"A lot of women don't tell you, but exercise just doesn't feel the same after they've delivered, especially some of the core and ab work, and especially if there's a diastasis," Prendergast said. "They just don't have the integrity they need to do those exercises properly." To help, she gives her patients (excluding those who require PT before they start working out) pelvic floor exercises to integrate into their fitness routines. It's more than just diastasis correction and Kegels, she said.
When you do start working out, go slow (every professional POPSUGAR spoke to emphasized this). Founder of PROnatal Fitness Brittany Citron, an NASM- and ACE-certified personal trainer with postnatal specialisations in corrective exercise, pelvic floor rehabilitation, and diastasis, said that their postpartum classes focus on establishing deep core strength first, "so we basically are rebuilding their core from the inside out." This starts with the breath, she explained. "Most of us breathe through our neck and chest because our deep core muscles are so weak, and we don't actually breathe through our diaphragm and utilize the core correctly." Just mastering proper breathing is the "most beneficial core exercise" you can do, she said. (She sent over this example.)
Certified postnatal trainers also teach pelvic floor activation exercises (like this one), and once the deep core is strengthened, they build up intensity from there with circuits and cardio. But, "you want to avoid any sort of sit-ups, crunches, full planks, and V-sits" until your deep core strength is rebuilt, Citron advised. Once you build that strength, you can even find safe ways to exercise with your baby (we recommend this workout).