The Best Postpartum Workout Plan for Full-Body Strength

“Don’t plan or track your diet or training—just listen to your body,” said someone who’s full of shit.

New moms get advice like this all the time, but it’s too vague to be useful. Follow it, and you’ll likely eat too much or too little, or train too hard or not enough.

Either way, you won’t get the results you want. That is, you won’t feel stronger, happier, or like you’re gradually getting back to how you were before pregnancy.

What you really need is a clear, flexible postpartum workout plan and diet regimen that shows you exactly how to eat and train to rebuild strength safely and steadily.

And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this article. 

Key Takeaways

• Wait until you’ve been medically cleared and feel ready before starting a postpartum workout plan (usually 6–10 weeks).
• Lifting weights postpartum boosts strength, muscle function, mood, self-confidence, and weight loss.
• Effective postpartum exercise plans prioritize full-body workouts built around low-impact, compound exercises. You can also add low-impact cardio if you enjoy it. 
• Eat at “maintenance calories” (about as many calories as you burn daily) for at least the first 8–16 weeks after giving birth to support recovery.
• To get the best results, consider using a protein powder or protein snacks to boost your protein intake and a pre-workout for when you’re tired or unmotivated to train.

Table of Contents

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• When Can You Start a Postpartum Workout Plan?
• Considerations Before Starting Postpartum Exercise
• Benefits of Postpartum Workouts
• The Fundamentals of an Effective Postpartum Workout Plan
• The Best Postpartum Workout Plan for Full-Body Strength & Health
• Should Cardio Be Part of Your Postpartum Exercise Plan?
• How to Eat on Your Postpartum Workout Plan
• FAQ #1: What are the first exercises you should do postpartum?
• FAQ #2: Can you follow a postpartum strength training program while nursing?
• FAQ #3: What results can you expect from your postpartum workout routine?

When Can You Start a Postpartum Workout Plan?

Experts generally recommend waiting until you’ve been cleared by your doctor before starting a postpartum workout plan. For most women, that means around 6–8 weeks after a vaginal birth or 8–10 weeks after a C-section.

That said, no two bodies, births, or recoveries are the same, so there’s no universal rule.

If you want to do something before you get the all-clear, there’s solid evidence that practicing good posture and movement mechanics, doing breathing drills, and performing light pelvic floor and core exercises can help accelerate recovery without stressing your body. 

To learn more, check out this article:

Diastasis Recti Exercises: Everything You Need to Know About How to Fix Diastasis Recti

Considerations Before Starting Postpartum Exercise

Being given the green light at your check-up doesn’t automatically mean your body is ready for a strenuous postpartum exercise plan. It simply means there are no serious medical concerns stopping you from easing back into physical activity.

And that’s an important distinction.

“Healing adequately” is not the same as “ready to lift heavy weights.”

So before you get stuck into postpartum exercise, keep the following in mind:

• If you’re dealing with significant tearing, scarring, diastasis recti, prolapse, or incontinence, you’ll likely need to ease back into exercise (and high-impact exercise especially) more gradually.
• Estrogen levels drop sharply after you give birth and stay low if you’re breastfeeding. This can slow your recovery from exercise, so don’t push too hard too soon.
• Relaxin, the hormone that loosens ligaments during pregnancy, can stay elevated for up to a year (or longer if you breastfeed). This can leave joints and connective tissues less stable than usual, which is another reason to avoid high-impact or dynamic movements.
• Most new mothers are sleep deprived, which can negatively affect your recovery, motivation, consistency, and mood.

In other words, getting medical clearance is step one. Step two is listening to your body and being honest with yourself about how much you can handle. 

If you have to delay postpartum exercise to protect your long-term health, so be it.

Benefits of Postpartum Workouts

Research shows that the benefits of starting a postpartum workout program include:

• Increased strength
• Improve muscle function
• Better mood
• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Faster weight loss
• Higher self-efficacy
• Stronger bones

And while it’s not something scientists have studied, many new moms report that getting back into a structured postpartum workout plan makes them feel more like themselves again.

