Written by

Gina Conley, MS

August 19, 2026

Postpartum Return to Lifting: A Step-by-Step Deadlift Progression

Fitness, Motherhood, Postnatal

Returning to strength training after having a baby can be incredibly rewarding, but getting back to the movements you loved before pregnancy often takes more patience than expected.

One movement that many postpartum athletes are eager to return to is the barbell deadlift. Deadlifting is an excellent full-body strength exercise, but it also requires coordinated control of your breathing, core, pelvic floor, hips, and back while managing an external load.

That is why I don’t recommend simply waiting until you feel “strong enough” and then jumping straight back into heavy deadlifts.

Instead, I like to use a gradual progression that allows you to rebuild the pieces of the movement one at a time before putting them all together under a barbell.

This is the same general progression we use in our MamasteFit postpartum return-to-fitness programming. Depending on the person, it can take around five to six weeks to work through the progression, although your individual timeline may be shorter or longer. The goal isn’t to rush through the steps. The goal is to build strength and movement confidence while remaining as symptom-free as possible.

I’ve used this approach with postpartum clients for years, and I’ve also gone through the process myself after each of my four pregnancies. In fact, I’m now about two years postpartum and am hitting lifetime deadlift PRs—the heaviest I’ve ever lifted in my life.

So let’s walk through how I would progress back to the barbell deadlift postpartum.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more weekly workouts and educational videos! We publish one new workout video and 2-3 educational videos a week on our channel.

Why You Shouldn't Rush Back to Heavy Deadlifting Postpartum

Postpartum recovery isn’t simply about getting your muscles strong again.

You may feel like your muscles are ready to lift, but your entire system—including your core, pelvic floor, connective tissues, and other passive structures—is still adapting after pregnancy and birth.

A deadlift requires you to coordinate several things at once:

Breathing mechanics
Intra-abdominal pressure
Core stability
Pelvic floor coordination
Hip hinging mechanics
Hamstring and glute strength
Lat engagement
Load management
Spinal stability

Instead of trying to rebuild all of these simultaneously under a heavy barbell, we can break the movement into smaller pieces.

The progression starts with breathing and pressure management, then introduces the hinge pattern, adds resistance, integrates the lats, introduces dumbbells, and finally returns to the barbell from an elevated position before gradually working toward a traditional floor deadlift.

This gives your body an opportunity to relearn the movement while gradually increasing the demands.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gina, MS, & Roxanne, CNM (@mamastefit)

If You Missed Our Last Video, Check Out Our Postpartum Lifting Progression for Squats!

Outline of the Postpartum Deadlift Progression

The full progression can be summarized like this:

1. Breathing Mechanics

Learn how to expand the rib cage and coordinate the core and pelvic floor with your breath.

2. Supported Hip Hinge

Use a bench or elevated surface to relearn the hip hinge without external load.

3. Banded Good Morning

Add resistance while continuing to practice the hinge and breathing strategy.

4. Unassisted Banded Hinge

Move away from the bench and maintain the same mechanics without external feedback.

5. Lat Integration

Use a long band to practice keeping resistance close to the body.

6. Dumbbell Deadlift

Introduce external load while maintaining your hinge, lat engagement, and pressure management.

7. Elevated Barbell Deadlift

Return to the barbell from an elevated position to reduce range of motion.

8. Lower the Bar

Gradually increase the range of motion as your body tolerates it.

9. Increase Load

Once you can perform the movement without symptoms, gradually increase the weight.

10. Return to Heavier Barbell Deadlifting

Eventually, transition to the breathing and bracing strategy necessary for heavier lifting.

This progression isn’t about making deadlifting unnecessarily complicated.

It’s about giving your body enough time to reintegrate all of the systems required for the movement.

Step 1: Rebuild Your Breathing Mechanics

Before we even start hinging, I want to make sure you can coordinate your breathing, core, and pelvic floor.

This might seem like a strange place to start when your ultimate goal is a heavy deadlift, but breathing is a major component of how we manage pressure during lifting.

