Which core exercises can I do with a diastasis?

I gave birth a year ago and still have a diastasis about 3 centimeters wide. I know I shouldn't exercise my straight abs, but will that be true for the rest of my life? Which core exercises can I do?

Mark Chen, Physical Therapist Fair question. There is a lot of confusion about it and it is a little discussed problem that affects many women. To give you a good answer, we have to take a look at the anatomy of the abdominal wall (see image). We often call the muscles that support the abdominal wall the 'core' for convenience. These consist of the (oblique) abdominal muscles, the back muscles and the pelvic floor muscles. We can consider this as different players on the same team. The abdominal muscles have the hardest to endure during pregnancy. The tendon plate (the white line that runs in the middle of the abdominal muscle) becomes softer during pregnancy and can be stretched considerably by expanding the abdomen. This is what you experience as a 'gap' of 3 centimeters in the center of the abdominal muscle. In most cases, the muscle and tendon plate recovers within the first three months after pregnancy, but it is important that it is not actively loaded during the first weeks. If tensile forces are applied to the tendon plate while it is still weak, it can weaken further.

Which muscles work?

In the meantime, all other players on the team can still be trained. Training the environmental muscles generally strengthens the trunk and has a particularly good effect on the load capacity of the straight abdominal muscle. These exercises are performed in the supine position and are so-called 'static' exercises in the early stages. This means that you keep the entire pelvis in place while the muscles have to work. There are physiotherapists who are specially trained to help train the abdominal wall before and after pregnancy. Training this is quite subtle. Watch the video for an idea of the type of exercises. I recommend that you seek some help with this because as you will see, explaining it is tricky. The moment you are allowed to use the straight abdominal muscle again, it will be a lot easier to level it up. [! 174961 => 1130 = 3!] Tapping of the abs You can also relieve the straight abdominal muscle very well by using kinesio tape. This brings the ends of the diastase together and greatly reduces the pulling force. This can also have a very beneficial effect on recovery. I've recorded the technique for you so you can try it yourself at home. You can find it here