Diastasis Recti: What It Is, and What It Isn't

Somewhere between your first pregnancy and now, you probably heard the term “diastasis recti” said in a tone usually reserved for bad news. It isn’t. It’s the natural separation of your abdominal muscles that happens to nearly every pregnant body to make room for a growing baby — a normal, expected adaptation, not damage.

What it is: the connective tissue running down the midline of your abs (the linea alba) stretches and thins to accommodate your pregnancy. For most women, that gap starts to narrow on its own in the weeks after birth as the tissue regains tension. For some, it stays wider than it was, and that’s the point where “closing the gap” becomes the goal.

What it isn’t: a hole in your muscle, a sign you did something wrong, or something that means you can never train your core again. You also can’t crunch your way out of it — in fact, exercises that put a lot of pressure straight down the midline (think classic sit-ups, or heavy front-loaded lifts done too early) can make the separation more pronounced, not less.

This isn’t about “fixing” your body. It’s about rebuilding the tension and coordination in tissue that stretched to do exactly what it was supposed to do.

The actual approach is less dramatic than the internet makes it sound: breath-connected core work that manages pressure instead of maxing it out, progressing gradually into loaded movement as your midline regains tension and your pressure management improves. Most women see meaningful change over weeks of consistent, correctly-sequenced work — not overnight, and not from any single “diastasis fix” video.

A few signs worth checking with a doctor or pelvic floor PT rather than guessing at home: visible doming or coning that doesn’t improve with weeks of connection work, a gap wider than 2–3 finger-widths that isn’t narrowing, or any pain, pressure, or leaking during daily movement. That’s not a failure — it’s information, and it’s exactly what a specialist is for.

The Core Recovery track is built around this exact progression, and it runs alongside any other program so you’re never choosing between rebuilding your core and training the rest of your body.