Diastasis Recti Recovery...the next stage (a more in depth look)

After the "Diastasis Recti basics" episode from 2 weeks ago I had a few emails and questions so I decided to turn it into a little series.

On this episode I go into a little bit more depth and talk about the most important exercise you can do to heal your diastasis; Breathing.

Here's a link to the Corebreath video I mentioned.

Then I talk about the importance of doing full body exercises, rather than focussing on one specific muscle group.

And, of course, a lot more. 

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Playing us out; More Dresden the Flamingo

Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

Peter 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert PeterLap. That as always would be me. This is a podcast for the 8th of June 2026. And today I am going a little bit more in-depth about diastasis exercise and recovery and what works, what doesn't work, and doesn't work, and all that sort of stuff. This is on the back of the basics episode I did a couple of weeks ago. I had one or two emails asking one or two questions. So I thought, oh, let's do a little, let's do a little series on this. So this will be a nice short episode where I'm just covering a few of the bases. Right? So without further ado, here we go.com

Best Email For Questions

Peter 1:13

if you have any questions or comments or anything really. By the way, some of you very kindly have started emailing Peter at castlepersonaltraining.com, which is a very, very old email address for my personal training business. That doesn't get monitored as much. So just be aware that especially for booking uh booking agents, if you're sending me an email there, you're gonna get likely gonna get missed. Peter at healthy postnatal body.com is the email address to use. Today, like I like I said, we're I'm going to do I'm going to do a little um just a little series on on some of the basic stuff about um postpartum uh exercise programming and all that type of stuff. And this is part of that. This is slightly more in-depth than the last episode about diastasis recta was from uh which was from two weeks ago. That was not uh the from the Volt one. Um just because I get one or two emails, um, one or two questions about that sort

What Diastasis Really Means

Peter 2:16

of thing. So we've established what diastasis is, right? We know it's the width of the gap, the depth of the gap, and the muscle functionality, right? We're going to be working with that definition of diastasis. And I know a lot of people will disagree with the muscle functionality bit. They will say, no, it's just the depth of the gap and the width of the gap and everything else is separate from, but it really isn't. And we have to, in my opinion, show a bit of joined up thinking here, right? We have to take a holistic approach to stuff and not see things as a separate issue when we know that uh these things are are linked, um, and that a solution to these things should be all encompassing. So that's where we have

Why Exhaling On Effort Matters

Peter 3:07

to start. So one thing I missed out on the basic episode that I get a lot of questions about is why is breathing so important? Right? I always say that we start any, I always start any postpartum recovery program, any postpartum recovery work with people, with teaching people how to breathe properly. And I don't mean in the yoga style breathing or or doing breath work or any of that type of stuff. I just mean exhale on the effort and try to do it from what I like to call the bottom up. So um if you look at our YouTube channel, and I'll link the the YouTube clip about the core breath in uh in the podcast description, um, or at least I'll get someone to do it, uh then you will see that exhaling during postpartum recovery, and I think everyone should believe this way, so it's not just useful for people during postpartum recovery, but especially during postpartum recovery. I like it to be done in a rather methodical way, and in the beginning that's a little bit annoying, to be honest. I get it, it's tricky for people because you know we exhale the way we exhale, and we breathe the way we breathe, we breathe the way we we we are used to it, right? Um the thing is quite often we're not very good at it. Um and that means that for instance, when we do an exercise like a squat or a deadlift or even getting up off the floor, we hold our breath until the exercise is complete, until we're at the top of the movement, and then we exhale. The problem with that is that it creates a uh creates a bracing effect, which is awesome if you're doing powerlifting and setting personal bests and all that type of stuff. It is terrible when you're trying to get these muscles to contract and release at the right time, right? And and and that is what we're going for, right? That that is the that is the goal of the the point of the exercise to to get the body used to moving in such a way that it alleviates as much pressure on the abdominal wall as possible. Because that's fundamentally what causes diastasis rectile, right? It's it's creation of pressure on the abdominal wall that creates a separation, right? The belly gets bigger and that creates pressure and that creates and that causes a separation. What we're trying to do is alleviate that pressure. This is why men can also get uh diastasis, too much pressure on the abdominal wall, and things start to move apart. Um so one of the things we have to do to recover from that is make sure that when we do something, we alleviate the pressure as much as possible, and you do that by exhaling, by breathing out. So that's it that's a key component of any sort of postpartum recovery program is learning how to do that properly. Now, it's really difficult for me to talk you through this

