I know you’re anxiously trying to shed that baby belly and I wanted to be sure to warn you DO NOT DO CRUNCHES!  I know, it’s the ab exercise every mom thinks she should do the day she can start to exercise again.  But NO, STOP!

Do you remember in your 50 Tips To Blast Your Baby Belly guide where we talked about diastasis?  Well, as many as 98% of moms have this.  Let me remind you what it is. Diastasis Recti is the separation of the rectus abdominis muscles.  Many women can see this separation down the center of their belly as they have a dark line late in pregnancy.  After birth it can be hard to detect if the separation exists.  Your poor rectus muscles get stretched to their absolute limits as your baby grows.  That typically causes a tearing down the center line of the muscle (that line is the linea alba.)  The good news is that after giving birth as your uterus contracts things start to tighten up a bit beneath the belly.  But for many women, they don’t tighten all the way and your left with a separation (diastasis) that looks and feels like a mushy mess (so not hot!)  Upon strengthening and reconditioning your rectus abdominis, this separation will pull together and your abs will flatten out (good bye pooch!) So this is why many women want to get on the crunch wagon so fast.  But, slow down my crazy crunch machine!  There is a HUGE problem with crunches.

When you have strong, tight abs you can pull your belly button down every time you crunch.  That allows you to pull your ab muscles deep and tight for toning and strengthening.  However, when you have the bulge (pooch) created from a diastasis, every time you crunch, you likely push your belly out instead of pulling it in.  This continues to stretch the rectus muscles and train them to pooch out rather than pull in.  Not good!

Here is a short video that will show you how to test for diastasis recti:

Until your diastasis is 2 fingers wide or less, you want to stick to the ab exercises mentioned in your 50 Tips to Blast Your Baby Belly.  Additionally, you can perform isometric abdominal exercises, such as plank position (on knees or toes) and side plank.  Just be sure whatever ab exercises your doing, you can PULL your belly in rather than pooch it out.

This is the program our moms use to heal their diastasis and lose their baby belly. In this program we provide you with 6 weeks of workouts and exercises that are safe and effective to perform with or without diastasis recti.

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