New mums have a lot on their plates. Between nappy explosions, work meetings, school runs, and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, it’s almost guaranteed to be an overwhelming time, most of the time. Throw into the mix disrupted sleep, patchy eating times, and the emotional rollercoaster of parenting, and it’s no wonder that to most postnatal women, finding time for fitness and wellbeing seems impossible. As a mum of four, I’ve done it many times over and know the pressure all too well. And yes, time is tight, but the good news is that rebuilding your body post-pregnancy doesn’t actually require long, mean hours in the gym.
Are Kegels all they’re cracked up to be?
So, you’re postnatal and determined to carve out time for you and your body. Good news: there’s no shortage of fitness advice online. Bad news: not all of it is as credible as it might appear. Trying to figure out whose advice to trust is overwhelming, especially when two experts completely contradict each other.
Most exercise advice for postnatal women will mention Kegel exercises. Kegels are pelvic floor contractions which strengthen the deep core muscles. Don’t get me wrong – they’re a really important part of postnatal recovery. But there is much more to the story than it often appears, and a few more steps are needed before bringing Kegels into our workouts. When these steps are missed, women can be left feeling frustrated at the lack of results they’d hoped for.
Before you start squeezing your pelvic floor every time you’re at a red light or unloading the dishwasher, we need to reconnect with the entire core system. Pregnancy can have drastic effects, like shifting posture, flaring the ribcage and tilting the pelvis. These changes can all affect your pelvic floor health, and Kegels alone are not enough to fix them.
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Your pelvic floor doesn’t work in isolation. It’s part of a team, along with your glutes, abdominal muscles, abductors, lower back, and your respiratory system. Together, they make up the deep core. Everything needs to work in synergy, and for that, we need three steps: respiration, engagement, and activation.
When I started the StrongLikeMum YouTube channel, I wanted to create a hub for short, effective postnatal workouts for all women, from a postnatal expert who knows that intensive courses and strict diets are completely unrealistic. Here are my three absolute non-negotiables when it comes to exercise after pregnancy – and what makes them so vital to recovery.
Postnatal fitness expert Shakira Akabusi wants to simplify exercise for new mothers (Shakira Akabusi)
Step 1: 360 breathing
Okay, breathing sounds boring, but this step is not to be missed. Our breathing really affects how our core functions. The movement and position of your diaphragm and ribcage can deeply impact how the pelvic floor is loaded and positioned. During pregnancy, it’s not uncommon for the ribcage to lift, or ‘flare’, as the baby grows and takes up more space. Internal organs, including your diaphragm, are pushed upwards, and this can cause the ribcage to protrude outwards, with the lower ribs pushing upwards.
As pregnancy progresses, your pelvis is tilted forward, which means the increased weight of the baby, placenta and amniotic fluid is shifted off the supportive bony structures of the pelvis and rests much more heavily onto the pelvic floor below. If misalignment continues, no matter how many kegel exercises you do, the increased pressure on the pelvic floor could mean you struggle to engage the muscles as efficiently as you’d like to when needed.
For this reason, I start all my clients with a 360 breathing exercise. You can work on this exercise sitting in a chair, but I’d recommend lying back on a mat. While keeping your hands relaxed by your sides or resting on your lower abdomen, take a deep inhale. The goal is to encourage the diaphragm to descend. Keeping your shoulders relaxed, allow your ribcage to expand and visualise your pelvic floor relaxing and releasing. In the first stage of this exercise, allow your breath to ‘fall’ away with a soft ‘hah’ sound, without drawing up the pelvic floor on the exhale. Focus on keeping your shoulders relaxed and the pelvic floor released. You can then build on the pelvic floor kegel activation as you exhale.
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Often, Kegel exercises reference the feeling of stopping the flow of urine. Instead of this, try visualising the coccyx bone at the back of your pelvis and the pubic bone at the front of your pelvis, drawing inwards towards each other and lifting up along the midline. To join me in this technique, try this StrongLikeMum workout.