For this first exercise, I use:

A resistance band around the rib cage
A pillow underneath the hips for comfort
A ball between the thighs
An elevated surface underneath the heels

The elevated heels increase hamstring activation, while the ball between the thighs helps create inner-thigh activation. The setup also places the hips in a slightly tucked position.

The Breathing Pattern

Start by taking a large inhale into the band.

Rather than thinking about sending the breath straight into your belly, think about expanding laterally and into the back of the rib cage.

Then exhale while:

Driving your heels down into the elevated surface
Gently squeezing the ball between your thighs
Lifting through the front of the pelvic floor
Drawing the belly button toward the spine
Bringing the ribs and pelvis closer together in the front

There are a lot of moving parts here—but physically, very little is actually moving.

That is intentional.

We’re teaching your rib cage, abdominal wall, pelvic floor, hamstrings, and inner thighs to coordinate with one another before we ask your body to manage movement and external load.

The basic pattern is:

Inhale → expand the ribs out and back → exhale → increase activation and lift upward.

This is also a breathing pattern you can use as a primer at the beginning of your workouts.

Step 2: Relearn the Hip Hinge

Once we’ve established the breathing mechanics, we can begin integrating movement.

The deadlift is fundamentally a hip hinge, and postpartum athletes sometimes need to relearn what a hinge feels like.

For this reason, I like starting with a supported hinge using a bench or other elevated surface.

Stand with your feet approximately hip-width apart and your heels underneath you. This is similar to your general deadlift stance.

Place yourself close enough to the bench that it provides feedback as you hinge backward.

Then:

Inhale → push your hips backward → bring your chest toward the bench → exhale → stand back up.

The bench helps prevent you from turning the movement into a squat.

One common mistake is keeping the legs excessively straight and trying to fold forward from the hips. Another is bending the knees too much and turning the movement into a squat.

Instead, I want you to think about having a flashlight on your butt.

Your job is to shine that flashlight at the wall behind you.

You’re not trying to shine it toward the floor.

That simple cue can make a huge difference in helping you understand the direction of the hip hinge.

Step 3: Add Resistance With a Banded Good Morning

Once the supported hinge feels comfortable, we can begin adding resistance.

A banded good morning is a great way to introduce resistance without immediately adding significant external load.

Loop the band around your body so that it sits behind your neck and underneath your feet, creating a triangle of resistance.

You can continue using the bench for feedback.

If you want to increase inner-thigh activation, you can also place a block or ball between your thighs.

Now we repeat the same movement pattern:

Inhale → push the hips backward → exhale → lift through the pelvic floor and stand tall.

The important part is that adding resistance shouldn’t completely change your movement strategy.

We’re still practicing the same hinge we established in the previous step.

Step 4: Take Away the Bench

Eventually, we want to be able to perform the hinge without relying on the bench.

You can continue using the band while standing away from the bench.

This creates a new challenge: Can you maintain the same hip hinge without the external feedback?

Start with your feet in your normal stance.

Inhale as you push your hips backward.

Keep the shins relatively vertical.

You should feel the stretch through your posterior chain as the hips move backward.

Then exhale and stand back up.

If you’re using a block between your thighs, gently squeeze it as you return to standing.

At the top, avoid aggressively thrusting your hips forward.

Instead, imagine that there is a string attached to the top of your head pulling you toward the ceiling.

The goal is to finish in a tall, stacked position rather than an exaggerated hip thrust.

Step 5: Integrate Your Lats

The next piece we need to add is lat engagement.

Your lats play an important role in the deadlift because they help you keep the weight close to your body.

To practice this, we can use a long resistance band.

Start in your hinge position and reach forward with the band.

As you stand, pull the band down toward your body.

Think:

Inhale → hinge and reach → exhale → pull down and stand.

You can also maintain tension on the band throughout the entire movement.

