How to Fix Your Postpartum Low Belly (Without Doing a Single Crunch)
Part One: Restoring Your Postpartum Core from the Inside Out
Part Two: Can You Get Rid of a Lower Belly Pooch Years After Having Kids?
Part Three: Can You Get Rid of a Low Belly Pooch Without Surgery?
Part Four: How to Fix Your Postpartum Low Belly (Without Doing a Single Crunch)
You’ve been cleared to exercise and you're ready to move, reconnect with your body, and flatten that lingering low belly. So, like most moms, you start doing "core work": crunches, bicycle crunches, reverse crunches- every variation the internet promises will help.
Your abs burn. You’re dripping sweat. You push through the discomfort, thinking this is the way forward. But then you stand up, look in the mirror… and that low belly bulge? Still there. Maybe even more noticeable than before.
Here’s the truth: those crunches are making things worse.
As a pelvic floor physical therapist who’s helped hundreds of postpartum women restore their core, I can tell you: most of the common ab exercises people turn to after birth only reinforce the exact dysfunction causing your belly to protrude.
Your body isn’t failing you. She’s simply operating from an outdated program, one that was necessary during pregnancy, but now needs to be rewired. When you stop forcing and start supporting the deep systems of your core, your belly can flatten- without a single traditional ab exercise. And it starts with understanding what’s really going on underneath the surface.
The Problem with Crunches
During pregnancy, your abdominal muscles stretched and separated to make room for your growing baby. This separation, known as diastasis recti, happens to every pregnant woman to some degree, and in many cases, those muscles don’t naturally come back together after birth.
If you’re doing crunches with a diastasis, you’re not closing that gap. You’re actually reinforcing it. Every time you curl up, your belly domes outward in the middle. That doming is a sign that your separated muscles are pulling apart under pressure. So instead of healing, you’re training your abs to stay separated.
But here’s the bigger issue: crunches target your rectus abdominis, the superficial “six-pack” muscle that sits right under your skin. It might look important, but it’s not the muscle responsible for holding your belly in.
The true support system of your core is deeper. It’s called the transverse abdominis, and it wraps around your entire midsection like an internal corset. This muscle should activate reflexively with your breath and daily movements. It’s what keeps your belly supported from the inside out.
Crunches don’t properly engage this deep stabilizing muscle. In fact, they can make it harder for the transverse abdominis to fire at all. So the more crunches you do, the further away you get from real healing.
Crunches Work the Wrong Muscles
The rectus abdominis, your "six-pack" muscle, is built to flex your spine. That’s its primary job. When you do a crunch, you’re training this muscle to pull your ribcage toward your pelvis. But here’s the catch: this movement has nothing to do with the muscle function that keeps your belly flat during real life- like standing, lifting, walking, or even breathing.
The muscle that does keep your belly supported is your transverse abdominis. It doesn’t move your spine at all. Instead, it wraps around your midsection like a natural corset, creating tension and stability from the inside out. This deep core muscle is designed to fire reflexively, just before every movement you make, to hold your organs in place and stabilize your core system. After 10 months of stretching during pregnancy, that reflexive activation often goes offline.
When your transverse abdominis doesn’t kick in automatically anymore, it waits for conscious engagement- like when you “suck in” on purpose to make your belly look flatter. But the second you stop thinking about it? The belly pooch returns. That’s not failure—that’s your nervous system forgetting how to coordinate the core properly.
When you do crunches, you’re reinforcing conscious control of the wrong muscles and doing nothing to restore the automatic activation of the right ones. You’re teaching your body to flex your spine over and over again, while your deep stabilizers remain silent. This is exactly why traditional ab workouts backfire postpartum. You don’t need more control. You need reconnection.
Crunches Increase Intra-Abdominal Pressure
Every time you lift into a crunch, you create a spike in intra-abdominal pressure. That pressure has to go somewhere. In a well-functioning core system, your pelvic floor would respond by generating an equal and opposite force, lifting to support that pressure and maintain internal balance. But oftentimes when you are postpartum, your pelvic floor often can’t keep up.
After months of carrying a baby and the intensity of delivery, your pelvic floor is typically weakened and uncoordinated. It doesn’t provide the counter-pressure needed to absorb that spike. So when you do crunches, all that force gets pushed downward and forward, straight onto a system that’s already compromised.
Over time, that repeated downward pressure doesn’t just strain your pelvic floor, it alters the position of your internal organs, pushing them lower and more forward. The result? That persistent low belly pooch that feels more pronounced by the end of the day.
And it’s not just crunches. Planks, sit-ups, bicycles- any traditional ab exercise that increases pressure without coordinating your deep core and pelvic floor can make the problem worse. If your system isn't reflexively supporting pressure from the inside, those workouts are reinforcing the exact dysfunction that’s holding you back. Your body doesn’t need more force. She needs coordination.
The Alternative Approach That Actually Flattens Your Belly
Instead of doing more crunches, the real solution lies in restoring the reflexive core activation your body naturally used before pregnancy. That means retraining your nervous system, not forcing isolated muscle contractions, but teaching your core to coordinate automatically with every breath and movement, the way it was originally designed to function.
