1- The long-term effect of abdominal strengthening exercise on female diastasis of rectus abdominis

Project Leader:Augusto Gil Pascoal

Project purposes:

• To evaluate whether specific abdominal muscle training decreases prevalence of diastasis recti in primiparous women with and without diastasis at inclusion (mixed population);
• To describe the effects of the different isometric contractions of the abdominal muscles on the IRD as well as to correlate changes on IRD with pelvic stabilization on post-partum women.

2- Diastasis of Rectus Abdominis in Male Well-Trained Population

Project Leader:Augusto Gil Pascoal

Project purposes:

• to compare the diastasis of rectus abdominis of untrained men and nulliparous and postpartum primiparous women
• to compare untrained and trained men to analyze the long-term effect of an intense abdominal exercises program in linea alba integrity and IRD width

3- Influence of physical activity level on women's gait and low back pain prevention during pregnancy and in the postpartum period

Project Leader:Rita Santos-Rocha

Project purposes:

• To analyze prospectively the gait pattern (GP) and low back pain (LBP), in the different phases of pregnancy and postpartum, regarding the level of physical activity (PA).
• To analyze the association between GP, LBP and PA