It’s been seven months since I gave birth, and I’m lifting weights again. I’ll be adding running back to my routine at some point soon too. Overall, I’d say I’m about 90% back to my old self.
As a first-time mom at age 36, I knew this was going to be challenging. I’m also a health and fitness journalist with over a decade’s worth of experience and a stint as a personal trainer, so I was well-informed about general training guidelines. But the idea of it is one thing, and being in the throes of it another.
My postpartum journey back to exercise has been daunting, surprising and at times confusing. Sleep deprivation is very real even months after having a child. There have been many times I’ve had to work around this obstacle to determine when I feel best exercising daily, or if I’m even up for it.
The other week, my husband was away on a work trip so I was solo parenting our son, Charlie, for a few days. He’s been teething, especially at night, so as you can imagine minimal sleep was had. I was able to muster only enough energy to get in a quick 25-minute workout on one of those days. I also went on walks with him, so that counted toward my physical activity quota.
Every mom’s path is different as they heal and try to reintroduce movement into their lives. What’s new in 2024 is a profusion of new tech-driven options that promise to guide moms through their healing process and back to physical fitness.
There are pregnancy and postpartum apps, platforms that connect you to online coaches and even artificial intelligence options. Where’s a new mom to turn? When should we leverage new digital tools, and what should we know before we do?
I’m sharing this story of my healing journey based on my experience, research and conversations I’ve had with experts in fitness, physical therapy and postpartum issues. I’ve also evaluated and reviewed three apps I tried out on my way to building the fitness I want as a new mother.
I still have some ways to go myself, but I feel more confident and empowered at this stage of my recovery because of the steps I took to prioritize my well-being and research the options that would help me most. I encourage new mothers to do the same, since we all want to show up as the best version of ourselves for our families.
Training for life, and then some
As the parent of an infant, I’m in constant movement, picking things up off the floor or doing chores with one hand while holding Charlie in my other arm or with him strapped into a baby sling. I live on the third floor of a three-story building — without an elevator — and part of my new reality is carrying heavy groceries, heaping baskets of laundry, or the stroller or car seat up and down the stairs with Charlie in tow.
If you’re a parent, you know how quickly you become a pro at all that. It gives new meaning to the term “training for life.”
Wearing my son, Charlie, when he was three months old. It was one of the few ways I could get stuff done around my home during this time.
My husband and I have been equal partners in the roller coaster that is raising a baby. Whether it’s been those every-two-hour late-night feeds that turn into early mornings, changing blow-out diapers, rocking Charlie during colic episodes in the earlier months, attending physical therapy sessions to correct his case of torticollis and plagiocephaly — we’ve been through a lot.
In 2023, there were around 3.6 million births in the US, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, roughly the same as the year before.
That makes for a lot of women who’ve had to adapt their routines and deal with dramatic changes to their bodies. Within this group of new mothers, there are probably many like me who were active before and during their pregnancies. Many likely want to include exercise as part of their postpartum recovery goal.
That’s a challenge. The prenatal and postpartum seasons are some of the most daunting periods you can go through. Your body has just undergone intense changes as you transition into parenthood and learn to care for a new life.
At the same time, you’re advised to take care of yourself — which seems impossible when you’re sleep deprived, adjusting to the overnight change and recovering from childbirth.
Exercise has many benefits during pregnancy, such as reducing your chances of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. It’s recommended to stay physically active if you already were beforehand — as long as your doctor has cleared you to exercise with no risk to the fetus.
“About 90% of the women I have trained have not only had smoother deliveries but also much smoother recoveries going into postpartum,” says personal trainer Laura-Lynn LaCour.
And once your postpartum recovery journey levels out and you get the OK from your doctor, there’s no better time to start getting back to physical activity.
Even with the information I researched during pregnancy and going into the postpartum phase, I didn’t feel confident enough to take on this stage of life on my own. That’s why I’m here to pass along what I’ve learned.
Read more: Baby on the Way? What to Know About Exercising While Pregnant
Guidelines for exercising during pregnancy and postpartum
I quickly learned that the support most mothers get postpartum in the US after their six-week checkup is nonexistent, so it would be up to me to take steps to care for myself.
Exercising during the prenatal stages can be tricky to navigate as well, since this depends on whether you have health concerns that may influence what you can and can’t do. It’s best to defer to your doctor if you have a high-risk pregnancy and would like to know your options. If you have a healthy pregnancy, the American Council of Obstetricians and Gynecology recommends aiming for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week, including running, weight training and even starting from scratch.
If you’re in the recovery phase and thinking of resuming a workout regimen, there are some things to know first. Most significantly: Pregnancy can cause diastasis recti. This is the separation of the abdominal wall muscles that occurs to accommodate the growing fetus.
