The Postpartum Running Guide Moms Need Now

November 26, 2025

Running is hard. Postpartum is hard. Put the two together and you have a goal harder than a negative split in the Boston Marathon.

But for many moms, returning to running is an important postpartum milestone that helps them find calm and reclaim their identity in what can be a destabilizing period. Indeed, exercise reduced the odds of postpartum depression by 45 percent in a British Journal of Sports Medicine study.

I feel this as a mom of two. After each pregnancy, my postpartum runs provided time for myself and offered a tangible way to gradually rebuild my fitness. I felt almost giddy before my very first postpartum run. I thought, what’s this going to feel like? What am I going to be working with? I suppose this could have been anxiety-inducing. But to me, it felt like an experiment, a chance to learn about my body and establish a new relationship with running. RUNNER’S WORLD