Have you wondered what diastasis looks like during pregnancy?
Last month, we introduced you to Chelsey, one of my OB package patients. Chelsey is now 22 weeks! She’s been working out 4-5x/week, lifting heavy weights and doing “normal” workouts. We discussed some modifications she could make as needed to eliminate some hip pain, and also discussed some strategies for diastasis (ab muscle separation).
Diastasis is a NORMAL part of pregnancy as your body creates space for your growing baby.
Your body isn’t broken; this is a part of your GOOD design!
Coning (pressure pushing through the “gap”) is information, not a death sentence to your abs.
We aim to take that information, process it, and use it to make decisions. In this case, Chelsey noticed some coning when she got up from side lying, but she could minimize the coning by using her upper body and engaging her core correctly! She used that information to change her strategy.
Chelsey also noticed some discomfort with various exercises, such as push-ups. As you can see in the first picture, she has some significant coning in the plank position on the step. But as soon as we increased her elevation, the coning went away, and she could complete the exercise without any issues.
Chelsey is well-educated and can take the information she’s learned to make appropriate decisions on modifying her activities during pregnancy. Though it’s hard to cut back, she’s still able to stay very active, strong, and mostly pain-free so far through her pregnancy.
My goal for my patients and clients is to do exactly that – help you stay strong, active, and pain-free, and this IS possible if you approach exercise and movement with PREVENTION in mind. This can be done through my OB package or Pelvic Core, my 4-week online course. If you’d like to learn more about either, reply OB or PC, and we’ll send some info your way!