Resistance bands
Resistance band exercises can be incredibly useful as we attempt to fix rib flare and support our posture, all of which allows better core engagement. Here’s a great exercise to engage the pelvic floor and abdominal muscles, including your obliques: Sit or stand holding a resistance band in one hand. Holding this arm out in front of you, in line with your shoulder, grab the other end of the resistance band in your other hand, a little lower than the first. Inhale, and as you exhale, pull the resistance band diagonally downwards, gently encouraging your ribcage across to the opposite hip. Inhale and return to the start position and repeat.
Step 2: Getting to the deep core
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The ‘box row’, as featured in this workout, is one of my all-time favourite exercises for postnatal women rehabilitating their pelvic floor. This move is best when paired with other deep core engagement exercises like pelvic tilts, leg slides, the bridge and heel taps.
Firstly, by working in the box position, we slightly increase the challenge for your pelvic floor because you’re working against gravity. Pulling backwards with the resistance band strengthens your upper back muscles, which helps to support better posture.
Resistance in the upper body also triggers a response in the pelvic floor via a deep line of soft body tissue known as the Deep Front Line. This is why this box row is so fantastic for postnatal women. If, however, you are managing diastasis recti, it’s important to keep an eye on your midline when performing this exercise. The box/all fours position can place an increase of pressure onto the front abdominal wall. However, this can be a good way to strengthen the front abdominals and rehab diastasis recti, provided you can garner tension along the midline. If you notice a bulge along the midline, modify your exercises and begin with workouts like this.
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Step 3: Don’t forget the glutes
Alongside pelvic floor activation and posture rehabilitation, glute exercises are a crucial (and often forgotten) part of postnatal recovery. During pregnancy, as your bump grows, your pelvis can shift forward, which puts increased pressure on the pelvic floor. By activating your glutes, we can help to restabilise the pelvis and encourage better alignment. Glute kick-backs are a fantastic body-weight exercise that activates the deep glutes, and you can progress the movement by adding a resistance band.
By looping the middle of the band around your foot and holding the ends in both hands, you can increase the resistance in the working leg, pushing backwards. Other valuable glute exercises for the postnatal period are the glute bridge, butterfly, fire hydrants, lunges and squats when you’re ready.
But before anything else, the three steps of respiration, engagement and activation are vital for an effective postnatal recovery. Connecting your breathing to your deep core, using your upper body to engage your pelvic floor and activating your glutes to realign posture all help to strengthen and heal your body, post-birth.
Subscribe to Strong Like Mum to get new videos every Monday and Thursday. There, you’ll get all the help you need to build functional strength, core stability, and confidence, from bodyweight and resistance workouts to gentle return-to-exercise routines
For years, the wellness world told us that fitness had to hurt to work. Early morning boot camps, relentless HIIT classes, “no days off” mantras and punishing training schedules became badges of honour splashed across social media feeds.
But in 2026, a very different kind of movement is taking over and, for many women, it feels like a collective exhale. Welcome to the era of “soft fitness”, the wellness trend redefining what it means to be healthy.
Instead of chasing exhaustion, people are increasingly gravitating towards gentler forms of movement that prioritise feeling good over pushing harder. Think reformer Pilates, long walks, mobility work, stretching sessions, recovery-focused workouts, infrared saunas and moderate strength training designed to energise rather than deplete.
Tahnee Donkin says ‘soft fitness’ is the way to go
And according to experts, the shift may actually help people stay healthier for longer.”Soft fitness gives people permission to move their bodies in a way that supports both physical and mental wellbeing, rather than constantly pushing themselves to exhaustion,” Tahnee Donkin, National Fitness Manager at Genesis Health + Fitness tells HELLO! “It’s really about creating a fitness routine people can sustain and enjoy.”
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At its core, soft fitness is not about abandoning exercise or avoiding challenge altogether, it is about balance. Rather than exercising purely for aesthetics or dramatic transformation photos, the focus has shifted towards longevity, recovery, energy and emotional wellbeing.
There’s a booming popularity of recovery-led wellness experiences too, from red light therapy and cold plunges to massage, mobility sessions and infrared saunas
It is also attracting a remarkably broad audience, beginners who once felt intimidated by traditional gym culture are embracing it, alongside busy professionals, older adults and even dedicated gym-goers looking to soften the intensity of their routines.
“Some people still love high-intensity training, and that’s great,” Tahnee says. “Soft fitness simply creates more accessible pathways into fitness for people who may have previously felt overwhelmed by traditional gym culture.”
