ten minutes do your help having a baby is always a beautiful thing but after giving birth many women
struggle with that post pregnancy bulge and they commonly refer to it as the mummy pooch or the
mommy tummy it doesn't go away with dodging and exercise sometimes but here to give all
the details is doctor we always get our first name around Savio Savion Savion frances she is
president of the Jamaica Physiotherapy Association a friend of Sheffield's which makes her a little
bit what we're going to overlook that good morning doc good morning how are you I am good
I'm not sure if you're able to explain it but what what causes the mommy tummy because a lot
of women I see even when they do C-sections that in particular they'll say they can't seem to get
it down okay so the muscles that the Lord gave us we have belly muscles but a lot of us don't
really use them okay so this must hair nice must call transverse abdominus and what happens is you
have two sides to it and down the middle you have a connective tissue when a woman gets pregnant of
course the muscles begin to stretch to allow your baby to be there and grow for the ten months what
happens over time though is that that connective tissue for some women can become weakened and it
divides and then you have that poach happening oh but that weakness can be repaired okay it's
not with that and exercise as we said and a lot of the traditional exercises that we would do in the
gym or crunches sit-ups the planks those are not the best things for it because those exercises put
a lot of pressure on those muscles already and it it will no force them apart they're already
torn torn so there have been repaired and they won't get the opportunity to come back together
when you use exercises like that so we have to know tailor the exercises to get the muscles to
heal properly and not be damaged okay because you probably could be damaging them more than
yeah maybe me and I mean it yes it tends to happen most it's a woman but it can also happen to men
okay so sometimes the bigger men oh but sometimes they go I lift up you know our men are King Kong
I can lift anything and sometimes they go and lift some heavy things and the muscles they're
not really working or they're not doing any form of exercise and sometimes they can get the same
separation happening when they've placed too much force on those muscles that is that a sophomore
all right so let's talk about how do we fix it how do we fix it first of all how do you determine how
do you it sir that and not just very fat okay so what you need to do you're gonna lie on your bed
on your back legs up so the the solar feeds would be resting on the mattress okay and you are gonna
take your fingers you can start with two and let the abdomen relax let it all out and then you're
gonna take your fingers and put at the level of your navel mm-hm and feel push in if you feel
the fingers going through no going through you can also no pull back a little and then bring
the shoulders off so similar to a crunch right remember I said a crunch makes it vulnerable so
you're gonna just bring the head and the shoulder blades off the bed and try to push through again
and if you go through yes there is a separation called a diastasis recti it's what I tell you
something the layman knows their body they just don't know what it is they were here some women
explained them will tell you oh it's just ear in metal and it's because of that space yes they're
referring to yes as air or as a gap and that what it is okay so that that will confirm right it can
be wild all right so some people yes two fingers can get in some people it's three and it varies
right that is the best way to determine and also you can check your gynecologist because
they're the specialist for women's issues and they usually know how to palpate for it some
doctors should know about just in case you're not sure a gynecologist is also a good option
to go and get a check-up to check and see if you have the diastasis recti all right so identify
what it is what what do we do from what do we do so as I said to you crunches pranks sit ups stay
away from those what you need to do now is try to engage this muscle this natural girdle that
the Lord gave us right and most of us really don't know how to use it what you can do is
you can take your fingers and line on your side for example when the abdomen falls away
you can write out our pelvic bone there you can push in and you'll feel some muscles there okay
what you're gonna do is you're gonna try to pull your navel towards your spine and this
is just a simple way to just start to engage the muscles remember how we learn to pulley
normally right nothing is wrong with that but a lot of us really aren't doing that so after we've
had the baby now you want to spend some time just trying to even engage your muscles because engage
in them getting them to actually remember that they exist and they can do something will help
to develop the strength of those muscles okay so that's one nobody when you say pull the navel to
the spine just by pulling yeah you are taking your told me you're pulling in okay no the next
important part is that I don't want you to hold your breath when you're pulling in yes so we as
women especially you know we're not I was stuck in and we don't breathe what is important also
is using our diaphragm okay alright so we're gonna be engaging those muscles but we're also
learning to breathe properly okay breathing is very important so when another thing to
do when you're learning to breathe and that will also help the whole core to do work is breathing
through your nostrils right alow your abdomen to go out right so that your lungs can full up when
you are blowing out you can build up with a Shh so it comes out gradually right so when you're
blowing out the air Bella should be coming back in what I want you to try to imagine is as if you
are pulling in everything from all the way down the pelvic area all the way up to the navel it's
like a zip okay so when you blow in the air all time you're pulling that belly in remember when
you pull the belly and it pushes the air out try think that there's a zip there and you're trying
to zip all the way up oh you're engaging all the muscles going up so that's another thing that you
can do now imagine the power of finally learning how to engage most as well as breathing properly
so it's a good starting point to go to but there are few other exercises that of course the physio
would help to lead you through a proper program because we would have to it doesn't make sense
for me to give you an exercise for example Boggs and I don't know and you don't even know how you
don't even know how to pull the tummy in you can't even imagine those abdominal muscles that you have
not used for a long time especially because the reality is that there tends to be underdeveloped
in most average person's otherwise we see the six-pack in there and it packing our athletes
and our really fit persons it's the same muscle we all have it but it's for also learn how to you
know we aren't shelleyan friend surprise of the same muscle yes all of us all of us always might
be a little bit in hiding what we all we're all having I'm listening to you doc and it's
interesting because I think for for the most part when people hear physiotherapy they think about
recovery wounds from injury yes anything quick on his bones and but but what it sounds like to me
is that the physiotherapist addresses many other things yes we are the rehabilitation and movement
specialists yeah so once it has anything to do with muscle anywhere pelvic floor knees you name
it it's physio yeah how do we get in touch with the association do you have a website yes it is
JP ADOT sorry no problem take your time or email let me give you JP a dot executive at gmail.com
and from there we can always send you information about therapists who do men's health yes and
I'd recommend that you go through them viewers because you want to find therapies that are also
accredited and are credible because next thing you go to a therapist and it's not really a therapist
or therapists under you you know have those issues in Jamaica with every profession yes yes alright
thank you good ten minutes fear health dr. Savion Frances president of the Jamaica physiotherapy
Association we're gonna wrap things up up to the break soon call ten minutes do your health