It’s a common condition that the majority of women have by the end of the third trimester. It can start to heal on its own immediately postpartum, but around 30% of women can still have it a year after giving birth. There are ways to do a self-assessment at home, but not everyone knows what to look out for.
Depending on the type of delivery you had (vaginal versus cesarean), the ACOG recommends walking to stay active and doing light exercises to start strengthening major muscle groups like your back, legs and glutes. As always, consult with your physician first, especially if you’re recovering from a C-section surgery.
Exercising postpartum has many benefits. These include boosting your energy, reducing chances of postpartum depression or anxiety, weight management, and improving stamina and strength.
However, there are also other dysfunctions that can occur after childbirth, which is why getting an assessment done by a pelvic floor therapist can determine what you’ll need to work on during your recovery.
Read more: Why It’s So Hard to Lose Postpartum Weight
My postpartum recovery journey
I sought out help from Sarah Sittenreich, a Long Island-based physical therapist at Northwell Health STARS Rehabilitation, a rehab center I found close to where I live. Sittenreich has expertise in addressing dysfunction in the pelvic floor, a group of muscles that support your pelvic organs.
Dysfunction in this area is common postpartum because pregnancy and childbirth weaken and strain the muscles in the pelvic floor.
Pelvic floor therapy is having a moment thanks to social media and athletes like Brittany Mahomes speaking out about their own pelvic floor issues, but it’s not a new concept.
“This is really unique to America, because much of the rest of the world automatically does pelvic floor physical therapy postpartum,” Sittenreich says.
It’s not just an issue for those who’ve had children. If you experience bowel or bladder issues, sexual dysfunction, or pain or discomfort in the general area, pelvic floor therapy can also help you manage those symptoms.
With the help of LaCour and Sittenreich, I slowly eased back into an exercise routine as I worked on rehabbing my abdominal muscles and pelvic floor. I’d had an emergency C-section, so I knew I wanted to be smart about how I approached exercise.
This is vital because depending on your childbirth experience, there may be other issues that need to be addressed first. I worked with LaCour — who I met via the Future app, a popular app that connects you to coaches across the country — throughout my pregnancy, so I trusted her judgment to program the exercises that were appropriate for the different trimesters and postpartum.
An example of a strength training day personalized for me via the Future app.
Most of the exercises I did during pregnancy were modified versions of the ones I’d been doing prior to that. This included a lot of squats, dead lifts, single leg, offset, isometrics and upper body exercises to prep for all the baby carrying, with some extra breath work to get me more in tune with my pelvic floor.
I liked having someone program a workout for me during this stage and also learning what was or wasn’t working for me.
Future makes it easy to track your workouts daily, rearrange your workout schedule, input your weights and make a note if you liked or disliked an exercise.
It was also easy to communicate with LaCour via the chat portal on the app, where I could submit videos and photos if I had questions about my form or progress.
Read more: The Exercise That Helped Me Sleep During Pregnancy, and Why It Works
Testing top-rated pregnancy and postpartum fitness apps
At six months postpartum, I started to feel stronger and more like myself. I’d also been discharged by Sittenreich, who had seen me in person since I was six weeks postpartum and confirmed that my diastasis had healed and core strength had shown great improvement. The recovery period and time will look different for everyone, but most of us start off with some form of exercise.
Many pregnancy and postpartum fitness apps kept targeting me on my social media accounts. I was curious to see what they had to offer.
I selected apps to try out based on the creators and content offered, as well as whether users seemed satisfied with the programs across Apple and Google’s app stores and community message boards on sites like What to Expect and Reddit. I settled on Get Mom Strong, Crewe Fitness – postpartum program and the Every Mother fitness app. I alternated testing them on a weekly basis.
Besides their overall positive reviews, I appreciated the lack of “bounce back” language that usually surrounds postpartum fitness. It’s harmful toward new mothers, many of whom are already struggling with their body image, and minimizes the fact that they grew a human over the course of nine months, plus labor and delivery — which can often take hours and is sometimes traumatic.
It wasn’t until I experienced postpartum firsthand that it hit me how unrealistic these societal pressures are. The first year alone has various stages of recovery that can affect everyone differently based on their delivery, hormone fluctuations, how well they heal, their mental health (postpartum depression affects one in seven new mothers) and if there are remaining issues that need to be medically addressed.
The truth is, once you’re postpartum, you’re postpartum forever. Focusing on “bouncing forward” by rebuilding a new foundation to grow from will benefit you more in the long term than worrying about “bouncing back.”
