Healing, Not Halting: Safe Ways to Stay Active with Core or Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Part One: The 3 Biggest Mistakes Women Make When Exercising Their Core
Part Two:
Part Three: Healing, Not Halting: Safe Ways to Stay Active with Core or Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Part Four: Safe Strength Training for Women at Any Age
If you're dealing with core or pelvic floor dysfunction or in postpartum recovery, you might feel frustrated about what exercises you can and can't do. Maybe you're leaking during workouts, experiencing abdominal doming, or dealing with pelvic pressure during movement. The good news is that you don't have to stop exercising completely while you heal - you just need to choose the right activities.
As a pelvic floor physical therapist, I see women make two common mistakes when dealing with core dysfunction. Either they push through high-intensity workouts that make their symptoms worse, or they stop moving altogether out of fear. Neither approach serves your healing.
Today I'm sharing the safest exercises you can do while healing from core or pelvic floor dysfunction, when you can return to more intense activities, and which exercises you should avoid forever (yes, even after you've healed!).
Safe Exercises While You're Healing
When your core and pelvic floor are recovering, certain types of movement actually support the healing process. These activities work with your body's natural systems instead of against them.
Walking with Decompression Breathing
Walking is one of the best exercises for core and pelvic floor healing, especially when combined with proper breathing. The gentle, rhythmic movement promotes alot of pelvic circulation while the decompression breathing technique adds extra reflexive core muscle activation and trims your waist fast.
Focus on walking with a long waist and breathing into your rib cage with each step. Avoid power walking or walking so fast that you can't maintain proper breathing. The goal isn’t to walk fast, but to move in a way that supports your healing. Decompression breathing while walking is actually great cardiovascular training and requires alot of control and intention at first. So it will make you sweat and is a great work out you can see results from quickly.
Hill Walking and Stairs
The incline during hill walking or stair climbing naturally encourages better posture, deeper breathing, and requires way more glute activation than walking. You can walk without your glutes, but you cant climb stairs or walk on an incline without your glutes. So for those of you who have trouble feeling or activating your glutes- walk a hills or stairs! Your body automatically engages all of your muscles more effectively, but especially your core, pelvic floor and glute muscles, when working against gravity on an incline or stairs.
Add decompression breathing to this, and you've got yourself a powerful post partum whole body rehabilitative workout. Start slowly and pay attention to your breathing. If you notice any leaking, pressure, or discomfort, reduce the intensity or take more frequent breaks. The goal is gentle, sustained movement that feels good in your body.
Swimming
Swimming is incredibly therapeutic for core and pelvic floor dysfunction for many reasons, the first being the positive circulatory and lymphatic improvements seen after time in the water. The compressive effect of water pumps lymph and improves oxygen delivery, resulting in people feeling better overall after time in the water. The water also supports your body weight, allowing for full-body movements that may not be possible on land. The resistance of the water provides gentle strengthening in the muscles and lubrication in the joints, without high impact.
Focus on strokes that feel comfortable and allow you to maintain good breathing patterns. Avoid straining or hyperventilating during swimming. The buoyancy of the water naturally lifts your organs and takes pressure off your pelvic floor. While the swimming movement promotes circulation and gentle muscle activation.
Why You Need to Avoid Strenuous Activities While Healing
I know it's tempting to jump back into your regular workout routine, especially if exercise has always been how you manage stress or feel strong in your body. But high-intensity activities can actually set back your healing and make your core and pelvic floor dysfunction worse.
Running, jumping, heavy lifting, and high-intensity interval training all create significant pressure increases in your abdomen. If your core muscles aren't functioning properly yet, this pressure goes directly to your organs and pelvic floor and core fascia instead of being absorbed by your muscles. This can worsen diastasis, prolapse, increase leaking, and delay your recovery.
Think of it this way: if you had a sprained ankle, you wouldn't immediately return to running. You'd allow it to heal first, then gradually return to more challenging activities. Your core and pelvic floor require (and deserve!) the same healing and patience.
The activities I mentioned above - walking, hill walking, stairs, and swimming - provide movement, strengthening, cardiovascular activity and circulation without creating pressure that can harm your healing tissues.
When Can You Return to Strength Training and Running?
The question I hear most often is "When can I get back to high-impact workouts?" The answer isn't based on time - it's based on function.
