Written by the Phoenix Rehab physiotherapy team.Clinically reviewed by Louise Yow, Principal Physiotherapist and Director, AHPC A1300363H.Last reviewed 2 October 2026.
Diastasis recti is a widened gap between the two sides of your six-pack muscle, where the band of tissue down the middle, the linea alba, has stretched. It is normal in late pregnancy and often narrows in the months after birth. Some women still have it a year on, and men get it too.
A bulge at the belly button or midline that will not push back in, or hurts, may be a hernia and needs a doctor. If it is hard and painful and you are vomiting, go to the emergency department now.
How do you know if you have diastasis recti?
Watch for a ridge rising down the middle of your belly as you sit up from lying, then do a finger check. Diastasis is usually called when the gap is wider than about two finger widths, roughly 2 cm, at or above the belly button.
- Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat.
- Lay your fingertips across the midline at the belly button, pointing toward your feet.
- Breathe out and lift your head and shoulders just off the floor.
- Count the fingers that fit between the two muscle edges.
- Repeat 4 to 5 cm above and below the belly button.
- Note how deep your fingers sink, and whether the midline goes taut or stays soft.
Depth and tension matter as much as width. Two fingers wide with a firm midline is often working well. Two fingers wide where your fingers sink to the knuckle is the one to have assessed.
What does a belly with diastasis recti look like?
The giveaway is doming, or coning: a tent-shaped ridge down the midline when you sit up, lift your head or strain. Standing, the lower belly may push forward, and some women say they still look pregnant months after birth. Other abdominal separation symptoms are a core that feels disconnected and a soft hollow above the belly button.
Can diastasis recti go away?
Often it narrows on its own, most of all in the first months after birth. In a Norwegian study of 300 first-time mothers, about 60% had a diastasis at six weeks after birth, 45% at six months and a third at twelve months. Exercise changes how well the midline holds under load. It does not always close the gap, and a wide gap with good tension can still work well.
Can I get a flat tummy with diastasis recti?
Possibly, but nobody should promise it. Training changes tension across the midline, pressure control and trunk strength. How the belly looks also depends on skin, body fat and how far the linea alba stretched, and a badly stretched one may not fully close. For a wide gap and loose skin that have not changed after a fair trial of exercise, diastasis recti surgery is the route that changes the shape: a plastic surgeon stitches the muscle sheath together, often within an abdominoplasty, and a general surgeon repairs any hernia. Most advise waiting until you have finished having children.
What does a physiotherapist do for diastasis recti?
We measure the gap at several points, feel how the midline tensions as you lift your head, and watch how you breathe, lift and carry. We check the pelvic floor too, because the two work as a team. Then the diastasis recti exercises run in stages.
- Stage 1, Calm & Protect: breathing into the ribs and belly, a pelvic floor lift on the out-breath, rolling onto your side to get up, lifting the baby close.
- Stage 2, Move & Mobilize: a gentle deep abdominal draw-in with heel slides and toe taps; more walking.
- Stage 3, Rebuild & Strengthen: dead bug progressions, side planks, bridges, squats and carries, then curl-ups and full planks once the midline holds without doming.
- Stage 4, Return & Perform: running, gym lifting and high-impact classes. Running usually waits until at least 12 weeks after birth and a pelvic floor check.
No exercise is banned for life. Doming during an exercise means scale back a step, not that harm is done. If you have leaking or heaviness, start with pelvic floor physiotherapy.
Diastasis recti in men
Men get it too, linked with weight carried around the belly, heavy lifting with the breath held, and age. The check and the training are the same. A midline bulge in a man is worth showing a doctor, as a small hernia often sits alongside it.
When to see a doctor first
- Go to the emergency department now if a lump at the belly button or midline turns hard, painful or dark, or will not push back in, especially with vomiting.
- See a doctor the same day if a C-section wound is red, hot, oozing or opening, or you have a fever after birth.
- See a doctor soon for a bulge that comes and goes.
Where are you with this right now?
1. It is settling on its own
You are a few months past birth, the gap is two fingers or less, the midline goes taut when you lift your head and nothing domes. Keep walking, keep up the pelvic floor work, and add load a step at a time. You do not need us for this, and we would rather say so.
2. It has stopped improving
It is month five, or month fifteen. You still roll onto your side to get up because coming straight up raises the ridge down your middle. You hold your breath to lift the stroller into the car boot, and the core video you saved has not changed the finger count in weeks. Every first visit is one 45-minute Assessment & Treatment, $230, nett, no GST. If it has been months, the Stalled Recovery Review is three appointments over three weeks with the same therapist, $690.
3. You have had surgery, or you have a date
After a C-section or an abdominoplasty, your surgeon sets the limits: what you lift, when the binder comes off, when abdominal work starts. We work inside them, starting with breathing, walking and the pelvic floor. See physiotherapy after surgery. All of it runs on the four stages of the Phoenix Recovery Protocol.
Related reading
Sources: Sperstad JB, Tennfjord MK, Hilde G, Ellström-Engh M, Bø K. Diastasis recti abdominis during pregnancy and 12 months after childbirth: prevalence, risk factors and report of lumbopelvic pain. Br J Sports Med. 2016;50(17):1092-1096.
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