Postpartum Exercise Readiness

This week's exercise menu

Skip:

Pelvic floor self-screen

If you answer "yes" to any of these — a pelvic-floor physio referral is the highest-leverage thing you can do for the next year of training.

• Any urinary leaking when you cough, sneeze, laugh or jump?
• A "heaviness", dragging or "falling out" sensation in the vagina?
• Pain during sex (relevant after the 6-week mark)?
• Lower back or pelvic pain that hasn't eased?

Diastasis recti self-check

Do this from week 3 onwards (and recheck monthly).

1. 1.Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat.
2. 2.Place 3 fingers horizontally on the midline, just above your belly button.
3. 3.Lift your head slightly off the floor (chin towards chest, don't curl up further).
4. 4.Press your fingers gently down — feel the gap between the two sides of your abdominal muscle.
5. 5.Repeat 2 cm below your belly button and 2 cm above.

C-section scar care

Return-to-running readiness check

From the 2019 Goom / Donnelly / Brockwell guidelines. All of these should be doable without symptoms before you start running.

• Walk briskly for 30 minutes comfortably
• Single-leg balance 10 seconds, each side
• Single-leg squat 10 reps, each side
• Jog in place 1 minute, no leaking or heaviness
• Forward bounds × 10 each side, no leaking or pain
• Hop in place 10 reps, each leg

All boxes ticked → start with walk/run intervals (4 min walk + 1 min run × 4–5). Any "no" or any leak → see a pelvic-floor physio first.