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What do you do that tones your core?


Janie Grace
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My tummy has always been my problem area. I am getting in shape (running, eating better) but I want to do some exercises that will help strengthen my abs and back (and yes, whittle my waist a bit). It's confusing though, because I keep seeing all these "popular ab exercises that are actually TERRIBLE" articles. I want to know what is actually GOOD to do! I gather that traditional crunches and sit-ups aren't good... 

 

I'd love links to YouTube vids, websites, or even a product (DVD?) that you use. But only if you actually do/have done it and it helped. ;)

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Ballet. Seriously. It will work you from your feet through your torso. You'll have to do something else for your 

upper body strength, but you asked about core. That's what I did. And need to get back to doing.

Ballet isn't just for kids! B-) And if you're in the right area, you may be able to find adult ballet classes near you,

either at a dance studio or a community center. 

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I own and use Mutu, and I think it has helped significantly in reducing my diastasis rectii and overall feeling of strength from the core.  

 

Philosophically, I am sort of moving on though.  I'm reading the book Saving the Whole Woman and reading a ton on the website wholewoman.com and trying to come to grips with another way of thinking about female anatomy and dropping the "flat abs" fad we are currently in.  The website is not about ignoring physical health or finding happiness with a big belly, it's about showing that the flat ab and tucked tailbone are a terrible way to carry the female body.  It's worth taking a look at.  

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Is there a chance you have diastasis recti? Without healing your abdominals, you'll never get a flat-ish tummy. I currently have what my children lovingly refer to as "mama's butt tummy."  :closedeyes:  :lol:  :confused1:  :cursing:  :crying:  

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I do ab machines at a local gym. Less weight, more reps, and really concentrate on form.

 

Then I do treadmill. On the treadmill, I switch patterns of walking and running, and every time I switch, I check my core. Tighten tummy, shoulders back and down.

 

I do leg lifts at home. The big thing is form. Slow and controlled.

 

And, stretch well.

 

 

I am a mom of four, have had diastasis recti and a horrible emergency cs. Aside from needing excess skin removed, my abs are in better shape than they were prebaby.

 

 

Wrap for a diastasis recti. Get a corset and wear it religiously until the muscles fuse back together.

Edited by FO4UR
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Is there a chance you have diastasis recti? Without healing your abdominals, you'll never get a flat-ish tummy. I currently have what my children lovingly refer to as "mama's butt tummy."  :closedeyes:  :lol:  :confused1:  :cursing:  :crying:  

 

I have no idea. I've had 5 kids and I'm short-waisted, so I wouldn't be surprised if they destroyed my abs. I guess I should google and figure that out...

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My tummy has always been my problem area. I am getting in shape (running, eating better) but I want to do some exercises that will help strengthen my abs and back (and yes, whittle my waist a bit). It's confusing though, because I keep seeing all these "popular ab exercises that are actually TERRIBLE" articles. I want to know what is actually GOOD to do! I gather that traditional crunches and sit-ups aren't good... 

 

I'd love links to YouTube vids, websites, or even a product (DVD?) that you use. But only if you actually do/have done it and it helped. ;)

 

Who is saying crunches and sit-ups aren't good? There are all sorts of effective sit-up and crunches types of exercises that are great for core strength if they are done properly. 

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You say your tummy has always been your problem. Did that predate having children? Also, is it a fat issue or a muscular issue? If the problem is due to the way your body deposits fat, then exercise will only help to a point (you can strengthen the underlying muscles, but that will not change where your body wants to deposit fat, which is unfortunate for my upper thighs).

 

Assuming it's a muscular issue (but please check for diastasis recti before starting exercise for your abs), planks and pilates are amazing. Be prepared to barely be able to move for a few days after your first pilates session. Seriously.

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The thinnest and most-toned I've looked in my childbearing years is a picture taken after 6 or so weeks of daily ballet (just a DVD from Amazon). That was a couple years ago, about a year postpartum with my second kid. I've never taken a formal ballet class, not even as a kid, but it's very do-able and seems (though I'm not exercise expert) to work the whole body rather than isolate stuff. I'll take walking, dancing, or swimming over isolation exercises any day!

 

I'm trying to start it back up again. This is the first time in my life I've had a problem belly for more than a reasonable time after birth. I suspect it's diastasis recti plus emergency c-section (which pains me with too much physical activity). I'm not looking looking to win a swimsuit contest...I just don't want rude strangers to ask if I'm pregnant, when I'm well over a year postpartum.

