After you have accomplished giving birth, whether it is to your first or fifth child, you might be reasonable in believing that there is nothing in the world that you cannot do. You are a woman warrior, a symbol of strength and power; so why is it that so many women perceive reclaiming their midline after childbirth as ‘impossible’?
So many women throw up their hands and in the towel when it comes to their goals regarding what they can expect for their tummy area to look like after childbirth. They have become accustomed to an idea that childbirth ‘just changes’ us and that we are better off accepting an altered boxy shape or the sagging midline. No more two piece bathing suits, jeans never fit right again; the list goes on. Maybe they are discouraged from hearing other’s excuses or maybe they are discouraged from the lack of results from their own efforts. Either way, moms do not have time to waste. If they are not getting the results they are looking for from a workout, then they are likely to move on to their ever-expanding list of other responsibilities that take precedence over what seems like a losing battle. Don’t lose the battle; arm yourself so that you know what you are working with and so you don’t waste that time that you don’t have!
If you have had a baby, then I have no doubt that you have heard of the pelvic floor. Most people know of the pelvic floor as something we need to do Kegels to tone so that we don’t piddle when we sneeze. That is true, but the pelvic floor is also the foundation of your core. Training it along with the Transverse Abdominis (the TA) are the two most important elements to getting the flat stomach that you had before pregnancy or that you have never had but have always wanted.
There are many very effective core workout routines offered in many different programs. I won’t delve into the eternal debate about what workout is best; among fitness experts, the core is such an important part of the fitness goal that it will probably be an ever-evolving strategy. What I do want to address is that, in any and all of these programs, there are two key pieces of information that you absolutely need to know in order to get the most out of whatever workout it is that you choose. First, you have to know what you are working on. Second, you have to uncover what you are working on.
The TA is the deep abdominal muscle that runs under your six-pack. Yes, you have a six-pack, even when you can’t see it- it is just spread out or hidden under fat tissue. The Pelvic Floor (PF) and the TA are what hold your insides in and flatten your tummy. The stronger they are, the flatter your tummy will be.
To find your TA, stand up straight with your shoulders relaxed and place one flat hand across your abdomen below your belly button. You’re going to engage the TA and pelvic floor group without cheating. I will explain more about cheating in just a moment. Now keep your hand where it is but tighten your abdominal muscles to pull them away from your hand so that you can see light between your hand and your tummy. You should picture a string from behind your belly button that pulls directly through your middle to draw your stomach evenly towards your spine.
Make sure that you are not cheating! Cheating is just sucking in your stomach, which doesn’t do anything effective for you besides the thirty seconds you can hold your breath and check it out in the mirror. The way that you know that you’re sucking it in versus really engaging your stomach is to ask yourself if you can breathe normally. When the muscles are engaged properly, you will not hold your breath and your breathing will feel natural. Feeling the difference between sucking it in and really engaging that core takes practice; mastering this difference is what makes the difference in getting the optimal results out of whatever core workout you choose.
Your actual core workout time is not the only time to practice this. You can, and should, practice engaging your core during all of your activities during the day. Start with times when you have a second to think, maybe when you are nursing or make the association to remember to re-engage your core every time you stand. Do what works for you and increase your attention to this little by little. At first you may in your new self awareness that you spend a lot of time with your core disengaged. This is at least helpful in understanding why that core workout wasn’t helping much! Do not be discouraged; use it as a launching point for what you are accomplishing starting now. Just like any habit out there, remembering to engage your core during daily activity will take about thirty days of practice before being really entrenched in your natural actions.
The second thing that you have to understand about core workouts is that you have to uncover what you are working on. That means even if you do every core workout available out there and you have stellar rock hard abs, you will never see them if you do not work off the fat that covers them. With this, you need to understand that there is no such thing as tummy fat. There are a lot of products or programs out there that make the claim that they target tummy fat. This is impossible. There is no way to burn off fat in one area more than another. Fat is distributed and it is stored throughout your body and it is burned throughout your body. This is the same concept as blood in a way. You would never say that you had leg blood or head blood. Your blood is all over your body. Fat is depleted systematically from all over your body; so whether you’re running or doing fifteen hundred crunches a day, you will never be able to fool your body into pulling fat from a specific place. The only way to uncover your abs is through a healthy balanced exercise program that trains your whole body and decreases your overall body fat percentage, revealing those awesome abs that you’ve been working so hard for!
Are you reading this before giving birth? Consider this. Many women do not know that you have a layer of Fascia which covers your abdominal muscles behind your skin. This is an extra layer of connective tissue to help hold together the muscle and keep everything where it should be along your waist area. The Fascia cannot be strengthened or tightened without surgery; there is literally no exercise that will affect this. Therefore, the less damage we can do to the Fascia during pregnancy, the faster it will bounce back and return to normal. The way to do this is by gaining the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy over the recommended amount of time. By gaining the weight slowly, you are able to avoid damage to the Fascia by stretching it too quickly!
Finally, I did want to note for any woman who is pregnant or in a post partum period that she should be aware of a condition called Diastasis recti. This actually quite commonly occurs during pregnancy and results in a significant separation of the rectus abdominis. This happens gradually as the result of the baby expanding your belly and usually is not serious or painful. In fact, most times it will heal on its own after pregnancy. Despite this, it is not a condition to ignore and if it is detected during the middle to later part of your pregnancy, you should not be doing core exercises which can worsen the condition and slow down recovery. If you have this condition after pregnancy, you should speak to your doctor before doing traditional core workouts. There are exercises specific to aiding in the healing of this condition that you should go through before joining a traditional core workout which can pull the muscles apart and slow down healing. You should always follow your doctor’s advice about what is safe for you specifically on the subjects of exercising during and after pregnancy.
I will not say that reclaiming your core after pregnancy is the easiest thing you will ever do; but I sincerely hope that you are encouraged by knowing that it is possible. It is not only possible for famous movie stars or people who have the money for plastic surgery; it is possible for anyone who is willing to practice the self awareness that I have described and commit to consistency. You deserve more than an excuse to half make you feel better about the changes that your body has undergone. As mothers, we spend every waking minute multi-tasking. This information is not meant to increase the time you spend on this issue, but to avoid wasting the time that you already spend on it. Even if you have doubts, and despite wherever they have come from, give this basic information an honest try and let your own progress keep you going!
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