MUMMY TUMMY
孕后大肚

What Does It Look Like?
外觀

Three months or more after you’ve given birth, your tummy still looks as if you’ve just had your baby and the area lacks tone, creating a saggy look.
生完孩子已三月有余，你的腹部卻依舊下垂，毫無彈性。

What Causes It?
成因

During pregnancy and birth, the abdominal muscles divide in order to allow your uterus and tummy to expand.
懷孕期間，子宮脹大，腹部肌肉自然分離，形成肚腩。

After birth, the two sides of your six-pack muscles should naturally knit back together. If this does not happen, however, you are left with an unsightly bulge. This is caused by the fact your abdominal wall is so weak it can no longer hold the contents of your stomach and intestines in as well.
產后，腹部肌肉通常會自然收緊。不過，那些腹部力道不足的新媽媽們，就只能頂著小肚腩了。因為你的腹壁無力托起你胃里的東西和內臟。

Christien Bird, a women’s health physiotherapist at the White Hart Clinic, in Barnes, South West London, says half of mothers have this condition, known as Diastasis Recti, straight after birth and while it mostly corrects itself around 30 percent still have it after five to seven weeks, while others have it permanently unless they seek treatment.
倫敦巴恩斯懷特哈特診所的女性理療師克里斯蒂安·伯德表示，半數準媽媽在懷孕后都會形成妊娠線，多數會在產后自然消失，三成人在產后5至7周還能看到妊娠線，還有的人的妊娠線會伴隨終生，除非經過治療。

‘The main separation is in the linea alba – the connective tissue – that lies down the middle of your body, between your six-pack muscles. If it does not go back the whole abdominal wall can look saggy.’
“懷孕后，連接兩側腹肌的腹白線會被拉開。產后若無法恢復，腹部自然會松垮下垂。”

How To Target It
甩肚秘訣

If you can feel a gap below your breastplate, into which you can fit the width of three fingers, when you perform a sit-up, see a physiotherapist who can teach you exercises to help knit the muscles back in place.
先試著做幾個仰臥起坐，測測自己胸腹間的距離。若之間有三指空隙，不妨請教理療師，讓他/她為你打造甩肚方案。

Pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the muscles from within may also help as well as yoga poses such as ‘the plank’. This involves lying face down, raising your body on your elbows and toes and holding your body in a straight line from your head to your feet for a few minutes at a time and breathing steadily before releasing.
另外，骨盆運動與平板支撐也頗為有效，助你自內而外消滅脂肪。做平板支撐時，面部朝下，以肘部與足部撐起全身，盡量保持一條直線。發力時，勻速呼吸，并堅持若干分鐘。