The apps I tested ask you to fill out an assessment to determine which of their programs best align with where you are in your postpartum journey. It takes into consideration whether you’re experiencing any pelvic floor dysfunctions that you have to identify to the best of your ability.
From there, the apps share with you the programs they recommend you start off with. Most of them also have supporting links within the dashboard that teach you about modifications, plus information on pregnancy, postpartum and nutrition.
Below is a close look at what each of these apps is like and my overall takeaway based on my experience and what experts advised.
Get Mom Strong: SLAM programs
Doing a SLAM45 workout from the Get Mom Strong app.
Get Mom Strong was created by Ashley Nowe, a prenatal and postpartum corrective exercise specialist and mom of four. She tells me that after birthing twins, she had a bad case of diastasis recti and no guidance on how to heal it. She discovered pelvic floor therapy, which helped her and inspired her to get certified as a pregnancy and postpartum corrective exercise specialist and nutrition coach.
“The only programs that existed at the time were boring core rehab programs that focused solely on ‘bouncing back’ or mommy bootcamps that didn’t consider the core and pelvic floor,” Nowe says, describing how Get Mom Strong came to be. “I wanted to create a program that took a total body approach to healing with a focus on getting strong and taking up space.”
The app offers total body workouts, mobility exercises and more. I had to answer questions about where I was working out (home or gym), if I was experiencing any pain and my goals. It also selects workouts based on the equipment you have available. The homepage provides an overview of Nowe’s Strong Like a Mother programs (which were created with the help of pelvic floor therapists globally) available through the app as well as your stats, nutrition tips and healthy recipes.
A sample of the homepage of the Get Mom Strong app.
The Core Basics program is recommended to do first to build a foundation. This is followed by SLAM Bridge (to rebuild strength and stamina), SLAM30 (30-minute workouts), SLAM45 (45-minute workouts) and SLAM Advanced programs, as well as a newly added barre program. Nowe says that a follow-along body weight-only program will be released in June along with a barbell program in September.
I tried the Bridge, 30- and 45-minute workouts. I liked how the programs provide a list of your workouts for the week, the equipment needed, an overview of the circuits and the ability to swap out exercises. I liked the formatting of the exercise selections and equipment options too.
The user experience was sometimes confusing — for instance, It took me a minute to figure out where to locate the more detailed video demonstrations once you start a circuit. You get a preview of the exercise you’re working on, but if you want a refresher and a more detailed view you have to click the thumbnail of the exercise to view it and it’s not clearly explained. This can be a nuisance, especially during timed circuits.
The workout lengths are realistic, especially if your children are constantly interrupting you. The educational tips are helpful as you go through your recovery and everyday living with an infant.
Nowe explains that her goal is to have women fall in love with fitness and learn that it’s for making gains, not just weight loss.
“I want every mom armed with the knowledge to heal, the community to keep going and workouts that help them feel strong and empowered through motherhood,” she says.
You can join the app’s private Facebook group if you’re looking for additional support, but since I didn’t have access to it, it may be helpful to have built-in app support that connects you to an expert.
App: Get Mom Strong
Investment: Free trial: 7 days, Annual subscription: $200, quarterly subscription: $70, monthly subscription: $29
App store: Available for iOS and Android
Pros:
- Variety of workout lengths and levels
- Emphasis on building a foundation first
- Works with your own equipment
- Extra tips on postpartum recovery
Cons:
- Could offer alternative support built into app
- No option to connect smartwatch or other wearable device
Crewe Fitness: Postpartum Home 30-week program
Doing some weighted lateral lunges from the Postpartum Program in the Crewe Fitness app.
The Crewe Fitness app was created by Katie Crewe, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and health coach. Crewe tells me she created the program when she was postpartum with her first child and wanted to create safe, effective and supportive workouts tailored for the needs of postpartum women.
“My goal was to focus on the fundamentals that are often overlooked postpartum, starting with core breathing exercises that can be done almost immediately after birth and progressing past the rehab stage and into regaining strength and function,” she says.
The app asks questions such as where you like to train and your training level. You’re then presented with 25 programs. I chose the Postpartum Home 30-week program. You select the week you’d like to start the program on; I went based on the number of weeks postpartum I was. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re just introducing movement back into your routine, but it made sense for where I am in my recovery stage.
An example of a workout during week 28, phase 4.2 on the Crewe Fitness Postpartum program.
You do the workouts three times a week, separated into four phases. The first phase is about reconnecting with your core, phase 2 includes rehabilitative core movements, phase 3 incorporates full body strength with core strengthening and phase 4 challenges the core and body further.
