After a normal vaginal delivery with stitches, you can start gentle movement like short walks within days, but a return to moderate exercise typically begins around 6 weeks postpartum, and high-impact activities like running should wait until at least 12 weeks. The exact timeline depends on the severity of your tear and how your body heals.
How Long Stitches Take to Heal
The type of tear you had during delivery directly determines your healing window. First-degree tears, which only involve the skin, heal within several weeks. Second-degree tears go deeper into the muscle between the vaginal opening and the rectum. These are the most common type requiring stitches, and they typically take 3 to 4 weeks to heal. Third- and fourth-degree tears extend into or through the muscle surrounding the anus and can take 4 to 6 weeks or longer.
Your stitches are dissolvable, so you won’t need them removed. As they break down over those first few weeks, the tissue underneath is still knitting together. Any exercise plan needs to respect this timeline, because increased blood flow, pressure, or friction to the area before healing is complete can cause pain, swelling, or reopened wounds.
Weeks 1 Through 6: What You Can Do
Walking is the foundation of early postpartum movement. You can start with just a few minutes at a time in the first week and gradually build up to 30 minutes of walking, five days per week, over the first six weeks. This isn’t about fitness. Walking helps circulation, reduces the risk of blood clots, and supports your mood during a physically demanding recovery period.
Pelvic floor exercises (Kegels) can also begin in the early weeks for most people. Gentle contractions help restore blood flow to the perineal area and can ease or prevent urinary incontinence, which is common after delivery. That said, if contracting those muscles causes sharp pain at your stitch site, hold off and try again in a few days. The goal is a light squeeze and lift, not a forceful clench.
During this phase, avoid anything that creates significant downward pressure on the pelvic floor: no crunches, no heavy lifting, no squats, no jumping. Even straining during a bowel movement counts. Stick to walking and pelvic floor work until your tissue is fully healed.
Weeks 7 Through 12: Building Strength
Once your stitches have healed and any postpartum bleeding has stopped, you can begin introducing more structured exercise. This is the phase for rebuilding core stability, muscular endurance, and gradually preparing your body for higher-intensity movement. Exercises like bodyweight squats, step-ups, single-leg calf raises, and modified mountain climbers are appropriate during this window.
Short bouts of jogging, under 60 seconds at a time, may be appropriate around the 8-week mark depending on the severity of your tear, how labor went, your sleep quality, and whether you’re breastfeeding. If you do add jogging, start with intervals: jog for a short burst, then walk for twice as long. Keep the total session to 20 minutes or less and pay attention to how your body feels over the next 48 hours. Any increase in pain, bleeding, or pelvic heaviness means you moved too fast.
By week 11 or 12, if everything is progressing well, jog intervals can extend to 5 to 15 minutes with 2-minute walking breaks, for a total session of 30 to 45 minutes.
When You’re Ready for Full Exercise
The general recommendation from sports rehabilitation guidelines is to wait at least 3 months before returning to running or high-impact exercise like jumping, HIIT classes, or competitive sports. Before you ramp up intensity, you should be able to walk for 30 minutes without any symptoms and complete basic strength exercises without leaking urine, feeling pelvic heaviness or a “falling out” sensation, experiencing low back or pelvic pain, or noticing a visible gap or bulge along the midline of your abdomen (a sign of abdominal separation). If you can check all of those boxes, your body is giving you a green light to progress. If not, a pelvic floor physiotherapist can help identify what needs more time.
Once you do return to running or sport, increase your training volume slowly, around 2 to 10 percent per week.
Signs You Should Pull Back
Your body will tell you if you’re doing too much, too soon. Watch for these signals:
- Increased bleeding or a return of bright red discharge after it had tapered off
- Pain at the stitch site that worsens during or after movement
- Pelvic heaviness or a dragging sensation, which can indicate the pelvic floor is under too much strain
- Urine leakage during walking, exercise, or sneezing
- Hip, low back, tailbone, or pelvic pain that gets worse with light activity
These are not things to push through. If any of these symptoms are worsening or limiting your daily activities, pelvic floor therapy can identify the underlying issue and get your recovery back on track.
Keeping Your Stitch Area Comfortable
Staying active with healing stitches takes a little extra care. Change pads every 2 to 4 hours, especially after walking or sweating. Keep the area around your stitches clean and dry. After using the bathroom, spray warm water over the perineum and pat dry with a clean towel or baby wipe rather than wiping with toilet paper, which can irritate dissolving stitches. Wear breathable, moisture-wicking underwear and avoid tight clothing that creates friction against the healing area. If you find that even gentle walks cause discomfort at the stitch site, a cold pack wrapped in cloth and applied for 10 to 15 minutes afterward can help with swelling.