What’s Posture Got To Do With It?
Diastasis Recti: a fancy, technical term for the separation of the outer most abdominal muscle. It commonly happens after pregnancy, but honestly there are lots of people who’ve never been pregnant who suffer from it. That being said, something that contributes to it, which you have control over is–your posture. Yup, you heard that right. Your posture can make that pesky pregnant-looking belly hang around for months (or even years) after you actually gave birth. These bad postural compensations are made worse by something we’re many of us are guilty of—chronic sitting.
So how does your posture contribute to diastasis recti? When we stand in proper skeletal alignment, our inner-most abdominal muscles should naturally engage. The problem is, we often don’t stand with our spine aligned. We often stand in an alignment pattern that totally disengages the abdominal and glute muscles while over-tightening the back muscles.
A common misaligned postural pattern looks like:
weight in the toes, knees forward of the ankles, pelvic tilt, lifted chest, rounded shoulders, ears forward of shoulders.
So how do you fix it? Changing your posture (just like anything else) takes practice and time. I would recommend starting by taking an honest inventory of your posture in a mirror. You’ll quickly notice if you’re doing any of the common misalignment patterns.
What your posture should look like:
Weight equal heel to toe, ankles/knees/hips aligned, neutral pelvis, ribcage pinned down, open shoulders, ears aligned with shoulders.
After you notice your current posture, you can start to make these tiny adjustments while looking in the mirror. If you have diastasis recti, you’ll quickly see a difference in the roundness of your belly when you start to work on improving your posture.
The best way to make lasting changes is to close your eyes and get in tune with the subtle changes you feel in your own body as you change your alignment. This will help you to know when your body needs to be adjusted without having to use a mirror!
Want to learn more about how to improve diastasis recti and restore your core after pregnancy? Click here for more info about our Core Restore series or check out the Y2B tv online Postnatal Barre + Core program.