Although I didn’t do the full 30 weeks, I got a good taste of the program. When you click on the day, a list of exercises with reps and sets appears. You also have the option to swap out the movements.
The workouts seem to lack a warmup and cool-down, and there’s no indication on how long it will be, something a new parent might find helpful if they’re trying to carve out time to workout around childcare or their work schedule. For example, I had to do these workouts often while Charlie was napping or when a grandparent was watching him.
When you hit start you see the exercise along with sets, reps and a section to input your weights. The user experience on this app was a little inconvenient. The app does a picture-in-picture video of the exercise you’re working on, which can be disruptive if you’d like to access other apps during a rest period.
The app could also offer alternative exercises in the event you don’t have a place to anchor a resistance band or don’t have a specific piece of equipment.
Crewe says that updates to the programming are a regular thing and that she takes into account feedback from users to make sure they’re getting the most effective and supportive postpartum fitness program.
Despite these drawbacks, I liked the exercise selection and found that it went at a reasonable pace. If you’re further along in your postpartum recovery, some of these workouts might start to feel a little easy. The good news is this app offers a variety of other workout programs. You have the option to pay for a stand-alone program or purchase a six-month or an annual subscription, which gives you access to all of Crewe’s programs.
I also liked that the app has expert-supported educational tips and includes a Facebook community support group. Crewe hopes new mothers who use her program feel empowered, confident and supported in their post-baby bodies. Her goal is to make them see how adaptable their bodies are and that they shouldn’t fear movement postpartum.
“I want them to not feel pressured by arbitrary timelines and ‘body back’ messaging and allow their bodies the time they need to fully heal,” she says.
If you want to ease back into strength training, the Crewe fitness app is a good option to consider for postpartum and beyond.
App: Crewe Fitness
Investment: 3-day free trial; Stand-alone program: $50-$100, six-month subscription: $56, Annual subscription: $100
App store: Available for iOS and Android
Pros:
- Postpartum program is built in phases
- Offers other types of workouts
- Connects to Apple Watch
Cons:
- Picture-in-picture video can be inconvenient
- Could offer alternative support built into app
- No mention of workout durations
Every Mother fitness app
A screenshot of what an Every Mother workout looks like on the Surpass Essentials introductory program.
Every Mother is an evidence-based, clinically proven and PT-informed exercise app. Creator and co-founder Leah Keller has a decade’s worth of experience working with postpartum clients. She previously released a DVD set, The Dia Method, that later became Every Mother.
The Hospital for Special Surgery conducted a 12-week medically and peer-reviewed study on women who were postpartum by having them do exercises found on the app. “They improved their diastasis recti, urinary stress incontinence and low back pain,” Keller tells me. She says some of the participants went on to do it for another 12 weeks and reported that they saw greater improvement.
The app first asked me questions about my postpartum state before determining the path I should follow. Keller says the questions aren’t about diagnosing users but instead augmenting their health. If you’re able to, she recommends seeing a physical or pelvic floor therapist in person.
I started on the Surpass Essentials path, an introductory two-week program that gives you a preview of the other Surpass guided paths. It starts off with a core and pelvic floor warm-up followed by the workout.
I liked that during the core portion there were repeated cues on the right way to do a core compression, so all the muscles in the pelvic floor and deep core are properly engaged and working together as you breathe.
The workouts are structured like an on-demand fitness class. I personally prefer going at my own pace, because it’s easier to redo an exercise instead of dragging the cursor on the video to find the exercise.
Every Mother includes a core and pelvic floor exercise sequence before the formal workout.
As I went through the workouts, I noticed most of them aren’t long (approximately 20 to 30 minutes), which is doable for a busy parent. This is a good transitional program as you resume physical activity postpartum. It also has programs for pregnancy and recently added Rise by Every Mother, a program meant to help you navigate the changes that come with menopause, so it can be helpful during that stage of life as well.
The app also has a Foundations section, which has educational materials on everything from childbirth recovery to managing the pelvic floor as you age.
You’ll get check-ins every four weeks and receive a video from an on-staff physical therapist based on exercises they think you could work on. Additionally, there’s a support hub where you can chat with experts if you have any questions.
App: Every Mother
Investment: Quarterly: $60, Annually: $119
App Store: Available for iOS and Android
Pros:
- Evidence-based program
- Support hub has experts on hand to answer questions
- Ideal for those looking to heal diastasis recti
Cons:
- May be slow-paced for some users
- Not ideal if you like to workout at your own pace
Fitness apps vs. personal training vs. expert opinion
Everyone’s postpartum journey is different, but there’s at least one universal truth: You should still approach exercising at this stage with caution, whether you use a fitness app or work with a personal trainer. A workout is meant to stretch your capabilities, but you don’t want to push beyond where your body’s ready to go.
