Baby G Split My Transverse Muscle

Womp Womp

So for the past 6 months, I have been running my pants off, swimming as if for my life, doing pilates and all sort of ab work as if my life depended on it.  I guess in a way, life as I know it does.  All this work and my post baby stomach was not budging an inch.  It is just as if someone has cut a cantaloupe in half and set in on my stomach for good.  I am sort of ashamed to say how much I have fretted over it.  I realize that I should be grateful for my healthy children and the privilege of being a mother, but must it be at the price of my hard won abdominals?

Like I said, I have fretted, taken pilates, run, swam and and generally busied myself with physical maintenance, all to no avail.  My sister asked her OB about it and he said it was unremediable.  I googled until my eyes crossed, and came up with a consistent theme: Tranversus Abdominus.  My  abdominal transverse muscle was split.  I googled how to feel for it and test to see if I could get two fingers between the muscle (lay on your back on the floor, bend your knees with feet on the floor, raise your head as if doing a crunch.  Feel for the muscle cords going up your middle.). If you can get two fingers, or more, between those muscles, your transversus abdominus is split.

I tested myself and I could not quite tell.  I could get two fingers in, but not easily.  There was not much room.  This left me in a quandry, and I was forced to seek professional help.  I started asking around a the yay old YMCA for trainers specializing in post-baby boot camp type stuff and was referred to Christin.  SHE felt my transverse muscle for me and confirmed that my transversus abdominus was definitely still split.

I was actually kind of relieved to find out it was "something".  Before asking, I was sort of afraid that Christin would take one look at me and say, "You know, Hot Lips, we don't all have bodies like Sara Jessica Parker when we turn 35.  Buy yourself a mumu and a one piece bathing suit with a skirt and throw in the towel, because you are middle aged." This is not what Christin, whom I now consider to by my most special friend, said to me.

She said, "You are disciplined.  Your body is in great shape.  I am going to give you a list of exercises that you need to do EVERY day and you can have this whipped in three weeks."  She proceeded to tell me that once the transverse muscle is tightened, the half canteloupe will pull back in and give me a flat stomach.  Also, once pulled back in, I can go back to crunching and pilates, and it will all work together.  Right now, pilates and crunches are only sort of exacerbating the situation as my transverse is not tight enough to benefit from these exercises.

SO, every day I am doing:
1) 200 transverse pulses where I sit on a pilates ball and tighten everything and pulse my abs in and out while pushing my belly button to my spine.
2) 50 toe taps where I lay flat on the floor with a tennis ball on my belly button, tighten everything, set my knees in table top and tap each toe on the ground for 50 taps
3) 20 leg levers where the tennis ball is on my stomach and everything tightened, lifting my legs up and down
4) two minute long planks with everything tight

I can already tell a difference.  My stomach is better, quite a bit.  I am dubious about the long term status of my belly button, but I plan to keep working on it.  I am not seeking out the help of a good plastics man just yet.