[00:00:00] Well, hey there, welcome back. I am really excited about today's episode because it is a Q and a. I went on my Instagram a couple of weeks ago and I collected a bunch of questions that you had about the core and improving your core because the truth is a lot of people struggle with their core in many different facets, whether it's because they feel like they can't get it to lay flat or they have back pain or leakage or they just can't feel the muscles.
So I asked comfortable What questions do you have? And today, that's what we're going to talk about. You asked them, I'm going to answer them and we're going to break it all down. So you're going to walk away feeling more empowered when it comes to your core. And yes, this episode is for everybody. Whether you had a baby four days ago or 40 years ago, we can always improve our core.
So listen up, you're going to love it.
And get ready to learn. And quick shout out to Mabe1979. It's titled, Love this podcast. I'm [00:01:00] so happy I found her podcast. Love how Andrea breaks down fitness and debunks a bunch of myths that I used to believe.
I love that she shines a new light onto food with balance And being aware of what we put into our bodies to achieve results. Thank you, Mabe, so much for the review. It makes such a difference for the podcast. If you love the podcast, if you've learned from the podcast, or even if you want to give me criticism, I'm all down for all the things, leave me a review.
Let me know your thoughts. Let me know what topics you want to hear an episode on. And in the show notes, you can also submit a topic or a guest.
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That's drinkag1. com slash simple. Check it out. Alright, on to your questions all about the core.
So let's get into it. Let's talk about your deep burning questions about the deep core. And to be honest, these are questions that were asked not only by one or two people, but by tons of people. And over the years that I have coached and taught about deep core and understanding how to really Improve your core.
They're questions that I commonly get as well, so I figured, you know what, this is a great time to include all of these in a podcast, and the best news is as we talk [00:04:00] about the core issues today, it is the week of Cyber Monday. So my core guide, the D Stasis Recti Guide, is on sale. It goes on sale three times a year only, and my biggest sale is the Cyber Monday sale.
It is 30% off with the code Joy. Again, that's 30 percent off in the diastasis recti guide. I teach all about strength training for the core cardio, for the core pelvic floor, how to connect that with rib flare, ab gripping, how to breathe properly. And there are 12 educational modules. And then there are 36 progressive workouts.
And the best thing is it's yours forever. It's a one time purchase and it is yours forever. And when the app comes out, it is going to be a separate purchase in the app, because a lot of people. like to do their own workout routine, but they still want the core love.
So the guide is going to be housed in the app. And if you buy it during the sale, you're going to get access to it in the app as well, which is great for you, a cheaper price. And you're going to get it in the app when the app launches [00:05:00] in January of 2024. So check it out. Again, the code is joy, 30 percent off, and I will add a link in the show notes.
So the first question I want to talk about, and it's actually kind of a little bit of a myth, but I'll explain, is if I have leakage or incontinence, does that mean that I have DR? Which is diastasis recti. And my answer is maybe. And maybe not. recti is characterized as the weakening or the thinning of the linea alba. That is the connective tissue that runs down the very center of your six pack. So you know when you look at a picture and you see the right abs and the left abs and there's a little line down the center?
That line of connective tissue is stretched and weakened, which is causing diastasis recti. Now, in that process, a sign that you could have diastasis recti, one of them is leakage, but it doesn't mean simply because you have leakage that you have diastasis [00:06:00] recti. When you have diastasis recti, what is happening is there is uncontrolled intra abdominal pressure.
So basically your core is like a canister. You have the bottom part, which is the pelvic floor. Then you have all of the ab muscles along, obviously, the front of your stomach, Wrapping around all the way to the back with your transverse abs, and then the top part of your core layer is your diaphragm.
So that is the canister right there. When we do movements and we are not controlling the pressure in our stomach, we might see some pushing out on the stomach, and when someone has diastasis recti, they see that bread loaf or that coning down the front of the stomach. So imagine doing a crunch. Let's say someone crunches up and instead of doing a big exhale and feeling their core wrap in, they actually see their core push out.
That would be easily a sign that you may have diastasis recti because the core is not engaging properly and you might see a cone down the center of the stomach. Another thing that might happen when you have [00:07:00] diastasis recti is Not only does that intra abdominal pressure push out, it can push down on our pelvic floor.
And when our core unit, that canister that I talked about, isn't working succinctly. So when I diaphragm breathes, our pelvic floor is fluid with the moment. When we inhale, the pelvic floor moves with it. When we exhale, the pelvic floor moves with it. So if our diaphragm is not connecting well to our transverse abs, it's also going to carry all the way down to the pelvic floor.
