How do I actually protect my core in pregnancy (whilst staying strong!)

Your body undergoes some pretty incredible during pregnancy. Whilst we love some of them (hello incredible hair days) and others not so much (we could do without the swollen everything thanks), nothing changes quite so much as the shape of your belly. It can be equal parts incredible and terrifying.

As your abdominal wall stretches and grows to make space for your expanding uterus and growing baby, it is completely normal to wonder (*read* anxiously google) if your belly will ever look the same again.

During pregnancy, your uterus will expand from around 70 grams or the size of a small fist to weigh up to 1 kilogram which is around the size of a watermelon. That's a whole lot of change. As your uterus expands and your baby grows, your abdominal wall has to stretch and lengthen to accommodate all this growth. For the majority of women (between 72%-100% of women in their third trimester), this results in an increased gap between the two sides of the rectus abdominis. Otherwise known as abdominal separation.

We hope that this post will help you to understand why abdominal separation is a normal part of pregnancy, the steps you can take to protect your core in pregnancy and some specific exercises we recommend in the Empowered Motherhood Pregnancy Program to help you to keep feeling strong and connected through your pregnancy.

First, let’s understand how the abdominal wall changes during pregnancy

Due to the increase in oestrogen in pregnancy, the collagen fibres that make up the linea alba change from a Type 1 to a Type 3. So what does this actually mean?  The linea alba is a super strong band of connective tissue that runs down the midline of your abdomen from your breastbone to your pubic bone. The muscles of your abdominal wall connect into the linea alba which provides a rigid anchor point for these muscles.

Normally the linea alba is strong, thick and fairly rigid. So pre-pregnancy, your six-pack muscles or rectus abdominis sit close together (note that they are still separated by the linea alba so there is always some degree of separation of the abdominal muscles).

As your pregnancy progresses and the uterus expands, the linea alba grows thinner and wider. It also starts to experience tiny micro-tears. All of this combined causes the inter-recti distance between the two sides of your rectus abdominis to increase. This increase in inter-recti distance beyond what was normal for you, is called abdominal separation or rectus diastasis. It’s a completely normal and necessary part of pregnancy.

Why it is important to maintain core strength during your pregnancy?

Maintaining a strong core will help you to reduce your chances of experiencing long term abdominal separation, pelvic girdle pain, back pain and pelvic floor complications.

More importantly, maintaining strength and control in your abdominal wall and pelvic floor muscles during pregnancy is incredibly important for your postnatal recovery.  If you are able to regain abdominal tone and function quickly in the postpartum period - it will set you up for a really positive postnatal recovery.

Wait, what exactly is the core?

When we talk about the core, we are talking about inner most layer that provides spinal support and control. It’s made up of 4 core muscle groups.

1. The Transversus Abdominis Your transversus abdominis is your deepest layer of abdominal muscle. It wraps like a corset from your spine to the linea alba. It connects into the pubic bone at the front and rib cage at the top of your core and its muscle fibres run in several different directions. It’s job is to provide stability and control to your spine. The transversus abdominis muscle actually stretches by 25% in a first-time pregnancy and by 50% in a second or subsequent pregnancy.

2. The Multifidis The multifidus muscles are a collection of short, triangular muscles that are part of your deep back muscles. The extend all the way from the cervical to the lumbar spine. The multifidus muscle plays an important role in spinal stability.

3. The Pelvic Floor Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles which form a hammock in your pelvic bowl. They are the base of your core and are responsible for providing support to the pelvic organs, maintaining continence and also stretching to allow for the birth of your baby through the vaginal canal.

4. The Diaphragm Your diaphragm is the top of your core and is connected to your pelvic floor through a complex web of fascia.

Good core activation is actually the co-ordination of the diaphragm with the pelvic floor, with the deep abdominal muscles and the multifidis. In the EMP, our core based exercises are designed to help you to maintain the connection and co-ordination of your core so that you can continue to have this inner most layer of support all through your pregnancy.

So how do we protect our core during pregnancy?

In the Empowered Motherhood Program, our Pregnancy Core Connect program is focussed on helping you to maintain deep core connection and control, learning how to properly activate your core and making sure you are set up to heal well in the postnatal period.

1. Breathing Breathing is an essential part of core function and plays a pivotal role in the function and health of the abdominal wall and pelvic floor during pregnancy. When you inhale deeply, the diaphragm and pelvic floor both widen and slightly descend. Conversely when exhale, the pelvic floor and diaphragm gently lift and contract. This type of diaphragmatic breathing helps activate the transverse abdominis (the deepest layer of abdominal muscles), contributing to a stronger core and better support for the growing uterus.

If you're not breathing well, for example if you are only taking shallow breaths into your chest, you won’t be able to get that really good activation of the transverse abdominis.  And that muscle is so important for stabilising your spine and your pelvis. So it's really important that we are focusing on breathing into our diaphragm and into our ribcage as well. In the Empowered Motherhood Program, we held you to create optimal breathing patterns to help support your core connection.

2. Posture and Pregnancy

Hands up if you catch yourself doing the pregnancy lean back.  As your belly starts to grow and your centre of gravity shifts forward, there's a natural tendency to lean back, which can exacerbate lower back pain and put additional strain on the abdominal wall.  Maintaining good posture is a simple way to help protect your core in pregnancy. When you're sitting and standing with good posture, your muscles are in the best position to work. And it's when they're in the best position to work that they are going to be able to work most effectively. In a side on position, think about having your ears, shoulders, hip bones and ankles in alignment.

Again, working on your postural alignment and strength is a focus of our Empowered Motherhood prenatal core workout. 

3. Safe Prenatal Core Exercises

There are specific exercises that we recommend doing in pregnancy to help support your abdominal wall and core connection including:

• Quadruped Based Exercises such as opposite arm + leg extensions and knee hovers. 
• Kneeling Core Based Exercises such as kneeling hinge backs, kneeling banded rotations, lateral bends in high kneeling and weighted arm work to challenge your core stability.
• Modified Planks on a Fit Ball, wall or chair;
• Rotational Movements using a resistance band;
• Oblique Focussed movements in kneeling and side lying;
• Deep TvA work in quadruped, side lying and supported plank.

If you want to explore some of the ways we incorporate core execises into our pregnancy workouts, please join our free trial here!

But the key thing here is that we're not talking about doing sit-ups or crunches. Those are not the exercises that we want you to be doing in pregnancy because they can actually be really detrimental to those core muscles, particularly if they're done incorrectly. So we really want you to be focusing on those deep core muscles, that transverse abdominis, obliques, pelvic floor and multifidus.

4. Functional Movement One thing that sets the EMP apart is that we always include functional movement into our workouts. We want to ensure that you feel strong and capable whilst you go about your day. In pregnancy, even the most simple tasks can feel uncomfortable and awkward (such as getting up from a deep sofa or the ground).  So thinking about how you're getting up out of a chair, how you're lifting and carrying, how you're pushing a pram, all of those things are really important because actually, every time you're doing those movements, you're actually engaging your core muscles and we want to ensure you are doing this in a safe way that supports your long term abdominal wall function. 

Feel strong and confident through every trimester with the EMP 

We would love to support you to feel strong, connected and confident through every stage of your pregnancy with physio-led exercise and expert education. The EMP core connect program contains physio-led core focussed workouts for each trimester. Plus you'll have access to a complete week by week program from first trimester to birth preparation and recovery. 

Start your free 7 day trial here