This version can translate particularly well to weighted deadlifts because we ultimately want the weight to remain close to the body rather than drifting forward as you lower it.

This is an important skill.

When a weight moves away from your body during a deadlift, it can change the demands on your back and make the movement feel much more difficult.

Learning how to engage the lats and keep resistance close prepares you for the next stage.

Step 6: Add Dumbbells

Now we can begin introducing actual external load.

Dumbbells are a great transition because they can travel alongside your body.

This makes it easier to practice keeping the load aligned and close to you while continuing to work on your hinge mechanics.

Set up with your feet in your normal stance.

As you inhale, push the hips backward while maintaining relatively vertical shins.

The dumbbells should travel primarily up and down rather than swinging forward.

As you stand, engage your lats and exhale.

You can also continue using the block between your thighs if that helps you feel more connected to the movement.

Think:

Inhale → hips back → maintain your hinge → exhale → squeeze and stand tall.

At this point, you’re beginning to combine several of the skills we’ve been practicing:

Breathing
Hinging
Core and pelvic floor coordination
Hamstring engagement
Inner-thigh activation
Lat engagement
External loading

Step 7: Return to the Barbell From an Elevated Position

Now we’re finally ready to bring the barbell back into the equation.

But we’re not starting from the floor.

Instead, we’ll elevate the barbell.

You can do this using a rack pull setup, with the barbell resting on safety straps or J-hooks in a power rack. You can also elevate the barbell using bumper plates or blocks.

Why elevate the bar?

Because it decreases the range of motion.

Bringing the floor up to you means you don’t have to hinge as deeply to reach the bar.

That allows you to reintroduce the barbell and a heavier load while still giving you some control over the range of motion.

You’re essentially saying:

“I’m ready to practice the deadlift with a barbell, but I’m not quite ready to demand the entire movement from the floor yet.”

This can be an excellent middle ground.

What If You Feel Pelvic Floor Heaviness?

One of the things I want you to pay attention to as you return to lifting is how your pelvic floor feels during and after the movement.

If you experience pelvic floor heaviness during the elevated barbell deadlift, you can experiment with adding a block between your thighs to increase inner-thigh activation.

You can also try a slightly staggered stance.

For example, place your left foot slightly farther back and sit a little more into that heel as you perform the deadlift.

This changes the tension and loading strategy through the pelvic floor and may help you feel more stable and comfortable.

The important thing here is not to simply push through symptoms because the weight feels manageable.

Your symptoms are information.

If a particular variation creates heaviness or discomfort, that’s a reason to modify the movement or temporarily return to an earlier step in the progression.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gina, MS, & Roxanne, CNM (@mamastefit)

Step 8: Gradually Lower the Bar Toward the Floor

Once the elevated deadlift feels good, we can gradually bring the barbell closer to the floor.

At this stage, I typically recommend using a moderate load—often somewhere around 40–60% of your one-rep max, although the appropriate weight will vary depending on your postpartum timeline and individual experience.

The goal isn’t to immediately find out how much you can lift.

The goal is to find a load that allows you to practice the movement without symptoms while maintaining good mechanics.

From there, you can gradually increase the weight.

And remember: increasing the load isn’t the only way to progress.

You can also progress by:

Increasing your range of motion
Improving your consistency
Improving your technique
Increasing your confidence
Maintaining symptoms-free movement
Gradually increasing volume
Increasing the weight when your body is ready

Your Breathing Strategy Changes as the Weight Gets Heavier

This is one of the biggest transitions you’ll encounter as you move from lighter resistance to heavier barbell lifting.

Earlier in the progression, we used a breathing pattern of:

Inhale while lowering → exhale while standing.

As the load becomes heavier, however, your breathing strategy may need to change.

For heavier barbell movements, we can use a breath-holding and bracing strategy to help increase pressure within the abdominal cavity and stabilize the spine.

The basic pattern becomes:

Inhale at the top → hold the breath → lower → begin the ascent → exhale during the exertion.

