Post-Natal Physio Logan QLD: Return to Exercise, Running and Lifting After Birth

Post-natal physio in Logan: getting back to exercise, running and lifting after birth

The six-week check clears you for medical reasons. It does not tell you whether your body is ready to run, lift or return to a class — and those are two different questions. Most post-natal problems we see in Logan are load problems: abdominal separation that has not been retrained, pelvic girdle pain carried over from pregnancy, a pelvic floor that leaks under impact, and a return to running that happened before the capacity was there. All of them respond to graded loading. Here is what the evidence says about each, and what an assessment actually looks at.

The four post-natal problems that fill our diary

Abdominal separation is far more normal than the internet suggests. A Norwegian study that followed 300 first-time mothers from pregnancy to a year after birth found a separation of two fingerbreadths or more in 33.1% at 21 weeks of pregnancy, 60.0% at six weeks post partum, 45.4% at six months and still 32.6% at twelve months. In other words, roughly a third of women still have a measurable gap a year later — and the same study found no difference in reported low back and pelvic pain between the women who had a separation and the women who did not. The gap itself is not the problem. How the abdominal wall behaves under load is.

Pelvic girdle pain is pain at the back of the pelvis, the sacroiliac joints or the pubic symphysis. The European guideline on the condition puts the point prevalence in pregnancy at about 20%, and identifies previous low back pain and previous pelvic trauma as the main risk factors — while contraceptive pills, the interval since the last pregnancy, height, weight and smoking are not. For a lot of women it settles after birth. When it does not, it is usually because load tolerance has not been rebuilt.

Pelvic floor symptoms — leaking with a cough, a sneeze, a jump or a run, heaviness, or a dragging sensation — are common and treatable, and they are the thing most likely to derail a return to running. Our pelvic health physiotherapy page and our post-natal pelvic floor guide cover that side in detail.

Ordinary musculoskeletal pain — necks, mid-backs, wrists and shoulders — from feeding positions, carrying a capsule on one arm and lifting a growing child from awkward angles. It is unglamorous and it is a large share of what walks through the door.

What pelvic floor training does, and when it works best

The largest evidence synthesis on the subject is a Cochrane review updated in 2020, covering 46 trials and 10,832 women across 21 countries. Its clearest finding is about prevention: continent women who did a structured pelvic floor muscle training program during pregnancy were about 62% less likely to report urinary incontinence in late pregnancy, and about 29% less likely in the mid-post-natal period — that second figure graded as high-quality evidence.

The review is equally clear about what does not work: rolling the same generic program out to every post-natal woman regardless of symptoms is unlikely to reduce incontinence. That is the argument for assessment rather than a leaflet — a pelvic floor can be weak, overactive, poorly coordinated or simply asked to do too much too soon, and those are four different programs.

On returning to sport, the evidence is thin. A 2021 systematic review pooled 11 studies and 482 women and found elite athletes were far more likely than non-elite athletes to be back in sport before six weeks post partum — with a signal of increased injury risk, including stress fractures. The authors rated the certainty as very low. It is a reason to progress deliberately, not a rule about a date.

How we assess a post-natal body in Daisy Hill

We start with the birth itself, feeding, sleep and what you are actually trying to get back to — a park run, a barbell, a netball court or a pram walk that does not hurt. Then we look at the abdominal wall under load rather than at rest, the active straight leg raise and the pelvic pain provocation tests the European guideline recommends, hip and trunk strength, breathing and pressure management, and how you move from the floor, up a step and under load. Where symptoms make it appropriate, an internal pelvic floor assessment gives the most accurate picture — always your choice, never a condition of being helped.

Where a baseline will change the plan — a strength-symmetry question before a return to running — our VALD force-plate testing gives a number rather than a guess. Babies are welcome in the room.

What the work actually looks like

For an abdominal wall, the goal is tension and control under increasing load, not closing a gap for its own sake — and the Norwegian cohort is the reason we say that. Progression runs from breath and load-transfer work, through anti-rotation and carrying, to squatting, hinging and overhead work in our gym-based rehab space. Clinical pilates suits women whose limiting factor is control rather than strength, and one-on-one hydrotherapy is useful where pelvic girdle pain still makes full weight-bearing hard.

For pelvic girdle pain the European guideline recommends individualised exercise, information and reassurance, and specifically advises against the mobility-palpation tests, X-rays, CT and diagnostic injections that used to be common. Our back pain page covers the lumbar side of that picture.

For a return to running we build the capacity first — single-leg strength and control, impact tolerance in short doses, then a graded walk-run — and we treat leaking, heaviness or pain during a run as information rather than as a verdict. Later, when lifting heavy becomes the goal, the same loading that rebuilds strength is also what protects bone: our guide to bone density and heavy training explains why that matters long after the post-natal year.

Post-natal recovery at a glance

Abdominal separation is present in roughly a third of women a year after birth and does not by itself predict pain · Pelvic girdle pain affects about one pregnancy in five and responds to individualised exercise, not scans · Pelvic floor training works best when it is assessed and targeted, not generic · The six-week check is a medical clearance, not a readiness test for running or lifting · It is never too late — women come to us months or years after birth and still make ground. See a doctor urgently for heavy vaginal bleeding, fever, severe headache, chest pain, or calf pain and swelling.

Paying for post-natal physio in Logan

Private patients can claim on the spot through HICAPS — current fees are on our physiotherapy fees page. Persistent post-natal pain or pelvic floor dysfunction is sometimes managed under a GP chronic condition management plan, where Medicare rebates item 10960 at $63.40 from 1 July 2026, for up to five allied health visits a calendar year pooled across professions — the detail is on our Medicare physiotherapy page. DVA card holders are billed directly for accepted conditions, and NDIS participants on plan-managed or self-managed plans can use their funding with us.

Book a post-natal assessment in Daisy Hill

Daisy Hill Physio is at Unit 4, 11–13 Allamanda Drive, Daisy Hill QLD 4127 — in Logan City, Queensland, Australia (not Logan, Utah) — and sees post-natal patients from Springwood, Shailer Park, Slacks Creek, Underwood, Rochedale South, Cornubia and Loganholme. Book online or call 07 3209 2000 and tell reception it is a post-natal appointment. Physiotherapist Karly Flynn leads our women’s pelvic health work; meet the whole team on our team page or read how to choose a physio in Logan.

Reviewed by Karly Flynn, Physiotherapist, Daisy Hill Physio. Content current at 23 September 2026. This page is general information, not a diagnosis — see a physiotherapist, GP or midwife for advice about your own situation.

Sources: Sperstad JB et al. Diastasis recti abdominis during pregnancy and 12 months after childbirth: prevalence, risk factors and report of lumbopelvic pain. Br J Sports Med 2016;50:1092–1096 · Vleeming A et al. European guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pelvic girdle pain. Eur Spine J 2008;17:794–819 · Woodley SJ et al. Pelvic floor muscle training for preventing and treating urinary and faecal incontinence in antenatal and postnatal women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2020;5:CD007471 · Kimber ML et al. Health outcomes after pregnancy in elite athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2021;53:1739–1747. Accessed 23 September 2026.