Unless you’re Angelina Jolie (who by the way, is rumored to have had her plastic surgeon in the delivery room to fix her twin belly immediately after her twins were born), it is very likely that you found yourself with some unwanted sagging skin after your baby came. And maybe it healed itself like a magical unicorn (awesome for you). But maybe it didn’t. After having twins, I found myself in the “it didn’t” category. You all know by now that not only did I have the saggy skin, but I had a pretty bad diastasis recti as well. MUTU System helped me heal the ab split. Thanks to MUTU and hard work, my abs returned to normal, and my waist shrunk back down to it’s happy place at 28″, but even after all the healing, I still found myself with that menacing extra skin. Now granted, it is totally normal, and in my case, expected since my belly stretched so far with twins. But, like all moms, I was still a little bit bothered by it. So, I went on a quest to find the best skin-healing solutions out there. And I found some great things! My skin has vastly improved. The stretch marks are gone completely, the skin is getting tauter and my belly looks pretty flat because the skin doesn’t pooch out as much anymore. Here are 3 things that helped the most. And, my before and after pictures are below. I hate posting before and after belly shots but I wanted you to see the difference.
Three Keys to healing sagging post-baby belly skin:
1. CORE EXERCISES
2. DRY BRUSHING
3. SKIN ROLLING
4. YOUR SUPERFOODS
The combination of the above 4 covered all bases – muscle tightening, skin stimulation, and nutritional healing at the cellular level.
First, exercise will do a great deal to help shrink your middle. Targeted core work that focuses on your transverse abdominis (TVA) muscle is the best starting point to pull the waist in and together. The TVA is the innermost core muscle and virtually acts as the corset of the midline. Check out these awesome workouts to learn more about these exercises. Now, that being said, exercise in and of itself obviously won’t fix your saggy belly skin but are going for a holistic approach here, and having a tight middle and strong abs will certainly help.
Second, dry brushing. If you’ve never done, DO IT! It is amazing. With dry brushing, the skin is stimulated by the brush strokes. Reaching the nerves and muscles through brushing creates work as the muscles work to recover and the skin gets tauter from the brushing. I found my dry brush at Whole Foods. It’s a Yerba Prima Tampico brush. You can also find it on Amazon for about $10. Worth every penny. Use your dry brush before you take a shower. That way the brushing paired with hot water running down your middle with do double duty to stimulate those skin nerves and heal twice as fast. Always brush toward lymph nodes. Here’s a dry brush infographic. Basically, you brush down toward you legs when you brush below the belly button, and you brush up toward your heart when brushing about the belly button. You can also brush your entire abdomen in circular motions. Seriously people, get a dry brush. It’s amazing.
Third, skin rolling!!! I can’t even tell you how much skin rolling changed the look and tautness of the my belly skin. After only about 10 days of skin rolling, my belly shrunk an entire inch. Here’s a skin rolling tutorial and the method behind the madness by Dr. Sarah Duvall. Sarah Duvall is a physical therapist and an absolute expert in the postpartum fitness world. Watching this video will serve you well. Your skin will thank you. Check out her core and pelvic floor programs here if you want to learn more. She’s amazing.
Fourth, and probably very importantly, whole food nutrition is ideal for generating new vibrant skin cells. Getting Phyto (plant) nutrients in dense rich form straight into your bloodstream optimizes skin and collagen reproduction. So, eat your fruits and veggies!! And, to make sure you are getting plenty of them, add Your Super Foods to your daily diet. Your Super Foods are super clean plants and fruits and veggies that your body needs. They come in powder form and can be added into smoothies or juices or protein shakes. They only have 6 or less ingredients. Nothing added. Plus they are amazingly delicious. And – hooray – you can use code ALPHAMAMAS to save 15% on all your orders!
Using a combination of the three tools discussed above, I’ve managed to make great improvement in my own skin texture. My belly skin is much tighter than it was a year ago. You must be diligent in doing all three every day and have patience as it takes time to improve your skin. I started my skin healing journey last November and saw improvements at the 4-month mark in March. And more improvement in July. Now, a year later, I’m happy with my results. I’ll continue the regimen, mostly for my own health because exercise and nutrition is quite simply a winning combination for optimal health.