For many, it also helps them look more like they did before pregnancy. If one of your goals is to regain your pre-pregnancy body—including your curves—check out our guide to rebuilding your glutes after pregnancy:

Mom Butt: How to Get Rid of a Flat Butt After Pregnancy

The Fundamentals of an Effective Postpartum Workout Plan

Before we get into the finer details of your postnatal workout program, it’s important to cover the fundamentals. These principles will make your training safer, more efficient, and easier to stick with.

Avoid High-Impact Exercises

In the months following childbirth, focusing on low-impact exercise is sensible. High-impact training like sprinting, plyometrics (jumping), or most HIIT cardio puts extra stress on your joints and pelvic floor, which may not be ready yet.

READ MORE: The Complete Guide to Low-Impact Workouts

Prioritize Compound Exercises

When you’re short on time, compound exercises like squats, bench and overhead presses, deadlifts, and rows give you the best return. They train multiple muscle groups at once, build full-body strength, and burn more calories than isolation exercises (those that train one muscle group at a time), which can make shedding baby weight easier.

READ MORE: The Ultimate Guide to Compound Exercises for Mass & Strength

Do Full-Body Training

Having a newborn makes sticking to any schedule challenging—including a postpartum workout plan. That’s why “splits” (training schedules) like the bro split or PPL usually don’t work well postpartum. 

With these routines, each workout trains just one muscle group (e.g., legs) or movement (e.g., pushing), so if you miss a session, your whole week gets thrown off. Suddenly, you’re trying to cram your skipped back workout into leg day, or you go a full week without training a muscle group at all.

Full-body workouts are a better option.

On a full-body postpartum workout plan, you train every major muscle group in each workout. That way, if you miss a workout, it’s no big deal—you’ll train all your muscles again the next time you’re in the gym, and nothing gets missed or neglected.

Another advantage is that you only need three workouts a week to make solid progress. That’s much more realistic with a newborn than trying to fit in five or six.

READ MORE: The Best Full-Body Workout Routines for Building Muscle

Lift (Relatively) Heavy Weights

It’s important to start slowly after giving birth, but many postpartum workout plans are overly cautious. They recommend that you lift light weights and perform very high-rep sets.

That isn’t useless, but it’s has three major downsides:

1. It’s impractical. To spur muscle growth, you have to take sets close to “failure”—the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good form, even if you give maximum effort. With high-rep sets, it’s hard to know if you’ve reached that point, since you often stop because you’re out of breath, not because your muscles are fully worked.
2. It’s miserable. High-rep sets take longer, feel harder, and cause more fatigue than lower-rep sets.
3. It can be riskier. When both your muscles and cardiovascular system are redlining, your form is more likely to break down, which can increase your risk of injury.

By increasing the weight and doing fewer reps per set, however, you produce a powerful muscle- and strength-building stimulus without grinding through endless reps and sets.

To ease back into training safely while still making progress, here’s a simple progression to follow:

• For your first 4–6 weeks of postpartum strength training, work in the 12–15 rep range. 
• For the following 4–6 weeks, work in the 10–12 rep range. 
• Beyond that, work in the 8–10 rep range (or lower if you prefer).

READ MORE: Is Getting Stronger Really the Best Way to Gain Muscle?

Progress Sensibly 

To build muscle and strength, you must strive to add weight or reps to every exercise in every workout. This is known as progressive overload, and it’s the single most important driver of muscle growth.

To apply it effectively, follow this rule: once you hit the top of your rep range for one set, add weight.

For instance, if your postpartum training program calls for 12–15 reps of an exercise and you get 15 reps for a set, add 10 pounds to your next set.

If you manage 11 reps or fewer with the new weight, reduce the weight by 5 pounds to ensure you stay in the 12–15 rep range. 

