An unfortunate and expected side effect of pregnancy is a bad stomach after birth. It's true what they say about coming out of the hospital looking six months (or so) pregnant, and that you may look pregnant for some time afterward. At 8 weeks, I think I'm about down to 4.5-5 months pregnant-looking. And I've got quite a ways to go. My mother likes to keep reminding me, and it is good to keep in mind, that it took 9 months for the belly to expand and grow and so you shouldn't expect miracles before 9 months post-partum.
Now that I am 8 weeks in and have started exercising more frequently, I need to start focusing on my abs. I've searched for some exercises that will help and which ab muscles should be targeted. This is important, as I've read that by only doing regular crunches you are not working the right ab muscles to pull the pooch in and will only keep you from gaining a flat stomach again.
That's where I found that the transverse abdominal muscles are the key to getting the flat abs back. I've started doing specific exercises to target these muscles this week. While training my abs to go back to their original position and picking up my walks and swims, I'm hoping for a miracle sooner rather than later. :)
2 comments:
Just wanted to say congrats on the new addition. Emmy is beautiful! Also your blog is a great motivator for me, so thanks!
You might be on to something. I did the exercises this morning and I'm already sore. Maybe I'll make more progress this way. And I will say that time really does make a difference. I am still not where I want to be, but it has gotten SO much better over the last year. Building my running back up seemed to make the biggest difference for me, but I haven't made it to a pool since August, either. Good luck!
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