything that hurts or feels off. Once you’re cleared, build toward 150 brisk minutes a week and two short strength sessions, the same as any adult.
Coming back after a birth is like coming home from a long trip. You don’t unpack everything the first night. You open one bag at a time.
What do the guidelines say?
The 2018 US guideline treats the postpartum period as the first year after delivery, and asks for at least 150 minutes a week of moderate activity during it. Women who were active or did vigorous activity before pregnancy can continue, and providers can help with how and when.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in its 2020 committee opinion, says women who were active before pregnancy can continue in the postpartum period, and that activity “can be an essential factor in the prevention of depressive disorders” after birth. It doesn’t set a number of weeks for everyone, which is why the answer is your provider’s clearance.
CDC says that during the first year after delivery, activity can decrease symptoms of postpartum depression, and MedlinePlus says to wait until your provider clears you for regular exercise, and not to overdo it.
Why depression is part of the answer
New parents often think of exercise as a way to lose the pregnancy weight, and get discouraged when there’s no time for it. ACOG and CDC both point to mood as one of the main reasons to move in that first year. Across 218 trials in adults with depression, walking or jogging eased symptoms the most of any exercise, and a walk with the stroller counts. More in does exercise help depression?
If you feel low most days, or have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, tell your provider, or call or text 988 any time.
What our session player does
If you’ve given birth in the last year and haven’t been cleared, the safety questions in Today’s session leave brisk walking only, with a note to ask at your check before strength and harder sessions. Once you’ve been cleared, change your answer and everything opens up.
6 sources
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Physical activity and exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period, Committee Opinion 804, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2020europepmc.org
- US Department of Health and Human Services, Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition, executive summary, 2018odphp.health.gov
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Physical activity for healthy pregnant or postpartum womencdc.gov
- MedlinePlus, Losing weight after pregnancymedlineplus.gov
- Noetel M and others, Effect of exercise for depression: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, BMJ, 2024europepmc.org
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline988lifeline.org
