Is this suitable for early postpartum?

Yes — early postpartum is what Restore is built for, but it starts once your doctor or midwife has cleared you to train, usually around six weeks, and later than that if you had a caesarean, a significant tear, or any complication in birth or recovery.

The short version: the programme begins at medical clearance, commonly the six-week check and later for some women; the first block is breathing, core reconnection and mobility with light foundational strength, not loaded lifting; and the weeks before clearance are not empty — walking, positioning and gentle breath work belong there, they are just not a programme.

What does "early postpartum" actually mean?

It is used loosely, which is part of the confusion. Here is how I use it:

• Weeks 0–6. Immediate recovery. Bleeding tapers, the uterus shrinks back, stitches or an incision knit together. This is not a training window. What happens here is covered in what happens after I give birth.
• Weeks 6–12. Early return to structured training. Healing is well underway but not finished. This is where Restore begins for most women.
• Three to twelve months. Still postpartum. Tissue is more tolerant, sleep is usually still broken, and load can climb steadily.
• Beyond a year. Often still your first honest attempt at rebuilding, particularly if you never trained before or never got past the leaking and the aching hips.

If you are reading this at five days postpartum, the answer is not "no forever". It is "not this, not yet".

Why does the programme wait for clearance?

Because I cannot see your notes, your incision, your bleeding or your blood pressure, and your clinician can.

Clearance is not a formality. The postnatal check is where a provider looks for infection, anaemia, wound healing, blood pressure problems, prolapse symptoms, and how your mood is holding up. Those are the things that change whether loading your body is sensible this month or next. No online programme can assess them, and any programme that tells you it can is selling you something.

Clearance is permission to start loading. It is not proof that you have healed — the six-week check is a beginning, not a finish line.

The opposite mistake is just as common: treating week six as the day recovery starts. It is not. Gentle movement, breathing and getting upright are part of the first six weeks in most uncomplicated births, and I have written separately about how soon you can lift after having a baby — the honest answer is sooner than most women are told, once you accept that "lifting" in week one means a car seat and a toddler, not a barbell.

For context on how conservative six weeks really is: the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' 2020 guidance on activity in pregnancy and the postpartum period says physical activity can be resumed gradually as soon as it is medically safe, and sets a target of at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week once you are up and running. Gradually is the operative word, and "medically safe" is your clinician's call, not mine.

What do the first weeks of Restore actually look like?

Stage one: breath and core reconnection

Core reconnection means learning to coordinate your breath with your deep abdominal muscles and pelvic floor again — exhaling as you lift or exert, letting the muscles release as you breathe in. After nine months of a changing torso, that timing is usually off. Nothing here is heavy. Most of it can be done lying down, some of it while feeding a baby.

Stage two: mobility and foundational strength

Hips, ribs, mid-back and ankles, because they stiffen from feeding positions, carrying and sleeping badly. Alongside that: squat patterns to a box, hip hinges with almost no load, rows, carries, split stance work. Two short sessions a week is a real starting dose, not a compromise. Twenty to thirty minutes.

Stage three: progressive loading

Weight goes up, ranges get longer, single-leg work gets harder, and impact — running, jumping, skipping — comes last and only when you are ready for it. Impact returns late for a reason: it is the highest demand on the pelvic floor of anything in the programme.

Is it suitable after a caesarean?

Yes, and it needs more patience. A caesarean is abdominal surgery. The scar and the layers underneath are still remodelling for months, so direct abdominal work is introduced later and more slowly, and you may need longer than six weeks before clearance. Tell me what your surgeon or obstetrician said, including any restriction on lifting weight, and I will build to it rather than around it.

What if I'm still leaking, or there's a gap in my abdominals?

You are not disqualified. You are the reason the early block exists.

A gap along your midline — diastasis recti, the separation of the two halves of the abdominal wall — is extremely common straight after birth and narrows for many women over the first year. A Norwegian cohort of around 300 first-time mothers, published in 2016, found diastasis in roughly six out of ten women at six weeks postpartum and around a third still at twelve months. Common does not mean irrelevant, and width matters less than whether you can generate tension across it.

For leaking, Cochrane reviews of pelvic floor muscle training in postpartum women consistently support supervised training over doing nothing — which is why it is programmed, not bolted on. But if you leak daily, feel heaviness or bulging in your vagina, or feel like something is sitting low, see a pelvic health physiotherapist. That is an assessment, not a defeat, and it is the single best use of an appointment in this period.

Can I train on broken sleep and while breastfeeding?

Yes, with a lighter dose than you think you need. Training does not reduce milk supply if you are eating and drinking enough, and feeding before a session is usually more comfortable. What broken sleep does change is how much you can recover between sessions, so two short sessions consistently beat four ambitious ones you abandon. Some weeks one session is the win. That is not failure, it is programming.

Stop and get help if you notice

• Bleeding that gets heavier, turns bright red again after it had settled, or smells offensive.
• Fever, chills, or redness, heat or discharge at a caesarean incision or a tear.
• Pain that increases during or after a session rather than settling within a day.
• New or worsening heaviness, dragging or bulging in your vagina, or leaking that starts after a session.
• Calf pain or swelling on one side, chest pain, or breathlessness that is out of proportion to the effort — urgent, same day.
• Dizziness or fainting, severe headache, or vision changes.
• Thoughts of harming yourself, or feeling persistently unable to cope. Tell a person today, not next week.

This is general information about how the programme is structured, not medical advice for your situation. Your doctor, midwife or pelvic health physiotherapist knows your body and your notes.

Where to start

1. If you are under six weeks postpartum, do not start a programme. Walk when you feel able, and read what happens after I give birth so you know what normal looks like.
2. Go to your postnatal check with specific questions: can I start strength training, any restriction on load, anything about my scar or tear I should work around.
3. Once you are cleared, tell me your birth, your clearance date, any complications, and how much sleep you are actually getting.
4. Start with two short sessions a week and keep them short enough that you finish them.
5. Book a pelvic health physiotherapist if you have any leaking, heaviness or pain — in parallel with training, not instead of it.