That said, the idea is not to push for extra reps at all costs. Grinding too hard—especially postpartum—can increase your risk of injury. That’s why you also need to manage your intensity. 

To make progress without overdoing it, aim to end each set 2–3 reps shy of failure. To gauge whether you’re reaching this point, ask yourself at the end of each set: “If I had to, how many more reps could I have done with good form?” 

If the answer is more than three, increase the weight or reps on your next set to make it more challenging. If it’s fewer than two, consider easing off the gas a touch.

READ MORE: Double Progression Guide: How to Use Double Progression to Gain Muscle and Strength

The Best Postpartum Workout Plan for Full-Body Strength & Health

This free postpartum workout plan is designed to help you rebuild full-body strength safely and effectively after giving birth. 

Stick with the rep range (12–15) given below for the first four weeks after you’re cleared to exercise and feel ready to train. For the next four weeks, move to the 10–12 rep range. After that, you should be feeling significantly stronger, so drop to 8–10 reps (or lower if you prefer).

Since your schedule will likely be unpredictable, your main priority is simply to complete all three workouts each week. Ideally, though, try to do them on non-consecutive days to give your body time to recover between workouts.

And if you’re short on time, don’t stress about skipping the final exercise in each workout. The first three exercises will get you most of your results—the last is “nice to have,” but not essential.

Postpartum Workout #1

• Deadlift: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Leg Press: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest

Notes on the workouts:

• Choose whichever deadlift variation feels most comfortable—conventional, sumo, or trap bar.
• If you don’t have access to a leg press machine, substitute it for the lunge or step-up.

Postpartum Workout #2

• Goblet Squat: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Seated Shoulder Press: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Leg Curl: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest

Notes on Postpartum Workout #2:

• Progress to front or back squats when goblet squats become too easy or impractical.
• Do either lying or seated leg curls depending on what equipment you have available.

Postpartum Workout #3

• Romanian Deadlift: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Bench Press: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Seated Cable Row: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest
• Hip Thrust: 3 sets | 12–15 reps | 3–5 min rest

Notes on Postpartum Workout #3:

• Swap the barbell bench press for the dumbbell version if you prefer.
• For hip thrusts, use a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or just body weight depending on what feels best.
• You can also switch hip thrusts for glute bridges if you prefer. 

You can reference the workout here whenever you need it, or if you’d prefer to keep it handy, here’s a saveable version you can download to your device:

Should Cardio Be Part of Your Postpartum Exercise Plan?

Adding cardio to your postpartum exercise plan can benefit your health in several ways. For instance, it  improves your cardiovascular health, reduces your risk of heart disease, cancer, and cognitive decline, supports fat loss, and may even improve your strength training workouts by helping you recover faster. 

You have to do it right, though. 

A few rules of thumb for making it work:

• Stick to low-impact cardio for at least the first 12 weeks after giving birth, provided you had no complications. One or two 20–30 minute sessions of walking, swimming, or cycling per week is a good starting point.
• If you want to add high-impact cardio (like running, HIIT, or plyometrics), wait until after 12 weeks. Start with one 10–20 minutes per week, and stop immediately if you feel any discomfort.

Importantly, cardio isn’t essential.

If you have to choose between cardio and lifting weights, make strength training your priority—it will do far more for rebuilding strength and muscle function postpartum.

But, if you can and want to do cardio for the extra health and fitness benefits, start slowly and progress gradually.

How to Eat on Your Postpartum Workout Plan

Following a good postpartum workout plan is only half the story. You also need to eat in a way that supports recovery.

(And if you’re still pregnant, check out our guide to the best pregnancy meal plan so you know how to eat for both your health and your baby’s before moving into the postpartum phase.)

Calories

One of the main reasons women start a postpartum workout plan is to lose the weight they gained during pregnancy. While exercise certainly supports this process, your diet has a bigger impact on weight loss.

