This is one of the most common concerns of pregnant women, especially the ones who have been into training prior to conceiving. First of all, what is diastasis recti? It is the separation of the rectus abdominis muscles down the midline of the belly. In pregnancy, this separation itself is absolutely normal as it is the result of the connective tissue (the linea alba) between these muscle bellies getting stretched and more lax from the growing baby. If it is stretched too far, it can impair the ability of the abdominal muscles to function most optimally
Is it possible to influence how much stretching happens during pregnancy with exercise? Possibly, but there is not enough research to support this yet. So what should you do instead? Focusing on keeping ALL abdominal muscles strong will help keeping the baby closer towards you and reduce the strain on the linea alba.
And what about post birth recovery? This is mostly where people are confused as there is too much conflicting information about what to do and what to avoid. Most common advice I see is to only do gentle forms of exercise until the linea alba is “healed” so that it can then handle more load. The problem with that approach though is both psychological and physical. Psychological because it let us believe that anyone with a wider gap cannot handle more than gentle exercise and physical because in not engaging in more challenging movements, the muscles make limited gains or even lose strength if they stay there for too long
What could be done instead is gradually challenge the linea alba so that it can tolerate more and more load. Thus, instead of categorising exercises as safe and unsafe for diastasis recti, we see all exercises as appropriate, break them down into progressions and slowly working our way up the ladder. That way we strengthen the muscles and help thicken the connective tissue. Remember, a healed diastasis is not just about gap width. Thickening of the linea alba and being able to create enough core tension is key to a healed core.
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