Effectiveness of Abdominal Strengthening Exercises in the Treatment of Diastasis Recti in Postpartum Period

During and after pregnancy, many women experience an increase in the inter-recti abdominal muscle due to increased uterine volume as well as stretching and thinning of the linea alba. This disease, on average, affects 66% of women and is associated with spinal pain and instability, pelvic floor muscle weakness, abdominal muscle weakness, and abdominal hernia. The aim of the present review article was to study the effectiveness of abdominal strengthening exercises in the treatment of diastasis recti in postpartum period, based on the results of the recent studies.

Google scholar, EM base, Medline, and PubMed databases as well as Google search were searched using the following keywords: pregnancy, diastasis rectus, diastasis recti, linea alba, rectus abdominal muscles, and strengthening exercises. Our study includes different researches on abdominal muscle strengthening exercises in the treatment of diastasis recti.

Generally, 800 articles were found in the field of case studies, pilot studies, and clinical trials. From among these studies, only 11 studies were selected according to the inclusion criteria. The results of these studies showed that abdominal strengthening exercises have been effective in minimizing low back pain and decreasing functional, postural instability as well as muscle weakness.

According to the results and quality of the studies, abdominal muscles strengthening exercises can be an effective method in the treatment of diastasis recti in postpartum period.