The body needs to recover after giving birth. Each childbirth is different, which makes everyone’s recovery conditions different too. We can mention the average duration of a recovery period before you can start working out again after giving birth. These weeks are depending on your childbirth but also on the pressure on the pelvis during sports, and the intensity of these sports. I will divide the sports across four categories with the amount of weeks for recovery.
Category 1: Sports or activities that can be done at a slow pace. After 4-6 weeks after giving birth, you can already do light pelvic floor muscle exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.
Category 2: Sports where the pressure on your pelvic floor muscles will gradually increase. You can do these sports 8-10 weeks after giving birth.
Category 3: Sports with an increased intensity that can be very pressuring for your pelvic floor muscles. You can do these sports 4-5 months after giving birth.
Category 4: Lastly, physical contact sports that are a bit on the dangerous side. These sports can be picked up 7-9 months after giving birth.
A lot of women are a bit anxious to fully get back to work. You’ll notice that your shape and muscular strength have decreased, while more is being expected from you. Think of the nightly feeding times or your gained exhaustion. So fully getting back to it is still off the table. Most women feel good and free enough to begin with sports 12 months after giving birth.
Take a look at my pelvic floor exercises as well, or take a look at the pelvic items in the Pelvic Store.
The fact of the matter is, if you entered your pregnancy in a good shape or have sported during your pregnancy, you will recover faster from giving birth. You’ll be able to get back to sporting or your daily routine within a shorter period of time. Enter your pregnancy in good shape and stay in shape, this will be very beneficial for your recovery.
When are you allowed to sport again after giving birth?
You’re probably wondering which sports can be continued to do. It depends on which sport and how you have experienced giving birth. I will help you out with some general lines to follow. Below you will find a table where I’ve mentioned a few sports and the estimated time of when you can continue them again. This depends on your physical recovery. Think of injuries, your vaginal birth experience or a C-section. This is really something that you should consider beforehand. The amount of weeks or months mentioned are a general amount of time.
When can you continue certain sports again? Which sports are being performed the most? We can divide this under four different categories. This makes it easier to look through.
Continuing sports after giving birth:
Category 1: Sports or activities that can be performed with minimal effort or that causes minimal pressure on the vagina and the pelvic floor muscles. After 2-4 weeks you’ll be able to do light pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.
Category 2: Sports where the pressure on your pelvic floor muscles is increasing. These sports can be taken on 6-8 weeks after giving birth.
Category 3: Sports that have an increased intensity and apply high pressure on your pelvic floor muscles. You can continue with those 4-5 months after giving birth.
Category 4: Lastly, sports where physical contact is necessary but with additional risks of dangers (injuries, i.e.). You can continue those sports 7-9 after giving birth.
Time table of continuing sports after a vaginal birth
| Sporting after a vaginal birth | Week 2 | Week 4 | Week 6 | Week 8 | Week 10 | Week 12 | Week 14 | Week 16 | Weak 18 | Week 20 | Week 22 | Week 24 | Week 26 | Week 28 | Week 30 | Week 32 | Week 34 | Week 36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category 1: Extremely low intensity sports. Pelvicfloor exercises on a mat, in bed, seated or standing, or small walks if you feel good enough. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Category 2: Low intensity sports. Yoga, light gym exercises, golfing, swimming, light intensity dancing or cycling. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Category 3: Higher intensity sports like fitness, running, tennis, squash, or cycling on a higher intensity level. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Category 4: Physical contact sports. Football, winter sports, hockey, fighting sports, basketball, etc. | X | X | X | X | X |
Time table of continuing sports after a C-section
| Sporting after a vaginal birth | Week 2 | Week 4 | Week 6 | Week 8 | Week 10 | Week 12 | Week 14 | Week 16 | Weak 18 | Week 20 | Week 22 | Week 24 | Week 26 | Week 28 | Week 30 | Week 32 | Week 34 | Week 36 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category 1: Extremely low intensity sports. Pelvicfloor exercises on a mat, in bed, seated or standing, or small walks if you feel good enough. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Category 2: Low intensity sports. Yoga, light gym exercises, golfing, swimming, light intensity dancing or cycling. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||
| Category 3: Higher intensity sports like fitness, running, tennis, squash, or cycling on a higher intensity level. | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||
| Category 4: Physical contact sports. Football, winter sports, hockey, fighting sports, basketball, etc. | X | X | X | X | X |
The sports with no pressure or a low intensity can be picked up after 2 weeks, followed by the gradually increasing pressure on your pelvic floor muscles, continuing with increased intensity sports next and lastly, the physical contact sports. I will now sum up a few most performed sports so that you can get an idea of what you can and can’t do after giving birth.
Let us discuss the categories and I will give you some more information and advice about these different sports and when you can continue these sports after childbirth.
Category 1: extremely low intensity sports
Let’s first start with the sports or activities that apply low to zero pressure on the pelvic floor muscles. You can often begin with those after 2 weeks. Do keep your recovery in mind. Maybe there are still some stitches that hurt or you can’t move properly because of the pain yet. Wait an extra week if that’s the case. Pain is a boundary and especially after giving birth, a boundary isn’t something you should cross for sporting or being active.
Extremely low intensity sports for after giving birth:
Extremely low intensity sports mean actions and/or exercises hat apply a little to no pressure on the vagina, anus, abs, or pelvic floor muscles.
Think of the next activities:
- Laying exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles back up. Take a look at my pelvic floor exercises for more instructions. Keep your vagina and anus in mind during the appointed retraction exercises, or the belly button retraction exercises to activate the abs again.
