Protect your Core

Pregnant and Postpartum Mamas:

Here’s a simple yet effective cue that can help you protect your core and prevent any unwanted coning/doming down the midline of your belly.

When I was pregnant with my first, I remember seeing my belly cone for the first time when I was pregnant with my son.  I was going to lie down for some glute bridges and saw a big bulge down the center of my stomach.

Personally, this really freaked me out!  I was concerned something was really wrong with my core muscles and was worried about recovery once postpartum.

Fast forward a few years and two pre/postnatal certifications later, I now know how common it is to see this coning down the midline of the belly during pregnancy and even early postpartum.

Why does this happen?  When we’re pregnant, our core muscles weaken as they are stretched beyond their optimal length and the connective tissue between our two Rectus Abdominal muscles (the linea alba) thins.  You’ll typically see this coning down the midline if the core isn’t properly engaged OR if the load is simply too much for the core to manage.

Don’t freak out, it’s okay!

While it’s very common to see your belly cone/bulge during pregnancy and even postpartum, we still want to prevent this from happening as much as possible!  Believe it or not, something as simple as getting up and down from the floor requires a lot of core strength!  So we want to make this easier on the core while pregnant and postpartum when our core muscles are weak (and lax during postpartum).

—> Cueing the side sit-up will help prevent that extra pressure from being placed on the core.

It’s a simple cue that can possibly save you some extra trouble down the road (when strengthening your core postpartum).