Mel, you mentioned ripping your vertical ab alignment with your pregnancies........
 

and I have heard there are special exercises you can do to restore that. I had 2 biggo kiddos too (9.2 and 8.10 with big heads) and c/sections after full labors on top of that, so my abs are a complete mess.

The right side of my abs looks swollen compared to the left, and of course, I get the pooch up/out feature when I do ab work. Besides standard ball crunches and oblique work, is there something else to do for this specific problem to regain the even, not swollen, appearance?

Sorry I didn't see this, Fran.

Um....the short answer is no. You can make the muscles stronger, but once they have been separated or the ligaments stretched or torn, the only way to get them back together is surgically. I know that's not the answer you wanted to hear :(

My advice to anyone who thinks that this has happened is lose the weight and see how you look after a year or so of maintenance. Keep working out! Then go get multiple consults with plastic surgeons. Even if you think you'd never do it, it's good to know what your options are.

Mel

Thanks Mel. I'll just keep plugging away and see what happens. I appreciate the honest reporting & promise I won't shoot the messenger. :D

I don't mean to butt in here, but I think I have had the same problem, and if we're talking about the same thing, there is an exercise that you can do to help. THe vertical separation of the ab muscles that occurs during pregnancy is called diastasis, and is pretty common in pregnancy. Sometimes it corrects itself on it's own over time, and my doctor told me not to do any crunches or other "hard" ab work until the problem was less severe. This link provides a self test (although I recommend seeing a doc to be sure) to see if this is in fact what you havehttp://www.bacinfo.com/popup/tips/diastasis.htm

The exercise to improve this separation is illustrated in a link at the bottom of this pagehttp://www.bacinfo.com/training.htm
It's called the transverse abdominal raise.

I've had 3 c-sections, and only 1 was after having to go through labor, and I know my abs are pretty much shot right now. I've had vast improvement on my actual muscle in that area, but the excess skin and the "pooch" above my scar probably won't go away without surgery.

One more thing-be careful about the ab work you do. My doc told me that the reason he held me off from doing crunches and whatnot until the separation improved is because when you have it, there is a very increased risk of hernia. Hernia's aren't always accompanied by the telltale pain, and the fact that you are swollen on one side and not the other would raise concern for me. Like I said-I hope I'm not sticking my nose in it here, and I'm not even sure that we're talking about the same thing-but I would suggest letting your doctor know about it to examine you and make sure everything's ok:D.

No worries, all input is always welcome!!

How sad, I cannot even feel my muscles to see if there is separation. Still have waaay too much fat in the form of an inch or two thickness over the muscle to even be able to tell. But I will keep this in mind and try again later.