 

Anyone have corset recommendations? I've been considering it, and I'd rather do it now while the local weather is still cool.

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The thinnest and most-toned I've looked in my childbearing years is a picture taken after 6 or so weeks of daily ballet (just a DVD from Amazon). That was a couple years ago, about a year postpartum with my second kid. I've never taken a formal ballet class, not even as a kid, but it's very do-able and seems (though I'm not exercise expert) to work the whole body rather than isolate stuff. I'll take walking, dancing, or swimming over isolation exercises any day!

 

I'm trying to start it back up again. This is the first time in my life I've had a problem belly for more than a reasonable time after birth. I suspect it's diastasis recti plus emergency c-section (which pains me with too much physical activity). I'm not looking looking to win a swimsuit contest...I just don't want rude strangers to ask if I'm pregnant, when I'm well over a year postpartum.

 

Anyone have corset recommendations? I've been considering it, and I'd rather do it now while the local weather is still cool.

 

 

Could you link to the ballet video you use? 

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Who is saying crunches and sit-ups aren't good? There are all sorts of effective sit-up and crunches types of exercises that are great for core strength if they are done properly. 

 

 

Many, many, many people are saying this.  BUT it's not a universal thing that applies to all women.  Basically, many women postpartum have some degree of abdominal wall separation- diastasis rectii.  This is a normal accommodation that many women's bodies make in order to have room for the growing baby.  The midline fascia, like the perineum, are designed fail-safes.  That is, in an ideal pregnancy and birth, both would maintain their structural integrity, but from an evolutionary perspective, it's better than the abs separate than that a pregnancy isn't taken to full term due to growth restriction, and it's better that a perineum tear than that a baby be stuck in the birth canal, so we have some degree of built-in weakness.  

 

Anyway, IF a woman does have diastasis rectii, doing any type of crunching movement will pull the "six pack" (outer-most level of) abs apart rather than together.  In the case of DR, the abs need to be rebuilt starting with the transverse abdominus, which is like your internal girdle.  These exercises are quite different from the standard ab work we see in most workouts.  

 

The journey of ab repair for me has definitely been a trip through the looking glass.  The female body is fundamentally different from the male body, but we train it like a male body in our modern fitness model.  This has been extremely hard for me to accept, as I was once that hard core female athlete that joined the military, maxed my PT tests every time, competed in weight lifting competitions, etc.  Now, all of those things are still totally possible for women IMO, but maybe need to be approached from a different paradigm.  And that's what I'm really researching right now.  

 

Sorry OP, got a bit long there.  :-)   

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I own and use Mutu, and I think it has helped significantly in reducing my diastasis rectii and overall feeling of strength from the core.

 

Philosophically, I am sort of moving on though. I'm reading the book Saving the Whole Woman and reading a ton on the website wholewoman.com and trying to come to grips with another way of thinking about female anatomy and dropping the "flat abs" fad we are currently in. The website is not about ignoring physical health or finding happiness with a big belly, it's about showing that the flat ab and tucked tailbone are a terrible way to carry the female body. It's worth taking a look at.

Thank you. I was wondering about life after MuTu. ( I also own it.)

 

For me, of late, core = yoga. I prefer yoga to Pilates. I say that because my bff loves Pilates. Whatever works for you.

 

I also walk 6+ miles per day and have been doing c25k for about 6 weeks (2 weeks are repeats). All of this helps.

 

And don't dismiss simple things like taking a few minutes to just stand up straight and keep practicing good posture.

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Thank you. I was wondering about life after MuTu. ( I also own it.)

 

For me, of late, core = yoga. I prefer yoga to Pilates. I say that because my bff loves Pilates. Whatever works for you.

 

I also walk 6+ miles per day and have been doing c25k for about 6 weeks (2 weeks are repeats). All of this helps.

 

And don't dismiss simple things like taking a few minutes to just stand up straight and keep practicing good posture.

 

Walking, erect, untucked tail, ideally barefoot, is SUCH a great functional core strengthener!  

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Many, many, many people are saying this.  BUT it's not a universal thing that applies to all women.  Basically, many women postpartum have some degree of abdominal wall separation- diastasis rectii.  This is a normal accommodation that many women's bodies make in order to have room for the growing baby.  The midline fascia, like the perineum, are designed fail-safes.  That is, in an ideal pregnancy and birth, both would maintain their structural integrity, but from an evolutionary perspective, it's better than the abs separate than that a pregnancy isn't taken to full term due to growth restriction, and it's better that a perineum tear than that a baby be stuck in the birth canal, so we have some degree of built-in weakness.  

