01/11/2026
Time to set the record straight on abdominal separation after pregnancy aka diastasis recti (ps. men can have a separation too as can anyone including children and teens).
10 years ago the word on the street was not to move and to do the “right” exercises with the goal of “closing the gap” of the two halves of your abdominal wall. Women were told to stop doing crunches, avoid twisting and extending their back. Patients would show up to PT terrified, weak, and stiff as a board walking around like they had a literal stick up their a$$.
This was all based on some weak studies and theories but when more appropriate research was done we found that instead of helping women heal from pregnancy we were scaring them and not achieving anything to show for it other than a bunch of postpartum women who couldn’t find their ab muscles to save their lives.
Fast forward 5 years and we found that the gap we were so obsessed with didn’t mean much. Strength and function were all that mattered. How do you build that? With progressive loading exercises just like any rehabilitation program.
But not everyone moved forward… some pelvic floor clinics and practitioners as well as trainers, instructors and coaches continue to peddle outdated science and fear mongering and although it is fewer than before we still find ourselves blowing our patients minds when we tell them to stop protecting their abs as if they are some fragile sheath waiting to be ripped apart and start activating and strengthening them within the system of their core instead.
Find a practitioner that empowers you. If someone tells you to stop moving … run away. It’s never the answer. You aren’t that fragile.
🧘♂️
