So, you are probably wondering "how" I got started treating diastasis recti.
But before I tell you how I got started I want to tell you why I do what I do.
The medical community has ignored the condition diastasis recti.
It is just defined with no treatment protocols.
A diastasis recti is a separation of the outermost recti abdominal muscles.
Now it's common knowledge that the function of these muscles is to support your back and
organs.
And they have to be close together to do this!
When they separate the connective tissue joining them stretches sideways.
Now it is this weak connective tissue ineffectively supporting your back and organs.
The medical community has not gotten the connection between diastasis and back pain, gI disorders,
and pelvic floor problems.
Checking for a diastasis is NOT part of the evaluation protocol
when a person has any of these problems.
When they do check, they usually do not check correctly and tell you that you either do
not have one or that it is very minor and will go away on its own.
The tummy tuck surgery has been the most popular solution for fixing the bulging belly.
This is a major surgery.
Google it and you will see!
This surgery only sews the connective tissue.
If the connective tissue is weak then continuous force on those stitches by your abdominal
muscles can cause them to come undone.
So, my goal is to bring about
diastasis awareness to both the general public and the medical community.
My goal is that Everybelly will be checked for a diastasis recti and that everybelly
can be treated without surgery with the Tupler Technique®.
My research and evidence based 4 step program is all about strengthening both the connective
tissue and abdominal muscles.
So now to tell you about the how.
When I first moved to NY I started teaching exercise at a local health club.
They said Julie, you are a nurse you should teach the prenatal exercise class.
The women in the class found out I was a nurse and started picking my brain about labor.
So, I became a childbirth educator and realized that childbirth education came at the end
of the pregnancy and only prepared your mind!
You would not run in a race and not train.
Why would a women do the hardest thing she is ever going to do in her life….. labor….
And not prepare both her mind and her body.
So, I started the Maternal Fitness® Program to prepare women for the marathon of labor.
In the process of working with pre and post-natal moms I discovered the diastasis.
I would check for it at the beginning and end of my six-week class.
What I discovered was that my program could make the diastasis smaller as the belly got
larger!
That is why I contacted Columbia University Program in Physical Therapy to see if they
wanted to study diastasis and the Tupler Technique.
They agreed and the study showed that the women that did my program had a smaller diastasis
than the control group who did not do any abdominal exercises.
I thought to myself if I can make a diastasis smaller during pregnancy with a growing belly,
just think what I could do after pregnancy.
So, in 2010 I started Diastasis Rehab and now treat women, men and children for a diastasi
recti, teach women how to push in labor and also how to prepare people for abdominal surgery.