diastasis recti

Re: diastasis recti

• BeFitMom

  July 2011

  To prevent or lessen the severity of diastasis recti (abdominal separation) during pregnancy, you need to strengthen your deepest abdominal muscle, your Transverse Abdominis, or TvA. This is our body?s internal ?girdle? and when contracted, compresses the abdomen. Like pelvic floor muscles, the TvA does not move bone.

   

  TvA strength during pregnancy also helps to prevent back pain and pelvic instability, and because it is the primary expulsion muscle, greatly aids in labor and delivery.

   

  Pregnant and postpartum women with diastasis should NOT perform any abdominal exercises that lift/flex the upper body off the floor or against the force of gravity, or those that twist the spine, as these moves will worsen the condition.

   

  To protect their mid lines, all pregnant women should use the ?log roll? technique when rising from the floor, or getting out of bed.

   

  To view a demonstration of a ?log roll? during pregnancy go to:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoe8PaYvRRc

   

  To view two safe abdominal exercises for diastasis during pregnancy go to:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cdSxWvF06g

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTlpSCmJyY

   

  Women whose mid lines are larger than 2.5 finger-widths should add manual splinting of the Rectus Abdominis onto these exercises as shown here:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juMlSPiZHTw

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxbsq808lxE

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• mjcruser1

  July 2011

  Thank you very much for the post.  I will begin these exercises right away. 

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