So for example, if we go to push something, just maybe a heavy cart or pick up a basket, let's say we're holding our breath, we're not using our diaphragm, we're not engaging our transverse abs correctly, we're going to create that intra abdominal pressure, but it's going to go downward onto our pelvic floor, which is going to cause leakage. So, leakage is a sign that you may have diastasis recti, but just because you have leakage doesn't guarantee that you do. Sometimes, when you have leakage, it could simply be an issue that you have a weak or a tight [00:08:00] pelvic floor.
Your core As in like your core muscles, your linea alba may not be stretched and may be normal, but you're still not engaging your core muscles correctly. You're still not managing that pressure maybe and your core might be fine, not stretched from pregnancy, but the pelvic floor could be tense. Where it's hypertonic, so imagine it being like a tight muscle, and when it's tight, it can also create incontinence, or it might be really, really weak, where we're having a hard time activating it, and that can also create incontinence.
I'm gonna highly suggest you go back to episode 117. Understanding your pelvic floor to reduce leakage, back pain, hip pain, and more. That episode is really going to break it down for you. If you have leakage and you don't have DR, what you can do and how you can be aware of that. And even if you do have DR, that episode is still going to be very, very helpful because it's going to teach you really just about the pelvic floor.
The other thing to think about is The pelvic floor is so interconnected with [00:09:00] lots of different muscles and ligaments and parts of our body. For example, there was just a study done in October of 2022 that I read and I really, really loved it where it talked about the functional relationship between the hip joint and the pelvic floor.
And how patients often who have osteoarthritis or other hip issues also have incontinence. So just because you have incontinence doesn't guarantee you have DR. It is a symptom of it. It is not always linked in the opposite way. So being aware of that is really important. This is one of the reasons why you need to self check for diastasis recti and see if you actually have a gap in your left and right ab and also check not only the space between the muscles, but the depth, because The depth is monitoring the connective tissue. So it might not be very wide as in the cat, but it could be very deep, which would just mean that you need to continue to work on your diastasis recti, which is important, but also get in to see a PT. [00:10:00] If you don't have DR and you still have that leakage, get into a pelvic floor doctor, get a hands on assessment.
They are game changers. I can't say it any more from the top of a mountain. To see a pelvic floor doctor if possible, especially if you don't have DR and you're still having leakage to see is the pelvic floor tight? Is it weak? Is it an issue with my hip? Are there other muscles involved? There's so many things that connect that relationship So know that leakage is a sign of diastasis recti, but along with the leakage, typically people have a visual sign of a bulge in their lower belly. They experience coning during movements where I talked about. That's the uncontrolled intra abdominal pressure. They have weak inactive core muscles. They have that separation of the abs. They have lower back pain And they have leakage. So it's more of a sign of all of those connected that it could be diastasis recti.
But leakage doesn't guarantee you have diastasis recti. My next question is, and [00:11:00] this is a really, really common question. I think I probably answer this question honestly every week. I would have to say at least a couple times a week. Is it too late to improve my core if I do have diastasis recti or just a weak core?
And if you don't know what diastasis recti is, I do have some previous episodes explaining what it is.
Episode 15, Understanding and Fixing the Mommy Pooch, which is a nickname for Diastasis Recti.
Episode 54, Facts and Myths About Your Core After Having Kids.
And episode 71, Is it Diastasis Recti, A Hernia, or Weak Core? All of those are going to be helpful. But the answer to this question is, no. It is never, ever too late. When we are trying to improve our core, it's simply a matter of retraining the muscles to do their job. There is no timetable.
There is nothing that says, sorry, it's been two years since you had a kid or sorry, it's been eight years since you had a kid. You don't get the opportunity to heal. You don't [00:12:00] get the opportunity to make your core better. That is ridiculous. Even with me saying it, I bet you realize how ridiculous that is. recti can always be improved. I have women in their 60s doing the diastasis recti guide and working on their core. I have a client right now who is 63 who is doing my coaching program which is separate but she has diastasis recti and she is working on it. There is no timetable. it is simply an issue of you connecting with your body mechanics and connecting the mind to the muscle, teaching your core to brace itself properly, learning to breathe correctly.
And when I say brace, all that means is teaching your core to stabilize. The spine and the pelvis during movements. Hence, when your core is able to do that, it engages well, it reduces back pain because your back isn't taking the brunt of the work. It's controlling the intra abdominal pressure. So you're not having that outward pressured on the linea alba, just pushing out, making that coning.
You're not having that [00:13:00] downward pressure on the pelvic floor, creating leakage. It's simply an issue of retraining the muscles. So no, it is never, ever too late to see changes in your core, whether you had a baby. Again, four days ago or 40 years ago.
