The 2 types of abdominal separation
From there, you need to know that there are 2 types of diastasis recti that can happen:
- physiological
- pathological/dysfunctional
The physiological, is the “normal” one if I can call it like that. Most women, after their pregnancy, will have some kind of separation happening because of all the reasons I outlined above.
The dysfunctional one is the one that we should look into a bit more. This is when the separation width is greater than 2 fingers and/or the tissue quality is poor, meaning that we don’t feel much resistance when gently pressing on those tissues.
So, what can you do about it?
First, we should have this conversation earlier rather than later. I encourage you to seek out the help of your care provider or fit pros (who are well educated on the topic, not your usual trainer).
Your postpartum routine should look like this:
- Breathing exercises (real breathing, engaging your core muscles and especially the TA and the pelvic floor muscles) are always the starting point, whether during or after your pregnancy. Start lying on your back. Place your hands on your ribs to receive some feedback when you breathe. Breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth. When you initiate breathing out, start by gently lifting the pelvic floor muscles like if you were to pick up a blueberry without smashing it. Then place your focus on your abdomen (especially the side) and feel a wrapping around your waist going from your hip bones to your lower ribs : THIS is the transverse abdominis activation we are looking for to reduce the gap. Repeat 10 times by really taking the time to feel that gentle deep wrapping.
- Adding some dissociated upper and lower body moves and progressing your positioning to challenge your body with gravity will be the progression. Move while breathing and activating your deep core muscles like I explained above.
- Work on your pelvic floor recovery. Stop ignoring this, please, please, please. Your pelvic floor truly needs some LOVE. Especially if you suffer from diastasis recti. For this, you should focus on breathing while engaging gently your pelvic floor muscles and/or using any kind of device giving you some feedback to control and understand the kind of activation we are looking for. Early pelvic floor recovery can be as simple as that.
Absolutely AVOID, at any time, doing crunches, sit-ups or any kind of planks (for post-partum mostly).
You can check out some exercises to strengthen your core muscles if you don’t suffer from what I called earlier dysfunctional diastasis recti. They are to be done AFTER your “recovery protocol”.
If you want to know if you have diastasis recti, you can head over to this blog post, where I show you step by step how you can self-test for this.
Disclaimer: Bonjour Baby strongly recommends that you consult with your physician before beginning and enrolling in any exercise program, even if you are in good physical condition, not suffering from any complications, and able to participate in the exercise.
Bonjour Baby is not a licensed medical care provider and represents that it has no expertise in diagnosing, examining, or treating medical conditions of any kind or in determining the effect of any specific exercise on a medical condition.
