separated abdominal muscles

[principalitygirl]

I thought I'd start a thread for anyone with this problem.
Feel free to join!
Please post saying how long postnatal you are from your last baby, how many children you have and how big your gap is currently.
Do share any exercises or tips that have worked or seem to be working for you too!
And any success stories from those who successfully closed or reduced their gap too please!
I had my only child 14 mths ago and my gap is still 2-2.5 fingers width still after being 3 fingers width a couple of weeks after birth. I've avoided full crunches thus far but am doing deep abdominal exercises, some general core strengthening with free weights and kettle bells and some planks.

Great idea for a thread Principalitygirl:) and glad to hear that you're making progress!

I know there are loads of youtube vids on this subject but here's one I came across today whilst researching pelvic floor exercises (prompted by this thread-> PFE )

I'll sign up for this pre-emptively. Had a 3 finger gap with DS, down to 1 finger after 18 months, then got pregnant again and felt that horrible splitting start around 30 weeks, 35 weeks now and planning to start exercises as soon as baby is out.

Anyone still here?

Just to update, I'm having reasonable success with the exercises in this:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1781061505

I got it last month when visiting WHSmith at airport. It's a mini version of the (usually quite pricey) Mutu system. Time commitment is manageable. Worth a try?

How long do the workouts in the book take? I see to be down to about one finger, but I would like to improve my stomach muscles for general support and this seems to be a lot more sensible than the usual "just do crunches" advice. I used some of the free exercises that you get when signing up for email updates from the MuTu system and they seemed manageable.

There are core exercises which you're meant to do daily and take 15/20 mins. There's also a nice little cardio circuit that you're meant to
do 3-4 times a week. That takes 16 minutes and you need a cushion or Pilates block, a stretchy Pilates band, some light weights and a swiss ball. I don't bother with the Swiss ball as I've no space to store one but everything else lives under my sofa!