Pregnancy and postpartum recovery create a lot of body changes—and your core is no exception! After birth, your core may feel expanded and harder to engage. There’s no automatic process the body takes to “bounce back,” but there are steps you can take postpartum to reconnect and engage your core. You need to teach your muscles how to work properly again.

So, how do we do that? Let’s dive in!

Step 1. Fix your breathing

Your core is made up of four components: diaphragm, pelvic floor, transverse abdominis (abdominals), and multifidus (back). The balance of these muscle groups is what gives us core stability. All these muscles need to work together to effectively move and breathe. A good way to think about your breathing/core is that it’s a piston system. When something expands, something else has to contract.

Our breath doesn’t like to work hard and tends to go to the area of ease. After having a baby, the easiest way to breathe is allowing your stretched-out belly to expand. Unfortunately, this completely neglects your core! Instead, we want full 360-degree core engagement from the multifidus by your back bra line to your side core muscles.

Here’s how to breathe with your core:

When exhaling, breathe out from the bottom up.
Make your exhale forceful to engage your core muscles to pull those ribs back in and down.
By forceful, we mean you should make an audible exhale! It might feel weird at first, but you want to make a loud exhale sound!

It’s also common for postpartum mamas to get stuck in an inhale position because their ribs are expanded (splayed outwardly). If you notice your bra circumference size doesn’t eventually return to your pre-pregnancy size, you’re probably splaying your ribs.

Here are two exercises from our Expecting and Empowered app that work on restoring 360-degree breath to recreate normal breathing:

Back body breathing

side lying diaphragmatic breathing

Step 2: Release your pelvic floor muscles

When trying to restore pelvic floor function, you may need to release tight pelvic floor muscles. Starting at 6 weeks postpartum, try an external pelvic floor release:

Start by lying on your side.
Place your hand on the inside of your sit bones and pull up (if there’s resistance, your pelvic floor may be tight).
Move your hand around the area and find where there may be more resistance, then breathe through a few sustained holds.

External Pelvic Floor Release

Step 3: Activate your TA (transverse abdominis) muscles

Pregnancy stretches your abdominal wall and makes activating your deep core difficult. The deepest core muscles are your TA, which are located behind your six-pack (rectus abdominis) and wrap around your sides. The muscle fibers of your TA run horizontally, so when the muscles contract, the motion they create pulls inward toward the center line of your body. As a result, activating your TA helps pull everything in like Spanx and helps with core stability.

In order to feel the TA working, try this:

While standing, place a couple fingers on your front hip bone.
Then move 1 inch toward the belly button and 1 inch down toward your pubic bone.
Imagine you’re zipping up a tight pair of jeans, and you need to squeeze in just a little bit more to put them on.

A few exercises you can try that target the TA specifically:

TA CONTRACTION: MARCHING

push with one leg drop

TA Contraction: Single Leg Fall Out

Step 4: Engage your lower abdominals

The lower abdominals are located under your six-pack muscles and cause women many postpartum issues—especially in terms of body image. This loose belly is often referred to as the “mom pooch.” Lack of lower abdominal strength can also contribute to lower back pain. The lower abdominals are tricky to isolate, but here are a few exercises that will target them more than others:

Abdominal Series: Push

Reverse Crunch

Step 5: Get your oblique muscles loose, then tighten them back up

Oblique muscles attach to the sides of your six-pack muscles and help things sit flatter. But if they’re too tight, they don't give you full access to your core. To loosen up the obliques, stretch them out through:

Standing QL Stretch

Side Lying X

While sitting, cross one foot over the knee of the other while sitting. Then reach the same arm as the crossed leg to the other side of the knee for a deep torso rotation.

While you want mobility in your obliques, you also want an even balance between that and stability. Here are a few exercises to try at home that help strengthen the obliques:

Soft Tissue Mobilization: Obliques

Side Plank

DB Diagonal Core

Takeaway

These five steps are great ways to get your abs firing and restore your core after having a baby. If you’re looking for an easy-to-follow program to see real results, I encourage you to try our 12-week Empower Your Core Program within the Expecting and Empowered App! During the program, two renowned Pilates instructors take you through 12 weeks of restorative movements. Each week you’ll attend three classes that are taught in a progressive manner—meaning they build on each other. The goal is to feel empowered and restored at the end of your 12 weeks.

For C-section mamas, check out our 8-week Empower Your C-Section Core Program—which helps you care for your C-section scar and restore your core after pregnancy and major surgery.

Our core programs will not only help restore core function, but they will also positively impact the appearance. Whether you had your baby 12 weeks ago—or it’s been years since you gave your body the attention it needs—these programs can help!

Kicking On Your Core After Baby: A Step By Step Process