A personal trainer should hold a certification for prenatal and postnatal coaching. LaCour suggests asking about where they were trained.
“They should know the basics, like understanding the healing process for the pelvic floor and the deep inner core muscles and how long it takes to be ready to start up with exercise again,” she says.
Choosing the right fitness app will depend on your fitness level before pregnancy and before postpartum and if you’re familiar with the exercises being programmed. A lot of the apps are geared for strengthening and may not be suitable for everyone.
The programming in the apps is usually one size fits all, so depending on your recovery and fitness level, you may also find that the progression of the program is too fast or too slow for you.
If you do go the app route, LaCour suggests keeping a few things in mind.
“It’s helpful to make sure that the program is coming from a fellow mom who has gone through the pregnancy journey who understands what it’s like postpartum, and it’s also always good to read reviews, Google that person, see if they have any YouTube videos that offer little sneak peeks of their workouts,” she says.
Pay attention to your body when working out postpartum. Some warning signs to look out for if symptoms are worsening: bulging, heaviness, urine leakage, an increase in back or hip pain, Sittenreich says. “These are definitely things that are a hard stop.”
If you feel OK overall, you should still be mindful to not overdo it. Sittenreich says she has patients who want to jump back into exercising, but the issue isn’t so much the type of workout, it’s that their bodies may not be ready yet.
“This is where I say let’s look at what exercise you want to do, how we’re going to structure it, so instead of diving back into a 45-minute spin session, maybe we’re looking at 10 minutes,” she says.
There’s a time and place for specific types of exercise intensity at each stage of your postpartum workout journey. Always keep that in mind.
As with any fitness goal, be patient with your body as you recover postpartum. Sittenreich says she knows a patient is nearing the end of their rehab journey based on the way they describe their symptoms and through follow-up assessments after the initial evaluation.
“If I’m doing an evaluation and the pelvic floor strength is nearing full and I’m not finding trigger spots as much,” she says, “that is where I might feel comfortable saying, ‘maybe we’re not at the end goal, but you’ve demonstrated that you’re proficient and safe and compliant, now let’s talk about our exit ramp and what your personal exercise goals are’.”
This is where it’s beneficial to have an expert available, because they can make sure that you don’t experience a setback when you resume your favorite activities.
Future coach Laura-Lynn LaCour’s profile depicting her specialties, including pre/postnatal training.
Future of postpartum fitness, AI and technology
It’s hard to think about technology these days without wondering about how artificial intelligence might fit in. The experts I spoke with agreed that AI shouldn’t be involved in the development of workout programs that target pregnant or postpartum users.
Keller says AI is nowhere close to making a nuanced health and wellness decision of the kind that should ultimately be decided by the woman in charge of her health with another trusted human being.
“AI can’t make a good decision in terms of a causal relationship between things,” she says. “I wouldn’t put a robot that can correlate things, that’s right some of the time, in [charge] of someone’s health.”
She allows that AI could possibly help on the app production side to improve the user experience, but not the content.
LaCour agrees that AI could help with programming and taking notes of conversations with clients, but says there are still too many kinks it needs to work out.
“I don’t personally think anything can replace the personal touch of a real person, especially when you are going through the postpartum journey,” she says.
Sittenreich echoes that point. “It takes years of training and education, and our hands are on thousands of individuals, so without having that hands-on experience, I don’t see how a computer is going to be able to get it accurately and consistently enough.”
If you’re postpartum and looking to resume your fitness regimen, have a game plan before jumping into a workout program, whether that’s through a fitness app or with a personal trainer.
Speak with your OB-GYN and ask for a referral to get yourself evaluated by a pelvic floor therapist. Having this information will make you feel empowered and confident enough to decide on the right option to guide you through this stage of life.
After testing these fitness apps and taking into account my own postpartum experience, I’ve learned that mothers aren’t fragile and can get back into a fitness routine in keeping with what it once was.
However, the recovery period is a marathon, not a sprint.
I can understand why someone would choose a fitness app, since it’s easy to use at home and budget-friendly. If you choose one, make sure it aligns with where you are now. If you’re not sure, consult with an expert who can give you clarity so you avoid exacerbating any issues.
If you’re working with a personal trainer, make sure they have an accredited background and know what signs to look out for when it comes to pelvic floor dysfunction. They should not work beyond their scope and should refer you to a pelvic floor therapist if they think you require further evaluation.
Remember, the goal is to safely resume your favorite activities so you can go on to do them for a long time. And to be able to carry your child up three flights of stairs while holding the groceries.
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