A few weeks ago I talked about finding out I had diastasis recti – otherwise called Mummy Tummy. Where the right and left rectus abdominal walls have become separated due to pregnancy. If you haven’t seen that video – check it out here.
Whether you are pregnant or postpartum (no matter how many weeks, months, or years) Today I’m giving you the #1 exercise you have to do, and practice every day, in order to get your tummy looking flat again.
Already got a flat belly? That’s awesome!!!
However, having a flabby tummy after baby isn’t the only thing that moms are dealing with.
Do you pee your pants when you cough, sneeze, laugh, blow your nose or pick up your baby?
Do you experience back pain?
Do you have hemorrhoids?
Do you have pelvic pain or instability in the pelvis?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you NEED to do this exercise.
I’m talking about Core Breath, and it’s the foundation for every women who wants to improve her core function, eliminate, avoid or minimize any of the symptoms I’ve mentioned above.
Here’s how it can help you during pregnancy and beyond:
During Pregnancy:
-Preventative measure to keep the integrity of connective tissue to minimize diastasis recti.
-Helps minimize and reduce hemorrhoids by bringing blood circulation to the area
-Help reduce and alleviate back pain and pelvic pain
-Help keep our pelvic floor muscles strong to help in the pushing phase of labour
-Help keep our pelvic muscles strong to minimize pelvic organ prolapse
Postpartum : (no matter how many weeks, months, years postpartum you are)
-Strengthens the tone of the core muscles to make your belly flat so you’re not asking yourself why you still look pregnant months or years after having your baby
-Keeps you from leaking when you run, jump, sneeze, cough, laugh, blow your nose or lift heavy objects
-Helps reduce hemorrhoids
-Helps alleviate back pain
-Help alleviate pelvic pain and instability in the pelvis
How to do the Core Breath Exercise
The Set up: Sit on a stability ball, and pull the fleshy part of your butt away from your sits bones, so you’re sitting on your sits bones. (they are your butt bones)
If you don’t have a stability ball – sit on a hard surface with a towel rolled up and placed between your crotch so you can feel the towel between your butt hole and your vagina. The ball, and the towel help to provide feedback, so we can feel our pelvic floor and perineum lift up as we perform the exercise.
Step 1: Place one hand on your ribs, and the other hand on your lower abdomen. Imagine that there is a balloon in your abdomen, and when you take a deep breath in, that balloon should be expand so that your ribs and belly are being pushed out into your hands.
Step 2: After you inhale, purse your lips together, and exhale with your mouth as if you were blowing out a candle. When you do this, feel the balloon soften, and your ribs and belly will come back in towards your spine.
Step 3: Perform a pelvic contraction, (aka Kegel). If you’re not sure you’re using the correct muscle, it’s the same muscle that you use if you want to stop your urine midstream. This is a pelvic floor contraction. However, we want to do more than just squeeze the muscle. We want to pull it up as far as we can. Visualization really helps with this exercise. So visualize your vagina picking up a blueberry, or sipping a milkshake and gently lifting it up through an elevator shaft.
Put it all together: Inhale to expand, then before you exhale, start to pick up your blueberry, and while lifting up the blueberry, exhale your entire breath. Then relax your pelvic floor completely. (this is very important, we never want to walk around with a contracted pelvic floor all day – this does nothing to functionally strengthen the muscle)
How and why it works:
The 4 muscles that the Core Breath uses are synergistically intertwined and anticipates every move our body makes from opening up doors, to lifting our children, to sneezing, laughing, crying, coughing , you name it. If these muscles aren’t functioning properly, which happens in more than 50% of postpartum moms, then we don’t function properly and we experience the symptoms mentioned above.
If these muscles aren’t functioning properly, which happens in more than 50% of postpartum moms, then we don’t function properly and we experience the symptoms mentioned above.
Although in the video I said it helps to close up the DRA gap. The size of the gap isn’t the most important factor. In fact one women might have great tone in the linea alba (the connective tissue between your rectus abdominal muscles) but still have a large 4 finger gap. In other people, you might have a small 2 finger gap, but have very weak connective tissue. So it’s not about the actual size of the gap, it’s about how taut the connective tissue is. The Core Breath does just that; retrains the core 4 anticipatory muscles to work synergistically again. (the 4 muscles are the diaphragm, the transverse abdominus and pelvic floor and the multifidus muscles, which all work together nano seconds before you lift something heavy, sneeze etc to stop you from peeing your pants.) After childbirth and pregnancy, these muscles need to be retrained as they’ve been stretched to the max in order to grow your baby, and have lost much of the tone and function.
The Core Breath does just that; retrains the core 4 anticipatory muscles to work synergistically again.It looks easy, but takes some time to master.
It subtle, yet effective, and it works!
Give it a try, practice it every day multiple times a and tell me what you think.
It’s already been 8 weeks since I’ve started, and my mummy tummy has considerably improved!
In Fitness & Nutrition
xoxox
