FitnessReport:Flattening Your Stomachafter Pregnancy

Today, many women have distendedabdominal muscles years after having children.Sadly, this is unnecessary. The abdominalmuscles go through a unique lengtheningprocess when a woman becomes pregnant. Asthe fetus grows, there is increased stretchplaced on the abdominal wall from the inside.This stretch force causes the body to addfunctional units called sacromeres to theabdominal muscles, making them progressivelylonger. After childbirth, the stretch force isreduced and the sacromeres begin reducing innumber. Normally, the muscles should returnto normal length. Unfortunately, this naturalrebounding process may not occur if thewoman becomes pregnant again too soon,gains excess weight, or has a cesarean section.If the female becomes pregnant againbefore her body has fully restored itself tonormal muscle length/tension ratio, postureand body weight, there’s a greater chance witheach additional child that the body may not

remember

what is should be like. I’ve noticedthat female clients who’ve had more than twochildren in a two-year period or less have ahigh incidence of abdominal wall dysfunction.In some American Indian tribes, it wasforbidden for a brave to get a female pregnantmore often than once every three years. Theelders knew from experience that thisweakened women so much that it was a threatto the survival of the tribe.Some women use pregnancy as anexcuse to eat everything in sight. In no time,their torso looks like more like a self-storageunit with everything but the roll-up doors. It’simportant to remember that

you get fat from the inside out!

Your abdominal muscles don’tdifferentiate between the stretch from a fetusand the stretch from fat. Either will induce astretch force, keeping the muscles long andresulting in an unattractive abdominal wall, notto mention increasing your chances of back pain.Cesarean sections can cause a lot of problems for females. I’ve rehabilitatednumerous females with low back pain thatdeveloped within 3 – 6 months after having acesarean section. When the doctor cutsthrough the abdominal wall, the muscles arewounded. There are three layers of musclecomprising the abdominal wall, and when thelayers of muscle are sewn back togetherscarring occurs, leaving significant adhesionsand causing dysfunction of the abdominal wall.Where there’s scarring and adhesions,muscle fibers, as well as independent layers of muscle, lose their ability to slide across oneanother effectively. The resulting pain

always causes inhibition (weakness) in the muscles

.Women soon learn to avoid contracting the