How to check for a diastasis recti

Do you have a diastasis?

Are your abdominals separated making your belly look bigger than it should?

Making your back ache because it is weak?

Making you pregnancy seem current instead of something past?

Making you show sooner and more this pregnancy?

Watch the Dec 5th press release video here, and learn how to check yourself for a diastasis!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqyGSjpt7E0

Check Your Belly Before you Wreck Your Belly!!

I am SUPER EXCITED TO Announce: Check Your Belly Before You Wreck Your Belly TM
campaign

- Press Briefing in NYC will be live and streamed from www.ustream.tv/channel/checkyourbelly on Monday, December 5, 1:00pm ET -
-
New York, NY, December 2, 2011 – Just in time for the 2012 New Year, Tupler Inc. today launches the “Check Your Belly Before You Wreck Your Belly” global public service announcement to ask that everyone check their bellies for a diastasis, a separation of the outermost abdominal muscles, before starting any new workout regimen. This announcement includes a live press briefing from Union Square, New York City, that will be streamed from www.ustream.tv/channel/checkyourbelly on Monday, December 5, 1:00pm ET.


“When your belly gets worse or won’t go away with exercise, it may not be fat. It may be your organs sticking out,” said Julie Tupler, RN, the creator of the Tupler Technique® and President of Tupler Inc. “Checking your belly for a diastasis before starting your New Year’s fitness resolution may be one of the smartest things you can do for yourself because it may help stop you from wrecking your belly. At our press briefing on Monday, we will show you how to check your belly for a diastasis. If you know you have a diastasis, then there are certain exercises to avoid because these exercises may make the belly even bigger. When the abdominal muscles separate the connective tissue stretches sideways and becomes weaker. When you do planks and crunches, you are creating intra-abdominal pressure that pushes against the connective tissue. This force makes the separation larger. Trauma to this abdominal connective tissue can tear it away from the muscle and cause a ventral hernia.”

She continued, “As part of our Check Your Belly Before You Wreck Your Belly Campaign, we have created new easy-to-use informational materials to make it easier for women, men, and children to check their bellies for a diastasis and understand the dangers of unchecked bellies. I’ve personally signed a “Nurse’s Note” that you can download on Monday from www.diastasisrehab.com/belly-check.html and give to your fitness professional or child’s gym teacher to be excused from doing planks or crunches.”


A protruding belly in women, men, and children may be a sign of diastasis, a condition where the outer abdominal muscles separate. The Tupler Technique® created by Julie Tupler, RN, is the only evidence- and research-based exercise program available for EveryBelly® and can heal
diastasis for any belly. For more information about the Tupler Technique®, its products and

programs, please visit the website at http://www.diastasisrehab.com/

As part of this campaign I am holding FREE bellychecks in Baltimore on Tues Jan 17th and Thurs Jan 24h at Soft and Cozy Baby- see previous post. Please RSVP 708 466 7237 or thuber32@gmail.com

Contact me for private training, and stay tuned for classes to be offered in Baltimore starting in January!!

Free Belly Checks

Check Everybelly®!!!! FREE BELLY CHECKS!!!!

You may have a diastasis and not know it! The Tupler Technique® may be the answer to your back problems or your protruding belly. Well, Come and find out for free if your diastasis is affecting you and your life.

We are doing free Belly Checks in Baltimore, MD on Jan 2nd 11-1pm and Jan 11th 5-7pm at the store Soft and Cozy Baby. 3610 Falls Road, Baltimore, MD

If you are wondering if you in fact have a diastasis, but are not sure if you do, or not sure the exact measurement of your separation or, you want to talk to a trained Tupler Technique licensee please come to one of our free Bellychecks!!!

Find out if you have a diastasis, and what you can do for it!!

Sure Signs of diastasis
-you have an outie belly button - common side effect of diastasis
- people constantly ask if you are pregnant and you are not!!
-back problems - your support muscles are comprised when they are separated
- digestive issues - due to intestines being supported by weak connective tissue instead of muscle

Advantages of splinting

I took a week break from wearing my splint when I thought my baby was breech. I was doing a lot of crawling and inversion (head off couch, supported with hands, knees on couch), which was hard for me, just because I knew it was making my diastasis worse. But, I was okay with that if it meant turning the baby, and, I knew how to heal it after the pregnancy.
I checked my diastasis after that week, and it was 5 on top, 7 in the middle, and 5 on bottom.

The next week, after an US showed her to be head down, I resumed splint use and ceased crawling and inversions.

I also started walking 2-3 miles a couple times a week again, and took some short hikes with my family.

I did not splint with my previous two pregnancies, but for pregnancy #3, I feel this truly made a difference.
1. It helped me keep my diastasis at a minimum - went from a 5 at week 6 to a 2.5 inch separation and week 9, which I was able to maintian for a long time. At around week 35 or 36, my separation had grown to 5 fingerwidths (middle), wich was much more acceptable that being that at week 6!

Not until week 37 did it increase (due to crawling with no ab support) to 7 finger widths.

