When to start ab work with a diastasis?

melimcn

Cathlete
Hi All,
I'm 33 weeks at this point, and starting to get prepared for what I'll need to do post partum, especially with abs.

I have a diastasis right now. Not terrible, I'm about 2 fingers separated, but I'm suspecting this will get a little worse before I deliver.

I have a splint that I'll use for crunches (and all work), as I've read that that's how you're supposed to do them with diastasis.
But for those that have dealt with this, when did you start doing ab work again? Did you start as soon as you went back to working out? Did you give it a couple of weeks to see what your abs did naturally?

I've kept my obliques pretty strong throughout pregnancy, so my real issue (for now) is getting back the rectis abdominus (sp?) in the middle.
 
hi melicm

i am just bumping this as i am 33 weeks as well with a small diastisis and would love to know what to do. i am going to get tracey stahel's coreblast on another posters recommendation, but i'd love to hear what others have experienced. my ob is no help b/c i think exercise is a foreign word to the whole group;-)
 
Thanks Morris, hopefully someone chimes in.

My plan, failing any feedback, is to just jump right back in, starting mostly with planks, but some crunches with the splint as well.

I guess I'll see how that goes. I have Maternal Fitness from Julie Tupler, so I'll probably incorporate that in there as well, just to start a little slow.
 
I'd also like to hear from others about this topic. I myself have a mild diastasis and delivered about 7.5 weeks ago. I started doing pelvic tilts, single knee lifts, and splinted crunches 2 weeks pp, then with planks, push-ups, ect at 3 weeks. At my 6 week check-up my midwife told me to give it another 6 weeks (so 12 weeks pp) to do the hardcore abdominal stuff because it should be healed by then. Until then, I'm doing what Cathe does but modifying anything where both legs are elevated and extended or she when does full sit-ups. Good luck with your delivery - you are so close!
 
Where did you guys get your splint?

I have a diastasis as well and have mostly avoided crunches and I've been doing program 2 from Core Max. I don't know if that's okay or not. I've been wondering what to do as well. I'm 8 weeks post partum. I've seen the splint from Julie Tupler, but was wondering if there is somewhere else to get one.

Amy
 
I got mine at Babies R Us. It's from Medela, and was about $20.

I've been doing some homework, and here's one of the better writeups that I've seen.
http://www.befitmom.com/abdominal_seperation.html

There seems to be some conflicting information in terms of the type of exercise to do.
Most commonly, it looks like anything that strenghtens your "inner core" is the way to start.
I plan to use the splint for a few weeks (and get it on as soon as I can), working with mostly stationary ab work (planks, balance drills), but I'll do some crunches with the split on starting at maybe 2 weeks or so - depending on how things are feeling.
 

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