Updated April 3, 2025
After you give birth – whether that was a few days ago or several years ago — it’s normal for your entire midsection to seem quite foreign. Perhaps it feels like you have no abdominal muscles at all, or perhaps your belly still looks pregnant.
First, appreciate that this is completely normal. Second, do not act on any urge to do thousands of sit-ups, planks, or other core exercises in an attempt to “get your abs back.” While well-intentioned, this can have the opposite effect.
You can absolutely have a strong core again – perhaps even stronger than it was prior to pregnancy. It just requires a methodical approach to recovery, and this article will help you get started and set you up for success on your path to recovery.
Read on to learn:
- What Happens to Your Core During Pregnancy
- Core Recovery Step 1: “Get in Neutral”
- Core Recovery Step 2: Rebuild the Core from the Inside Out
- Resources for Complete Core Recovery
What Happens to Your Core During Pregnancy
Let’s begin by looking at the stresses placed on your abdominal muscles during pregnancy. All your abdominal muscles (transverse abdominis, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis) connect at the midline of your body. They are connected by a tissue called the linea alba. As your belly grows during pregnancy, the linea alba tissue stretches to allow adequate space for your baby to grow, as you can see in the image on the right below.
The thinning and stretching of the linea alba tissue weakens it, which causes the left and right sides of the rectus abdominis (“6 pack”) muscle to drift further away from one another. This “wider than usual” separation between the left and right sides of the rectus abdominis muscle is known as Diastasis Recti (or “DR”). Diastasis refers to separation. Recti refers to the rectus abdominis muscle. It is important to note that some degree of DR is a normal and necessary part of pregnancy. Your body was designed to do this.
This means that virtually every person has some degree of DR in the immediate aftermath of childbirth. While some people may have a DR that heals within weeks, it is quite common to have persistent DR beyond one year postpartum. So, know that you are not alone, or somehow a failure, if you do have DR months or years past delivery.
DR often manifests as a torpedo-like protrusion down the center of the abdomen during movements that engage the abdominal muscles. You can see an example of this “coning” in the belly below.
Core Recovery Step 1: “Get in Neutral”
Remember that the linea alba is the tissue that connects the left and right sides of the rectus abdominis muscle. The good news is that the linea alba is like skin or bone. It can heal itself as long as its given the ability to do so by minimizing excess stress from being placed on it. This happens when your body is in neutral alignment, as shown in the photo below by vertical stacking from ear-shoulder-hip-knee-ankle (dotted yellow line) and ribs stacked vertically on top of pelvis (two parallel yellow lines). Neutral alignment alleviates undo tension from being placed on the soft tissues of the body.
Of course, we recognize you can’t go about your day standing in perfect neutral alignment. You have to move — especially as a new parent! When moving about your day, try to practice keeping a straight line between your ear-shoulder-hip, especially when sitting and bending over. See examples below:
Core Recovery Step 2: Rebuild the Core from the Inside Out
Just as building a house requires starting with a solid foundation, the same is true for your core. We must focus first on restoring strength to the deepest core muscles, specifically the muscles of the deep core muscles shown below. We’ll discuss two important foundational exercises to help you do just that — beginning with the exercise that we refer to as the #1 most effective core exercise.
Exercise #1: 360° Breathing
We call this the #1 most effective core exercise because it activates all your Core Canister muscles and gets them working together in harmony, which results in a cascade of benefits across your entire body. Watch the video below to learn how to perform 360° Breathing.
Mastering 360° Breathing on its own is just the first step. The next (important step) is to incorporate it into movement. Doing so dramatically improves the effectiveness of every movement you do. Watch the video below to learn how to incorporate 360° breathing into your movements and start practicing this in your workouts and daily life.
Exercise #2: Pelvic Floor Activations
It goes without saying that pregnancy and birth (both vaginal and Cesarean) place a tremendous amount of stress on the pelvic floor muscles. Therefore, it’s important to do targeted pelvic floor work to restore strength to the “floor or your core.” We accomplish this by doing exercises we refer to as Pelvic Floor Activations (PFAs). Watch the video below, which takes you through a step-by-step process to first find the muscles of your pelvic floor (HINT: your “pee-stopping” muscles are only the front!), then learn how to perform the two PFA variations: PFAs-Slow and PFAs-Fast.
Try to practice these techniques whenever you can throughout your day (while waiting in line or in your car, watching TV, taking a shower, lying in bed, or while your little one is doing their “tummy time”).
Once you master the exercises seated, you can practice them in different positions like lying on your back, and (most challenging) on all 4s.
You could even combine the exercises into a routine if you’d like. For example, a simple routine could look something like:
- 360° Breathing: 6 – 8 reps
- PFAs-Slow: 6 – 8 reps
- PFAs-Fast: 8 – 10 reps
- REPEAT
Remember to incorporate 360° Breathing during your movements by exhaling on the effort – especially when doing things like lifting an object (or your little one!).
Additional Core Recovery Resources
The two exercises we discussed here are two of first foundational exercises we teach in our core recovery protocol. To go through the complete protocol, check out our self-guided easy-to-follow Core Recovery Program that helps you rebuild your core in less than 10 minutes a day. Want core-safe workouts as well? Explore our Postpartum Workout Program, which includes the core recovery program + total body workouts.
Looking for an expert coach to work with? Visit our Find a Coach directory to find a ProNatal Certified Coach to work with in-person or virtually.
Finally, if you’re interested in becoming a ProNatal Certified Coach so that you can help your clients through their core recovery (and much more), learn more about the Pre & Postnatal Fitness Specialist Certification.