There are many exercise programs that focus on the bikini body and about getting visible abs. Women are dreaming about a six-pack to show off on the beach. To all moms I want to say, forget about the six-pack for a while. Your focus should be your deep abdominal muscles, the so called transverse abdominis and your pelvic floor muscles. You should learn how to activate and use these muscles before doing anything. By activating and strengthening these muscles you will create great conditions to recover your pre-pregnancy stomach and get back to strong and fit. It will also help you hold a great posture. When it comes to posture think: Proud and Strong. You will find, and be able to reactivate, your deep abdominal muscles after pregnancy by doing gentle exercises where the belly is being drawn in towards the spine. Read more about this here. The deep abdominal muscles work together with both the back and the pelvic floor muscles. In order to obtain a good function of the deep abdominal muscles it is essential to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles why exercising these muscles by doing kegels is so important. When you have recovered your inner core strength and your postpartum stomach is rehabilitated you can move on to the outer muscles and start working on the six-back (if you think that's important). If you start with the sex-pack, if you start by doing planks and crunches and sit-ups you risk injuring yourself and causing yourself diastasis recti and other problems instead of healing your post-pregnancy belly.
//Nicole Hellgren
