Working Your Core When Pregnant

photo courtesy of Allison Oswald

Allison Oswald, PT, DPT, WCS, CPT, pelvic floor physical therapist and women’s health expert, @allisonoswald

Wondering how to safely work your core when pregnant? For us, this was a big area of concern (for obvious reasons).

Allison Oswald, PT, DPT, WCS, CPT, an LA-based pelvic floor physical therapist (PT) and women’s health expert, gave us some great advice on the topic. Allison is a super impressive mama - she runs Plumbline Wellness, a PT practice and pilates studio. She’s passionate about helping women stay healthy and active in their pregnancies, postpartum, and into motherhood. Lucky for us, she also just launched a postnatal education series to help women reconnect with their bodies and heal after baby (or babies).

Allison’s work focuses on the pelvic floor, an area of the body that is often overlooked and  rarely prioritized in pre- and postpartum care. Allison believes the pelvic floor is at the center of proper body mechanics and acts as the “literal core” of many women's health issues.

Can you share a bit about the myths around ‘working your abs’ while pregnant?

So many women are concerned about what to do/not to do with their abs when pregnant. Everyone thinks abs are the core, but in reality they’re just one part.  Your abdominal muscles can and will be exercised during pregnancy. They should be working - they are what hold you up and support your baby. You want your abs to be able to contract to give you support, to help with back pain, hip pain, and pelvic alignment. Conversely, you also want abs to be able to stretch and open, because your baby has to grow and needs the room to grow.

That said, we know there is going to be a weakness down the midline of the abdomen - we are built this way so that things can stretch. We want this stretch and flexibility to happen because being too rigid can cause other problems. 

During pregnancy, it’s important to properly breathe - when you breathe in the abs expand and you get that nice stretch, and when you exhale they contract, almost hugging your baby a little bit.

What can pregnant women look out for when they’re exercising?

One thing you can look for is a bulge or pushing out down the midline of your abs. Every woman gets stretched there, there’s a natural weakness there - we just don’t want to tax that weakness. If you’re taxing that weakness, you are going to see pressure pushing out, almost like a mountain ridge.

Every once in a while that might happen, but we just don’t want to do this repeatedly. We know that if we stretch too much then in the postpartum period we might have more of a challenge with diastasis, when that gap tension doesn’t come back as well as it should.

Are there any ideal exercises during pregnancy?

There’s really no best exercise, but with any exercise you’re doing you’ll want to pay attention to whether you’re able to keep alignment, to breathe properly, and to do movements that aren’t creating that dome. You want to make sure that the abs can [both] stretch and contract. This will help with all deliveries - vaginal, giving you the ability to push, and cesarean, ensuring that after those muscles have been cut they can restore and re-strengthen postpartum.