Closing diastasis recti (core muscle seperation) gap with exercises

If you haven't already please get clearance from your doctor before starting any program. You might end up doing more harm than good.

Disclaimer: my youngest (of 4) is 22 now so this is a long time ago, so I may well have forgotten some details)

But...I remember being given some standard ‘early days’ exercises by the midwives and obstetricians over the years I was having my children. As far as I remember these were specifically intended to ‘gently’ pull things back together.

I remember 3 exercises, which I can attempt to describe for you (incidentally, I still do these, fairly regularly, before I get out of bed - I definitely still notice a difference if I lapse from time to time!)

1. Lie on your back, legs extended. Place your hands on your lower abdomen. Extend each leg in turn, without lifting it, stretching from the hip. Hold the maximum stretch for 3 secs each time, Repeat 15 times, each leg. You should be able to feel the movement in your lower abdomen, under your hands.

2. Lie on your back, knees bent, again place your hands on you lower abdomen (it helps you isolate the muscles). Lower both legs sideways as far as you can, control the movement and hold for a couple of secs. 15 reps each side.

3. The last one is a pelvic tilt (which I think is a form of Kegel exercise for the pelvic floor?)
Again, on your back, knees bent, hands on abdomen, gently tense your tummy and pull up the pelvic floor, press the small of your back into the floor/mattress and imagine you are rolling into a ball, Most of the movement with this one is internal, so you’re really not rolling into a ball, just progressively tensing the muscles upwards. Hold for 10 secs or as long as you can to start with.

I’ve probably not described these very well but maybe you can make some sense of it!

There are some other things you should be aware of - do NOT attempt any form of sit-up or crunch at this point. 100% contra-indicated with Diastasis Recti.

Also, try to remember to ‘log-roll’ when you get up from lying down - roll onto your side and use your hands to lift yourself up rather than trying to sit straight up from a prone position.