Almost every mom is handed the same sentence at her six-week check-up: "you're cleared for exercise." And almost every mom hears it as "you can now do what you did before."
Those are not the same thing.
What "cleared" really means
The six-week check confirms that the obvious things have healed — the uterus has involuted, stitches have closed, bleeding has settled. It says almost nothing about whether your pelvic floor can tolerate running, or whether your abdominal wall is managing pressure well enough to load it.
Six weeks is where the rebuilding starts. It is not where it finishes.
A staged return that works
Weeks 0–6: breathe and reconnect
Gentle diaphragmatic breathing, pelvic floor activation, walking as tolerated. Unglamorous, and by far the highest-value work you will do all year.
Weeks 6–12: rebuild the foundation
Loaded but controlled strength work — glutes, deep core, upper back. This is the phase where we address diastasis recti properly, by teaching the abdominal wall to manage pressure rather than by doing endless "tummy exercises".
Week 12 onwards: add impact, carefully
Running, jumping and heavier lifting come back once you can manage load without leaking, heaviness or doming through the midline. For some moms that is three months; for others it is closer to nine. Both are normal.
The signs you have gone too far, too soon
- Leaking urine when you cough, sneeze, run or lift
- A feeling of heaviness or dragging in the pelvis
- Doming or coning down the centre of your abdomen under effort
- Pain that shows up the day after training and lingers
None of these mean you are broken. They mean the load is currently ahead of the capacity — and capacity is trainable.
That is the whole job of a biokineticist: to sequence that rebuild so you get back to everything you love, without paying for it a decade from now. Come train with us.