Can You Get Rid of a Lower Belly Pooch Years After Having Kids?

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)

Your youngest just started kindergarten, or maybe even middle or high school. And yet, you're still carrying that same lower belly pooch that showed up after pregnancy and never fully went away.

You’ve tried it all: core workouts, clean eating, cardio, supplements, and maybe even waist trainers. But nothing seems to make a lasting difference. At this point, you might be wondering:

“Did I miss my window to heal? Is this just how my body is now?”

I want you to know: it’s not too late. As a pelvic floor physical therapist, I’ve worked with women who are months, years, even decades postpartum and they’ve successfully restored core function and flattened their lower belly without extreme exercise or restriction.

In this blog, we’ll break down:

• What actually causes a lower belly pooch after pregnancy

• Why traditional ab exercises often make it worse

• And how you can begin healing now—no matter how long it’s been since you gave birth

Dysfunction Can Deepen Over Time, But Never Becomes Permanent

Just because years have passed doesn’t mean your core is broken. And it definitely doesn’t mean it’s too late to heal. What’s actually happened is this: your body adapted during pregnancy. Instead of restoring function after birth, your core system found workarounds, compensations to help you keep going. And over time, those compensations became the norm.

Your nervous system didn’t forget how to coordinate your deep core, it just got really efficient at running the dysfunctional program (which WAS functional during pregnancy, but now its not). Your posture shifted around it. Your breathing adapted to it. Your movements reinforced it.

These patterns became automatic, not because your body is failing you, but because she’s been protecting you the best way she knows how. Here’s the powerful truth: Every shallow breath, every moment you brace your abs instead of breathing into your rib cage, every movement made without reflexive support… has simply been practice.

And just like any habit, it can be rewritten. These patterns can be rewired at any age. Your muscles will respond to proper training no matter how much time has passed. Your fascia can regain tension when given the right environment. Your breathing pattern can be retrained. Your reflexive core muscle activation can come back online, whether you're 6 weeks or 16 years postpartum.

Dysfunction may deepen over time, but it never becomes permanent. Your body is still wired to heal no matter how old you are or how far post partum you are. She’s just waiting for the right input to remember how.

Get Started Today With My FREE Guide: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Her Pelvic Floor

Your Fascia Adapted to the Wrong Position

Fascia, the connective tissue that wraps around your muscles and organs, acts like a full-body bodysuit, holding everything in place. But fascia is also incredibly adaptable. It molds itself to whatever position you keep it in most consistently.

After pregnancy, if your belly stayed protruded (as it often does), your fascia gradually adapted to that new shape. Over time, it lost tension, becoming looser and longer. It didn't fail you. It simply followed the input it was given.

Even if you’ve worked hard to strengthen your core muscles through traditional exercise, loose fascia can still allow your belly to push forward. Without adequate fascial tension, your abdominal wall lacks the structural support it needs to hold your belly in. Your organs and tissues subtly shift outward, creating that persistent lower belly bulge.

This is also why so many women say, “My stomach looks okay in the morning, but by the end of the day, it’s sticking out again.” At night, gravity is removed and your fascia gets a break, so your belly can go back in. But without restored fascial tension and support, everything shifts forward and down again after a few hours or so of being upright and moving through your day. This lack of fascial integrity in the belly also leads to digestive issues and bloating overtime.

Here’s the good news:

✨ Fascia loves to be supported.
✨ It responds quickly to the right kind of mechanical input, no matter how long it’s been.
✨ It can rebuild tension and reshape itself with intentional posture and aligned movement.

Inside The Core Recovery Method®, you’ll learn exactly how to position your body and move throughout your day in ways that restore your fascia’s natural tension, so your belly gets the support it needs from the inside out. No forcing. No sucking in. Just your body remembering how to hold you: strong, stable, and secure.

Compensation Patterns You Don't Even Realize You Have

When your core has been disconnected for years, your body adapts in subtle (but powerful) ways. These compensation patterns feel completely normal by now, but they quietly reinforce the dysfunction that’s keeping your lower belly pooch in place.

You might be gripping your outer abs all day, believing you’re engaging your core. But this constant tension actually inhibits your deep stabilizers. Over time, your superficial abs become overworked and tight, while the core muscles that are meant to support you stay inactive and uncoordinated.

You may find yourself holding your breath during effort, when lifting something, bracing for movement, or even during workouts. This breath-holding increases intra-abdominal pressure and pushes your organs downward, contributing to the very bulge you’re trying to avoid.

And if you habitually tuck your pelvis under to make your belly “look flatter,” you’re likely switching off your deep core muscles and straining your lower back. The irony is that tucked posture sets you up for more bulging when you stand up straight because your system isn’t wired to support you in proper alignment.

These patterns are subtle, automatic, and deeply ingrained. Most women don’t even realize they’re doing them, yet they’re reinforcing dysfunction all day, every day.

The good news? These patterns can be unlearned. Inside The Core Recovery Method®, I teach you how to release chronic tension, restore your breathing mechanics, and reawaken the natural reflexive coordination between your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and deep core. When this system comes back online, your core holds you together- without gripping, bracing, or thinking about it.

What Recovery Looks Like Years After Pregnancy

Healing your core, even years after childbirth, is absolutely possible. But it doesn’t happen by pushing harder or doing more. It happens by unwinding the layers of compensation your body has built up over time, and restoring the systems that were never fully reconnected after pregnancy.

This kind of recovery means re-training your muscles to coordinate again, releasing the tension patterns your body has been holding for years, and restoring the integrity of the fascia that supports your abdominal wall.

It doesn’t take years to heal just because the dysfunction has been there for years.

Your body is always capable of change. When you give it the right input, it responds, boom, often faster than you think. Most women begin seeing visible changes within 4 to 6 weeks of consistent practice. By three months, the difference is often significant. And by six months, many women experience complete resolution of their lower belly pooch.

The timeline isn’t about how long it’s been since you gave birth. It’s about how consistently you’re supporting your body now. A woman who’s ten years postpartum and practices daily will often see faster results than someone who’s six months out but only doing the work occasionally.

When your breath, fascia, and reflexive core activation come back online, everything shifts: your posture, your waistline, your confidence, and your sense of connection to your body. This isn’t about catching up. It’s about finally giving your body what she’s been waiting for.

"It sounds sappy to say, but Dr. Angie changed my life. It's incredible when you realize at the age of 33 that not only have you been breathing incorrectly your whole life, but that poor breathing technique combined with incorrect core activation had been contributing to many associated symptoms that seemingly had no end. Dr. Angie was able to help me tune into these issues and really internalize them so I don't even think about it anymore.

Now my body simply breathes correctly, I move with core strength rather than ligament weakness, and I'm honestly stronger 18 months postpartum than I was in my teenage years."

Katie E.

You Haven't Missed Your Window

It’s easy to feel frustrated that you didn’t know this sooner. You might wish you’d been taught proper core recovery right after birth, or regret the time and effort spent on workouts that only made the issue worse.

But here's the truth: your healing window didn’t close.

Your body is ready now. Your nervous system is still capable of change. Your muscles will respond, no matter how long it's been. Inside The Core Recovery Method®, I guide you step by step through the process of retraining your core from the inside out. These techniques work whether you're 1 year postpartum or 20. Because your body doesn’t keep track of time, it responds to what you give her each day.

Your postpartum belly isn’t a life sentence. It’s a signal that your core system is still waiting for support. And when you finally give your body the tools and safety she needs, she remembers exactly how to heal.

Join The Core Recovery Method® and rebuild your core the way your body was designed: from the inside out.