Nine months of pregnancy can give you not only a bouncing baby, but a bulging belly as well. Even if your weight is back to normal, stretched and weakened abdominal muscles can leave you with a paunch. What's more, for most women the stretching is accompanied by diastasis recti, a painless separation of the central abdominal muscle (which runs vertically from rib cage to pubic bone) that occurs as the belly expands during pregnancy, says Raul Artal, M.D., chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the St. Louis University School of Medicine.
In most cases, the gap will close up within a few months of delivery, but without exercise ab muscles will remain weak, which can lead to lower-back pain. But if you start doing regular situps, you could actually slow the healing process, says Catherine Cram, an exercise physiologist specializing in postpartum fitness in Middleton, WI. Also, standard situps don't target the lower abs, which is where most of the stretching and weakening occurs during pregnancy. To gently and gradually tone up a postbaby belly, try these lower-ab exercises, designed by Shirley Sahrmann, Ph.D., a physical therapist at the Washington University School of Medicine. Because you progress through the moves as you feel ready, these exercises are ideal for postpartum ab work. And they're so effective you may want to make them a permanent part of your fitness routine. "When these exercises are done properly, abdominal strength and tone may return in postpartum women in four to eight weeks," says Cram. "And they help get rid of the 'pooch' below your belly button without putting stress on your lower back."
Begin doing these moves as soon after giving birth as you're physically able. If you had a C-section or pregnancy complications, or have a wide diastasis, check with your doctor before working out.
Plus:
Best Ab Workouts for Moms
Click ahead for a Step-by-Step Ab Toning routine
