Before you do any work on your abs, make sure you get your gynae’s permission. The initial types of ab exercises you should be practising are gentle, deep abdominal contractions, and these should always be pain-free. Try swapping your chair with an exercise ball. This means you’re gently putting your core to work during the day. In terms of what you should be exercising, work the transverse abdominus – the deepest layer of abdominal muscle, and making sure we work this correctly means always pulling our bellybutton in and up towards the spine. To ensure that you’re working the right muscle, put your fingers just inside your hip bone, just below your panty line. The muscles you feel there are the ones you need to be working. Here is a great instructional video for you to watch if you’re not sure that you’re getting it right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8kJm_J1L0w
