So pre-pregnancy I was fit. Like not crazy athlete 4% of fat fit, but kind of six pack, hotness and sexy and curvy fit. Like I was very proud of how hard I had worked for my body kindoffit.
And I thought, hell, the fitter I am the better pregnancy will be, right..?
Wrong. Big time. Of course being overweight is not ideal, obviously, but neither is being too fit. Yup. Learnt it the hard way.
It started at week… what was it? probably 17-19. I would lean back and a triangle would form on my belly. Oh, how cute, I thought, a pyramidal baby. But the reality was another… my abs were breaking…
(full disclosure: I got really pissed off when I thought my perfect six pack was breaking… especially since I was so strong, why the hell would it break? wasn’t Diastasis something that happened to fat and flabby humans…? well, no, not exactly)
breaking you say? like as in ouch? yup, breaking!
Nobody told me and I never even thought about it but the belly has to grow, right? and grows sideways and upwards and wherever it needs to go… and what expands is the skin and everything else… and what needs to expand too is muscle! and if you have tight abs, like I used to, and they are hard as stone… well, they can’t really stretch, can they? And if baby dragon is growing with those long long legs and has to go somewhere and the muscle is not stretchy, well then… it breaks!
and introducing: Diastasis Recti.
Of course there are different levels of it and different solutions. Obsessive that I am, I have found a few.
low core – with pun! – They claim to have exercises for during and after pregnancy. The videos cost 14 Canadian dollars and are basic, but if you have no strength at all, they might be for you.
the experts – if you have it, they’ll fix it. Before, during or after pregnancy. There are therapists all around the world – Or so they claim. A whole other post on the Tupler technique coming up… basically, in my opinion: BS.
my favs – It is for diastasis and for all things core related. A different way of
strengthening abs and it works, it really, really works! (will write a whole other post on this, promise!)
So if your abs are wanted in different states of being… this is it!