Diastasis recti: how to rebuild your core without making it worse

How to check at home

Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat. Place your fingers just above the navel and lift your head slowly. Feel for a gap between the two bands of muscle, and note both the width and whether there is a firm base underneath.

Repeat the check just above and just below the navel, since the gap can vary along the midline. Two fingers or less with tension underneath is a comfortable starting point. Wider than that, or a soft doming that pushes outward, means you want slower progressions and ideally a pelvic health physiotherapist.

Check again at six weeks, twelve weeks and around six months. The gap you find at two weeks is not the gap you will have later, so avoid drawing firm conclusions too early.

What to avoid for now

Crunches, sit-ups, full planks, boat pose and heavy lifting with a held breath all increase intra-abdominal pressure. If you can see a ridge or dome forming down the midline during a movement, that movement is too much today.

Be careful too with getting out of bed by sitting straight up. Rolling to your side first and pressing up with your arms takes pressure off the midline and is a small habit that adds up over weeks.

Holding your breath during effort, whether lifting a car seat or a toddler, is one of the most common hidden causes of a diastasis that will not close. Exhale on the effort instead.

What actually works

Breath-led transverse abdominis work is the foundation: exhale as you gently draw the lower belly in and up, inhale as you release. This sounds small, but done consistently it retrains the deep core system that crunches never reach.

Add side-lying leg lifts, heel slides, and supported bird-dog once your breath stays quiet throughout, meaning you are not straining or holding at the top of the movement.

Consistency beats intensity. Five focused minutes a day outperforms one long session a week, because the deep core muscles respond to frequent, gentle signalling rather than occasional heavy load.

As things improve, progress to standing versions of the same breath pattern while doing daily tasks, so the coordination becomes automatic rather than something you only do on a mat.

When it is more than diastasis

Persistent doming that does not improve after several months of consistent work, ongoing back pain, or a bulge that appears with coughing or straining are all reasons to see a pelvic health physiotherapist rather than pushing on alone. Getting an assessment is not admitting defeat, it is simply the fastest route to actual improvement.