Restore Your Deep Core
There’s been a recent slew of media attention devoted to so-called “fat shaming” fitness moms who have been posting online pictures of their lithe bodies soon after giving birth. It’s certainly controversial and (despite their “intent to inspire”) leaves many other women with feelings of jealousy, inadequacy and hopelessness. Promoting health and fitness is an honourable pursuit; scouring for external validation and public attention via social media is another.
The competition for women to give birth and then immediately erase any evidence from their bodies that they just created a child has become crazy. Another blogger called it obscene (I don’t entirely disagree). Ultimately we’ve become too obsessed with being skinny and hot and MUST shift focus back to promoting mothers’ HEALTH – physical and mental. STOP reading these magazines, IT IS ALL BS!!!
At some point the psychology of motherhood changed. What happened to women being celebrated as maternal life-creating goddesses? Give yourselves a damn break ladies! You just created a human being, are chronically sleep deprived and may not have the genetics of Heidi Klum (who walked the Victoria’s Secret runway 6 weeks after baby).
This kind of pressure to restore your core has postpartum women working too hard, too soon and doing the wrong type of exercise. This video of women peeing during Cross Fit absolutely horrifies me, not only because they are normalizing urinary incontinence – something that is NOT normal – but also because of the long term consequences of untreated UI (organ prolapse, hernias, bladder sling surgery… etc). What’s going to happen when you’re 65, 70?? FYI: second only to dementia, the leading cause of institutionalization – being put in nursing home – is due to incontinence.
This is not a bashing of intense Cross Fit style training. Cross Fit has its place. This is a plea to all women out there: please take the time to rehabilitate your inner core muscles after giving birth. You just popped out a human being, helloooo!
What’s the use in losing all your baby weight if your inner organs are dropping and you leak every time you sneeze? Learn to do proper kegels to reconnect your abdominal walls and strengthen the deepest layer of abs (transversus abdominis). My pelvic floor physio colleagues at Pelvienne Wellness have this helpful kegel how-to article.
To all moms, new and veteran: Get yourself checked for diastasis recti (abdominal wall separation seen above) which can still exist for years after giving birth. If you have a stubborn pooch, chances are it could be because of lingering diastasis. It can more often than not be repaired through proper exercise, and we can help.
Get rid of your tummy from the inside out by restoring your inner core through mindful abdominal exercises (NOT traditional crunches). There’s no crash diet or crazy cardio bootcamp that will do it safely or effectively.
Whoever said it would be easy, lied. What they meant to say, is that it’d be worth it!