5. Do I have to wait for my 6 week postpartum clearance to workout?

Wondering if you really need to wait for your 6-week postpartum clearance before starting to move your body again? In this episode of The Vibrantly You® Podcast, Meg and Caitlin unpack what that “6-week green light” from your OB or midwife actually means — and why it's not a magic switch that signals your body is ready for full workouts.

They discuss what gets checked during that appointment, why recovery timelines look different for everyone, and how to safely reconnect with your body before jumping back into pre-pregnancy or pregnancy-style workouts.

You’ll learn:

• What postpartum clearance actually involves
• Why “healed” doesn’t always mean “ready” for exercise
• How to begin moving safely before or after the 6-week mark
• The 5 foundational steps to rebuilding strength postpartum — including breathwork, core connection, and mobility
• Why slow, strategic movement is key for long-term strength and recovery

If you’re in those early weeks after birth and wondering how to get started — this is the episode for you

 

For a visual of 360 breathing in early postpartum, check out THIS VIDEO.

For more guidance on returning to fitness postpartum, check out Meg's program HERE. 

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only and not to diagnose or treat any conditions. Before beginning any type of fitness or nutrition program, it is your responsibility to consult with a medical professional.

Connect with us! 

• Instagram @vibrantlyyoupodcast
• Meg's Instagram @vibrantmamawellness
• Caitlin's Instagram @wholesomehuntressnutrition

