split abdominal muscles

[Anonymous]

Mine are split. It happened with the first baby and got a bit worse with #2. Not horrendously split--I can just squeeze 2 fingers in between (it's a tight squeeze). But whenever I have to pee or eat a lot my stomach sticks out! So annoying because I am in the best shape of my life right now.

Anyone find any solutions to this? Does it get worse?

[Anonymous]

I've had similar issues. After my second baby, I took a series of postnatal exercise classes run by a PT. She said that the best exercise for this is to perform tummy pullins throughout the day while going about your regular routine. To try and explain, while your spine is in a neutral position, pull all your lower abdominal muscles in as hard as you can and do a "forced exhalation". Hold for several seconds and then release. Do this throughout the day and you should see results. She also recommended that if you are doing crunches or other ab. exercises, manually hold the muscles together at the same time. Hope this is somewhat helpful, I also wonder if Pilates would help?

[Anonymous]

I also read it can help to hold a towel around you while doing ab exercises. You are using the towel to hold the muscles togethor. So you wrap it around you back with the two ends in front (opp hands holding opposite ends of the towel).

The ol tummy pull-ins have the extra benefit of making your tummy flatter also.

[Anonymous]

OP here. THANKS !!! So you guys saw improvement over time?

[Anonymous]

I did the exercises in the book Lose Your Mummy Tummy. Wished I had bought the stomach wrap that the book recommends. There's also a DVD. I think keeping the abs together during the day would speed things up. The exercises are just a lot of tummy pull-ins (imagine your belly button touching your spine). But you have to do it everyday. Don't stop or you'll fall back open. Other exercises that help are planks and the machines at the gym that say they target the transverse abs. All these exercises involve very small movements but man, they are powerful.

[Anonymous]

Grrr....diastasis problems...I hear you! 10 years of Pilates, and I still got (and retained) the muscle separation after having 2 kids....

[Anonymous]

Is the only real way to eliminate this with surgery? That's what my friend's doc told her. Ugh, I have diastasis too, and it sucks because I'm very petite and small-boned so my tummy pooch actually makes me look pregnant.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I think the only way to truly fix this is surgery. But when I work out faithfully it shrinks to only 1 finger-width. And I have to remain lean (less than 115 lbs - I am 5'4"). If I head towards 120 lbs and go for more than 3 days without working out, I get a pooch. I happened to talk with my midwife about this a few weeks ago. She confirmed that the secret is to not stop working out, or it all falls apart literally.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I am a naive optimist but I think yoga and pilates would work!!!!

Now that I have a baby I don't have time for classes anymore - used to do 2-3 a week and had awesome abs. Totally stopped doing sit ups etc.

But the results were so great for core - I can't imagine they would not help post baby.

Maybe when kids are grown I'll have great abs again???