Why I Chose Pilates After Baby: My Postpartum Pilates Journey

I didn’t come to Pilates looking for transformation.

I came looking for relief.

After giving birth, my body felt unfamiliar in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Things that were once easy, simple things—laughing, sneezing, turning too quickly—suddenly felt difficult. Even fragile. Movement wasn’t fluid anymore. It was something I had to think about, brace for, negotiate with.

Like many new mothers navigating postpartum recovery, I was trying to understand my new body.

When Postpartum Movement Felt Harder Than Expected

Before pregnancy, I practiced yoga fairly consistently. During pregnancy, I stayed close to it through light prenatal yoga. After giving birth, I tried to return to movement with postpartum yoga, hoping it would help me reconnect.

Instead, it aggravated carpal tunnel and mother’s thumb. It was a painful truth I wasn’t ready to accept — that my body wasn’t ready to move the way my mind wanted it to. Exercises that were supposed to feel supportive felt destabilizing. I realized I needed a different approach to postpartum fitness—one that respected where my body actually was.

So I paused.

And for a long time, movement stayed on the sidelines.

I Turned to Running

About eighteen months after giving birth, I started running. Not because it felt intuitive—but because it felt challenging.

My days were full of sitting at a computer, managing a ton of work-related stress, and moving only in the small ways required to get through the day. I realized my child mostly saw me still. Focused. Tired. Capable—but not embodied.

I wanted to be a better example for him.

I wanted him to see me move.

Running gave me a sense of accomplishment and a release for stress. My body grew stronger, but something still felt off. As my endurance improved, it became clear that my core strength hadn’t caught up. I could feel the imbalance. I needed to train more intentionally.

Discovering Pilates for Postpartum Core Strength

As I researched running and marathon training plans, I kept seeing other athletes encourage strength training. I do not have my own free weights at home, and I had no desire to join a local gym.

As fate would have it, a Pilates studio opened about two miles from my house. They offered a free introductory class. It felt too easy. I chalked this feeling up to consistently running for eighteen months.

I signed up for four classes a month with the intention that these sessions would be a good stretch or strength training between training runs.

After my first full-length class, something shifted.

My core felt awake. Supportive. Strong in a way that didn’t demand force. Pilates wasn’t loud or rushed. It asked me to slow down—to focus on breath, alignment, and the smaller stabilizing muscles I had been ignoring.

Unlike other postpartum workouts I had tried, Pilates helped me rebuild core strength safely and intentionally. It supported my running. It supported my posture. And more importantly, it supported my confidence.

What Pilates Gave Me Beyond Physical Strength

Over time, Pilates gave me confidence—not the performative kind, but the quiet kind. The kind that settles into your body and stays there.

It gave me peace and excitement about how much stronger I was becoming.

And unexpectedly, it gave me space to think creatively—to meet myself with curiosity instead of criticism.

Especially during moments when a less-evolved version of me might have given in to uncertainty, Pilates offered something else: permission. Permission to be steady, to be soft, and to trust myself.

That’s something I hadn’t realized I was missing.

Why I Created Core & Calm Wellness

Core & Calm Wellness began as a personal reminder—to honor myself, my core, and my wellness as a whole practice, not a checklist.

This blog exists as a gentle space for postpartum movement, yoga and Pilates-inspired strength, and mindful recovery. It’s a place to return to when life feels demanding and when stillness feels earned.

I also created this space because I wish it existed more openly and more often—for women, for Black women, for Black mothers. We deserve to feel seen not only as caregivers or professionals, but as humans worthy of softness, strength, rest, and exploration.

This is a place where wellness isn’t about shrinking or pushing through—but about listening and becoming.

This is an invitation to move gently, to build strength patiently, and to honor both your softness and your power.

Welcome to Core & Calm Wellness.