Diastasis Recti: What it is, how it happens, and how to heal…

If you’ve ever noticed a gap, bulge, or feeling of weakness through the middle of your stomach, especially during pregnancy or after giving birth, a quick google may have led you to the term diastasis recti.

Diastasis recti is incredibly common but often misunderstood, and it can go unnoticed or ignored for years. The good news is that with the right approach, most people can significantly improve it through targeted movement, breathing, and strength work.

What Is Diastasis Recti?

Diastasis recti is the partial or complete separation of the rectus abdominis muscles – the “six-pack” muscles that run vertically down the front of your abdomen.

These two parallel muscle columns are connected down the midline by a band of connective tissue called the linea alba. When excessive pressure if placed on the tissue, it becomes stretched and thinned, creating a visible gap between the muscles. That gap is diastasis recti.

It’s not a hernia or a tear, it is simply a thinning and widening of the connective tissue that reduces your core’s ability to generate tension and transfer load effectively.

A separation of more than around 2.5cm (roughly two finger-widths) is generally considered clinically significant, though width alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Depth and tension in the tissue are also important. A wide gap with good tissue tension can function better than a narrower gap with none.

Diastasis recti is most commonly associated with pregnancy, but it can affect anyone – men and women.

How Does Diastasis Recti Happen?

Pregnancy – the most common cause

Diastasis recti affects an estimated 60% of women in the early postpartum period. As your uterus grows, it pushes outward, and your abdominal muscles and connective tissue must stretch to accommodate. Intra-abdominal pressure (the pressure inside your core cavity) increases significantly throughout pregnancy.

In many cases, some degree of separation is entirely normal and even necessary. The issue arises when the tissue doesn’t regain its tension after birth, or when it’s put under excessive load before it’s ready.

Risk factors during pregnancy include:

Multiple pregnancies

Carrying a large baby or multiples

Weak core strength before or during pregnancy

Consistently high intra-abdominal pressure (constipation, persistent cough, heavy lifting with poor technique)

Hypermobility

Diastasis Recti outside pregnancy

Diastasis recti can also affect people who have never been pregnant. It can occur for both men and women who:

Carry significant visceral fat around the abdomen

Have had rapid weight fluctuations

Repeatedly train with heavy loads without correct bracing

Have experienced chronic straining (such as constipation)

Have connective tissue disorders

The common thread is sustained, unmanaged intra-abdominal pressure over time.

Signs You Might Have Diastasis Recti

A visible “dome” or ridge down the midline of your abdomen when you do a sit-up or crunch

A soft gap you can feel along your midline between your belly button and sternum (or below)

A persistent “mummy tummy” or lower abdominal pouch that doesn’t respond to diet or exercise

Lower back pain or pelvic girdle pain

Pelvic floor dysfunction (leaking, heaviness, urgency)

A sense of weakness through the core that doesn’t improve with standard training

How to check for Diastatis Recti at home

Lie on your back with knees bent.

Place your fingertips horizontally across your midline, just above the belly button.

Slowly lift your head and shoulders as if doing a crunch. Feel for a gap between the muscles.

More than two finger-widths, or a gap where your fingers sink in with little resistance, is worth investigating further.

A proper assessment by a women’s health physiotherapist or a knowledgeable coach is always the best next step.

Exercises That Help and What to Avoid

The old guidance of “just avoid sit-ups” is outdated and unhelpful and leaves people either doing nothing out of fear, or ignoring the issue entirely and pushing through movements their body isn’t ready for. The goal isn’t to avoid load: it’s to progressively rebuild tension and load tolerance through the midline, starting with the foundations and working up from there.

Stage One: Foundational Work

Before anything else, you need to restore coordination between your breathing, deep core, and pelvic floor, because without that foundation, everything built on top of it is compromised.

360° Breathing is the starting point. Inhale through your nose and feel your ribs expand in all directions – front, sides, and back. On the exhale, allow your torso to gently recoil.  This is how you regulate intra-abdominal pressure, and it underpins every exercise that follows. Practise it lying down first, then sitting, then standing.

Diaphragm-pelvic floor connection. Lying on your back with knees bent, inhale and feel the pelvic floor gently lower, then exhale and feel it gently lift. Try not to grip or brace too hard, just build coordination and response between your breathing and your pelvic floor.

Dead bugs build on your breathing practice. Lie on your back with arms to ceiling and knees at 90°. Exhale, then slowly lower one heel toward the floor while extending the opposite arm overhead, keeping your lower back in contact with the floor throughout. Inhale, return and repeat.

The Bird Dog works similarly. Setup on your hands and knees with your spine neutral, exhale and extend the opposite arm and leg while keeping the hips level and the pelvis completely still. Hold briefly then return and switch sides. Both exercises build deep stability without putting direct load through the midline.

Heel Slides complete the foundational work. Lie on your back, exhale and slowly slide one heel along the floor to extend the leg. Inhale as you return the leg. Simple in theory but surprisingly demanding when you’re focused on maintaining pressure management throughout.

Stage Two: Loading the Core

Once you have mastered control and coordination, you can progressively introduce more demand.

Pallof Press. Using a resistance band or cable, stand sideways to the anchor point. Hold the band at your chest, exhale, then press straight out. Resist rotation. This challenges the entire core system without loading the midline directly.

Split Stance and Single Leg Work. Lunges, step-ups, single-leg deadlifts – these challenge rotational stability and teach your core to manage load asymmetrically, which is how your body moves in real life.

Glute Bridges and Hip Thrusts Builds posterior chain strength, reduces anterior pelvic tilt, and teaches intra-abdominal pressure management under load.

Modified Plank (Knees Down, then Full) Once you can hold a neutral spine without doming or sinking, progress gradually. Watch for any ridge or “tenting” along the midline which is a sign to take things back to more foundation work and

What to Approach With Caution (Not Necessarily Avoid Forever)

Traditional crunches and sit-ups. The movement itself isn’t the problem, it’s doing them before you have the tissue tension to manage the pressure they create that can cause issues. Many people can safely return to these eventually.

Heavy lifting with a Valsalva manoeuvre (breath-hold). This creates a large spike in intra-abdominal pressure. Learn to manage it with proper exhale-on-exertion technique first.

Leg Raises. These place a high demand on a recovering midline so work up to these gradually.

Intense HIIT and jumping. Not off-limits forever, but check in with your body: are you doming, leaking, or feeling pelvic heaviness? These are signs to modify and regress.

Recovering from Diastasis Recti

Healing diastasis recti is not about complete abdication from exercise, it’s about rebuilding from the inside out. The connective tissue of the linea alba doesn’t regain tension overnight, and the timeline varies enormously from person to person. For some, significant improvement comes in weeks. For others, it takes months of consistent, progressive work.

What we know is that the body is adaptable, progressive load is medicine, and you are simply injured, not broken.

The best outcomes come from working with someone who understands the whole picture: not just the gap, but your movement patterns, load management, breathing habits, and goals. At The Fitting Rooms, that’s exactly how we approach it.

If you suspect you might have diastasis recti, or you’ve been told you have it and don’t know where to start, come and speak to one of our coaches. We’ll assess, educate, and build a plan that takes you from here to exactly where you want to be.

Book in for a Taster session with one of our expert Personal Trainers in London HERE.