Abdominal separation

[PapayaVagina]

Is there a nonsurgical way to fix it? I was HUGE when I was pregnant (consistently measured 8 weeks ahead) and got a nice sized separation.

[MamaRabbit]

I'm 14mo postpartum after twins and my separation has slowly gotten better over time. I read Elizabeth Noble's exercising through child-bearing years book and twin book and both talk about specific exercises that you can do to reduce it. I do most of my "crunch" exercises when laying on my back nursing babies. I also try to keep my stomach muscles tight while walking or sitting.

[vegmom]

There are some great abdominal exercises you can do to tighten up the belly muscles. You don't necesseraly have to do crunches.

Push ups are great because that causes the whole body to tighten.

The Plank is great too.

You can find some great youtube videos on how firm up the tummy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW0KLdDq-co

[beebalmmama]

Yoga or pilates would both be great because they work with strengthening the core muscles of your abdominals. I had a pretty good sized separation when pg and my yoga practice as made it all but non-existent now. It took time though, probably almost 1.5 years pp to completely bring it back together.

[MamaRabbit]

While there is a lot you can do to get your ab muscles back (pushups, etc) it's important to be doing them correctly so that you don't make the separation worse. The crunches I was mentioning aren't "real" crunches, but ones designed to help close the separation.

[SugarAndSun]

Be careful! I made mine worse with yoga. Some exercises that strengthen normal stomaches make those with diastasis worse. Navasana comes to mind. The Forest Yoga classes I took made it the worst. I had to cut back on yoga (for financial reasons) and took up running and it is almost gone and I have a rock solid stomach.