The Bottom-Up Core Breath

Peter 6:35

without without a visual clue. But if you can do this little exercise for me, just what most people do. I will show you what most people do. If you take a really deep breath in as you're listening to this, and then exhale it. So just and then quick exhale, and now feel how most people most of you will when you did that, when you did that, you will have collapsed in on yourself a little bit. So you inhale and you're big and you exhale and you and you you fold in, right now. You can already imagine that that is probably not the best way for your for your core muscles uh to move, because they're not they're not involved in in that. Um what I'd like to know is, and this is easier if you're standing up in the beginning, especially if you've never done it before, or lying down even. Um, when I do any sort of personal training sessions with postpartum uh people in the beginning, we do. I think this is I'll be surprised if if this isn't in the healthy postnatal body program this way as well. You do the the lying down version first. You just lie on your back, place your hand along your linear, but basically the middle of your hand, uh pointing towards your vagina, towards your pelvic floor uh region, um, and the middle of the hand is on top of your belly button. That's kind of roughly where you need to be, and then exhale and you start by contracting the bottom, the uh the the bit where your fingers are, so the bit nearer your pelvic floor, and then inhale and exhale, sorry, and then you move up. So, and then you contract and you pull it in and up. That is kind of how I like people to breathe, and again, that is easier when you look at the YouTube video, it'll all make complete sense. But that is a way to alleviate pressure whilst getting um some level of core contraction, and the reason this breathing is important postpartum is that quite often a people haven't breathed this way in like ever, but also a lot of these muscles aren't necessarily as active as we'd like them to be, right? They're not doing the work we'd like them to do, so we're teaching them to work, so we have to be a little bit mindful about this. So I would say this feels awkward in the beginning, that feels like a lot of effort, but it's one of the things that is really remarkably beneficial when you get this right. It is, I would argue, more important than any actual physical exercise you do, whether that's glute bridges or squats and and uh scapula wall slides, all that type of stuff. They're all beneficial, but they're much less important than just breathing, properly is from a diastasis rectile recovery perspective. So that's why we have to start. Um, and the reason I like to use this method of breathing is for me it is the most effective way of doing it, and I know people are some people are doing diaphragm uh diaphragmatic breathing and and and all that sort of stuff. I'm not a big fan of it, it's fine, it's fine, it's it's not inherently wrong, it's just not the way I prefer to do it, right? And there's a lot of within any sort of uh rehab exercise type uh programming and methodology, there's always a bit of uh there's more than one way to skin account, right? That's that's kind of what it builds out to. So I'm not saying other ways are all wrong. This is just the one I prefer people to do. Uh, there are benefits to any sort of to be fair, any sort of mindful, uh, mindful breathing when it comes to diastasis recovery, as long as you focus on the muscles and not on like the world around you and the the noise of the birds and the bees. That is not the kind of mindfulness I'm I'm talking about, even though that kind of mindfulness is also uh awesome in its own way and very useful. That is not what we're going for.

