Labor to Lifting

Labor to Lifting The ultimate postpartum recovery experience. Founder: Abigail Sommer

09/15/2026

You’d train for a marathon. Birth is harder than a marathon and most of us prep for it by... buying a nursing pillow.

Doing nothing and hoping is the worst. Full bed rest for the last month is pretty close. Resting the whole way through makes recovery harder, not easier.

Instead, do things like the birth ball and hip mobility exercises! And of course, we have to train your breath, and do strength training the whole way through.

I hit PRs at nine months pregnant. When your body is working the hardest, that’s exactly when you want it to be the strongest.

Comment LABOR and I’ll send you my birth prep guide.

09/12/2026

Rating the pelvic floor advice you’ve been given, out of ten, starting with the one that’s genuinely... making things worse.
Drink less water so you leak less: 0 out of 10. Concentrated urine irritates your bladder, so you’ll go more, not less.
Hover over public toilets: 1 out of 10. Your floor can’t relax in a half squat, so you never fully empty. Sit down.
Wear a pad and get on with it: 1 out of 10. Leaking is common. It is not something you have to accept for forty years.
A hundred kegels a day: 2 out of 10. Fine if your floor is genuinely weak, actively worse if it’s tight, and most moms have never been told which one they are. Kegels while you drive: 3 out of 10, because timing is the whole skill and random squeezing teaches your floor nothing about a sneeze.
Feet on a stool and stop straining: 9 out of 10. Free, instant, hardly anyone knows.
Exhale on the effort when you lift: 10 out of 10, the most transferable thing on this list. And seeing a pelvic floor PT: 10 out of 10. If it isn’t improving, that’s the shortcut, not the last resort.
Comment BREATHE and I’ll send you my diaphragmatic breathing guide.

09/10/2026

Postpartum is the most marketed-to moment of your life, and almost none of it... actually fixes anything.

Comment CORE and I’ll send you my free Core & Floor Recovery guide.

09/08/2026

If you only do three things in your first month postpartum, skip the ab workouts and... do these instead.

One, diaphragmatic breathing, the foundation of all core recovery and doable from a hospital bed: breathe into your ribs, relax the pelvic floor on the inhale, gently lift on the exhale.

Two, walk, but start tiny: rest two weeks, then ten minutes, adding a few each day.

Three, ask for help and protect your sleep, because recovery happens when you’re not running on empty.

Comment WORKOUT and I’ll send you a free week of beginner-friendly postpartum workouts.

09/05/2026

If kegels aren’t fixing your leaking, it might be because your pelvic floor was never... the weak one.

A weak floor can’t generate force. A tight floor can’t let go. Both of them leak, and only one of them gets better with more squeezing.

Signs yours might be tight rather than weak: pain with intimacy, trouble emptying fully, constipation, and a floor that feels like it never switches off.

Mine was tight. I squeezed harder for months and it got worse. What changed it was learning to relax first, which is why every session in my program opens with breathing and pelvic floor relaxation before anything is loaded.

If it isn’t improving, a pelvic floor PT can tell you which one you’re actually dealing with. That’s the shortcut, not the last resort.

Comment BREATHE and I’ll send you my full diaphragmatic breathing guide.

09/02/2026

If you’ve been doing kegels for months and you’re still leaking, the problem might be that your pelvic floor was never...

the weak link.

A weak muscle can’t generate force.

A tight muscle can’t let go.

Both of them leak, and only one of them gets better with more contraction.

Tight pelvic floor muscles squeeze your bladder, pull on your hips, and squeeze on the vaginal opening.

This causes so many issues and most women don’t realize that tight pelvic floor muscles are the cause.

Signs your pelvic floor might be tight rather than weak:

painful intimacy, trouble emptying your bladder fully, constipation, back pain, or frequent UTI’s.

Mine was tight.

I dealt with hip and back pain for months before realizing that my pelvic floor was the problem.

If that’s you, the first job is relaxing, not strengthening. Inhale, letting your breath go into your belly, sides, and back, and let your pelvic floor drop and lengthen.

That’s why every session in my program ends with breathing and pelvic floor relaxation to make sure you aren’t carrying any tension throughout the day.

And if it isn’t improving, you can try internal release with a wand, sitting on a lacrosse ball, or improving your mobility.

Comment BREATHE and I’ll send you my full diaphragmatic breathing guide.

09/01/2026

Im about to do an eight mile trail race five months postpartum and this is the exact progression I used to return to running postpartum 🏃‍♀️

1. Start with tempo squats— fast down, slow up. Then reverse. Progress to fast up and down. Be sure to exhale and gently lift the pelvic floor/wrap deep core and take small inhales as needed.

2. Add in standing knee drives. Mimic the motion of sprinting out of the blocks and reach your pelvic floor how to respond quickly.

3. Add sets of two-leg jumps (forward and sideways). Remember to prep the pelvic floor and core immediately before jumping and maintain engagement.

4. Progress to single leg hops! Forward and sideways. Make sure the hips don’t collapse on sideways hops.

5. When you can do all of these without heaviness, pain or leaking, continue to run/walk intervals.

Comment ‘RUN’ and I’ll send you my free return to running guide! 🫶

09/01/2026

The hospital bag is the easy part.

The part nobody preps is the version of birth that... doesn’t go to plan.

Pack at thirty six weeks.

The hospital covers the basics, so pack the things they don’t: your own pillow, a charging cable long enough to reach the bed, slides for the shower, a going-home outfit that fits your still-pregnant body, and snacks for your partner.

Then do the harder half. Write down your preferences before you’re in pain, because in the middle of it you will agree to anything just to make it stop.

And write down what you want if it turns into a c-section, because “I hadn’t thought about that” is the worst place to make that decision from.

Mine didn’t go to plan. Prepping for that version is the thing I’d tell every mom to do.

Comment LABOR and I’ll send you my birth prep guide.

08/29/2026

Please don’t assume that being cleared for exercise automatically means you’re ready to run.

After my first baby, I eventually built back up to a 16-mile trail race with 2,000 feet of elevation.

I didn’t get there by treating my six-week checkup like a starting gun.

Running asks your body to absorb your weight on one leg over and over again. Before adding miles, I’d want to see how your body handles these five things:

1. A 30-minute walk without pain, leaking, heaviness, or pelvic pressure.

2. Single-leg balance without your hip dropping or your whole body shifting.

3. Controlled single-leg squats or step-downs on both sides.

4. Small hops without pain, leaking, heaviness, or pressure.

5. Short jogging intervals mixed with walking before attempting a continuous run.

Your checkup can tell you that your general healing is progressing. It doesn’t test your strength, balance, or reaction to impact.

You absolutely can run again after having a baby. Give your body the steps it needs to get there.

Comment RUN and I’ll send you my Return to Running guide.

Source: Goom, Donnelly, and Brockwell, Returning to Running Postnatal Guidelines, 2019.

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