 

Anyway, IF a woman does have diastasis rectii, doing any type of crunching movement will pull the "six pack" (outer-most level of) abs apart rather than together.  In the case of DR, the abs need to be rebuilt starting with the transverse abdominus, which is like your internal girdle.  These exercises are quite different from the standard ab work we see in most workouts.  

 

The journey of ab repair for me has definitely been a trip through the looking glass.  The female body is fundamentally different from the male body, but we train it like a male body in our modern fitness model.  This has been extremely hard for me to accept, as I was once that hard core female athlete that joined the military, maxed my PT tests every time, competed in weight lifting competitions, etc.  Now, all of those things are still totally possible for women IMO, but maybe need to be approached from a different paradigm.  And that's what I'm really researching right now.  

 

Sorry OP, got a bit long there.  :-)   

 

Could you link some medical references about this, if that's possible. I've never heard of this, and I'm an sports injury specialist. I've also had 4 c-sections, after which I completed 3 black belt levels and did thousands and thousands of sit-ups and crunches. Our martial arts classes included LOTS of sit-ups and crunches. Never, ever had a problem, neither did the women in the classes.

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Could you link some medical references about this, if that's possible. I've never heard of this, and I'm an sports injury specialist. I've also had 4 c-sections, after which I completed 3 black belt levels and did thousands and thousands of sit-ups and crunches. Our martial arts classes included LOTS of sit-ups and crunches. Never, ever had a problem, neither did the women in the classes.

 

 

Did you have DR?  I do, and I can literally feel it open wider every time I do a crunch.  TA exercises pull it together, which again I can actually measure as finger widths of DR.  At this point in my "recovery", I can perform a few crushes with excellent technique and keep my abs together, but if I fatigue or my technique suffers, I can see the DR widen in front of my eyes.  But I understand anecdotes aren't science.  Another relevant question is how far postpartum are the women you are observing?  Many DRs self-repair in the 6 month PP period- I'm not one of the lucky!  I'd also like to state for the record that I could do an exercise class and do a billion crunches, as in, I could perform that movement, but just because I don't appear to be struggling with the exercise doesn't mean I'm not ripping my abs apart by doing them.  So I don't think the observation that lots of women are doing these exercises seemingly with no issues is valid.  There is no external sign that I have an issue unless you are actually feeling my belly when I crunch.  But I can feel it as decreased stability in my core, hernia symptoms that worsen, etc, when I do crunch style contractions vs TA contractions.    

 

If you do a google scholar for diastasis recti, you'll find there is very little research on it.  Here is the closest I have come to anything useful:

 

http://journals.lww.com/jwhpt/Abstract/2012/09000/Diastasis_Recti_Abdominis___A_Survey_of_Women_s.4.aspx

 

 

Conclusion: The focus of conservative treatment for postpartum women with DRA is therapeutic exercise, specifically TA training. Current practice for postpartum DRA includes multiple intervention techniques. Future studies should assess the effectiveness of individual interventions to refine and advance treatment on the basis of evidence.

 

 

This article specifically suggests modifying normal postpartum ab exercsises to avoid further damage after DR:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1356689X96902726

I don't have access to the whole article, and it won't let me copy text, but the relevant paragraph is in the left column, beginning "After delivery, ..."

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Did you have DR?  I do, and I can literally feel it open wider every time I do a crunch.  TA exercises pull it together, which again I can actually measure as finger widths of DR.  At this point in my "recovery", I can perform a few crushes with excellent technique and keep my abs together, but if I fatigue or my technique suffers, I can see the DR widen in front of my eyes.  But I understand anecdotes aren't science.  Another relevant question is how far postpartum are the women you are observing?  Many DRs self-repair in the 6 month PP period- I'm not one of the lucky!  I'd also like to state for the record that I could do an exercise class and do a billion crunches, as in, I could perform that movement, but just because I don't appear to be struggling with the exercise doesn't mean I'm not ripping my abs apart by doing them.  So I don't think the observation that lots of women are doing these exercises seemingly with no issues is valid.  There is no external sign that I have an issue unless you are actually feeling my belly when I crunch.  But I can feel it as decreased stability in my core, hernia symptoms that worsen, etc, when I do crunch style contractions vs TA contractions.    

