How to rebuild core strength after babies – part 1

I’ve had a number of questions recently about how to rebuild core strength after babies.  It seems many of you have been trying to do this with crunches and workouts that promise a ‘rock hard core’ but really aren’t at all tailored for bodies who have carried a baby for 9 months and who may still have some ab separation that needs to be fixed first.

Postnatal care in Australia varies greatly, which is such a shame.  I personally found I was given better care in the public system than I did in the private.  I was private with Eamon and the six week check (and a pap smear – yuck!) with my OB was the only postnatal care I received.

With Rory, the public system offered me specialised physiotherapy classes and appointments after the 6 week check.  I also had a private midwife who came to visit every week for six weeks, who checked things like abdominal separation and just generally how I was doing.  (This was about the similar cost of having a OB by the way, and was priceless!).

But anyway, back to the point of this post – how to rebuild core strength after babies.  (I do seem to get lost on fun little tangents often, don’t I?)

Before you even start thinking about ‘exercise’ and working the core muscles  after having a baby (whether this was 6 weeks or 2 years ago) you need to check if you’ve had any separation.  Ideally this would have been done for you by a physio or midwife but you can check yourself (it’s really easy and I show you how in the video).

If you don’t check and jump straight into strong core exercises you’ll likely do more damage than good, so it’s best to get this sorted now. If you have it, you can do ab work all day and it’s not going to help pull your core back in.  And I don’t know a Mother who has time to waste, so let’s not even bother with that.

So I’ve created this ten minute video for you that goes through what you need to know about abdominal separation, how to check for it yourself and 4 exercises you can start doing to draw those muscles back together.

Feel free to pop any questions in the comments if you have them. And if you check and see you have no separation, or minimal, you can sign up here to receive video 2 and 3 (completely free) that will help you start creating that strong core.

If you know someone who might benefit from this video or might like the whole program, please share it via the buttons below.  I really appreciate it.