The rise of soft fitness reflects something much bigger happening culturally too, after years of hustle culture encouraging people to optimise every aspect of their lives, many are reaching a point of physical and emotional burnout. Increasingly, wellness is no longer about punishment or perfection. Instead, people are asking a different question entirely: “How do I want to feel?”
“We’re seeing people redefine what health actually means,” Tahnee explains. “It’s no longer just about aesthetics. More people are focusing on how movement supports their overall wellbeing.”
That mindset shift has helped fuel the booming popularity of recovery-led wellness experiences too, from red light therapy and cold plunges to massage, mobility sessions and infrared saunas.
Recovery, once viewed as something reserved for elite athletes or luxury spas, is now becoming an everyday wellness essential.
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And while gentler movement may sound less effective on paper, experts say soft fitness can still deliver significant long-term results, particularly when consistency is involved.
“When people genuinely enjoy their routine, they’re far more likely to stay consistent,” Tahnee says. “And consistency is what creates lasting results.”
Beyond physical fitness, many people are also reporting benefits including improved sleep, lower stress levels, better mental clarity, faster workout recovery and more stable energy throughout the day
Beyond physical fitness, many people are also reporting benefits including improved sleep, lower stress levels, better mental clarity, faster workout recovery and more stable energy throughout the day.
In many ways, soft fitness is not about doing less at all, it is about training smarter. Another reason the trend is resonating so strongly is because it feels far more inclusive.
Traditional fitness spaces can often feel intimidating, particularly for people who do not identify with intense gym culture or transformation-focused messaging. Soft fitness offers something different: calming, welcoming spaces centred around wellbeing rather than competition.
Reformer Pilates, for example, has emerged as one of the biggest gateway workouts for newcomers because of its supportive atmosphere and adaptable nature.
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“Environment matters,” Tahnee says. “Spaces that feel calm, welcoming and personalised help people feel more comfortable starting their fitness journey.”
Combined with more flexible training schedules and recovery services that fit around increasingly busy lifestyles, the wellness industry is becoming more approachable than ever before. And perhaps that is why soft fitness is striking such a powerful chord right now.
In a world that constantly feels overstimulated, exhausting and permanently switched on, softer approaches to health feel not only appealing, but necessary.
The rise of soft fitness may well signal the end of the old “no pain, no gain” mentality and honestly, many people seem more than ready for it.
With a 3:45am wake-up call, it’s a wonder Susanna Reid has any time or energy left to work out, particularly after hours of grilling politicians live on Good Morning Britain. Nevertheless, movement has remained a priority for Susanna – even if that movement looks slightly different to what it did previously.
‘I used to go to the gym and run a lot. I would do marathons, 10ks and parkruns, but I don’t do that any more, so I have to keep my body moving,’ she revealed to Fabulous Magazine earlier this month. While Susanna said she’s ‘quite disciplined’ about incorporating that movement into her day, she’s not doing ‘three gym sessions a week’.
So, how does she maximise the movement in her day?
She takes her steps seriously
First off, Susanna is serious about her steps, with a post-work walk being non-negotiable. ‘I always have a walk after work, because you get sluggish if you don’t move your body,’ she told Fabulous. ‘I walk for two miles every day.’
Susanna added that the best thing about her new work building ‘is that it gives me 2,500 extra steps every day, because there is a longer walk between different parts of the building’.
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Indeed, while you might dismiss walking as active exercise, the benefits of extra steps shouldn’t be underestimated. A recent study found that as few as 4,000 daily steps had clinically meaningful benefits, and that compared with 2,000 daily steps, around 7,000 steps a day was associated with significantly lower risks of premature death, cardiovascular disease, depression and type 2 diabetes.
And another recent study found that a 10-minute walk straight after eating helps suppress blood sugar spikes, eliciting similar effects to those seen after a 30-minute walk.
She does a 10-minute YouTube workout every day
Talking of 10 minutes of movement, Susanna also revealed that she does a 10-minute workout every day. ‘I just go on YouTube and I do it in my room before I get in the shower,’ she said. ‘It’s one of those things with exercise – if you are not that way inclined, like me, you need to reduce the obstacles.’