The only way to lose weight is to create a “calorie deficit” (eat fewer calories than you burn every day). Most research shows that this is generally safe postpartum, as long as you aren’t underweight or malnourished and you follow a diet rich in vitamins and minerals.

That said, focusing on fat loss isn’t the best option if you want to recover quickly. 

After giving birth, your body—especially your abdominal muscles and pelvic floor—needs time to heal. Cutting your calorie intake too soon after giving birth can slow this recovery, especially if you’re also exercising.

A better approach is to eat at “maintenance calories,” which means consuming roughly as many calories as you burn each day until you’re fully recovered (usually 8–16 weeks postpartum).

After that, you can decide whether to . . .

• Eat in a 20–25% calorie deficit to lose fat
• Eat at maintenance calories to keep you weight steady
• Eat 5–10% more calories than you burn daily (a “calorie surplus”) to build muscle

To learn more about how to lose weight gained during pregnancy, check out this article:

The Complete Guide to Postpartum Weight Loss

Macros

Once you know your daily calorie target, the next step is dividing those calories into the right balance of protein, carbs, and fat, or “macros.” Here are some solid starting points:

• Protein: Aim for 0.8–1 gram per pound of body weight per day. Eating enough protein is essential for repairing and rebuilding muscle tissue after training.
• Carbs: Get 30–50% of your daily calories from carbs, which works out to roughly 0.75–2 grams per pound of body weight per day for most women. Carbs help fuel your training and also support recovery by replenishing glycogen stores.
• Fat: Fill the remaining 20–30% of your calories with fat, or about 0.2–0.4 grams per pound of body weight per day. Dietary fat is important because it helps you absorb vitamins, create various hormones, and keep your skin and hair healthy.

Supplements

You don’t need supplements to get excellent results from our postpartum workout plan. That said, a few well-chosen one can make the process easier:

• Protein powder: Eating enough protein is essential for building muscle, and protein powders like Whey+, Casein+ and Egg+ make hitting your target easier.
• Protein snacks: Making shakes isn’t always practical when you’re caring for a newborn. Legion’s protein bars, cookies, and crispy rice treats are a great way to boost protein intake if you need a more convenient option.
• Pre-workout: When you feel too tired to train, Legion’s Pulse helps by enhancing energy, focus, and performance. And if you’re breastfeeding, the stim-free version is a safe alternative to the caffeinated one.

Want even more specific supplement advice? Take the Legion Supplement Finder Quiz to learn exactly what supplements are right for you.

FAQ #1: What are the first exercises you should do postpartum?

Provided you feel up to it, you can do breathing drills and pelvic floor exercises in the first week or two after giving birth. These begin to strengthen the core muscles that weaken during pregnancy and delivery.

From there, you can progress to gentle core training, though this usually doesn’t look like a traditional “ab workout,” which may or may not be helpful in the early stages.

By around 6–8 weeks postpartum, many women are cleared to return to more formal exercise. At this stage, you can go back to weightlifting if you feel ready, but it’s wise to start with lighter weights and gradually rebuild your strength over the following months.

FAQ #2: Can you follow a postpartum strength training program while nursing?

Yes. Research shows that for most women, exercising while nursing doesn’t reduce milk supply or affect its nutritional content, doesn’t impact the baby’s growth or development, and is beneficial for the mother’s health.

A few tips that can make things easier:

• Nursing before exercise can make workouts more comfortable and give you a longer window before your baby wants to feed again.
• Breastfeeding already burns ~500 calories a day, so make sure you account for this when calculating your daily calorie intake.
• A well-fitting sports bra can help you feel more comfortable and reduces the risk of blocked ducts or mastitis.

FAQ #3: What results can you expect from your postpartum workout routine?

If you follow the training and diet advice in this article, you should feel significantly stronger within three to six months. You’ll probably also feel happier and more confident, have more energy, and look more like you did before you were pregnant.