- Easy and calm walks. Try to pick up some daily things again. You will walk around a bit which will already help you with your recovery. Sorting out the baby clothes in the nursery is already a huge step and you’re using quite a lot of muscles during this activity.
Category 2: Low intensity sports
Secondly, we will discuss sports that apply a little pressure on your pelvic floor muscles. You can pick up these sports after 6-8 weeks after giving birth. This counts for a vaginal childbirth. For a C-section counts about 14 weeks on average.
Low intensity sports for after giving birth:
- Dancing. You can easily do this at your own pace.
- Swimming. Only if your injuries have properly healed.
- Cycling. If you don’t have any pain around your vagina.
- Fitness. Think of cardio or strength exercises. Breathe properly towards your stomach and don’t stop breathing. Not breathing increases the pressure on your pelvis. Have a read through my blog about the abdominal pressure to learn how to keep it low.
- Yoga or Pilates. Perfectly fine to do. Do be careful with stretching around an area where scarring has formed.
- Horse riding. Just like with cycling, only if you don’t experience pain around the vagina or around scars, etc.
Category 3: Increased intensity sports
Thirdly, we have the sports that you can pick up at some later point after giving birth. Think of a month or 3 with a vaginal birth, and 6 months after a c-section before you start with these sports, because of the increased pressure on the pelvic floor but also the total tax on the abs and the other muscles surrounding the pelvic area.
Increased intensity sports after giving birth:
- Athletics. Think of jumping and sprinting where you can receive rough hits. Your pelvic floor needs to be strong enough to be able to catch these hits.
- Gymnastics. This sport also includes jumping. Make sure that your pelvic floor has been recovered enough.
- Ball sports. Even if there isn’t any physical contact, ball sports require a lot of your effort. Only partake in these when your recovery is going steady.
- Tennis or squash. You’re making explosive movements which require you to be extremely fit.
- Running. A sport where the pressure is really high. You’re also getting some hits. Wait until you’re in proper shape.
These are all of the sports with an increased intensity. Check in with yourself on what is possible and slowly build up. Try it out for about half an hour and see what the effects of sports are on your body the next day.
Category 4: Physical contact sports
And lastly, the sports which requires you to wait 6 or more months. It can even take 9 months before you can happily participate again. It’s mostly important to listen to your body. Don’t rush and slowly build up. Check what the first session does to you before you go all in.
Physical contact sports after giving birth:
- Football. There are a lot of dangers lurking around the corner. Make sure you have a strong foundation and that you have recovered fully.
- Hockey. Chances of a lot of physical contact.
- Fighting sports. The sport where physical contact can’t be avoided.
- Basketball. Another sport where you can’t avoid physical contact.
- Kiting or watersports. Not necessarily a sport with physical contact, but it is a sport with a pretty high intensity.
- Winter sports. Not really a good idea to immediately pick up again.
It’s also important that you have worked on getting your pelvic floor back to a healthy state and have strengthened the muscles in and around the pelvis. That’s why you should start with the pelvic floor exercises for after giving birth in the first weeks and slowly expand.
Postponing sports after giving birth
Are there also situations where it’s recommended to wait with sports and is there no harm in waiting longer than the recommended time that has been mentioned here? Certainly. Think of taking a longer period to recover when you want to sport after giving birth if your childbirth or recovery has been going differently. The rough estimations above are based on average situations. It’s important to keep an eye on how your recovery is going.
The recovery period after giving birth is longer with the following situations:
- When you have been torn and have received stitches.
- When you have been cut and have received stitches.
- When you have undergone a C-section. Only go back to sporting once your abs have fully healed.
- Having had an instrumental delivery where a duckbill or other surgical instruments have been used.
- If you’re dealing with too many incontinence issues. You can start with the laying pelvic floor exercises to strengthen them after giving birth. But it will take a long time before you can work out and participate in sports.
Pain during sports after giving birth
Do you have other issues other than muscular aches when you’re sporting? Then do be very careful. You can experience pain in your pelvis, injuries or the pelvic floor. Think of pain in your tailbone, SI-joints, lower back, scars, stitches, pain around the pubic bone or maybe you have pain radiating towards your upper legs. It’s important to not shift too much weight on one leg if your pelvis hasn’t fully recovered yet. Stand firmly on both legs. A squat is a good exercise to perform, the lunge isn’t as beneficial. If you so happen to keep experiencing pain or other issues like incontinence, contact your doctor or visit a pelvic practitioner or pelvic physical therapist.
Advice for sporting after giving birth
Relaxation is the key, eventually. Take enough time to rest during sports but also throughout your day to day life. This way you will prevent overexertion. Have a read through my other blogs about pelvic pain, sports after giving birth, or pelvic instability. You will find pelvic floor exercises, advices and in-depth information. It’s also important to know who or where you can go to for your pelvic issues. It’s especially important to not walk around for too long if you’re experiencing incontinence issues for example. There’s a lot that can help you with your incontinence, so seek out a suitable specialist. I’ve written this all down in my other blogs, so have fun reading!
And lastly, are you looking for more information?
Long story short, the pelvis is a complicated part of your body. Hopefully this information was useful to you! If you’re still looking for some more information, feel free to take another look around on the website. It’s filled with in-depth information, tips, a web shop and also exercises. I still have a lot of articles with lots of information about other symptoms and issues. Feel free to click on the blue words to take you straight to the right page.
