3 Myths About Your Post Baby Belly

1.   My Belly will never look the same again

Yes, after having a baby your belly looks nothing like it’s original shape or texture, but it is possible to get it back.  In fact, some women have even better bellies after having babies.  It is possible when you know what to do and how to do it correctly and safely.   But while aesthetics is important to you, I get it, the function of your belly should be more of your focus post-birth. 

2. Crunches are the answer.

No, they are NOT!  Crunches, or abdominal sit-ups are the worse thing in the world you can do after having a baby because your weak muscles may not allow you to do it correctly and it puts too much pressure on your pelvic organs and may cause them to prolapse down.  This crunch motion can make your belly look worse by working the wrong muscles of your abdomen. 

 I had one woman come to my class and she was so frustrated because she had been faithfully doing 200 crunches every day since having her baby and she still had a pooch!  She couldn’t understand why until after the class.  She was so excited to finally figure out the best way to restrengthen her belly after having her baby.  

If you do a crunch and you notice your lower belly pushing out, that is not what you want if you desire a functional helpful belly.    After birth, your abdominal muscles get really lengthened but not all of them equally.    The muscles that don’t get as lengthened will work harder and easier than those that are more lengthened because a lengthened muscle is a weak muscle.  When doing a crunch you may find the upper abdomen tightening more than the lower part and cause the lower belly to push outward.  Ideally, and especially after birth, you need to focus more efforts on your lower belly, which is your transverse abdominus muscle,  drawing back up and in.   

With the muscular imbalances of a postpartum belly, crunches are the hardest motion to do to get the transverse to activate more than your upper belly.  Plus, the crunching motion puts more downward pressures on your pelvic organs and they really don’t need any more downward force after birth.  It’s definitely not the first exercise I’d want a postpartum person to do.  

In my Confidence in Your Core, Pelvic Floor and More online course, I teach you the best way to get your abdominal muscles working effectively for your long term core and pelvic health.  The best thing is, in as little as one week you can lose inches in your belly when you do the exercises I teach in this course! And you can do the exercises anytime and anyplace.  You don’t have to lay down to work your abdominal muscles.  How cool is that!

3. Surgery is the only option to heal a split

If you have any doming happening in the midline of your belly then you have what is called Diastasis Recti.  This is a separation of your rectus abdominus muscle.  If you ask your doctor, they most likely will tell you surgery is your only option in getting rid of this or healing your split.  BUT IT’S NOT!  For the majority of separations, you can heal it, no matter how long it’s been around, and you don’t need surgery to do it!  There is one sign that you can heal a separation. When you go to contract your abdominal muscle by lifting your head when lying down, if you can feel the tension in your connective tissue, your linea alba,  between your recti muscles, then you can heal your separation.  

To do this, you just need to learn how to keep your abdominal muscles together and let the connective tissue heal and strengthen your core effectively.     There are a lot of things to learn to heal this separation and I teach you all of it in my Confidence in Your Core, Pelvic Floor and More online course.

Even if you don’t have diastasis recti, this class is packed full of great information that every woman needs to know to better take care of their bodies after pregnancy and childbirth.  Not feeling the same in your body since birth?  Come learn why and what you can do about it!