Early Postpartum Exercise Progression

Peter 10:52

So if you can focus on that type of breathing, and then if you look at the type of exercises you should be starting off with, at least, like I said, every session we do in the HP and B program, an APT session I do for recovery, for postpartum recovery, starts with the core breath. Then I do some I have people do some glute bridges in the first few weeks: glute bridges, heel slides, clamshell exercises, and a lot of that is uh so the other exercises in there, squats, reverse lunges, and you'll find that those are all exercises that are there to allow you to focus on using the right muscles at the right time, and there's a lot of glute work involved in that, and from all angles, right? A glute bridge and a clamshell is but they're basically glute exercises, but for different parts of the glutes and and different movement, right? But these are exercises that you can do, they're relative, they're they're non-load-bearing, right? There's nothing nothing to them other than other than body weight, and they allow you to focus on your breathing whilst using other muscles as well. Because we want to do more than just learn how to breathe properly. There are other muscles that have been um used differently over the course of the nine months that you were pregnant, that are maybe a little bit, as I always say, out of position, and I know I'm oversimplifying things, but you know, that's that have been maybe switched off a little bit or have worked a little bit less and and all that sort of thing. And we just want to make sure that all that stuff works in the right order, the right things, that you and that you know what it's supposed to feel like. One of the biggest problems we have just in general, but especially people doing rehab exercises, is that we're not aware of what a muscle is supposed to feel like when it's being used, and what it's supposed to feel like when it's not being used. So, what is something supposed to feel like when you're contracting and when you're releasing? Where's the last time you did a glute bridge focusing solely on the contraction and release of the muscle? Even if you do glute bridges all the time, and I know loads of you will be doing it uh in the gym with a big barbell and 60 or 100 kilos on it, and doing big like hip thrusts and all that sort of stuff, and they're awesome and they're great. But how many of you do it purely focusing on what the glutes feels like rather than rather than shifting weight? Right? And and and that is what we're trying to get to. So we start with some glute bridges, two legs that make it nice and stable, and all that type of stuff. Then we do some heel slides, which will allow you to not just use the glutes in a stabilizing manner, but also um put a little bit of tension on on the core muscles, um, clamshells without the glutes, then we do some squats and reverse lunges because that's standing up stuff, and we have to still, and I I I make a big deal about this always. We have to use functional movement, as in movements that you use in your daily life, because otherwise, you know, we're not teaching your body anything, and a squat is one that you use an awful lot. Deadlifts are the same, right? How often are you going to when you have a baby and some of you have toddlers and as well as a baby? And how often are you bending down, picking stuff up? How often are you dropping down into a squat and then having to get up off the floor?

Training For Real Life Lifting

Peter 14:55

Right? That is it that is stuff that we should be working on when we do our exercises. So that first of all, the exercises are useful, obviously, but also so that we figure out how we should be moving to help heal the diastasis rectile whilst doing that type of movement, so that everything translates, everything a good rehab program does, and I mean everything a good rehab program does, has some sort of translation into daily life. Because let's be honest, if you do if you if you have a wonderful PT and you see them three times a week, right? That's I know three hours worth of exercise out of 168 hours that are in the week. So that means you have okay, you sleep, I don't know, 40 hours a week, so you have 120 hours during which you are awake, right? And I I know it's probably a slightly more or less say 100. Only 3% of that are you actually exercising with with someone. If you then for rehab purposes, and this is for rehab purposes only, I really want to emphasize this. If you then don't focus on things that you'll do the other hundred hours of the week, that or at least that don't translate well, that will teach you how to move, that teach you that conditions your body how to move well and how to respond to movement for the other hundred hours, then what are we doing? Right? Then we're probably not at least probably not using the most effective exercises. So, this is why I'm not a big fan of constantly isolating muscles. In daily life, you don't isolate muscles, you very rarely. When you're lifting something, you use more than one muscle group. When you're doing a squat in daily life, if you just if you've just constantly done glute bridges and not squats, then you know it doesn't translate well. If you're if you're we call it moving across different planes of of movement, right? So basically up and down, forward and back and left to right and all that sort of stuff, they're they're all different planes of motion. If you only train in a straight way and you don't teach your body how to move side to side well while still doing what you want to do, as in whilst the body still does what you want it to do with regards to core activation and and and release and all that type of stuff, and pressure and breathing and all that sort of thing, then how are you going to get good at lifting a heavyweight, such as a toddler, such as a struggling toddler, or or a deadweight toddler that doesn't want to cooperate and therefore weighs 100 kilos? How are you going to lift them out of the car? Because you can't do that in a straight line, you have to do it in a twisty motion, right? That is kind of that's that's how that works, that's how life works. So we have to practice that stuff within postpartum or any sort of rehab programming, right? If people have a shoulder injury and they never train, they never practice how to reach overhead during the shoulder rehab, we would think that's insane because a lot of stuff you do in the shop is reaching over. For instance, when you grab something off a top shelf, it's reaching overhead, or just in the house. How many of your cupboards are higher than you are?

