Reducing the Belly Pouch

My sister has that issue and she just wears a light gurtle or spandex panties r even spanks help. She gained 90 with her children all three times. zBut se barely weighted a 100 pounds to start with and was told to gain more than what was normal. Big sis (me ) truly loved when she was preggers because I always was fat and she was pencil thin. Her butt is finally at agew 50 looking fat and I slimmed dowm due to realth issues at age 53. I almost died because my sugars were at 1000 and I had to have quad by pass. I was loosing weight from the diabetes. I lost about 80 and have due to meds put back on 40. It sure sucks. But now I have saggy skin.

I think most moms have this condition to varying degrees. I have not read the book you mentioned but I am battling the bulge! I do know that doing crunches will make it worse. Because your rectus abdominus is no longer fused in the middle, when you do crunches you are pushing your abdominal wall out through the opening and this results in a bigger bulge. Do exercises that involve twisting. I think it is possible to get your abs back in shape, but you may still have some loose skin because it was stretched to such a degree. Good luck!

There is no way to "re-attach" the two sides of the abs once they have separated (other than surgery), but you can get your tummy flatter with the right exercises. The two main things to keep in mind are: (1) You might have to "hold yourself in" while doing crunches for awhile. You can do this by wrapping a towel around yourself and holding the two ends pulled across you to help hold everything towards the center while you crunch. (2) The abdominal obliques attach in such a way that training them will actually make your separation bigger, so you should not work on the obilques (diagonal motions) at all until your rectus abdominis (the "six pack abs") are nice & strong again.

If you need to see these concepts in action, get yourself in to see a physical therapist and they can show you what you need to do.

Good luck!

Hi S.,

I have a cousin who had this happen. She was told the only way to fix it is through surgery. It's not just loose muscles...it's actually that they've separated from each other. However, her doctor said she shouldn't do it until she was finished having children. Good luck!

I agree--I have the book but without someone to check my form I'm hesitant to try many of the exercises. I do think that splint she recommended makes sense, so if nothing else, it should help get the separated muscles closer together.

I have had this particular thread bookmarked for a few years and it keeps on going. http://www.peertrainer.com/LoungeCommunityThread.aspx?For...

I have a smaller DR (2 finger width) which occurred from my last pregnancy (3rd child) almost 4 years ago. Before that I always had awesome abs - 6 pack and all. I was able to get them back by working out (running a lot, and plenty of ab exercises), but this time around they are not working back into shape. I don't have pain, so I figured I will not worry about any medical procedures to fix it. Maybe when the kids are older I will consider a mini-tummy tuck, but until then I just keep exercising. Just be careful that you don't have an umbilical hernia as well. Then you shouldn't be doing any type of ab exercises as that could make it worse. I'd have it checked out by your family doc or OB/Gyn.

Hi S.,

Have you checked yourself for diastasis recti? If you feel a separation, you need to change your workout to put less strain on the abdominals, and do your exercises differently to prevent a larger separation. This is not a resaon to stop all abdominal exercises, only modify them. However, if the separation is wider than two and a half inches, seek medical advice. Most of the time diastasis mends by itself after delivery and does not require treatment. However, depending on the extent of the separation, it can take years before it is perfectly healed.

Yours in health,
D.