How to prevent diastasis recti?
A century-old saying is: prevention is better than cure. And how right is that when it comes to preventing diastasis recti.
Meet Ursula - Proud mother of twins and our Diastasis Recti Fix model
Diastasis around pregnancy means a separation of the left and right side of the abdominal wall from the midline, caused by excessive stretching of the growing abdomen. Every woman has diastasis at the end of her pregnancy. But not all women develop problems with diastasis, such as a large opening in the abdominal wall, loss of function and pain around the pelvis during or after pregnancy.
Causes of diastasis
Diastasis usually occurs around the second trimester of your pregnancy and can be caused by a variety of factors:
pregnant with multiples
Pregnant with a large baby
Having been pregnant many times before
Pregnancy at a later age
Overweight during pregnancy
Delivered by Caesarean section before
Genetic factors
In this article, by Buff Body, we share practical tips to prevent diastasis recti for women. Moreover, we offer a 100% FREE application to help you prevent or heal diastasis recti. The app is developed by seasoned fitness professionals in order to offer you the best diastasis recti exercises.
How to prevent diastasis recti yourself
With the right advice on how to tighten and train the abdominal muscles, you can prevent diastasis from resulting in an opening and a problem during pregnancy.
To regain your postnatal firmness as soon as possible, you can start exercising during pregnancy. However, it is important that you do this carefully as the wrong exercises can cause diastasis. Therefore, we advise that you hire a professional, or use our special diastasis recti application (available IOS only).
At Buff Body, a specialised team works passionately to ensure a symptom-free pregnancy for all women. With the guidance and our app, the stomach wall can be protected and problems of diastasis can be prevented.
The most important thing is not to want too much at once. After all, closing the abdominal wall takes time and can certainly take a few months. Try not to force yourself when exercising and rest well. This way, you will not develop permanent damage to your abdominal muscles.
Train and protect your abdomen, your back, your organs and - during pregnancy - certainly your baby! Buff Body helps you to stay in shape and to understand the changes taking place in your body. This way you can prevent complications in the future. Protect your belly!
Shot at CrossFit Elviria, Andalusia, Spain: http://www.crossfitelviria.com
How to fix diastasis recti?
Download Diastasis Recti Fix for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1493183424
More about our app: https://www.buffbody.fit/diastasis-recti-fix
Everything you need to know about our app and how it helps you fix your ab separation & postpartum belly, in this short video.
What You Get
Tailored Exercises (Home & Gym)
We provide you with exercises, that are specifically tailored to learn control your diastasis recti. No matter your fitness or progression level, we adapt everything exactly to your needs.
Nutrition Guidance
Interested in healthy nutrition, as well? The program includes a meal planner and recipe book, that you can freely choose from if you like to. Also for vegans and vegetarians.
100% Personal Support
We will provide you with full video instructions and check-in with you on a daily basis.
To make sure you perform all exercises correctly, we will also form check videos that you send in. To give you full, personal support.
You will get exclusive access to our private member community on Facebook where you become part of our exclusive community, engage with other members and stay motivated.
Ab exercises for diastasis recti
It is important to regain proper function of the muscles of the core after childbirth. It helps to be able to tighten the deep transverse abdominal muscle, or transversus abdominis, and integrate it into daily activities.
Because the deep transverse abdominal muscle and the pelvic floor are part of the core and work together, tightening one stimulates the other. Therefore, by training the deep transverse abdominal muscle, your entire core will become stronger. The exercise below can be done immediately after giving birth. You can start training this muscle right away.
Training your deep transverse abdominal muscle
Lie on your back with your back and pelvis in a neutral position and keep a slight curve in your lower back.
Exhale, tighten the pelvic floor to create tension in the deep transverse abdominal muscle. This is a slight tightening that you feel deep in the lower abdomen.
Hold your tightening for one to two seconds and then relax for five seconds.
Repeat ten times.
Building up? Do three sets of ten repetitions.
If the diastasis does not recover sufficiently after the birth, if complaints arise and if the above exercise does not help sufficiently, we recommend that you download our app. This is, more than anything, a personal trainer in your pocket, specially designed to repair your diastasis recti.