unknown 18:40

Right?

Peter 18:40

So that's an overhand overhead reach. If you are doing any sort of shoulder rehab and you don't incorporate that into it, you would think that's insane, right? And I'm not saying that's what shoulder rehab specialists do, I'm saying that that would be insane. Well, the same goes for postpartum recovery stuff. We have to incorporate full body movements that allow you to safely learn how your body should be moving whilst doing those movements. And that's not in a scaredy type type way, that is just in a way that is just this is how we move, your body gets good at it, you add load, as in children's travel systems, and all that type of stuff. Um, and then you'll be safe to do it, but you know what it should feel like, and this is why I always say at the end of a good postpartum recovery program, every movement you do, even including a bicep goal, right, and shoulder presses, everything you do will help heal your diastasis rectile. If you get your breathing right and you understand what stuff should feel like everything you do will help heal with that, everything you do will help heal your pelvic floor if you get your breathing right and you know what stuff should feel like. That doesn't mean you should focus on all the other stuff, but um like bicep girls and tricep dips and all that, but I think tricep dips are in like the first few weeks of the strength element of of the HP and B program. In fact, I'm pretty certain they are. Um because we need strong arms to lift stuff, especially children, and upper body strength is one of those often ignored elements of of um of women's strength training and postpartum strength training, especially. Right? We have to make sure your arms are strong enough to lift stuff, such as children, you can pick them up safely. That doesn't mean we should just be doing bicep goals and shoulder presses and all that type of stuff, but we should incorporate these things into a postpartum programming um program because if we miss that out, then how am I gonna how are you gonna lift your child above your head safely if if you don't have the shoulder strength to do it? Right? And we want you to be able

Full-Body Strength Without More Pressure

Peter 21:35

to do that, we want you to have that level of strength, but we want you to have that level of strength safely so that your diastasis recovers even whilst you do that, and that is about knowing how your stuff should feel. And I hope that makes sense. And this took a lot longer than I thought it was gonna be. There was a lot more waffling in in that bit, but it is it is so important. Important that these things are all incorporated. We do full body stuff. We do full body exercises. We do uh exercises for the entire body. So shoulder presses, military presses, tricep lips, bicep girls, scapula walls, right? So reverse lunges and deadlifts and kettlebell things, and they should all be part, or they can all be part of a good postpartum recovery program. The basis for me has to be breathing, right? And knowing knowing what it should feel like when your body does a certain movement. So that is why we do things like glue bridges before we do squat. Hey, this is what my bump should feel like when I do a glute bridge. This is how it feels when my glutes contract and when they release. When I exhale or when I inhale. And then you translate that into squats and reverse lunges and shoulder presses and all that type of stuff. It it moves very well and it flows very well once you understand what that feels like and what it should feel like. There isn't a single exercise that won't help you heal your diastasis rectile once you figure that stuff out. So that's why it should be the basis. And that is 25 minutes of me just waffling. So that's enough for this week. Uh next week from the vault, the week after that. Uh, what are we doing the week after that? Maybe another part of this, and then the week after that, I have Dr. Mike Myers, which is going to originally be next week, but things change a little bit. Um so there we are. You have a great week. You take care of yourself. Peter at healthy postnatal body.com. If you have any questions or comments, right? Here's a new bit of music from Dresden the Flamingo. You take care of yourself. Bye now.