 

If you do a google scholar for diastasis recti, you'll find there is very little research on it.  Here is the closest I have come to anything useful:

 

http://journals.lww.com/jwhpt/Abstract/2012/09000/Diastasis_Recti_Abdominis___A_Survey_of_Women_s.4.aspx

 

 

This article specifically suggests modifying normal postpartum ab exercsises to avoid further damage after DR:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1356689X96902726

I don't have access to the whole article, and it won't let me copy text, but the relevant paragraph is in the left column, beginning "After delivery, ..."

Yes, unfortunately, I think the problem is that there has been very little specific research about training women specifically after pregnancy period. So, much training actually makes it worse, so many women faithfully do their crunches and such and wonder why they still look pregnant. It isn't just about the looks either, it is about function. Having too much pressure there leads to incontinence and prolapse. I read this interesting study a couple of weeks ago about tearing in childbirth for women who excessively trained their abs in pregnancy, I wish I could find it now. I follow some different movement research communities and it was on one of them. 

 

I used Mutu and found it really helped me to get back to at least a base level of strength and a DR that was minimal. I've done a LOT of work since then but I still avoid certain exercises as I cannot keep proper form. I mostly do yoga (training to be a teacher now) but even in yoga I find you need to watch various moves. Too often trainers and students want to jump to the hard core(ha!) exercises to really work the abs but we have to have the foundation first.

 

I notice some hernia issues and less stability as well when I go too far. I get this slightly queasy feeling too, it is hard to describe. Lately I've been working on releasing more in my abs, many of us walk around constantly sucking it in.

 

So, I guess my core work is- walking- the more the better (various terrains), cross body all 4 work (think crawling), various planks in yoga(I avoided these at my weakest), hanging/climbing work and squats (ATG- ass to grass).

 

When I start teaching I will be making the ladies self-check for diastasis first, drilling form and building the abs from the bottom up. 

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Did you have DR?  I do, and I can literally feel it open wider every time I do a crunch.  TA exercises pull it together, which again I can actually measure as finger widths of DR.  At this point in my "recovery", I can perform a few crushes with excellent technique and keep my abs together, but if I fatigue or my technique suffers, I can see the DR widen in front of my eyes.  But I understand anecdotes aren't science.  Another relevant question is how far postpartum are the women you are observing?  Many DRs self-repair in the 6 month PP period- I'm not one of the lucky!  I'd also like to state for the record that I could do an exercise class and do a billion crunches, as in, I could perform that movement, but just because I don't appear to be struggling with the exercise doesn't mean I'm not ripping my abs apart by doing them.  So I don't think the observation that lots of women are doing these exercises seemingly with no issues is valid.  There is no external sign that I have an issue unless you are actually feeling my belly when I crunch.  But I can feel it as decreased stability in my core, hernia symptoms that worsen, etc, when I do crunch style contractions vs TA contractions.    

 

If you do a google scholar for diastasis recti, you'll find there is very little research on it.  Here is the closest I have come to anything useful:

 

http://journals.lww.com/jwhpt/Abstract/2012/09000/Diastasis_Recti_Abdominis___A_Survey_of_Women_s.4.aspx

 

 

This article specifically suggests modifying normal postpartum ab exercsises to avoid further damage after DR:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1356689X96902726

I don't have access to the whole article, and it won't let me copy text, but the relevant paragraph is in the left column, beginning "After delivery, ..."

 

If you are talking about a specific segment of the population (recent post-partum women), that's one thing. To generalize that to all women all the time should not be doing sit-ups or crunches, then I think it's problematic.

Edited by wintermom
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If you are talking about a specific segment of the population (recent post-partum women), that's one thing. To generalize that to all women all the time should not be doing sit-ups or crunches, then I think it's problematic.

 

I assumed the OP was referring to articles she'd read that were related to PP ab work, as I haven't seen crunches discouraged in any other population, also she mentioned after 5 kids she thinks her abs are destroyed.  But you are right, I should have specifically named the audience for which I was speaking.  I think we were talking past each other.  

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I assumed the OP was referring to articles she'd read that were related to PP ab work, as I haven't seen crunches discouraged in any other population, also she mentioned after 5 kids she thinks her abs are destroyed.  But you are right, I should have specifically named the audience for which I was speaking.  I think we were talking past each other.  

 

I was simply wondering who was being discouraged to do crunches and why. I didn't see the OP mention anything about PP. 

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