Happy Friday friends! Today is a busy day that goes into a busy week. I am packing up the babe this morning for our first ever sleepover at Grandma and Grandpas! Then tomorrow morning, we are coaching a free fitness class for some folks in my hometown. It’s going to be a great weekend!
I am officially 7 weeks postpartum and I am finally seeing some changes in my body. The weather hasn’t been that great the last month or so and I haven’t been able to be as active with walking as I’d like. However, I have been being as consistent as possible with working my core with these pelvic floor exercises. With pregnancy, it is very common for women to develop diastasis recti (DR), or the separation of the abs, and post baby these muscle are weak and need to be exercised to come back together. Luckily, my abs did not separate but I do have damage in my inner connective tissues of my abs which is another form of DR. Since the first week of being home I started working on strengthening my core with first only doing belly breathing. Check out this video for more on belly breathing and belly pumping. As my core started to get stronger (still very weak!) I started adding in additional core movements that I know will enhance the recovery and strength of my inner abs (where I have the most damage) and I am sharing those with you today! These core exercises are not just for pre or post natal women. They are for everyone as most people have some form of DR from improper form on large lifts, other ab exercises or simply not engaging your core correctly throughout daily movements like getting up from the couch. I only heard of DR when I became pregnant so it was completely new to me. Throughout pregnancy I took time to educate myself on it and preventative exercises which I implemented while pregnant. As my pregnancy started coming to an end I started researching and educating myself more on postpartum pelvic core care because I knew I would most likely have some DR just didn’t know to what extent. Below are the companies and influencers that I have been following for the majority of my pelvic floor education. I definitely highly recommend checking them out pregnant or not. Again, pelvic floor health and learning to properly engaging your core during exercise and daily life and healing is essential for everyone!
I have been doing some sort of pelvic floor exercises almost everyday since being home and I am starting to see some results!
Pelvic Floor Core Exercises
2-3 rounds
10-20 reps each
– alternating kneeling supermans
– side dead bugs (same position as a dead bug, but moving your bent leg to the side – do NOT rotate your body)