Your Core muscles are the group of deep muscles that support your stomach, pelvic floor & lower back & stabilize your spine. They’re important. And just as important is the way that pressure is exerted within your abdominal & pelvic cavity. If your core muscles don’t work properly, if the pressure behind those muscles is high, then your spine, pelvis & joints are under stress.
The Transverse Abdominis muscle is the deepest, innermost layer of all your abdominal muscles. When working correctly, the Transverse Abdominis muscle acts as a girdle around your waist to stabilize your spine & pelvis, in fact, your entire body. But this deep muscle does not act alone… Working one muscle in isolation won’t give you a strong core. Nothing in our bodies works alone & core muscles are no exception.
Core workouts have to be connected to the muscles on the insides of your thighs that scissor your legs toward each other & also to your outer thigh muscles – that take your legs apart. You have to strengthen your back also. Everything works in unison to have a strong core.
After you have had a baby, these core muscles in our stomachs and a lot of the other muscles in the back and thighs can become weak, as we have a complete weight shift when we are pregnant to accommodate our growing belly. My tummy was always toned tight and now its very weak and I have to work those core muscles EVERY SINGLE DAY to get them strong again. Its a process. Its slow and tedious and I look in the mirror often at the end of the day and see this untoned pooch and get discouraged, but I know that only gentle strength work and persistence will bring me results. Note I said “at the end of the day”. Well when I wake up in the morning my tummy is back to its former glory. All small and flat. By the end of the day after meals and standing and just general life, my muscles become fatigued and weak and thus pooch out a little. This is mainly because the connective tissue in our tummy muscles have become very weak and have separated to varying degrees.
All this needs attention and gentle work and slowly but surely it will improve. You can’t push the process because exercises that are too straining on these muscles will cause you to reverse any healing you have done and create weaker tissue.
I had a 3-4 abdominal separation or diastasis recti finger gap and now I have corrected it down to about a 2. I don’t really see it coming together much more than that but I do have more function and strength so slowly it will improve even more. Its all a matter of time! And trying not to put too much strain on your muscles… but still exercising them! Aghhhhh, its a catch 22. But practice makes perfect and I will continue to try and heal myself.
I have quite extensive training and gentle workout routines that I can share with you if you are interested. Just shoot me through an email and let me know what your situation is and I will help lead you down the correct healing path. Happy exercising.