Why is my core so weak after pregnancy?

Such a common question i get asked and something I think us mums get so frustrated with post childbirth, other variations of this question that I frequently get asked:

• How do I strengthen my core?

• Why do I still look pregnant with a flabby belly after pregnancy?

• Will sit ups help strengthen my core?

• Can you give me some targeted ab work to fix my core? its so weak.

Following childbirth, or for that matter when pregnant, there is such little information and advice given as too what to expect when it comes to your body. Is it little wonder that us mums are left wondering around in a frustrated state of bad backs, flat bums, weak cores and if you are really unlucky, a weak pelvic floor. 

Lets strip things back to basics and talk about what happened to your body in pregnancy.

Firstly in order to truly understand why you are left feeling like you have the core strength of an over dunked rich tea biscuit it is helpful to understand what has happened internally. Now, I am not a doctor, midwife or physio so anything I put here does not override advice you have been given by them. I am a fully qualified to the eyeballs PT who specialises in pre n post natal exercise; I have worked with hundreds of mums post birth and within my business run my own very successful Core Rehabilitation Courses.

The one thing I see over and over again is how little information or education is given to mums post birth. 

Lets go right back to conception, the moment you fall pregnancy a whole host of incredible things happen internal to the female body, one particularly important thing that happens, and will pay a huge role in your overall strength, is the introduction of the hormone relaxin to the body. 

Relaxin is produced in the hips initially, it allows the hips & pelvis to open and for your uterus and baby to grow. It also, more obviously, allows the pelvis to open up in childbirth. Relax stays with you for months and months after birth.

It's key role in pregnancy is to allow the bodies joints to become soft and flexible. Relaxin lowers the amount of collagen and estrogen you have in your body; 2 major things us ladies need for stability and strength.

Once you have had a baby relaxin is then produced in the breast; if you do not breastfeed the rexlain will take 6 months to completely leave the body and all the effects of it to disperse, however should you breastfed relaxin and all its effects will remain in the body until at least 6 months after you last breastfed, sometimes longer depending on the amount produced over time.

Relaxin is there to make the body soft, flexible and essentially stretchy. The downside is you feel every bit of this pre and post childbirth.

There are also many other contributing factors, your back has been pulled out of alignment. Your spine goes into what is referred to as an inward C, lordosis of the lower spine. This, along with he weight and size of the bump, causes with a shift in mums centre of gravity and pulls your spine out of alignment.

In addition to this your glute muscles switch off (queue flat mum bum) your glute muscles are also used for strength and also places added additional strain to the back.

Your pelvis becomes unstable and many mums-to-be suffer with pelvic girdle pain. This is literally where the of the 2 sides of the pelvis meet in the middle (pubic symphysis) and rub together causing flashes of pain, if you are as unfortunate as myself in this you may end up on crutches.

And then lets not forget the sheer exhaustion and massive amount of work your body is doing to grow that tiny baby, the body is incredible and literally creates life but it doesn't happen without wiping you out, causing everything to ache, hurt and to feel like you have been hit by a bus!

But the biggest elephant in the room?

What has happened to your abdominals to grow that baby? You have 4 layers of abdominal, a list I wont go into right now but you can find in my other blogs, but your abdominals have quite literally lifted, stretched and parted to grow baby! 

I am currently cooking my 4th baby, my abdominals have been wide apart for months. By the time your baby is fully grown and ready to come earth side there will be very little between your skin and baby, there will be the normal tissue, stretched muscles, linear alba and skin, but your abdominals will have been long over stretch and placed under pressure.

Without repeating another of my blogs here you have a deep layer of abdominals called your TrA (Transverse Abdominals) these muscles link from the front of your rib cage and run right around to either side of your spinal column; your TrA physically expands and grows to hold baby and support both you and bubba. 

Imagine if you will a thick piece of elastic, now place that over a ball and continue to inflate that ball for 9 months. At the end of the 9 months let that ball deflate and what do you think would have happened to the elastic? It wont pinging back and be full of its original strength; and this is what has happened to your core. 

Now unlike this elastic band you can get the strength back into your core, your hips, pelvis, glutes and whole body for that matter. 

But... It takes time!

Not just time, although this is a huge factor, but patience and the correct guidance. It took 9 months to grow that baby, even if you "snap back" and fit into your old size 10 jeans 5 weeks post birth; your core will not be back to full strength.

We cannot see internally what has happened to the body, we cannot second guess the potential damage or complications growing a child may have had on our bodies interbeing. What we can do is respect the body and look after it. Rehab the body and take time to heal it before giving up and going hell to leather on the sit ups - side note, NEVER DO SIT UPS to strengthen your core or even when under the 6 month postnatal bracket! Sit ups will not give you a strong core, they target the front abdominals and if anything, will give you a bad back and sore neck if performed incorrectly.

My top tips to help your body post baby back to strength:

• Start with breathing exercises; learn how to breathe again properly into the diaphragm and not into the chest. Become aware of your breathing and reconnecting with your body, it sounds lame but it is the foundation of helping yourself.
• Learn to reconnect your core and fire up your TrA: Something my whole core rehab course focuses on. It is not a case of "belly button" to spine or sucking everything in. It is about learning how to feel and activate your TrA so you can confidently support and strengthen your core for everyday activity and exercise.
• Talking of exercise, don't go crazy: As I said, your body has been battered by the last 9 months, it most likely wont be up to CrossFit or vomit inducing boot camps for a while. Mostly because your core is not strong enough and cannot support you. Your core supports your pelvic floor (another blog on this) and when your core is weak, the pelvic floor is weak and this can result in prolapses and incontinence issues.

Look after yourself, take your time and listen to your body. If in doubt seek help, make sure whoever you are talking too knows the female form post birth and understands and asks you all the right questions!