7 Steps to Rebuild Your Core Post-Birth

This bite-sized routine can help you as a busy mum on your way to getting stronger & more active, reversing common pains and risks in the motherhood body.

Suitable from 4 weeks in a gentle way, then a few months make it harder as you get better at core control again.

This flow is easy and effective at helping mamas recover from common (but not normal) issues like prolapse, incontinence, back pain & tummy separation (DRAM). 

Give it a try! And if you want help with it, Dominique is a great specialist to have on your support team. You can join the on-line 4 Week OnDemand Course for more info and specialised, progressive video workouts.


1 Deep Breathing

 Start with a deep, 360-degree breath to downtrain your nervous system and pelvic floor. It's calming and therapeutic. You can add some stretches to your deep breaths to help open and re-balance the tight areas in the body. 

2 Pelvic Floor Exercises 

 These are great for increasing awareness, blood flow, and functional strength. Focus on the release and squeeze of your pelvic floor muscles. Weakness is trained with strong, long holds upward & inward. Tightness is trained with full relaxation as well as lifts. Integrating your pelvic floor exercises into full body exercises is great training for daily life & improves posture & sexual function too.

3 Dynamic Breathing 

Did you know that dynamic breathing techniques can help heal tummy diastasis and strengthen the pelvic floor? Our diaghram forms the top of the canister of our core with the pelvic floor at the bottom and abdominals wrapping around the middle. Breathing techniques can lift the pressure off your pelvic floor, when done correctly. Exhale and the pelvic floor is designed to lift! 

4 Use Gravity

Activating core muscles against gravity in a four-point kneeling position is safe and doesn't involve crunches. Crunchless core (no sit-ups for a while!) helps build correct tension through the deep TA muscles that support our posture. You can also practice core bracing against gravity leaning in at the bathroom sink with some incline pushups! 

5 Corset Core

Bracing your core between ribs to hips for Pilates exercises helps rebuild strength safely post-birth. We add levers to pilates exercises by keeping our core braced and moving our legs or arms. These are the gentlest options and you need to manage intra-abdominal pressure to stay safe as you progress. Brace your abdominals as you pick up your toddlers! You might benefit from wearing a support garment if you have pelvic pain or back pain. 

6 Add Load

Make your core exercises progressively harder to train for daily life and fitness goals. Think about core control plus twist, push, pull, lift & longer or heavier levers away from our core. As we add load to our core work, we continue to monitor if our abdominals & pelvic floor are supporting the extra challenge. If not we regress & can re-test & try again in a few weeks. 

7 Release

Always remember to release any tension at the end of your exercise set. If you use benwa balls or a jade egg, release and clean it! Finding a moment to release and open the body with a deep breath helps keep tension at bay, brings mindfulness into mothering and helps reset your mood consciously.

This entire routine can take just 10-15 minutes a day. How amazing is that?

If you're interested in more exercise routines and wellbeing support post-partum, I invite you to join my online programs. Access videos that support your post-partum wellbeing.

Much love,

Dominique x

JOIN NOW ON-DEMAND on the Templewell Studio website or app.