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I ignored the common rules (no plank, no crunches, no this or that) for my severe diastasis recti recovery on my postpartum fitness journey twice.
If you are wondering what exercises I do that led me from having a jello midsection to a strong core, then keep reading!
Most moms are afraid to do crunches or planks, or they simply stop doing any exercise because they are scared of worsening the gap. And I understand that because when you google online, a lot of the information out there will tell you to avoid a lot of the traditional core exercises.
But what I found is that because of this fearful mindset, it is impeding a lot of moms from taking their first step to healing their core. They are overwhelmed; they don’t know where to start. Or they’d avoid the core exercises, and see improvement everywhere else except for the postpartum belly.
What happened to me was, after having my first baby, I had no idea what diastasis recti was. This term was never in my dictionary, and no one mentioned it this me neither. So I went on doing a traditional full-body cardio workout program with crunches, planks and all of that “good stuff”, thinking that’s how all other postpartum moms get back to their pre-baby shape.
What ended up happening was that I lost a lot of weight, my waist slimmed down, I had more energy, but the coning in my abdomen area was still very visible. Then later, I was diagnosed with diastasis.
Though shortly after that, I was pregnant again, and I stopped doing any exercise.
And you would think that I would listen to my physiotherapist and doing the exercises that she recommends after the second pregnancy. Although I did, I continued to do the full-body workouts.
It’s not because I was ignorant. I just found that the reps were too tedious, which made it unmotivated for me to continue for the long term. I just wanted to be able to wear tighter shirts or tuck my shirt in without the bulge showing in my pants. I had to do something.
The last thing I want to see is you avoiding doing exercises altogether.
Now I am not telling you to go and do 50 crunches, what I am saying is that you need to determine where you are at in your recovery journey. This will help you understand whether you are ready to move on:
Here are 3 stages:
1. Beginner stage.
Usually, you are a newer mom, or mom with a very weak core. You feel like your gut is falling out for example when you are bend over the crib to pick up your baby.
1. Intermediate Stage
2. you’ve learnt how to engage your deep core muscles, you are doing the recommended DR exercises. You are conscious of your posture and you understand what kind of moves that form a dome in your abdomen.
1. Advance Stage
This is when you can generate great tension in your core (having tension means you don’t see a dom) in most of your exercises, and you are continuing to strengthen and target the area you need to work on, for example, the lower belly.
Once we understand what kind of exercises that put excessive pressure on our core, then we are able to tell whether this is safe to do. Don’t be afraid to try it, what’s important is that you are incrementally increasing the intensity. Just like lifting weight if you want to have biceps, you can’t lift a 5lbs forever, you got to keep adding to it to rip the muscle.
Always move forward, don’t move backward!
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