If you’re postpartum and thinking about fitness goals, there’s a good chance you’ve already been handed a script you didn’t ask for.

“Bounce back.”
“Get your body back.”
“Just be consistent.”

That language wasn’t created for a body that has grown, birthed, and reorganized itself around another human being. And before we talk about what your goals should be, I think we need to slow down and talk about how we’re thinking about goals in the first place.

Because your postpartum body isn’t broken. But it is different.

Pregnancy and birth change how your body functions; how your core manages pressure, how your pelvic floor responds to load, how your nervous system handles stress, and how much capacity you realistically have day to day. Traditional fitness goals rarely account for any of that. They’re often built on the assumption that everyone recovers on the same timeline, that aesthetics are the main marker of health, and that discipline matters more than context.

Postpartum bodies don’t fail those systems.
Those systems fail postpartum bodies.

A lot of postpartum fitness culture is rooted in urgency. Get back. Do more. Push through. But urgency disconnects you from your body instead of helping you understand it. It teaches you to override signals like fatigue, heaviness, discomfort, or instability...signals that actually matter more after birth, not less. And when goals are built on comparison or pressure, they can quietly undermine healing and long-term health, even when they’re well intentioned.

What I want to offer instead is a reframe.

Rather than asking, “What should I be working toward?”
I want you to start asking, “What does my body need to feel supported right now?”

That question changes everything. It shifts fitness from something you do to your body into something you do with your body. And that’s the foundation of body literacy - learning to interpret your body’s signals, rather than ignoring them in the name of a plan or a timeline.

Postpartum fitness isn’t about returning to who you were before. It’s about learning how your body works now.

Another belief I see all the time is that a baby is the thing standing between someone and “getting back into shape.” But your baby isn’t a problem to solve or an obstacle to work around. They’re part of your life. And movement in this season often looks different because of that. It might mean shorter sessions, more flexibility, strength built through daily tasks, or learning how to move with your baby instead of waiting for perfect conditions.

When fitness goals are rooted in shame or unrealistic expectations, they pull you further away from your body. But when they’re rooted in understanding, they do the opposite. They build trust. They support healing. And they create sustainability, not just for the next few months, but for your relationship with movement for years to come.

This reframe matters because postpartum isn’t a temporary inconvenience to push through on your way back to “real” fitness. It’s a critical window for learning how your body communicates, how stress and recovery interact, and how strength, rest, and care coexist. Those lessons don’t expire when the postpartum label does.

In Part 2, I’ll walk you through how to actually set postpartum fitness goals that respect your body, your capacity, and your real life—without shame, pressure, or comparison. Because goals do matter. They just need to be aligned with the season you’re in.

Read Part 2 here