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Very first thing, 360 breathing. Second thing, bringing in that pelvic floor in coordination with the breath. Third, starting to connect to your core. That's really going to be your foundation. Welcome to the Vibrantly You podcast. We're your hosts, Megan Martnow.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Caitlin Cipriano. In this podcast, we talk about fitness and nutrition on your motherhood journey. Whether you're trying to conceive, pregnant, post-part, or beyond, you're welcome here.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Nothing is off-limit, and our goal is to support you in this important season of life so that you can feel vibrantly you. As a reminder, this information is not medical advice. Please see the show notes for more details.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Today we are going to be talking about waiting for the sixth-ish week clearance to begin working out after having baby. This is such a big question that moms have.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yeah. So many moms, whether they have a vaginal or a C-section birth, typically are cleared to resume all quote unquote regular activity, which includes returning to working out, having sex, you know, resuming normal activities at around six weeks postpartum. Maybe if you had a more complicated birth, sometimes people don't get clearance until like eight weeks or so. But I feel like the vast majority of people are getting cleared around six weeks. And so typically in this appointment, you know, you're going to see your midwife or your OBGYN, and they're basically just checking to make sure that you physically healed from childbirth. So what this means is they're checking to see if your uterus is back down to its regular size, checking in on your bleeding, if it's stopped, and just like regular like vaginal discharge has resumed. They check your blood pressure to make sure that's not high. Maybe you'll have a pelvic exam. And they'll check your stitches if you had any tearing, or they'll check your incision if you had a C-section. So it's really just like making sure you have healed from childbirth. I do think it's important to note that you don't just hit six weeks postpartum and it's like a magical switch, like boom, like my body is, you know, transformed and I'm ready to go. Um, because I think sometimes we have that in our heads that it's like, I just gotta make it to six weeks and then everything is normal again. Um just to reiterate, it means your body has healed from birth, that you don't have any lingering complications. And just because you have been cleared to resume again, quote unquote, like normal activity, um, it doesn't mean necessarily that your body is ready to exercise. Um, so that's just an important thing I want you to remember. Um, but I even know, like Caitlin said in the beginning, like sometimes you might feel ready before then. Um, so it's really going to depend on the person. And I do always recommend that you have a conversation with your doctor because they are gonna actually have eyes on your body, hopefully, and they will know best. Um, so really that question of like, can I work out before I'm cleared depends. Um, it's gonna look different for every single person. It's going to depend on what kind of birth you had and how your healing is progressing.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, I think, like you said, it's so different from person to person and pregnancy to pregnancy. Um, I know I don't think I was really feeling like ready at six weeks with either one of my kids, but I definitely felt like when I had Luca, who was my first, um I had that idea in my head, like you said, like, okay, like boom, it's six weeks. Like, I'm just gonna be ready. And I remember because it was COVID, I had just a telehealth appointment for my sixth week, which is like a whole nother thing. But um, I think I just felt like, oh yeah, like I'm gonna start resuming my normal workouts and it's just gonna be fine. And that's you know, in reality, not how it went. Um, and I feel like it took me even longer to like try to get back into even some of those like slower things with Gianna this time too, you know, not necessarily even like from physical inhabit like inhibitance, but just like more so like my capacity level as trying to deal with like a newborn and a toddler-aged kid.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, yeah, that like totally changed the game when you also have another kid. Um, I know for me, like, so with my first, I had a C section. Um, so I did wait until the six week mark, um, because I just really was not feeling even remotely up for it. Um, but then again, like you said, you know, in my head, I'm like, oh, six weeks, you know, everything's changed. I'm a new person. Um, did my first like workout and I was like, what the hell? Like this is not, this is not good. Um and it took me a really long time to actually like really get back into things. Um, with my second, it was vaginal birth. So overall my recovery was just better. Um, but I did do like a little bit here and there, which I'll kind of like get into, like what you can do if you're feeling ready. Um, but not like full on exercising until I think I was like closer to eight weeks becauseitis uh at six weeks postpartum, which was not planned, obviously. Um I think that's important to note too that like things are gonna come up in those early weeks postpartum, things you might not be expecting, like mastitis. Um I also had like retained placenta that I had to go in and get that taken care of. Oh my gosh, yeah, things can happen. Um and so you know, give yourself grace during that period. Um so yeah, I guess basically, like I said, the answer is it depends on whether or not you have to wait. Um, but if you are feeling up for it, I would at least give yourself two weeks, like two weeks of doing pretty much nothing. Um, you do need rest. It's important to remember that. Like I know we talked about this in another episode where Caitlin was talking about postpartum nutrition. Um, your body has been through a lot, and it's important to remember that like we need to take that time to heal and recover. Yeah. Um, so I would really recommend in those first two weeks, just relaxing as much as you can. Um, but then if after that two-week mark, you're like, okay, like I'm craving a little bit of movement, like what can I do? Um, there are some things that you can do, and I really just want you to remember to start slowly. Um, we are not jumping back into pre-pregnancy workout routines, not even really jumping into, you know, what you were doing in your third trimester if you were someone who worked out during pregnancy. We're really going slow and methodically here. So the very first thing that you're gonna want to do is called 360 breathing. So this is also known as diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing. You're really trying to connect to your breath, getting really good deep inhales and exhales. And that sounds really simple, um, but especially after you've given birth, um, remember like you just had a baby in your belly. Um, and the significance of that cannot be understated. Like having a baby in your abdomen is pushing all of your organs and squishing them, and like everything is like not where it usually is. So then once that baby and the placenta come out, now