Again, the science shows that short, consistent bouts of exercise can be as effective as longer, continuous workouts. In fact, one study found that accumulating as little as 15-20 minutes of vigorous physical activity across the week is associated with a significantly lower risk of heart disease, cancer and early death.
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Hannah Bradfield is a Senior Health and Fitness Writer for Women’s Health UK. An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Hannah graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in English and Sport Science and an MA in Media and Cultural Analysis. She has been covering sports, health and fitness for the last five years and has created content for outlets including BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Runner’s World and Stylist. She especially enjoys interviewing those working within the community to improve access to sport, exercise and wellness. Hannah is a 2024 John Schofield Trust Fellow and was also named a 2022 Rising Star in Journalism by The Printing Charity. A keen runner, Hannah was firmly a sprinter growing up (also dabbling in long jump) but has since transitioned to longer-distance running. While 10K is her favoured race distance, she loves running or volunteering at parkrun every Saturday, followed, of course, by pastries. She’s always looking for fun new runs and races to do and brunch spots to try.
Heel touches are one of those exercises you look at and either think, ‘is that it?’ or ‘that looks nice and easy!’, depending on how much you enjoy core exercises. For those who’d rather avoid planks and crunches, this movement makes for a good alternative – and it can be done lying down.
This exercise targets the obliques, muscles that sit on the sides of our core and help stabilise the spine and support hip strength. Often underworked and underrated, these muscles are essential for everyday movements like bending down and twisting, which in turn may help prevent lower back pain.
Abby McLachlan, personal trainer and founder of East of Eden, recommends heel touches to clients to target the obliques in her workouts. It’s “not the most challenging” core exercise, she tells woman&home, but “if you keep your head, neck, and shoulders off the floor in spinal flexion, you’ll definitely feel it in your abs and obliques”.
How to do heel touches
How to Do: HEEL TOUCH – YouTube
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Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
Raise your shoulders slightly off the mat and keep your neck neutral.
Keep your lower back flat on the floor.
Alternately reach forwards to touch your heels with your hand stretched out flat.
Exhale when touching your heels and inhale when coming back.
A top tip is to do these slowly and try not to swing from side-to-side.
If you’re new to heel touches, Abby says they can be “easily modified, or progressed to make it more challenging”. You might not be able to touch your heels at first, but as your spine becomes more mobile, you will see improvements.
“Your pelvis will naturally tuck slightly as you bring the head, neck and shoulders up, but just try to move with control, keeping the pelvis stable,” she says.
How to make heel touches harder
If you’ve been doing a bodyweight Pilates workout for even a few weeks, you’ll already have good strength in your obliques and abdominal muscles. You may need to make the heel touches harder to see the benefits.
To do this, Abby says: “You could take your feet off the floor into tabletop, which will make pelvic stability more challenging, or lengthen the legs on the diagonal to create more of a challenge, or even add hand weights to increase the load.”
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You could also move your heels further away from your bottom to increase the stretch, or hold each touch for two seconds.
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While above we’ve suggested alternating sides for the touches, you could do all of your reps on one side before switching to the other. This will intensify the pressure on your obliques. Abby suggests aiming for 15-25 reps over three or four sets to “make it count”.
Adding in additional core exercises that complement heel touches can fire up these muscles even more. Dead bugs and the side plank are good options for targeting the obliques.
Benefits of heel touches
No equipment required: You might want a thick yoga mat to lie down on if you don’t have one already, but you don’t need any equipment to do heel touches.
May help prevent lower back pain: As this exercise strengthens the stabilising muscles in the trunk, including around the spine and pelvis, you might find you have a lower risk of back pain.
Boosts spinal mobility: Whether you do strength work in the gym or you’re a keen hiker, if you spend a lot of the day sitting down, you may benefit from better spinal mobility. This helps with bending down and other functional movements.
Improves core strength: Having a stronger core has been shown to improve balance and coordination as we age, lowering our risk of falls and other injuries.
Aids posture: Back muscles are essentially scaffolding for the spine, so having strong ones created by back exercises like heel touches helps maintain a neutral spinal position when walking and sitting down, and pulls the shoulders back, improving posture.
