Many pregnant women are unsure whether they can continue with abdominal training as usual or should rather avoid certain exercises. When it comes to abdominal training, your uncertainty is absolutely justified, because many well-known abdominal exercises are taboo for expectant moms! Nevertheless, it is important to strengthen the abdominal muscles, so the time of pregnancy requires a special training for the middle of the body. With the right core exercises, you not only stabilize your core, but also prevent pregnancy discomfort and much more…
Prevention of severe rectus diastasis
Fortunately, rectus diastasis can usually be managed with some good exercises for the deeper and lateral abdominal muscles, as long as the specific exercises are done consistently and other harmful ones are in turn avoided. But let’s start from the beginning: Rectus diastasis is an abnormality of the straight abdominal muscles, which many pregnant women experience themselves: Due to the stretching of the abdominal wall, excessive weight gain, pressing contractions or incorrect physical activities, a possible gap forms between the straight abdominal muscles, which often does not close properly after birth. A gap of more than 2 cm is considered a rectus diastasis and must be treated, otherwise it leads to physical instability and, quite incidentally, aesthetic losses: often the gap is clearly visible, and in addition, a woman with rectuasdiastasis tends to have a more bulging abdomen. But I would also like to clarify that the drifting apart of the straight abdominal muscle cords is quite normal, because the baby needs space and the abdominal muscle cords have to give way to the unborn child. So don’t worry about it too much, the important thing is that you clearly avoid some exercises!
My tip: Focus on the lateral abdominal muscles already from the 2nd trimester! This helps to strengthen your core, combined with the training of the lower back, you are also optimally protected against back pain. Postnatally a good lateral abdominal musculature supports you similar to a corset.
Note: In our MAMA’S LITTLE MIDDLE series it was therefore important to me to include as many variations of lateral abdominal training as possible. Only in the 1st trimester we train the straight abdominal muscles with a few exercises, already in the 2nd trimester we do without active strengthening exercises for the straight abdominal muscle.
Less pain and improved posture through strengthened abdominal muscles
During pregnancy, the torso is put under extra strain, no wonder with the weight we carry around in 40 weeks. A well-trained lateral abdominal musculature and a strong lower back help you to carry the weight of the baby more easily and you effectively prevent pregnancy complaints, such as back pain, and thus also improve your posture. Stronger abdominal muscles will also help you during the subsequent birth, especially during the last strenuous part – the so-called expulsion phase, which I find a bit strange in terms of the term, even though it is probably true.
By the way: abdominal muscle training is also recommended to prevent an umbilical hernia, which often occurs during pregnancy because the pressure of the abdominal cavity increases.
My tip: Always pay attention to your body when exercising, as soon as an exercise feels way too intense or you feel pain, you should decrease the level or stop the workout. Also, it’s important to ALWAYS straighten up the side of your body, both in sports and in everyday life, because all movements that roll the body up from the supine position now unintentionally stress the straight abdominal muscles a lot.
Strong and Sexy Mom!
The training of the lateral abdominal muscles also helps you during pregnancy to a stronger body center. The more regularly you train your core during pregnancy, the faster you can get back to your old performance and figure after delivery! A flat belly or even a well-trained core is no wishful thinking! A MOVE IT MAMA customer wrote the other day: “Already 5 days after the birth I had almost no gap between the abdominal muscles and that after the 3rd child!” Her midwife was quite enthusiastic herself. Just a few weeks later, the young mama can begin her first postnatal phase and crunch-free abdominal workout. In our MAMA’S LITTLE MIDDLE we still train crunch-free in the second postnatal phase. To make sure it doesn’t get boring besides lots of strengthening exercises for the deeper and lateral muscles, innovative mommy exercises were very important to me – you’ll see for yourself! This way you will definitely manage to strengthen the muscles, reduce side effects and also quickly have a flat, beautiful belly again.
Tip: Despite all the possibilities, do not put yourself under false pressure. Our body has changed, the skin has been stretched and there may remain certain signs. I also have more excess skin around my belly button than before, yet my belly is firm and tight. Click on it with pleasure times in the blog post “Mensch Mama”.
As you can see, a special core workout brings some benefits for us moms. Therefore, don’t wait too long and don’t be driven crazy by misconceptions and myths about abdominal training. Get to the workout:-)
Keep it Moving,
Yours, Birte.
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