The mood lift is the headline. Aerobic exercise in the first postpartum year cuts depressive symptoms about as much as an antidepressant does ¹. Keeping it up from pregnancy roughly halves the odds of postpartum depression, which hits one in eight mothers ².

The floor work prevents and fixes leaking. Daily pelvic-floor training both stops new leaking and treats existing leaking by around 30% ³. The opposite habit does the damage: running before twelve weeks is the biggest predictor of leaking-while-running a year later ⁴.

The belly gap closes on its own. Separation of the two halves of the rectus muscle runs 60% at six weeks, 45% at six months, 33% at twelve months ⁵. Breath-led core work helps it close, not sit-ups.

Climb the ladder in order; the tissues set the pace.

The screen is the real start; the calendar only sets the order. Walk briskly 30 minutes, single-leg squat and single-leg hop 10 a side, jog on the spot a minute, bound across 20 times. You pass only with no leaking, heaviness, pain, or belly bulge on any item ⁷. Failing one just means more floor work before impact.

The arc is slow and it compounds. By two weeks the stroller walk stops being something to recover from. By six weeks the energy you needed coffee for comes from your own body again. By twelve weeks you pass the screen and run your first kilometre. By six months: 5K without leaking, lifting again, a baseline slightly stronger than before pregnancy. At one year the depressive symptoms have lifted and any leaking is gone ¹.

Same ladder, different rate-limiter. After a caesarean the abdominal wall gates you rather than the floor: walk within days, but wait on loaded core work until the scar takes gentle pressure, around eight to twelve weeks. After a complicated delivery, see a pelvic-floor physiotherapist early. Former athletes climb faster but don't skip rungs ⁸. Previously sedentary women get the biggest gain ⁶.