2. My abdominals have felt strong and looked strong this entire pregnancy.

3. I have had much less ligament zinging, or pain, because the splint helped support the uterus - instead of relying solely on the ligaments (which tend to stretch and do not go back like muscle can)
4. My bed mobility is much less daunting, I can roll side to side and get in/out of bed with much less effort than with the last pregnancy.

5. My belly did not protrude as far as with baby #2

6. I felt better walking/exercising with the splint. I was able to run/jog until week 31!

1 Week to go - the Labor Push

Okay, I am down to the wire. One week, two days to go until my due date. Since the 6th week or so I have done at least 10 sets of 100 Tupler Contractions every day. I truly feel this has made all the difference in my pregnancy. Even more sets are recommended towards the end of the pregnancy, because obviously the growing uterus is giving you a constant forward forceful motion which tends to make the abdominal separation or diastasis wider. Doing the Tupler contrations, bringing "in" the transverse, fights back against this as you use your muscles to approximate the abdominals. So, I have been doing 12-13 sets (of 100), although I know I would benefit from 15x100.

With all these exercises, I have been strengthening my abdominals for the "marathon of labor" as well. I have practied using the transverse to push the baby out (done by bringing the abdominals back towards the spine and relaxing the pelvic floor). This can/should be practiced every day during a bowel movement, so this will not be something "new" to try during labor.

Last pregnancy I pushed out baby girl number two in just a few pushes - slowing down - so I didn't tear, but using my abdominals to push instead of holding my breath and bearing down - which is more likely to make the diastasis bigger, and pop blood vessels than give you a very effective push. I held a splint to approximate my muscles while I pushed, protecting my diastasis, but also for strength, since the muscles fire better when approximated.

I had a scare two weeks ago, when they thought my baby girl was breech, but last appointment she was not, and I pray she will be head down so I can use my trained abs to push her out.

Email me with questions for more info about training your abs for labor, and, if you are anywhere near Baltimore or D.C., I can train you personally before, during, or after pregnancy to teach you the tupler technique® to rehab or prevent a diastasis.

You are excused from Crunches!!!

Sit ups and Crunches -are NOT the answer!!

What if I told you not to do sit-ups or crunches? My sister in law had a c-section a few years ago, and her Dr. told her after six weeks she could start doing crunches. I cringed because I know that crunches or any exercise in which you raise your shoulders off the ground from a backlying position, will make it impossible to hold in your transverse abdominal muscles and give you a bulge out, right at the belly button. The problem is, there is a weak point in the connective tissue at the belly button and crunches can cause a diastasis, or separation of the rectus abdominal muscles. If you already have a separation from having a baby (most all women's recti muscles become separated as a result of the growing uterus when they are pregnant), than crunches will make it worse!!

So, what is the answer? The Tupler Technique®, which teaches you to pull the belly button in towards the spine in everything you do as well as specific transverse muscle exercises to start with to strengthen the transverse and bring the two halves of the rectus abdominals together, so the separated connective tissue can heal.

You must also avoid certain movements like jack-knifing in/out of bed and certain exercises which cause the belly to bulge out at the middle, making your separation worse.

Showing less in the third pregnancy, is it possible???

After contemplating why I was showing so early, I think I can attribute it to 3 things:
1) I was pregnant - thus, my body had extra relaxin to help make things nice and stretchy especially at any weak spots in the body, like weak joints or at the belly button where there is a weak spot in the connective tissue.
2) I was doing modified push-ups in bootcamp class - MANY of them! I was one of few doing girly knee push-ups, because I felt I could not keep my transverse muscle all the way the the spine (a key to this technique)0 while doing regular ones.
3) I was doing lots of PLANKS. I was doing them for 10 seconds because that is all I felt I could do and still keep my abs ALL the way in - and the instructor wanted us to do them for 1 min at a time!

So there is my formula Relaxin + push-ups + planks = full blown difastasis.

This is why I now recommend for all my clients to AVOID exercises performed in hands and knees or any bellydown position! You have ALL the weight of the organs on the connective tissue that you are trying to heal. All this weight on my stretchy relaxin filled connective tissue was too much and quickly gapped my abdominal separation. Even though I felt I could keep my muscles to my spine with my modified techniques, I could not keep the weight off my connective tissue.

I though I was doing better than the rest in my class - because when they did these exercises unmodified I could see their organs LITERALLY drooping towards the ground due only thin connective tissue over their organs instead of protective muscles.

Soooo..... to close my story, I have been extremely vigilant in my Tupler Contraction exercises, avoided exercising in a bellydown position, and I was showing LESS at 2-3 months than at 6 weeks! And, I continued to not show for quite a while, and continually recieved comments about this from those who knew I was pregnant.

Now, I am 8 months pregnant, and although VERY short torsoed, I still get comments about my belly being small. I would definitely attribute this to the exercises and splinting this ENTIRE pregnancy. This has made SUCH a diffference!! I have had much less uterine ligament twinges/pain as well. My back has felt better, and I have not had trouble rolling over in bed like in past pregnancies, as the splint gives me great support.

Usually pregnant women show more and sooner with each pregnancy, and the ONLY way I know to reverse that is the TUPLER TECHNIQUE® which is what I teach here at Reclaim Your Core!