How To Fix Diastasis Recti Years Later

There’s no “expiry date” on when you can work on healing abdominal separation from pregnancy. These tips to heal diastasis recti can work no matter where you are in your postpartum journey.

As a Certified Strength And Conditioning Specialist and a mom of three, I know how overwhelming it can be to see the separation in your abs and feel like the "mom pouch" just won't go away.

I've trained tons of clients in the last 10 years who have transformed their midsection from squishy to engaged which has majorly reduced back pain and sky-rocketed confidence.

Know that even outside the "postpartum period" these core exercises can help you fix your diastasis recti years later.

It's Never Too Late To Heal Diastasis Recti

Up until a few years ago, diastasis recti wasn’t much talked about (which is a shame).

And with that, there is a growing population who went undiagnosed and now believe it’s too late to fix diastasis.

However, that is most certainly not the case.

You can start these exercises to fix diastasis and strengthen your rectus abdominis muscles at any time in the postpartum journey immediately, 5, 10, or even 20 years later!

Your body is a smart thing, it can learn to heal diastasis recti use the muscles in the way you need them to, and strengthen at any age.

What is Diastasis Recti?

In short, diastasis recti is when the six-pack muscles (the rectus abdominus aka deep core muscles), specifically the connective tissue, separate during pregnancy from being stretched.

This abdominal separation can cause poor ab engagement as well as the ab muscles to almost “stick out” post-pregnancy.

This is where the “pouch” term comes from.

Learn how to test for diastasis recti at home.

One thing to make note of is that you can have diastasis recti and still be able to do all the things you love.

It’s not so much about fully correcting the separation or “fixing” as it is teaching the abdominal muscles to engage again.

Symptoms Of Diastasis Recti

So, how do you know if you have abdominal separation?

The best thing you can do is find a trained professional in your area for an assessment.

This can be a qualified personal trainer who specializes in post-pregnancy or a pelvic floor physiotherapist.

Some common symptoms of diastasis recti are:

• Low back pain
• Bloating
• Belly pouch
• Poor posture
• Leaking

Poor abdominal function can also result in issues with your pelvic floor (think leaking).

For more information on your pelvic floor and your pelvic floor muscles, check out these tips from a pelvic floor physical therapist.

How Do You Heal Diastasis Recti Years Later?

Regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve given birth, you can work on improving the engagement of your abdominal muscles and healing connective tissue.

To do this, you’ll start with the three steps below.

• Breathing
• Posture
• Core engagement

It’s not a fast process. Like anything, strengthening your abdominal muscles takes consistency and slow, controlled focus.

But it’s possible.

Step 1: Correct & Relearn Breathing Patterns

Relearning proper breathing patterns is tricky and takes time. But it makes all the difference.

If you’re experiencing a “distended” lower belly (the pouch), try your best not to just “suck it in”.

Doing this pushes the pressure inside down which can result in leaking and an overworked pelvic floor.

How To Do It

• Lay on the floor with your head supported on a pillow
• Place one hand on your belly.
• When you inhale, you want to feel your belly rise under your hand
• Your upper chest muscles should remain relaxed and unmoving (though you might feel the lower ribcage expand slightly)
• When you exhale, your belly returns to normal.

Practice your breathing daily for 10-15 breaths.

Then, you can do more from lying down to sitting and then standing as well as exercises like piston breathing.

Make sure that it comes more and more naturally over time.

Terryll Bladock, a pelvic floor specialist has some really amazing videos on her YouTube Channel about breathing and how to progress it throughout the postpartum period.

Step 2: Posture

This step is a bit of a cycle as poor posture can lead to a disengaged abdominal wall and a non-functioning abdominal wall can lead to poor posture!

The truth is, many of us simply don’t realize that how we’re sitting and standing are affecting our ab muscles.

The first thing you want to do in this step is to find your “neutral”.

How to: Stand upright and aim to get your ribs over your hips and your shoulders and heels in line. Do not flare your ribs.

Now, finding your neutral while standing or sitting is one thing, but the movement is another thing.

One of the areas that affect our breathing patterns, how we move and our diastasis recti is our upper body.

Specifically a lack of movement in our thoracic spine and shoulders (check out the best exercises for the thoracic spine).

To improve this, you’ll want to practice finding a good position while laying down (keeping your ribs tucked!) and implementing the following dynamic stretches:

• Floor angles
• Pull overs
• Thoracic sweeps

Try to do these exercises for 10 repetitions each, two sets, and a few times per week.

Step 3: Exercises

Now, before panic sets in, know that these exercises are very low-impact, can be done on the floor, and are far more based on engagement than intensity. You need to focus.

Your goal is to learn how to connect your breathing to your abdominal engagement through movement.

Use these four exercises as a starting point in learning how to fix diastasis recti (and check out these other exercises to heal mummy tummy too!).

TVA Engagement

This is your “deep abdominal” muscle and one you need to learn how to engage.

How To Do It 

• Lay on the floor on your back with your knees bent and feet flat
• Think of lifting up the lower half of your bum so you feel as if you're drawing your belly button into the floor
• Think of tucking your pelvis under or bringing your hip bones towards your ribcage.
• Your upper body shouldn't move, you are simply tilting your pelvic to stabilize.
• Hold 5-10s
• release fully

Perform 8-10 repetitions. 

Heel Slides

This postpartum core exercise is a great way to combine the exercises you're already learned and put them into action with some movement.

It's still low impact, can be done anywhere and it really helps fine-tune the core and pelvic floor connection.

How To Do It

• Lay on your back and place a washcloth (or use socks) under one heel
• One knee should be bent and the other out straight, keep the hip bones squared to the ceiling
• Create tension in the deep abdominals by lifting your pelvic floor "up and in" and using a minor pelvic tilt when you exhale
• At the same time, use that tension to pull the straight leg back towards your hips
• Keep the hips stable as you release the leg back out

Perform 5-8 repetitions per leg

Learn how to do heel slides.

Knee Drops

Learning to resist movement and then engage to perform the concentric part of an exercise.

How to do it

Knee Drops: lay with your back on the ground and knees bent. Tuck your ribs down and press your low back into the floor. Slowly drop one knee toward the floor.

While you do this, do not let the low back arch or the hips tilt. Go as low as you can before form stalls, then, reverse the movement using your core to pull the knee up.

All of these exercises can be done for 8-12 repetitions, three sets and a couple times per week.

Now What?

Once you’ve mastered the basics above, you can move into performing specific diastasis recti workouts.

From there you can begin to add more and more intensity. Some other really great exercises you can include when you’re ready are:

• Deadbugs
• Bird dog
• Toe taps
• Glute bridge with squeeze
• Bench knee raises

Your next steps should be about continuing to strengthen your abdominal muscles (after you've mastered engagement) while avoiding these exercises.

You'll also want to start strengthening glutes so that you can carry kids easier.

Lastly, develop a workout program and learn the best ways to make time for fitness as a mom!

• How to reduce back pain
• Exercises to AVOID as a new mom
• Benefits of strong glutes
• Strong glutes during pregnancy
• Ab exercises better than sit ups
• Pelvic floor health
• Glute workout finishers
• Glute exercises for pregnancy
• Follow along home workouts
• Strength training for beginners
• Non-scale fitness goals
• Fitness tips for moms