Asanaverse

Postpartum Core and Pelvic Floor

8 Week Postpartum Yoga Program for Core and Pelvic Floor

Your middle does not answer the way it used to. Something gives way when you sneeze, the lower back complains by four in the afternoon, and every article you have read either tells you to do planks or tells you never to move again. Meanwhile you are carrying somebody for most of the day.

Our yoga teachers built this eight week program around the two things that actually have evidence behind them: breath-led deep core work, which produced by far the largest measured effects in this area, and pelvic floor coordination taken from physiotherapy research rather than from yoga. Nothing in it makes the abdomen dome.

Three times a week, from six weeks after birth at the earliest and once you have been checked over. Four sequences, eight weeks. The first three weeks are almost entirely breathing, which is exactly how the most effective protocol in this research started.

Length

8 weeks

Practices

24 in total

Rhythm

Three times a week, from six weeks after birth

Made for

From six weeks after birth, once you have been checked over

What the research says

The most useful evidence in this area is not about yoga, and pretending otherwise would be the easy thing to do. A Cochrane review of 38 trials with 9,892 women found that structured pelvic floor muscle training reduced the risk of urinary incontinence in the mid-postnatal period by 29 percent. That is the strongest single number here, it comes from physiotherapy research, and it is why the pelvic floor work in this program is built the way it is.

For the abdominal gap, the pattern is more interesting. A meta-analysis of 9 trials with 450 women found structured exercise reduced the distance between the abdominal muscles by around 8 mm, more when started within three months. In the two trials that also measured physical disability, there was no significant difference between groups. Narrower does not automatically mean more functional, and the authors say so.

The trial with the largest effects of all enrolled 106 women at 42 to 49 days after birth and ran six weeks of breath-centred core training three times a week. The first two weeks were breathing exercises and nothing else. It reduced the gap substantially more than unsupervised standard abdominal exercises did. That protocol is the shape of the first three weeks here.

See every study and guideline behind this program →

How the program works

3 phases, and you stay with the same practices for the whole of each one. That repetition is the plan rather than a shortage of ideas. A body changes when the same ask comes back often enough, and the trials this program follows repeated for weeks before they made anything harder.

Weeks 1 to 3MoveRebuild the coordination before rebuilding the strength.Weeks 4 to 6BuildPut the load in the legs rather than the lower back.Weeks 7 to 8IntegrateArrive at a full session that leaves out everything it should.

Three times a week for twenty-five to thirty minutes, plus a ten minute version for the days that go wrong. Open a session below to see every pose and its timing. Three things run through all eight weeks: the breath leads rather than the effort, nothing loads the abdominal wall from the front, and you check your midline in the hip lift and the twist every single session.

Who this is for

  • ·You are at least six weeks past giving birth and your midwife or doctor has checked you over.
  • ·Your birth was uncomplicated, or you have specific clearance if it was not.
  • ·Your middle feels unreliable and you want to rebuild it in the right order.
  • ·You understand this supports pelvic floor physiotherapy rather than replacing it.
  • ·You can find twenty-five minutes three times a week, or ten on the days that go wrong.

Before you start

Start no earlier than six weeks after birth and only after your midwife or doctor has checked you over, later after a caesarean or a complicated birth. Nothing here should make your abdomen dome or cone outwards along the midline. This supports pelvic floor physiotherapy rather than replacing it: ongoing leaking, a feeling of heaviness or dragging in the pelvis, doming that persists despite adapting, or pain at a scar all need a physiotherapist. No running or jumping for the first three to six months.

Read the full safety notes in the practice guide →

The practice

Two practices per phase. Open one to see every pose, its timing and the reason it sits where it does.

Move · Weeks 1 to 3

Three Weeks of Breathing

Rebuild the coordination before rebuilding the strength.

The first three weeks are almost entirely breath work, and that is not a gentle warm up. In the trial with the largest measured effect on the abdominal gap, weeks one and two were breathing exercises with nothing else in them at all. Diaphragm, pelvic floor and the deep abdominal layer have to work together again before any of them is worth loading.

  1. 1.Easy Pose4 min
  2. 2.Staff Pose3 min
  3. 3.Butterfly Pose3 min
  4. 4.Cat Pose3 min
  5. 5.Cow Pose2 min
  6. 6.Child's Pose3 min
  7. 7.Bridge Pose1 min, three times
  8. 8.Knees to Chest Pose2 min
  9. 9.Corpse Pose4 min
Open the full sequence →

Week by week

Week 1Ribs sideways, not chest upHands on the lower ribs. The in breath widens them sideways. If your chest lifts and your shoulders rise instead, that is the pattern to change first.
Week 2Let go as well as liftThe pelvic floor softens on the in breath and lifts gently on the out breath. Letting go is half of it and the half nearly everybody skips.
Week 3Learn the midline checkIn the hip lift, look down. A ridge pushing up along the centre of your abdomen means less lift, not more determination.
← Back to the postpartum core and pelvic floor practice guide

Build · Weeks 4 to 6

Standing, and More of the Deep Core

Put the load in the legs rather than the lower back.

