When you decide to start exercising after giving birth is entirely up to you. Recovery after pregnancy and childbirth is highly individual! Before you take the step to start activating your body again, it may be good to define what is meant by exercise for you. If you have lived a physically active life both before and during pregnancy, you may see exercise as something completely different than if you have not exercised during your pregnancy and the time before. Regardless, it can be good to start small and try to listen to your body.

If you choose to exercise quite close to childbirth, you should be aware that your body probably hasn't had time to recover yet, even though you may feel mentally ready. The strain of exercise puts stress on the pelvic floor and surrounding tissues that it probably can't cope with, partly because the body's joints have been softened by the pregnancy hormone relaxin. However, if you start with very low-intensity movements, there are exercises that can feel gentle and supportive to the body.

How can you exercise after giving birth?

A good form of exercise (as soon as you feel ready) is to seek a soft contact with the pelvic floor muscles. Then there are different types of identification exercises that you can do, watch the video called preventive training - strengthen your inner cylinder for great tips along the way! Remember that it can take time - long time - to reconnect with all your muscles. The focus should be primarily on this, to support your body to cope with the demands of toddler life: carrying, rocking and lifting your baby.

It is then good to start loading the body and return to what falls within the scope of your "regular" training successive. The aim should be to perform movements correctly and feel in control through them, rather than weight or intensity. The intensity can then be increased gradually to give the body time to get used to that load.

Only you can feel what makes you feel good, but there's no harm in starting at a slow pace and gradually increasing. This will reduce the risk of injury while gradually strengthening your body.