Do You Have Diastasis Recti?

Or, Why I Don't Do Crunches.

Fit2B.com

If you have ever had a baby, gained weight or done crunches, you need to read this!

Diastasis Recti is the ugly duckling nobody wants to talk about.  It is the reason behind a long list of issues that we can't seem to resolve, no matter how hard we try.  So what is it and why should you care?

Fit2B Studio has this to say about Diastasis Recti:

"If you have a tummy pooch that won’t go away… If your belly button mysteriously became an outie when it was always an innie… If your lower back always bothers you, or you constantly “throw your back out”… If you pee your pants every time you sneeze, cough, laugh, stand up, sit down… If you have ever had abdominal surgery and lost the connection you felt with your abs… If you’ve ever been pregnant… If you’ve lost a lot of body fat… If you always feel like a weak noodle while walking around…

If you have any of those symptoms or ALL of them, and your abs seem to only get WORSE with traditional core training, then you might have an abdominal injury called diastasis recti abdominus. "

What is Diastasis Recti?

MutuSystem.com

Diastasis Recti is a muscle injury that causes a separation in the connective tissue of the Transverse Abdominus.  It doesn't cause muscle pain like other injuries, but it definitely affects the lives of those who have it.

We are told that in order to have a flat stomach we should do more crunches and more sit-ups. If you are 20 years old and have been a ballerina all your life, that will probably work for you. But if you are dealing with this abdominal injury, those kind of exercises will actually make your injury worse. Why, you ask?  Well girls, put on your thinking caps.  It's time for an anatomy lesson.

First of all, you need to understand that your core is made up of more muscles than your six-pack.  The "six-pack muscles" that practically every workout program emphasizes are the outer core muscles (rectus abdominus).  When you do crunches, sit-ups and planks, it is these outer muscles that you are working.  That sounds good at first, until you realize that the rectus abdominus are only the surface muscles.  Unless you work the other bigger and deeper muscles, you will never have a strong core.  And if you are dealing with diastasis recti, you are actually getting weaker -- you are making it worse.  Crunches put pressure on the separation and actually cause the separation to get wider.  So the more your tummy pooches, the more crunches you do.  The more crunches you do, the more your tummy pooches.  It's a viscous cycle of poochiness.

So let's take a look at those other muscles -- the Transverse Abdominus.  The transverse abdominus muscles are your inner core muscles.  They wrap all the way around your abdomen, lower back and pelvic area.  They are very, very important to your core strength.  Take a look at that above quote from Fit2B again. The transverse abdominus is responsible for flattening your stomach, having a strong back, and even how well your bladder works for you.  I've heard the transverse abdominus called your "God-Given Girdle".  When it's strong, it literally sucks all your organs into place.  It's better than Spanx, girls.

Everything is wonderful when these muscles are working properly, but when something goes wrong, it can cause a domino effect.  Anything that puts pressure on the transverse abdominus has the potential to cause a separation in the connective tissue and cause them to split apart along the belly button line.  Things like weight gain and crunches when you don't have the core strength for them are enough to cause this separation.   But nothing seems to be as effective at separating the connective tissue as having a baby (or 4 great big babies... ahem).  If the two sides cannot not "grab" each other again, that separation will not be able to repair itself.  Now you have Diastasis Recti (cue the scary music).

Diastasis Recti can cause back problems, strength problems, incontinence problems and even emotional problems when that pooch won't go away no matter what you do.

How to Check for Diastasis Recti

You can easily check yourself at home to find out if you have Diastasis Recti.  If you find out that you have this injury, you can also check to see how severe your injury is and check for progress as you heal.

Bethany Learn from Fit2B Studio has provided 2 free videos to teach you how to check yourself. You can find them here:

How to check for Diastasis Recti

What To Do If You Have Diastasis Recti

What you should do depends largely on the severity of your injury.  If you have a shallow separation of 1, you can probably just do some Tummy Safe exercises designed to strengthen your Transverse Abdominus and call it good.  But if you lose your arm in a canyon when you do the Diastasis Recti check, you need a little more work.  

There are various rehabilitation programs out there designed to help you recover from diastasis recti.  They aren't cheap, but if this is affecting your life, you may find that it's well worth it.  Although I haven't personally used either program, two that I hear good things about are The Tummy Team and the Tupler Technique.

Usually, a rehab program for a severe diastasis recti is going to involve absolutely abstaining from all crunches, sit-ups and other exercise that will cause further injury.  You will learn how to properly sit, stand and get out of bed to avoid separating the transverse abdominus.  You will likely need to use a special splint or wrap for awhile that will pull those muscles back together and give them a chance to"grab" each other, reconnect and heal.  And of course, there will be exercises specifically for the transverse abdominus

If you have a smaller separation, you might try some special exercises first, perhaps also using the splinting technique.  The exercises are deceptively simple, but if you do them correctly, you may find that your lower back and abs are more tired from it than you thought.  You will also learn how to pull in those core muscles properly.  I highly recommend Bethany Learn's Totally Transverse free video for learning some of these exercises and techniques.  She challenges everyone to do this one simple 10 minute video 3-5 times a week for 2 weeks, but measure yourself first because you're gonna like the results.  For the record, all of her exercise videos at Fit2B are safe for your core and won't re-injure the transverse abdominus.  She even has pregnancy exercise videos so you can avoid this injury in the first place.

You can find a lot more information about Diastasis Recti by doing a google search, but I would start by looking at Bethany Learn's site Fit2B.  She has made it her mission to teach women about this injury and I have learned so much from her.  When you get to her site, there is a blue tab that says "Please select your page".  There is a drop down menu on the right hand side of that blue bar that will take you to all kinds of information.

I wish I had known about diastasis recti before I was pregnant with my kids.  Sigh..  But at least I can tell you about it.  And I can tell my daughters BEFORE they are dealing with it.  That's progress.

Have a great day!


Angela

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