The middle three weeks add standing work. Not because standing poses are the goal, but because you are carrying somebody for most of the day and the legs should be doing more of it than the lower back currently is. The abdominal work gets slightly harder and stays entirely out of the front of the belly.

Week by week

Week 4Low impact onlyNo running and no jumping. Pelvic floor recovery typically peaks around four to six months, and a single hard session has been shown to reduce pelvic floor strength measurably in the hours after it.
Week 5Half range in the twistGo about half as far as you could and look down as you turn. End range twisting is one of the reliable ways to produce doming.
Week 6More repetitions, not more heightFour hip lifts instead of three, at the same modest height. The progression in this program is always repetitions before range.
← Back to the postpartum core and pelvic floor practice guide

Integrate · Weeks 7 to 8

A Practice You Can Keep

Arrive at a full session that leaves out everything it should.

The last two weeks look like an ordinary practice, with the things that do not belong here still absent: no planks, no boat pose, no sit ups, no full backbends, nothing with impact. The honest headline is that eight weeks is where a practice starts. Continence outcomes in the research are measured at three to six months, not at eight weeks.

Week by week

Week 7Full range only if the midline stays flatThat condition is the progression. Not how many weeks have passed, and not how ready you feel.
Week 8Keep going, and get checkedThe pelvic floor benefit in the research shows up at three to six months. A pelvic floor physiotherapist is worth seeing whether or not anything feels wrong, and especially before you start running.
← Back to the postpartum core and pelvic floor practice guide

The 18 poses in this program

Every pose has its own page with alignment, common mistakes and the energetic effect. Look one up when a shape does not make sense in your body.

Easy PoseStaff PoseButterfly PoseCat PoseCow PoseChild's PoseBridge PoseKnees to Chest PoseCorpse PoseMountain PoseMountain Pose with Side BendWarrior IIStanding Forward BendThunderbolt PoseBharadvaja's TwistReclining Hand-to-Big-Toe PoseUpward SaluteTriangle Pose
Go to the Asana Lab →

The guide behind this program

Why these poses and not others

The Postpartum Core and Pelvic Floor practice guide explains what each pose does and why it belongs to this goal. It also carries the safety notes and every study this program is built on. Read it if you want the reasoning rather than the plan.

Read the guide →

Frequently Asked Questions

When can I start?

Six weeks after birth at the earliest, and only after your midwife or doctor has checked you over. Later after a caesarean or a complicated birth. The evidence in this area starts at day 42, and the single study that claimed a start in week one has been retracted.

Will this close my diastasis recti?

We are not going to say that. Structured exercise does reduce the gap measurably, by around 8 mm across nine trials, and more when it starts within three months. In the trials that also measured physical disability there was no difference between groups. Narrower is not automatically more functional, and the researchers make that point themselves.

Does yoga strengthen the pelvic floor?

The strong evidence for pelvic floor training does not come from yoga studies, and it would be dishonest to borrow it. It comes from physiotherapy research: a Cochrane review of 38 trials with 9,892 women. What this program does is take that method, the coordination of breath and pelvic floor, and put it into a practice that is easier to keep doing.

What is doming and why does it matter?

A ridge or cone pushing up along the centre of your abdomen when you load it. It means the pressure is going forwards through the connective tissue rather than being managed by the deep layer underneath. Every session here has you check for it in the hip lift and the twist, and the response is always to do less of the movement rather than more of it.

When can I run again?

Not for the first three to six months, and ideally not before a pelvic floor physiotherapist has looked at you. Recovery of the pelvic floor typically peaks around four to six months, and high intensity training in that window has been associated with a measurably higher risk of prolapse in at least one study.

When do I need a physiotherapist rather than a program?

Ongoing leaking of urine or stool, a feeling of heaviness or dragging in the pelvis, doming that keeps happening even when you adapt, or pain at a caesarean scar or the perineum. Those are treatable and a video is not the treatment.

Creator of this program

Manish Rana

Manish Rana

Founder of Asanaverse.de. Manish writes about yoga, Ayurveda and meditation, and owes his deep connection to yoga to his Indian roots. With over 1,000 hours of Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, he shares his knowledge with the community.

More about Manish →
Registered Experienced Yoga Teacher, E-RYT 500

Where to next

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Every program here was built around one complaint and around the trials that studied it. Back, neck, knees, hips, sleep and stress, each one running for as long as the research says it takes.

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