The next question I got was, I'm working on my deep core, but I'm not seeing any changes. Do you have any advice? This is a really great question and it's actually a really common one I get as well because you have to look at it this way. I think oftentimes we look at our core exercises when we're trying to improve our core as a checklist.
Great. I did 10 minutes. I did three movements, you know, three sets of deep core work, and then we move on with our day. And my question is, what are you doing the rest of the day? This is kind of the same idea of when someone says, I have a goal of fat loss, and they're really doing good on their workouts, but they don't have any awareness of maybe their nutrition, or their sleep, or their water intake, or their stress level. There's lots [00:14:00] of factors that affect our ability. To have fat loss.
And it is the same thing with lots of factors, having an effect on our ability to improve our deep core. And if you have diastasis recti to heal it. So let's say you're doing your core exercises, you know, 10, 15 minutes a day, and you feel like your core isn't changing. My question becomes to you, what do your workouts look like?
Are you linking your breathing with your deep core during strength training? For example, in an overhead extension where you are doing a tricep extension, the weight's above your head, let's say it's really heavy, you lower the weight down behind your head, you're really good at keeping those elbows in for the movement, but let's say your lower back is arched or your ribs are flared, and both of those turn off your deep core.
Or, you just aren't breathing properly and you see a tiny ridge down the center of your stomach, but you ignore it because it's not a core move. You know, you don't need to worry about movements that aren't core moves. False. [00:15:00] You totally need to always engage your core. Always use your core. If you are doing a different movement and your core is not invited to the party, you're not going to see changes simply because you're doing that 10 to 15 minute core workout.
You need to interlace that breathing, the deep core work into all of your exercises. Or maybe in your workout you're at a CrossFit gym and you're doing V ups or toes to bar and then you're still doing, you know, your deep core work at home and you're wondering why your core isn't improving. Because you're truly sitting on a fence.
You're doing two different things constantly. One that is possibly elicitating the ridge down the center of the stomach, that cone, the bread loaf we've talked about, however you want to refer to it, that bulge, and then one that is trying to heal it.
So you're constantly doing both of those things. It's like you're sitting on a fence. You're not going to see changes that way. So it's more than just that. doing 10 to 15 minutes of deep breathing or deep core work, [00:16:00] you need to be aware during cardio that you're breathing properly. You need to make sure that you are breathing properly in your strength training, making sure that you're exhaling as you exert against the weight, making sure that your core is staying stacked, that your, you know, ribs aren't flaring out, tipping your upper body forward.
You need to make sure that you're not rib gripping, trying to maybe... You know, suck in or like engage the abs by almost curling your upper back forward and gripping that upper abs.
And even if you don't have diastasis recti, if you are trying to improve your core in general, this is crucial in all of your workouts. Invite your core to the party. Make it do the work. Connect the breathing with the movement. You are exhaling when you work against the weight. You are inhaling when you are at neutral or when you are moving with the weight.
I cover all of this in a ton of detail in the Diastasis Recti Guide. Understanding how to connect our movements with strength training because that is [00:17:00] huge and it is counterproductive if we are not and then we may not be seeing changes in our core.
So not only that, but if you aren't seeing changes, what about your daily activities and your posture? You can't do a handful of core exercises, deep core exercises, maybe you added a dead bug or a bird dog, or just transverse abdominal breathing, and then... You know, pick up your kids and hold your breath and arch your back as you pick them up or get out of bed and sit straight up like you're doing a push up because that's that same motion and not think about exhaling as you sit up or maybe you're pushing a stroller or a heavy grocery car.
It's Christmas. We got a lot of stuff going on and you're holding your breath as you push instead of. Exhaling as you really step into it and drawing your core in same with your posture. If you're rolling your shoulders forward and you're, you know, have an arch in your lower back or an anterior tilt or a posterior tilt, either of them, your core is turned off.
And if you're doing that all day long, your core [00:18:00] is not working all day long. And remember, we talked about that canister. The canister wants to work. It likes to be stacked just like a jar. Pelvic floor bottom, ab muscles middle, diaphragm top. If our posture's off, it's not stacked correctly and it can't do its job correctly.
So, think about your posture.
I know that's a really hard one because it is so ingrained in us most of the time our posture and especially our posture sometimes goes whack after we have a baby because we learn to kind of just push out our belly and arch our lower back. But it's really crucial that you might need triggers on your phone to remind you.
Maybe your home screen on your phone when you text is, check your posture or when you're standing at the. counter doing dishes, check your posture, put a little note there. Anything, at your desks. Have a note if you work at a desk, are you sitting up or are you slouching? All of these things are going to play into your ability to improve your core, your daily activities, your workouts, how you're moving through the day, your [00:19:00] posture.
