Baby Belly

[Angie-la]

Emma,

the other thing to consider is we are all wearing hipsters now, and let it all hang out! If "harry highpants" were in fashion, I suspect there would be a better chance of returning to a trim abdomen!

Your muscles are a combination of myocytes and supporting fibrous tissue (I'm a vet by trade, so talking out of my species range here). Inside each muscle cell are two sets of fibres that do this really funky contraction thing (if you're into biochemistry) involving the release of calcium when the nerve cells fire them up.

When you're using weights for your arm and leg muscles, trainers recommend you work through the entire range of movement, and/or stretch thoroughly after to prevent shortening of the muscles. In the case of the pp belly, we want that shortening to happen. However, you might only get to do stomach / pilates-style core stability exercises etc. for 5, 10 maybe 20 minutes (maybe once a day), but they then spend the next 23 1/2 hours hanging out again!...

Also, as your connective tissue tightens post partum, the fibrous tissue heals to the length of the muscle: if those internal fibres of the myocytes remain fully elongated you retain the sag.

So... how do you go about shortening those muscles?
1) first of all, if you've bunged on weight, then you're adding to the load the muscles need to work against, so try and keep off chocolate etc.

2) consider wearing a pair of bell bottoms (only joking, they were pretty woeful fashion the first time around) to support the muscles in a shortened state. I wonder if a support girdle might help? (comments please - I'm really out of my depth here!)

3) do some (approved) abdo exercises in bed just before you retire for the night, then roll over and go to sleep in the 'recovery position' with a pillow or cushion jammed under your belly. The idea is that the pillow prevents sagging of the muscles, and allows the recovering-from-exercise muscles to 'go to sleep' in the shortened state.

The pillow thing is my mum's (six kids, flat belly) suggestion, and which she also suggested early pp to help 'drain' the uterus...


cheers,

Angie
ps. watch out when you start to feed solids to your bub, it is so easy to finish off the plate after a session of goop - the extra calories are affecting both me and the dog!