After giving birth, many moms are left with an abdominal pooch or bulge for months or years. This is sometimes due to some extra weight that isn’t lost postpartum, but it may also be due to the condition known as Diastasis Recti Abdominis (DRA) which many women don’t even know is a condition.
In medical terms, a DRA is a separation between the two bellies of the rectus abdominis at the Linea Alba and this condition may occur in more than half of all pregnancies.
Do I have Diastasis Recti?
To check to see if you have diastasis recti, first, lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Then place your fingers with the palm facing you on your belly button. Lift your head and neck just slightly off of the floor like you are doing a crunch while you press down with your fingers. If there is a gap this would mean you have a diastasis. You should conduct the test just above your belly button and just below the button since the gap can measure differently in these places.
Best Diastasis Recti Exercises
Diaphragmatic breathing
The first step to any diastasis recti workout is learning to breathe properly. To practice diaphragmatic breathing, lie down on your back. Our bodies naturally fall into this breath pattern when we’re sleeping, so moving into a position associated with rest can serve as a trigger to move into a deeper diaphragmatic breath pattern.
- Once you’re on your back, place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly.
- Inhale a slow, deep breath through your nose and focus on sending the air into your lower ribs and belly. On your inhale, feel your stomach rise. (Many of us try to “suck in” on our inhale. This is called an inverse breath. Be sure to practice letting the belly rise as you fill the lungs with air).
- Exhale with a “shhh” sound and hug or tighten your abdominals. Here, you’ll feel the belly fall as you empty your body of air.
- Practice this breath in many different positions: on your back, lying on your side, on all fours, kneeling, and finally standing upright. You may find that chest breathing tries to take over as you work your way up through these levels. Move slowly through the stages and continue practicing until diaphragmatic breathing becomes your new normal.
Supine marches
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump deeply as you march one foot 1 inch off the ground.
- Place your foot back down and inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor to prepare.
- Exhale, activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump, and repeat the movement on the other side.
Heel slides
Diastasis recti exercises that focus on releasing tension in the back and hip flexors while activating the pelvic floor and core are excellent for refinding your neutral alignment and coordinating the muscles of your inner core unit.
As you do this exercise, see if you can initiate the movement from your core rather than moving your spine, bones of the pelvis, or gripping the hip flexors.
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump as you lift your toes and slide your heel away from the body to fully extend the leg.
- Inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor to prepare.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump as you slide your leg back up to its starting position.
Leg lifts
This diastasis recti exercise promotes the proper use of your core so your body can begin memorizing what it feels like to use correct core mechanics when increasing the load (i.e., your leg).
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump as you lift your toes and slide your heel away from the body to fully extend the leg.
- Inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor to prepare.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump as you lift your extended leg 1 inch off the floor and place it back down again.
- Inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor to prepare.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump as you slide your leg back up to its starting position.
Toe taps
Lifting the leg to a 90-degree position challenges the core to stay engaged (not pushing out). Just holding the leg in that lifted position is work when you have diastasis recti. Once you feel strong, you can advance to increasing the load even more with these toe taps.
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Inhale, fill your ribs and belly and relax your pelvic floor.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump deeply as you draw one leg up into a chair position at 90 degrees. This may be your stopping point until your core is ready to progress to the next step. Make sure you can hold the leg here without the abs pushing upwards.
- Inhale to prepare.
- Exhale, deepening your core activation as you tap your toes down to the floor and return to the chair position. Aim for five to 10 slow repetitions.
- Repeat on the other leg.
Quadruped paper slides and reaches
Diagonal exercises train the cross-body muscle fibers of the internal and external obliques.
Movements that properly activate the core while training these cross-body fibers help speed up your diastasis recti recovery by training the muscles of your entire core to work together, not just the ones that have sustained the injury.
- Set up with strong alignment in an all-fours position. This means placing your shoulders over your wrists (or fists, if you need to protect your wrists) and hips over your knees, and keeping a long line of energy from the top of your head all the way through your spine to the tip of your tailbone.
- Inhale to fill your lower ribs and belly while relaxing the pelvic floor.
- Exhale and activate your Core Breathing Belly Pump as you lift one arm and the opposite leg away, high enough to slide an imaginary piece of paper under those two points, and then return.
- Once all four points are back on the floor, inhale and relax the muscles of the core.
- Repeat on both sides of the body.
As your core stability becomes stronger, you can advance to sliding your hand and foot away from your body along the floor on your exhale activation.
Note: Progress to this exercise when you can properly control the activation of your Core Breathing Belly Pump while lying down. If you can’t maintain core support, practice keeping three points on the ground and only lifting one limb at a time instead of two.
Diastasis Recti: Exercises to Avoid
Many exercises that are thought to promote core strengthening need to be avoided. Performing exercises like planks and crunches can actually make the condition worse. In general, specialists advise against movements such as planks, traditional sit-ups, push-ups and backbends, Yoga postures that stretch the abdominal muscles, and other abdominal exercises that flex the upper spine off the floor because of the intense core pressure and abdominal doming they produce. As a rule, if you have diastasis recti, exercises that cause uncontrolled doming or coning should be avoided. Once you establish proper core engagement and strength, you may be able to resume these exercises safely and complete your workouts without limitations. Avoid lifting and carrying very heavy objects.
Don’t perform exercises in quadruped (on your hands and knees) without adequate abdominal support and try to avoid intense coughing without abdominal support.