And connecting, obviously, the breathing with your deep core work. All of that together. You've got to be aware of all of it.
My next question was, can I prevent diastasis recti during pregnancy? So, when you become pregnant, the core has to separate to make room for the baby. It is actually a miracle, the way the female body works, to stretch and make space for that baby. And that is normal. That is very normal. It is needed.
Honestly, if your core did not stretch to make room for the baby, we'd have problems. That is a good thing that it does this. So everyone has a linear alba that stretches when we're pregnant to make room for the baby. This happens because of Partly the hormone relaxin, which loosens up all of our joints, our tissues, our ligaments, everything to just stretch, you know, and get all nice and comfy for that little baby to make a home.
Part of the process after we have the baby is not only does the uterus obviously slowly shrink over time, but [00:20:00] typically that space between the right and the left ab, the linea alba, kind of closes back up. And normally that takes anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks, but it can take much longer, but that is kind of a normal thing for it to close.
Now, for many people it doesn't close. I've read so many different studies on this. Some people say at six months, 40 percent of people still have the space between their right ab. I've read a study that said that it can be up to 70%. So it kind of varies. I have a few different studies that say different things, but it can still be open.
So what you can do is you can work on connecting during pregnancy to your deep core, which is going to prevent your diastasis recti from possibly getting worse. And it might make it easier for it to heal afterwards because during pregnancy, you can also do things where the core is not braced properly.
Remember bracing again just means stabilizing the spine and the pelvis, which is then [00:21:00] creating that outward pressure on the core. So it's stressing out the core. If we are able to engage properly during pregnancy, we're not going to stop our bellies from stretching. We have to make room for the baby. But we are going to keep our deep core nice and strong, which is going to help it heal faster afterwards, and it's actually going to help during labor.
The second part of this question that actually wasn't the question, but I do want to address it is the six week checkup.
So, even though the doctor has said that you're six weeks, I need you to understand that this does not mean that you are exactly the same as you were before you had a baby. It took 10 months to grow that baby. You didn't just bounce back to normal in six weeks. So you need to ease back into exercise. It breaks my heart when I see a mom say, or on social media, Six week checkup and then they are back exercising and they're doing jump tucks or lifting the heaviest squats [00:22:00] They possibly can when they haven't been able to do that for a while or they're just moving back into traditional core work I made this a mistake myself After my twins, I, I was doctor approved, I went back to all of my traditional stuff and my core was still healing and what I actually did was not only prevent, I obviously didn't prevent diastasis recti from getting worse my first time, but I actually made it worse because I was not able to engage the core properly and I was doing things too fast, too soon that I shouldn't have and I was a trainer at the time, so I thought I knew what I was doing and I didn't.
There's nothing in the NASM training. There's nothing in ACE that really teaches this. It is a separate course to teach postpartum women. So please be aware of that. You need to ease back in. With my last two babies, I went back slow, steady, focused on the core. I didn't just jump back into planks or jump back into the heaviest weights I could or jump back into jumping.
I did it slow and my recovery was Night and day [00:23:00] different from the other one. So be aware of that with the six week checkup. Not only are we not preventing it during pregnancy, but keeping that core strong is going to help us heal afterwards. And even afterwards, you still want to be able to ease back into exercise properly and slowly and using your core, just as I mentioned above with the daily activities, with your posture, with your workouts, with everything.
The next question I got, which really is piggybacking on the pregnancy one, is can you improve your core while you're nursing? So as I mentioned, when you are pregnant, obviously you release the relaxin hormone, which helps loosen up all of the joints and ligaments and tissues. It is a crucial reproductive hormone that we need.
And during breastfeeding, it also is triggered and releases as well. So while you nurse, you can 100 percent see changes in your core. That is true. We can, and that is an issue of us focusing on connecting our mind to the muscle, to learning, to engage [00:24:00] properly, making sure that our breathing patterns are lining up and making sense.
And by breathing, I mean, we're not breathing shallowly just in our chest. We're actually using the diaphragm or a couple of other things. So you can definitely do things while you're nursing and you can 100 percent see changes while you're nursing. Now, with that said, as I mentioned, that breastfeeding does trigger the release of the relaxin hormone.
And that does affect the ability and the integrity of the abdominal Muscles. So remember it keeps them nice and loose and that connective tissue down the center of your stomach is part of what it keeps nice and loose. So I highly suggest working on your core as soon as you can, while pregnant, while postpartum, but know that when you stop breastfeeding, that the process might speed up a little bit because some of those hormones that cause the muscles and the tissues and the ligaments to relax are going to [00:25:00] decrease now Relaxin does start decreasing around 6 to 12 months postpartum It kind of starts taking his dip, but the amount is gonna vary per person and breastfeeding does affect that But do not be fooled for one second.
