If you are like most women, you probably experienced diastasis recti after having children. This is a common condition that occurs when the abdominal muscles separate and create a gap in the middle. It can be very frustrating to deal with, especially if it has been years since you had your last child. In this blog post, we will discuss how to heal diastasis recti years after having your children with simple exercises and stretches.
First, it is important to understand that diastasis recti is a condition that takes time to heal. There are no quick fixes or overnight cures. Crunches and other exercises that target the abdominal muscles should be avoided, as they can actually make the condition worse. Instead, focus on core-strengthening exercises that improve your posture, support your core, and fix your breathing.
Second, you need to break some bad habits. If you are reading this, it’s likely that you had your last child a few years ago and didn’t realize you had diastasis recti. It’s difficult to fix something you didn’t know you had. Don’t get discouraged, realizing that you need to fix it is the first step. We will go over some of the most common symptoms and how to fix them in this post.
Life happens quickly after you have a baby. From the moment they exit your body you are supposed to keep them alive and yourself from falling apart. Moms don’t have time to struggle or feel bad. We have to jump right into life no matter what. If you had multiple children back to back you had even less time to heal. When you continuously place the pressure of a growing fetus on your abs when they haven’t had the time to heal, the condition keeps getting worse.
You may not have noticed for a lot of reasons. One, you could have a layer of fat around your stomach that makes it nearly impossible to see if you have an abdominal separation. I’ve seen many women try to check for diastasis recti and be unable to see if they have it due to excess belly fat. You are checking in between your belly button, so getting any depth there may be difficult if you are carrying extra weight.
The second reason is that our culture places a “normal” label on many post partum issues that are not normal. Just because something is common does not make it normal. Yes, many women experience problems post birth. It doesn’t matter if you and your best friend and Cynthia from church all pee when you jump on the trampoline, it’s still not normal.
Bladder incontinence or leakage is a very common symptom in post partum women. In fact, as many as one in four women experience bladder leakage after they have babies. Of course it is normal to experience this directly after childbirth as your body is healing, but six years after your kid has arrived, not so much. If you are still leaking when you run, jump or sneeze, you didn’t heal properly.
Pelvic floor weakness and pain can also be an issue you have dealt with over the years. This can be caused by a number of things, but diastasis recti is a big contributor. You can have pelvic floor weakness because you didn’t heal your core and therefore your pelvic floor remained weak as well. Your pelvic floor is a muscle and it supports your organs, pelvis, hips, and lower back. Without proper function you will continue to have problems.
Pelvic floor problems can also arise from overuse or tightness. Often doing exercises like Kegels can make the problem worse. Your pelvic floor needs to expand and contract naturally with your breath. As you breath your diaphragm pushes air into your belly and your pelvic floor relaxes. As you exhale and your abdominal muscles contract, your pelvic floor also contracts and pulls up toward your body. This natural movement is the way our bodies are supposed to function.
As we have babies and move through the healing process to quickly without giving much thought to our bodies healing, we can make these problems much worse over the years. Over time your body will heal, but you may have some major imbalances to go along with that. Tight hips, glutes, and hamstrings can all be the cause of an underactive core. All of these muscles go into over drive to compensate for the lack of core function.
Having a weak core can also cause a lot of stress on your spine and pelvis, creating imbalances that you need to fix. You may find yourself with tight glutes from clenching them to compensate for your lower back pain. The tightening of your glutes was most likely a contributing factor in your lower back pain, but years of assuming this posture have made the problem worse.
We also tend to compensate for our insecurities by slouching our shoulders, pushing the belly forward, and tilting the pelvis in the opposite direction. Sadly, this not only makes us look like a slob, it actually draws attention to the flaws we were trying to hide in the first place.
When you are trying to fix your diastasis recti, posture is the first thing you can change. This is a simple fix, but it takes some thought, especially if you have years of bad habits that you are going to have to fix. Bring your ears back so they line up with your shoulders. Your pelvis should be neutral and so should your spine. Neutral means they should be in alignment, not tilted forward or backward. Your abs will naturally tighten when your body is in this position. That is because your core is supposed to be the stabilizer and it can now do it’s job properly.
The second thing you should focus on is breathing. Yes, something as simple as breathing can change your entire core. If you are breathing properly, your abs and pelvic floor will expand and contract naturally with your breath. Your diaphragm should be pushing air through your belly and your core should be engaging with every breath.
There are exercises that you can do as well to heal. If you had a baby a long time ago it is likely that your core will not be as weak as someone who just gave birth. While you didn’t heal properly, your body has done its best to heal. You still want to avoid exercises like planks, crunches, sit-ups, twists, or leg extensions as those will place pressure on the outer walls of your abs and pull them further apart.
One of the most important things you can do is strengthen your glutes. Your glutes are the largest muscles in your body. If they are weak, they affect everything else. With your pelvis, hips, and core all being connected to your glutes, you want to make sure they are strong so they can properly support your body. The glute bridge is a wonderful exercise for your glutes and your core.
To perform a glute bridge, lie down on your back with your knees bent and your arms by your sides. Your heels should be about an inch away from the tips of your fingers so you can get a good amount of range when you perform the exercise. Take a big breath in and as you release that breath and tighten your abs, lift your glutes off the ground until your body creates a straight line. Your glutes should be contracted and your abs should be stabilizing. Hold and release, repeating for 15-20 reps.
A good stretching routine is also a great way to strengthen your core and begin to fix any imbalances you might have.
Yoga or Pilates can be a great addition to your workout routine as they can help you stretch and elongate your muscles. Sun salutations with forward folds are great to open up your chest, back, core, and stretch out your hamstrings. Chaturanga, cobra, and runners lunge will help you stretch your back, hip flexors, and hamstrings and glutes. You can find a nice flow and add these to your workouts as a nice stretching routine. Find a dynamic flow that works for you and you can do three to four times per week.
Walking is a great exercise as well and it is often overlooked because it seems so easy. Walking not only allows you to move your body with intention, it saves your joints, allows you to practice good posture and belly breathing while you are doing the activity, burns calories, and helps strengthen your hips, glutes, hip flexors, and core. If you can’t train, WALK. It will make a huge difference.
As you can see, there are many different ways that you can heal your diastasis recti long after you are done having babies. Don’t let the fact that you just dropped your kid off at college or held your first grandbaby stop you from healing your own body and caring for yourself. If you would like to download my diastasis recti guide, you can find that here.
If you would like some more help or a plan to get started, sign up for a training consultation and I will help you start healing. It’s never too late to start.