you suddenly have so much room and your organs are like shifting again. So, like having a good breathing pattern can actually be a little difficult. Um, so we do want to take that time to just really establish good breathing patterns because this is going to help with your core recovery and your pelvic floor. Um, so I have a lot of videos on how to do 360 breathing on my Instagram. So be sure to go check those out. But basically, on the inhale breath, you want to feel your rib cage expanding in 360 degrees. So you're really allowing your lungs and that rib cage to fill with air, your belly is expanding as well, and then on the exhale breath, you're audibly blowing all that air out, and everything is kind of like contracting down. Um, you can really do 360 breathing like right after you give birth because it's just breathing. So that is actually something you could do in those first two weeks. Um but that's where I want you to start, regardless of if you're two weeks postpartum or seven weeks postpartum. Always start with breathing and re-establishing good breathing mechanics. Then the next thing is going to be pelvic floor activation. And this kind of goes hand in hand with the 360 breathing. So when we inhale, like I said, and you're letting everything expand on that inhale breath, you're also allowing those pelvic floor muscles to relax. And then as you exhale, blowing all that air out, the pelvic floor muscles are going to slightly contract. And we really want this pelvic floor activation to become passive. So we don't want to have to like actually think about, okay, I'm relaxing my pelvic floor muscles. Now I'm contracting them. Like we want them to be doing that on their own. Typically, they are doing that. But again, like I said, after birth, after pregnancy, when everything's kind of all like jumbled up and weird, um, they kind of like forget what they're supposed to be doing. And especially if you did have a, well, actually, if you had a vaginal birth or a C-section birth, your pelvic floor muscles are impacted. So there's also some trauma to those muscles. Um, and so they just need to learn how to work properly again. And this is gonna help with things like if you're leaking, um, if you are feeling pelvic floor heaviness or like pressure, um, if you have pain, um, even like tailbone pain, low back pain, all of that can come back to like issues with the pelvic floor. Um, so learning how to coordinate those pelvic floor muscles with the breathing, super important early on postpartum. And then kind of once you're getting the hang of those, you start to bring in core connection. And so again, this is all connected with that breathing. So on the inhale breath, you're allowing your core muscles to relax. And on the exhale, you're gently engaging your core muscles. Um, this is definitely a little more complicated than for me to explain on the podcast. Um, but again, I have a lot of examples on my Instagram page, so you can always head over there and like visually see what I'm talking about. Um, but that's kind of like the third step. So first step, breathing. Second, bringing in the pelvic floor, third, you're bringing in your core connection. Um, and that's really gonna be the foundation for your like postpartum recovery. Um, and those are things that you can do before you're actually cleared because as you can tell, I mean, they're really low impact. Um, it's not anything that's strenuous. Um, and it takes a long time to kind of get that coordination going. And then besides that, you know, you can be going on walks. Um, again, I'd probably wait until you're like two weeks postpartum to start walking, um, just so you do get that rest that we talked about. Um, and like slowly build up your walks too. Like, I don't want you to go outside at two weeks postpartum and walk three miles because you're probably not gonna be very happy after you do that. Um, but starting off with like short walks, and you know, as those start to feel good, you can go a little longer. Um, you can always be doing like stretching and mobility stuff, especially if you are breastfeeding and you're kind of like hunched over with your baby. And even if you're not breastfeeding, like even bottle feeding, um, like I bottle fed my first kiddo. I exclusively pumped with him. So even like the pump, like I was always hunched over the pump, or I was like hunched over bottle feeding him. Um, we tend to just come into this hunched over position. So trying to like open up the chest, get some good mobility, that's always a great thing to do as well. Um, so I know that was like a lot of information, but to recapful. Yeah. So to recap, um, very first thing, 360 breathing. Second thing, bringing in that pelvic floor in coordination with the breath. Third, starting to connect to your core. That's really going to be your foundation. Um, and then on top of that, doing some short walks, you can work up to longer walks and then incorporating some mobility whenever you can, especially upper back, neck mobility, because that's where we tend to be the most like stiff and hunched over in that first six-week period.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, I think I mean it's something so foundational, but it's so important, especially in that recovery period, because it can be so nuanced based on what your birthing experience looked like, or even issues maybe that you had during pregnancy. If you did have like, yeah, like I had like S eye joint pain. And so this like recovery period, especially my second birth, has been really challenging and just like really like my body like relearning how to appropriately move moves.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Yeah. Well, and I think it's important too, like every pregnancy is gonna be different. Like, like you said, your second recovery was a little bit harder than the first. And it's like sometimes people don't think that that's gonna happen, you know, they're like, Oh, I've already done this, like it was easy, it's gonna be no problem. Like, just remembering that it is gonna be different for each pregnancy that you have as an individual, but also not to compare yourself to other people or being like, oh, that girl on Instagram, she's you know, four weeks postpartum and she's back in the gym. What's wrong with me? Nothing is wrong with you. We're all going at our own pace, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Yeah, no, that's helpful. I think that comparison game, especially with social media being so present, um, can be really hard for moms and bring that like whole bounce back, you know, piece into place. And it's like you do not need to bounce back or do anything. Just like learn how to like appropriately move and nourish and take care of your body during this time frame because it's gonna help serve you down the road so much more. Absolutely. Yeah. So well, thank you, Meg. That was so helpful. I think that wraps up our episode on exercise during that first six-week postpartum. Um, and if you guys are looking for more like structured guidance on returning to fitness, um, we are going to include in the show notes the link for Megan's six week return to fitness program, which is phenomenal. It's going to walk again, like walk you through all of those things that you just talked about step by step so you don't have to do any guesswork. Um, and otherwise, we will see you guys back here next week for another episode.