Baby Steps to Regaining Your Core Strength Postpartum

Strengthen your core from inside out

It is incredible how your body changes during pregnancy. Yet after giving birth, it does not bounce right back as easy as celebrities make it look like.

As a personal trainer who has worked with women who wanted to regain strength and muscle tone after pregnancy, I have had similar complaints about abdominal pressure, pain, or weakness even years after giving birth.

Many women are sedentary for months as they recover from delivery, which creates even more tightness and weakness. Nursing, lifting, and carrying a baby can lead to a rounded back and low back pain.

In this article, we will dive into the changes that occur in the core structure post pregnancy and exercises to strengthen the entire core.

When most of us hear the word core, Abs come to mind. However, the core consists of all the muscles that encompass your midsection and is mainly used to stabilize the spine and pelvis.

As the belly expands during pregnancy, the abdominals stretch, and the back muscles shorten. The connective tissue in the linea alba thins and separates. The ligaments and joints in the pelvis become very unstable. The pelvic floor often weakens under the weight of the fetus.

Diastasis recti is a separation of the right and left abdominal muscles due to the natural belly growth from the developing fetus.

To check for diastasis recti, simply lie on your back, contract your abdominal muscles, and press gently into your abdomen above and below your navel. If you can feel a soft spot or gap between the muscles, then you do have a separation.

One to two finger-widths is normal and should close on its own. If your gap is wider than three finger-widths, it may not be a bad idea to contact a physical therapist to ensure proper closing of the gap.

When you suffer from Symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD), the ligaments that are supposed to keep your pelvis aligned become relaxed. This leads to instability in the pelvic joint, and it is not…

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