You can see changes while nursing 100 percent I nursed all of my babies And I always saw changes while nursing. I just noticed, even for myself, once I stopped nursing, it seemed like everything kind of was better at tightening up and engaging because that hormone wasn't there anymore, along with some other ones that kind of keep things relaxed.
So still put in the work for your core while nursing. It will make a huge difference and it will even just catapult you forward once you stop nursing.
The last question I get often, and I get this even from clients sometimes, is how can I tell if I'm doing the breathing correctly? So first, I do have a free breathing series, which teaches you how to connect your breathing with deep core movements. And the best thing you can do to see if you're doing it correctly is [00:26:00] one, I will link that in the show notes.
I also talk about it in the diastasis recti guide. It's going to give you cues to see how you're feeling. It's going to help you recognize imaginary cues, visual cues, and sensation cues. But one of the best things you can do is film yourself, film yourself while you're breathing and see what it looks like.
Do you see your chest? Rising only put your hands on your ribs. Do you feel your ribs expanding when you inhale? Whether it's just a regular diaphragmatic breath or whether we are trying to inhale to brace the core, whatever it is, your ribs and back should expand that 360 breath. Everything's supposed to expand.
If you notice your shoulders rising or your chest rising. That's a sign you're probably not doing the breathing correctly. So film yourself and put your hands on your body to see what you feel. The second thing you can notice when you film yourself is you might see that as you exhale [00:27:00] and you're trying to brace your core, bracing your core simply means that you lift your pelvic floor and your transverse abdominals wrap in like a corset.
One of the visual signs for that is Some people see their belly button scoop in and up because it's drawing in. It's not sucking in, it's drawing in. And often when people film themselves, they'll notice, Oh my gosh, my upper abs are engaging first and the upper abs shouldn't engage first. The pelvic floor lifts and then the transverse abs engage.
So if you're noticing that your upper abs are clinching in and your lower belly is last, that could be an indicator of ab gripping, which is an incorrect engagement pattern. You could also be doing shallow breathing. So if you're filming yourself and you notice that your ribs flare out almost, and your back arches as you inhale, that might also be another sign.
Also feeling like you can't get a good inhalation pattern. So let's say I say to you, Take a [00:28:00] really big inhale right now. If you can take a big inhale and put your two front fingers, you know, your pointer and your middle finger on your ribs, your thumb on your back, your pinky on your belly, and you can feel that full expansion, then you're breathing correctly.
That's great. If you feel like when you're trying to inhale, you can't get a good inhale, it just feels shallow and goes up into your chest, You might have a rib flare, so that might be an incorrect pattern that you need to work on that rib flare, which will fix your breathing. So filming yourself is going to make a huge difference.
Second, see a pelvic floor doctor. Even when I'm working with clients, I can give a ton of cues. I can tell you all of the things that I know, the imaginary things to look for. Imagine your core knitting together. Imagine your hip bones coming together as your transverse abdominals engage. Imagine the air rolling out.
Out, you know, from the pelvic floor, all the way out of your mouth. I can give all of those cues, which I do in detail in the free breathing series and in the diastasis [00:29:00] recti guide, but having a hands on assessment can be a game changer. I will always say that I will always back that. So if you aren't sure if you're doing the breathing correctly, film yourself, see what it looks like.
If you're still confused. Get in with a PT doctor, a pelvic floor doctor, at least for one time, at least, if that's all you can manage, if that's all you could afford at the time, and have them just check that you are engaging your deep core properly, that you have a good inhale, that you can 360 breathe, you know, filling your ribs, back, and belly with air, that you can exhale, have them check on your pelvic floor to see is it tight, is it weak, and even check your DR.
Just that one appointment will make a huge difference. And if you're not anywhere where someone's close, filming yourself makes a difference and also Knowing the cues to look for.
All right. Those are the most common questions by far I get about the core and understanding and being able to improve our own cores. I hope it makes a huge difference for you. If you have any more [00:30:00] questions. Please let me know. Come talk to me on Instagram. It's deliciously fit and healthy or check out my website.
I do have a ton of core information and I do have that free breathing series and the diastasis recti guide to help you out. It is never too late. You are not too far gone. You can feel amazing in your body. You can have a strong core and I promise. If your core is strong, you will be amazed at how great you feel in so many other movements and daily things you do in your life.
Alright, as always, you're doing so much better than you think you are. We'll chat next week.