The inhale should expand into the back and sides of the rib cage. We’re looking to create abdominal pressure and bracing rather than directing the pressure downward into the pelvic floor.

This is a more advanced strategy, and it isn’t something I would introduce immediately postpartum.

It should be integrated gradually as you progress toward heavier loads.

And importantly, if breath holding causes symptoms for you, that’s a reason to take a step back.

You may need to return to a lighter variation where you can manage your pressure without symptoms before trying the heavier breathing strategy again.

Why You Might Feel Strong Before You're Fully Ready

One of the most important concepts I want postpartum athletes to understand is that muscular strength isn’t the only measure of recovery.

You may feel strong enough to perform a movement.

You may even be able to lift a certain weight.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the passive structures involved in your recovery are ready for the same level of stress.

After birth, your body is still rebuilding.

Muscles can regain strength relatively quickly, but passive structures may require more time.

This is why you can sometimes feel physically capable of performing an exercise while still experiencing symptoms such as discomfort or pelvic floor heaviness.

The answer isn’t necessarily that you aren’t strong enough.

It may simply mean that your body needs more time and a more gradual progression.

How Long Does It Take to Return to Heavy Deadlifting Postpartum?

There isn’t one universal postpartum timeline.

Some athletes may progress more quickly, while others may need considerably more time.

In our programming, the progression itself takes approximately five to six weeks to work through, but that doesn’t mean every person will be ready to begin it at the same postpartum point or finish it at the same time.

Some of our clients don’t feel ready to really push their weights until six to eight months postpartum or later.

That’s okay.

In fact, I think postpartum is a wonderful opportunity to stop viewing your previous numbers as the finish line.

Instead, you get to build something new.

For me personally, I’m about two years postpartum and am only now reaching lifetime PRs in the deadlift.

That means I’m lifting more now than I ever did before having children.

What Should You Do If You Have Symptoms?

If you experience pelvic floor heaviness, discomfort, or other symptoms during your progression, don’t assume you need to stop strength training altogether.

Instead, consider modifying the variables.

You can:

Decrease the weight
Reduce the range of motion
Return to an elevated barbell position
Return to dumbbells
Return to band resistance
Revisit your breathing mechanics
Experiment with a slightly different stance
Use an inner-thigh activation strategy
Give yourself more time before progressing

The goal is to find a variation that allows you to train while remaining asymptomatic.

If symptoms persist or you’re unsure how to modify your training, working with a qualified pelvic health or postpartum fitness professional can help you determine an appropriate progression.

Postpartum Can Be a Fresh Start for Your Strength Training

I know it can be frustrating when you’re eager to get back to your old numbers.

But one of the biggest benefits of taking your time postpartum is that you get an opportunity to rebuild your movement patterns from the ground up.

Maybe you had movement compensations before pregnancy.

Maybe you always shifted slightly to one side.

Maybe you never really understood how to hinge properly.

Maybe your breathing strategy wasn’t very efficient.

Maybe you relied on certain muscles more than others.

Postpartum can give you an opportunity to address those patterns.

When our postpartum athletes take the time to reset their movement patterns, we often see them come back stronger, faster, and with fewer of the aches and pains they experienced before having children.

That is a much more exciting goal than simply getting back to where you were before pregnancy.

Ready to Rebuild Your Strength Postpartum?

At MamasteFit, our postpartum fitness programs are designed to help you progressively return to movements like the deadlift, squat, bench press, hip thrust, overhead press, bent-over row, and running.

The programs combine progressive strength training with core and pelvic floor rehabilitation and accessory work designed to support the smaller muscles that contribute to your overall movement quality.

You can find the full range of MamasteFit fitness programs HERE, including postpartum programming and our Beyond Postpartum program for athletes who are more than six months postpartum and ready to take their training to the next level. Be sure to use code YOUTUBE10 for 10% off any of our online offerings.

And remember: your postpartum fitness journey doesn’t have to be about getting back to who you were.

It can be about discovering what you’re capable of now.