The key indicator that your core is ready for higher-intensity exercise is a negative cough test. Here's how to test yourself:
Lie on your back, with your knees bent and feet flat, and your hands on your low belly below your belly button. Cough. Watch and feel what happens to your belly. If your belly pulls inward when you cough, that's a negative cough test, meaning that your core is managing pressure increases properly. If your belly pushes outward, bulges or domes when you cough, that's a positive cough test, meaning that your core isn't ready for high-impact activities yet.
A negative cough test indicates that your core muscles are working together as a coordinated unit to manage sudden pressure increases. This is exactly what needs to happen during running, jumping, and weightlifting to protect your organs and spine.
Once you have a consistently negative cough test, you can begin gradually returning to strength training and running. Start slowly and pay attention to your body's signals. Any return of symptoms means you need to back off and continue focusing on foundational healing.
Exercises to Always Avoid
Even after you've healed from core dysfunction, there are certain exercises that simply aren't worth the risk. These movements can create dysfunction even in previously healthy bodies, and they're not the most effective way to achieve the results most people want from them anyway.
Sit-ups and Crunches
Sit-ups and crunches consistently increase pressure in your abdomen in a way that pushes your organs downward. They also reinforce the dysfunctional breathing and posture patterns that contribute to core problems in the first place.
Most people do these exercises hoping to flatten their belly and get better ab definition. But sit-ups and crunches actually contribute to that protruding belly look by pushing your organs down and forward, and increasing the pressure in your core.
Planks
While planks seem safer than crunches, they're actually problematic for similar reasons. Most people can't maintain proper breathing or posture during planks, leading to compression and pressure buildup. The static nature of the exercise also encourages the "sucking in" pattern and a rigid rib cage that creates dysfunction.
Additionally, planks don't teach your core to function dynamically during movement, which is what you actually need in real life. While being able to hold your body in a plank position is a healthy task to be able to do, holding this position for long periods of time will only increase the pressure in a core that already cant manage pressure appropriately. This can even lead to bloating after exercise.
Leg Lowering Exercises
Any exercise where you lower your legs while lying on your back creates enormous pressure in your abdomen. Your diaphragm has to brace downward, pushing your organs down onto your pelvic floor. This leads to pelvic floor spasm and can contribute to or even cause disc issues. In addition, hip flexors have to work overtime, which pulls on your lower back and pushes your organs forward and down.
These exercises are particularly problematic because people often do them when they have a "weak core" (ie, diastasis, prolapse, back pain, leaking, bloating, pelvic floor dysfunction) and their intention is to get stronger and heal. Little do they know the very exercise they are doing to fix the issue is causing more harm.
What to Do Instead for Core Strength
If your goal is to increase actual core strength, or to achieve a flatter belly and better ab definition, there's a much more effective approach.
Real core strength and a toned appearance comes from having your organs lifted and centered, your abdominal fascia tight, and your core muscles working as a coordinated unit in sync with your breathing. This happens through tailored breath work, postural alignment, and specific techniques that work with your body's natural systems.
The Core Recovery Method® teaches you exactly how to achieve the flat, strong belly you want without exercises that harm your core. You'll learn breathing techniques that automatically tighten your abdominal fascia and trim your waists, postural strategies that lift your organs, and movement patterns that build genuine functional strength.
The techniques you learn inside The Core Recovery Method® focus on function first, and when function is restored, better aesthetics are the natural result. You will create lasting core health that supports you through every activity in your life. You'll develop the kind of strength that prevents future problems rather than creating them.
Focus on Healing First, Progressing Exercise Second
I understand the frustration of feeling limited in your exercise choices, especially if movement has always been important to you. But this healing phase is an investment in your long-term health and fitness.
When you take the time to restore proper core function now, you'll be able to return to all the activities you love and you'll perform them better than before! Women who complete The Core Recovery Method® often tell me they feel stronger and more confident in their bodies than they did before having children.
The safe exercises I've outlined will keep you moving while you heal. Focus on walking, swimming, and gentle hill climbing with proper breathing. Test your readiness for more intense activities with the cough test. And remember that some exercises simply aren't worth the risk, even after you've healed.
Join The Core Recovery Method®, a proven, at-home system designed to help you feel strong, dry, and confident again—without pads, pills, or surgery.
