The Mind-Body connection when it comes to the postnatal abdominals

 

If you know me well then you might be surprised by the title:

“Jo? Is she really getting into all that airy fairy mind stuff? Surely not…”

Well you’re quite right about me – it’s not my thing - and, no, I am not getting into all that abstract mind-related stuff (however great it is).

Call me a philistine but I’ll just call it the empirical approach to life!

So what exactly am I talking about in the title then?

I’m essentially referring to the way many of us find that after 9 months of pregnancy, the postnatal tummy muscles simply won’t play ball.

Put completely untechnically, for many of us in the postnatal period the abdominals won’t do as they are told. Try as we might to tell our abs that they need to kick in and keep their side of the bargain whilst performing this or that exercise, they just don’t seem to want to perform.

It is as if the messaging system between mind and body is no longer working.

This is a really common post-pregnancy situation. Perhaps it is something you have experienced or are going through right now?

If so I’d love to hear about it.

Interferences with the messaging system  

   

It’s not rocket science to work out that when it comes to the abdominals, pregnancy is a pretty traumatic experience. No other muscles in your body will ever experience such a monumental degree of stretching as the abdominals do when your baby bump grows. Accompanying this off-the-scale stretching is a tremendous and inevitable weakening of the abdominals, often alongside a separation of the outer layer of abdominals (diastasis recti).

It’s this combination of factors which seems to sometimes (but not always) lead to a kind of switching off of the messaging system between mind and abdominal muscles.

Injuries to the back and pelvic area can have a very similar effect. I distinctly remember the time (years ago) when I was on a course about the pelvic floor muscles and as part of the day we each had an ultrasound done to our abdominal area. I was, at the time, recovering from a torn ligament in the SI joint (lower back).

What did the ultrasound discover?

My deepest layer of abdominals had essentially “switched off”, refusing to work anymore, and as a result had withered away to a miserably thin layer compared to everyone else’s.

I was mortified!

More recently a herniated disc in my back had a similar effect and I lost all ability to balance (sense of balance comes from your core) – my party trick had been to kneel on a fitball whilst doing an upper body weights workout.

I could no longer do it and 8 months later I am still working on retraining that mind-abs connection and have finally got back onto that fitball - weights and all!

So in short, upset this area of your body and it is quite likely that the abdominals will no longer “fire up” (work) when required.

Three tricks to get the deep abdominals responding

 

These are not tricks really but simply ways of getting the deepest layer of abdominals – that wrap like a corset round the waist – to wake up and get working. Have a go and see which works for you:

  1. Cough! That might seem a bit of a strange order but when you cough it creates intra-abdominal pressure within the abdominal cavity, and in response the deep abdominals (your core muscles known as the transversus) react and contract so as to make sure that all your innards stay put – what a thought!  So try this:

Place the heel of your hands on your hipbones and the palms of your hands flat on your lower abdominals with your fingers tips meeting at the pubic bone.

Now cough and see what you can feel happening underneath your hands. Did you notice a slight tightening of the abdominal muscles under your hands? That was your transversus contracting – yay, the muscle is alive and kicking!

OK, so your next step is to recreate the sensation that you felt under your hands but without coughing (you can hardly go around coughing all day). So have a go instead at very gently drawing yourself away from your hands - don’t suck yourself in desperately. It’s a light touch.

Once you have done that, it is time to remember to keep breathing. I got you there! I bet you were holding your breath! Don’t. Breathe throughout, all whilst keep the gentle tightening of the deep muscles under your palms.

 

2.  There is an intimate connection between pelvic floor muscles and the transversus (the deep abdominals). What I mean by this is that they work in partnership and when one set of muscles contracts so too does the other. In fact, you cannot isolate them from each other – contract the pelvic floor and the deep abdominals will automatically kick in. Try and you’ll see what I mean:

Place the heel of your hands on your hipbones and the palms of your hands flat on your lower abdominals with your fingers tips meeting at the pubic bone

Now I’d like you to do a pelvic floor pull-up by lifting your PF muscles both upwards and inwards round both the back and front passages (charming!). It’s a similar sensation to when you need to stop your urine in mid-flow because the postman just knocked on the door with a parcel… And it’s also the same feeling as when you stop yourself from passing wind in public because it simply isn’t the done thing!

OK, so now we’ve sorted out how to pull up on the PF muscles, I’d like you to do that again: pull up, breathe out as you do so, AND notice what you can feel happening under the palms of your hands. Magic: you might well be feeling the deep abdominals tightening up very slightly under the hands.

Have a go at doing some quick flicks up and down with the pelvic floor: can you feel the abdominals drawing in and out as you do this? If so, then it’s good to know that the mind body connection between brain, abs and pelvic floor is working.

3. Finally, there’s the good old, traditional Pilates method of visualising. This works well for some people (not particularly for me but we’re all different). Have a go at the following:

Stand tall or sit tall and imagine that you are wearing a belt with 10 notches on it, the 10th notch being as tight as could be and the first botch being as loose as could be.

Do your belt up to the 10th notch – it should be incredibly uncomfortable as you desperately suck your waist inwards. In fact, breathing with be close to impossible and you can forget trying to hold a conversation.

Now loosen your belt to about half way – the 5th notch. That’s better – still a bit tight but more manageable.

Finally, drop down to the 3rd notch on your belt: you should be left with a gentle tightening of the abdominals but nothing major – you can breathe comfortably and have a good chat all whilst keep the abs on that 3rd notch.

I should also add that there’s nothing quite like a bit of physical feedback in the form of a prod. This is what I tend to do when setting up my deep abdominals before starting off a core exercise: I use the first method (minus the cough) and then I give my abs a good prod with the fingers to just check that they are indeed doing what they’re told. It sounds silly but that prod can be reassuring in terms of feedback.   

Other essentials for the toolkit

 

So those are three tricks to keep up your sleeve for getting the deep abdominals firing up again postnatally. Once you’ve got the knack of waking the deep abs up, I’d encourage you to switch them on whilst doing all those baby-related physical activities: lifting, carrying, bending to change nappies, stooping to put prams in and out of cars, leaning into cots etc. Performing these movements so that they actually emanate from a switched on core rather than from a core that has decided to go on strike, will protect you from lower back pain!

And here are a few other tools I’d like you to pop into your postnatal wellbeing toolkit:

  1. Postural alignment – make good posture a way of life
     
  2. Breathing – yes, I know we all breathe but how? A stressed mama breathes up into the shoulders causing tension through the upper body. So focus on calming your breathing.
     
  3. Finally, motherhood is – frankly – not the most relaxing of experiences and we do tend to acquire a huge build-up of tension in the body. The tension has to go somewhere (shoulders, neck, back, abdominals, pelvic floor) and wherever it goes it is never a good thing. So give yourself at least five minutes every day to focus on relaxation. We all relax in different ways and I genuinely believe that there is no such thing as a one size fits all. If I were into the airy fairy mindfulness approach to life I’d recommend meditation – if that’s your thing then go for it and give yourself 5 minutes of head space every day. For others it might be a spot of baking or breadmaking that does the trick. I’m not joking: it works for me. Whilst for others I’d suggest doing some relaxing exercises such as cat stretches and roll downs from standing.

I’d love to hear how you get on with the three methods of waking those deep abdominals so please do send me a quick message and tell me which method works best for you.