Pregnancy Red Flag: Diastasis Recti
Ladies this is one of those untold, unheard, foreign terms to most women... until you become a victim of it unknowingly. Diastasis recti is the separation of your abdominal muscles (down the middle of the six pack) and causes the infamous belly "pooch" we ALL hate as women. The tissue that lines the abs down the middle is called the "linea alba" and it thins out in response to the hormones during pregnancy so that the belly can accommodate your growing uterus and baby. Usually after delivery, the hormone levels return to their pre-pregnancy levels and the thinning generally improves. Some women have it for years after their pregnancy and never know that's what it is. You can exercise thinking that will make it go away after pregnancy and still have it unless you are doing proper core work to reverse it.
THE CAUSE
Women usually develop diastasic recti if they carry multiple babies at a time, had more than one pregnancy, are petite, have poor muscle tone, had it in their previous pregnancy or have a sway back posture. Other reasons women develop this, including men, is doing what I like to call unbalanced abdominal work, meaning, doing more or mainly "crunches" or crunching type ab exercises than doing twisting or oblique exercises which work all 3 main muscle groups (4 if being really technical but for the purpose of simplicity we're discussing 3): obliques (sides), transverse abdominis (muscles that wrap around your core and function like a corset), and your rectus abdominis (six pack).
CHECK
You can check to see if you have this on your own. Remember, if you can put 2 or more fingers inside that linea alba, then you have it. If 1 finger, then you're fine, but if you have a 2 finger width then start to make changes in your exercise regimen if you're knowledgeable in this area or stop abdominal exercise altogether if unsure. If you have a 3 finger width then STOP all exercise because if you do not know what exercises affect your coFret not if you do discover that you have diastasic recti. It can be reversed with consistent and proper abdominal work after pregnancy.
Click below to see how to check for diastasic recti:
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