Efeito de um programa de treinamento do músculo transverso abdominal na distância inter-retos de gestantes

Abstract

For the evolution of the gestational process, physiological changes in the woman's body are necessary, such as stretching the abdominal muscles. As a result, the muscle bellies of rectus abdominis, previously parallel, it moves away and, in some cases, it leads to diastasis rectus abdominis (DRA). There are questions about the effect of exercises performed during pregnancy as prevention of DRA. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of training focusing on the transversus abdominis muscle (TrA) on the inter-rectus distance (IRD) of pregnant women. Nine participants with gestational age between 18 and 21 weeks were selected who underwent an initial assessment, 12 weeks of intervention and final assessment. The intervention consisted of applying two specific exercises to activate the transversus abdominis muscle associated with global exercises that included strengthening and stretching. Before and after the intervention, the participants were evaluated by ultrasonography at supra and infraumbilical points at rest and trunk flexion. The results obtained showed a significant difference in the IRD when comparing the values before and after the intervention, with higher values after the intervention both at rest (supra-umbilical: p=0.0024 and infra-umbilical: p=0.0016) and trunk flexion (supraumbilical: p=0.0182 and infraumbilical: p=0.0062). It is concluded that the training of the TrA during pregnancy did not prevent the separation of the portions of the rectus abdominis.