I can’t believe it’s already been 8 months since I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl. It has been fun to see her little personality develop and watch her gain new skills like rolling, rolling and more rolling lately! She is such a happy baby girl!
Since my last update, there have been quite a few changes around here. I have worn the ab splint for a month now (longer than I thought I would because it’s definitely not comfortable!) as part of the Tupler Technique to correct my diastasis recti, kicked off my personal training/wellness coaching business officially and have 5 clients who I train weekly out of my garage gym, and I’ve increased my own training to doing at least two wods (workout of the day) in a day, twice a week, to help reach my goals. I have to say it has been one fun, but very busy month (not to mention we are still in the middle of walnut harvest)!
I’m pretty happy with my progress this month as I have seen more changes in my body and in my fitness level. Wearing the ab splint AND doing the corrective exercises daily have helped tremendously in closing my gap. My gap started at 2 fingers wide and now it’s 1 finger wide. I’m not sure if it is the exercises or wearing the splint (or both), but I’ve also been more mindful of pulling my transverse abs in towards my spine while going about my daily activities. The exercises and splint have trained my body to keep my tummy in, working the transverse abs to keep them tight all the time. I stopped doing traditional ab exercises in my wods, such as abmat sit ups, hollow rocks and see the lights. I’m only doing the Tupler exercises at the end of my workouts. So…am I happy with my tummy? Yes! I’m very pleased with the results so far, but I still have that little pooch below my belly button that I’m not to fond of.
Getting my lower abs to be flat has always been a challenge for me, but after having Mirella, I noticed even more of a rounded look to them. Regardless of my diastasis, my lower abs seem to just have that pooch. Instead of giving up, I did some research and I read that tight hip flexors can cause an anterior pelvic tilt (making your hips tilt forward and your back to sway) that causes the lower abs to pooch out, which seems to be my issue! It makes sense since I always struggle with arching my back during all of my lifts in CrossFit. Thankfully, there is a great exercise to stretch out my hips that I’ve started to incorporate at the end of my wods to help bring my hips back in alignment (and hopefully reduce my belly pooch!). What’s next? I’m going to aim for wearing my splint (as much as I can, since it makes my skin so itchy!) for another two weeks and continue doing the Tupler exercises and stretching out my hip flexors. I’ll keep you posted!
Here are my stats (only 4 more pounds to go until I’m back at my pre-pregnancy weight!) and some pictures…
Current weight: 122 (lost another 2 pounds!!)
7 Months Postpartum weight: 124
Final pregnancy weight: 156
Pre-pregnancy weight: 118
That’s it for today. Have a wonderful weekend!
Question:
If you have been pregnant, how long did it take you to lose your “baby weight?”
You look great! Glad that wearing the splint and the exercises have been helping.
And, sounds like your personal training business is going great!!!
Thanks, Kim!!
You look amazing! Just wondering what the hip flexor stretch is?
Thank you! Here is a video and good post about the stretch: http://woldfitness.com/2011/07/one-exercise-to-end-lower-belly-pooch/
Hi! I am finding this post because I discovered I have two finger wide DR. I am 25 weeks pregnant and have been doing crossfit, but I thought I was modifying enough of the WODS, I guess I wasn’t. Anyways, when did you first develop your DR? Looking for any hope and advice on what to do from here. Thanks.