Postpartum · 12 September 2026 · 6 min read

Diastasis Recti: Why Your Tummy Hasn’t Gone Back to Normal

If your delivery was months or years ago and your tummy still looks rounded, you have probably been told to be patient, to eat better, or to do more crunches. For a large number of women, none of those are the answer, because the problem is structural.

What Diastasis Recti actually is

During pregnancy, the growing uterus pushes outward against the abdominal wall. The two vertical bands of muscle that run down the front of the abdomen, the rectus abdominis, are joined by a strip of connective tissue called the linea alba. Under sustained pressure, that tissue stretches and the two muscle bands separate.

That separation is Diastasis Recti. It is extremely common. What is less commonly explained is that once the tissue has stretched, it does not simply snap back. Without specific corrective movement, the gap can persist indefinitely, which is why a woman five years post-delivery can look much the same as she did at six months.

The tummy is not fat that refuses to go. It is a wall that has not been rebuilt.

How to check at home

This takes about a minute and requires nothing but the floor.

1. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor.
2. Place two or three fingertips on your midline, just above the navel, pointing down towards your feet.
3. Lift your head and shoulders slightly off the floor, as if starting a small sit-up.
4. Feel for a gap between the two muscle bands. Note how many fingers fit into it, and how deep it feels.
5. Repeat just below the navel and a few centimetres higher up.

A gap of roughly two finger-widths or more, or one that feels soft and deep rather than firm, suggests Diastasis Recti. This is a self-check, not a diagnosis, it tells you whether it is worth getting properly assessed.

Why crunches often make it worse

The instinct is to attack the tummy with sit-ups, crunches and planks. With an unresolved separation, those movements push the abdominal contents forward against the weakest part of the wall. Rather than closing the gap, they can widen it, which is why many women report that the harder they worked at the gym, the more their midline domed outward.

Recovery runs the other way. It starts with the deepest layer, the transverse abdominis, the muscle that wraps around the torso like a corset, and with the breath, because the diaphragm and the pelvic floor work as part of the same pressure system. Only once that deep layer is responding reliably does it make sense to progress.

What a corrective practice looks like

• Diaphragmatic breathing. Retraining the breath so the ribs expand sideways rather than the belly pushing forward.
• Transverse abdominis activation. Gentle, specific drawing-in of the deep abdominal wall, held for a few breaths at a time.
• Pelvic floor coordination. The floor and the deep abdominals fire together; training one without the other leaves the job half done.
• Graded loading. Adding movement only as the midline holds firm, over weeks rather than days.

None of this is dramatic to watch. It is slow, quiet, and repetitive, and it is what actually changes the structure.

How long it takes

In our postpartum batches, most women report visible change within the first month of consistent practice, with more substantial recovery over three to four months. Those who practise regularly and follow dietary guidance alongside the classes see the clearest results. Those who practise sporadically see very little, and that is worth being honest about before you begin.

Yoga does not cure Diastasis Recti overnight, and no honest instructor will tell you it does. What a structured, correctly sequenced practice does is rebuild the wall that pregnancy stretched, gradually, safely, and at any distance from your delivery date.