And it all starts with your breath. 🌬
Breathing isn’t just about oxygen. It's the foundation of core coordination. During pregnancy, your growing baby physically shifted your diaphragm upward, widened your ribcage, and altered how your entire core system functioned just to make room. To adapt, your body likely switched to shallower, upper-chest breathing. That was a smart compensation at the time. But after birth, most women stay stuck in that dysfunctional pattern.
Instead of expanding the lower ribs and sides of the ribcage with each breath, many postpartum women continue to breathe in a compressed, shallow way. This lowers your organs, flattens the diaphragm, and prevents your pelvic floor and deep abdominal wall from activating properly. Without restoring full, functional breathing, your core can’t reconnect... and your belly can’t flatten.
Your Belly doesn't need more Effort, She needs Reconnection.
Your diaphragm and pelvic floor were designed to move together, in rhythm, with every breath. On the inhale, your diaphragm expands downward and your pelvic floor gently releases. On the exhale, they rise together... automatically activating your deepest core muscles and fascia. It’s this natural, reflexive rhythm that gently holds your belly in and creates a flat, supported core.
Not force.
Not crunches.
Not constant bracing.
But when your breath stays shallow postpartum, that reflexive activation never returns. Your core muscles don’t sync up again. The result? A belly that stays distended, not because it’s weak, but because it’s disconnected.
Inside The Core Recovery Method®, I guide you through gentle, clinically-proven breathwork designed to restore that natural coordination. You’ll learn decompression and hypopressive breathing, techniques that reduce pressure, activate your deep core reflexively, and transform your 20,000 daily breaths into a healing force for your postpartum belly.
You’ll also begin restoring resting tone to your pelvic floor, something most postpartum bodies struggle with. When your pelvic floor stays stuck in an overstretched position, those muscles can’t generate enough support. The breathing techniques inside the program gently bring your pelvic floor back to an optimal state, so strengthening actually becomes possible.
And because your fascia plays a vital role in holding your belly in, you’ll also learn how to realign your posture and movement patterns to provide the mechanical stimulus your fascia needs. When you stack your body well and move with intention, your fascia starts to regain the tension and support it once had—naturally, and without strain.
When your pelvic floor has tone…
When your breath restores pressure balance…
When your transverse abdominis activates automatically…
Your belly flattens!! Not through effort, but through natural restoration.
Get Started Today With My FREE Guide: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Her Pelvic Floor
Why This Works Better Than Crunches
Restoring reflexive core coordination gets to the root of your postpartum belly, not just the surface. Instead of temporarily flattening your belly through effort, you’re retraining the deep system that controls how your core functions all day, every day.
This approach doesn’t spike abdominal pressure or overload your pelvic floor. Instead, it teaches your core to distribute pressure correctly, by coordinating your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and deep abdominal muscles to work as a team. Your pelvic floor learns to provide upward counter-pressure, your organs stay lifted, and your belly stays flat- naturally.
You don’t need a gym. You don’t need equipment. You don’t even need to get on the floor.
Because this method works with your breath, something you already do 20,000 times a day, you can retrain your core during regular daily life. Standing, walking, sitting, lifting your kids- these become moments of healing, not strain.
And the best part? These results last. Once your nervous system reestablishes proper coordination, it keeps running that program automatically. Your belly flattens and stays flat, not because you’re forcing it, but because your body is doing what she was designed to do, reflexively.
Real Results Without a Single Crunch
Brooke healed her diastasis, bladder issues, and lost 8 inches:
"I have lost a total of 8 inches from my waist and stomach, healed my diastasis and bladder issues and am having greater sex. I am 9+ months postpartum and I am thrilled with my results. Angie has so many great resources between her sessions, videos, Instagram and website. Her teachings have completely changed the way I look at fitness and health."
Other women inside The Core Recovery Method® have similar results:
"It seemed like overnight that I could see definition again."
"I look leaner and stronger than before baby!"
"My waist has shrunk 4 inches! THANK YOU!!!!"
Start Retraining Your Postpartum Core Today
Your body remembers how to function correctly. She just needs the right retraining to restore those automatic patterns.
Inside The Core Recovery Method®, I teach you exactly how to restore core function to fix your postpartum low belly step by step. You'll learn specific breathing techniques that naturally engage your deep core muscles and restore proper pelvic floor tone. You'll practice patterns that retrain your nervous system to coordinate all your core muscles automatically.
These aren't typical postpartum exercises. They don't make your muscles burn or increase harmful pressure. They work by retraining the automatic coordination patterns your core system lost during pregnancy.
When your core system is working correctly, you don't have to think about engaging it. Your core activates slightly before every movement to stabilize your spine. Your pelvic floor lifts reflexively with each breath. Your diaphragm and abdominal muscles coordinate automatically to manage pressure.
Your belly stays flat throughout the day without conscious effort. You're not constantly sucking in or bracing. You're not doing mental checks to make sure your abs are engaged. Your muscles are simply doing their job the way they're designed to.
This is what your core function was like before pregnancy. Your body remembers how to do this. She just needs the right retraining to restore those automatic patterns.
