hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and Doctor Jen, and today we're gonna talk about diastasis
recti. so let's get started.
So today I have Doctor Jen with me, and she is a specialist in the pelvic floor and
also happens to be pregnant. so she's super special. so doctor Jen tell us a
little bit about what you do. just as Jo was saying, I'm a pelvic floor physical
therapist. so I treat pain, weakness, discomfort, difficulty performing ADL's,
or activities of daily living, primarily with things like bowel, bladder, and
sexual dysfunction. that's across the whole spectrum men, women, and children,
and it includes the pre and post partum population. so today we're going to talk
about what happens after pregnancy when your belly has been stretched out for
almost nine months. it's called a diastasis or diastasis, either one
whatever you want, tomato tomahto. regardless it's the same thing. diastasis
is a midline separation of your rectus abdominus or your six-pack muscles. as
you can see, rectus abdominus generally lives parallel to one another in the
non-pregnant population, but as our belly expands, those two muscles start to
separate. after you deliver, you may notice a slight bulge in the middle of
your abdomen, a separation between those two that was not there. that is totally
common. however it should resolve in about four to six weeks and most women
don't even have to think about it. but what if you are one of those women who
experience a bulge when you're getting up out of a chair, or noticing that
you're trying to get back into your workout routin,e and all of a sudden
things just don't feel or look the same. right? my first piece of advice is that
your six-week checkup with your doctor talk to him about it. say hey what is
this? something feels different. something looks different. and as long as you have
the clearance from them from a pain perspective, I think you should go ahead
and start self treating or seeing a physical therapist who can help you
strengthen your abs correctly. mm-hmm. and on a side note, this is something that
men can have as well, right? it's a really great point. I apologize. yeah. no I just
in general cuz I have had people ask me you know if you are a man and you have
to have a little bit of that beer belly. yeah. that can also cause this as well. so
men or women. Oh, it's such a great point. so yes if you are a middle-aged
man who loves your beer and your belly's out to here, you can actually fix your abs
- all right? yeah you can show me how to do? I am. I am. so the biggest problem that
I see is most people have this midline separation. they know it's coming from
those six-pack muscles and they decide well I'm just gonna do a ton of crunches.
and what happens is you're trying to strengthen in a really poor position.
your abs are kind of stretched out and then you're tightening in that range and,
to be quite honest, you're generally making things a little bit worse. so I
want to show you how to accurately perform a diastasis correction. and for
those new moms, it's really it's a great opportunity for you to get on your floor
with your baby baby, you can grab their swaddle, and you can self-correct in a
few easy steps. so I'm gonna have Doctor Jo be our model because this is Doctor Jo
postpartum, right? try not to fix your diastasis during
pregnancy. correct. I'm gonna have dr. Jo lay on her back comfortably. okay. knees
bent, feet flat, and I'm gonna find a swaddle, a blanket a pillow case or
something where I can just grab the two ends of that because this is going to
help pull our muscles into a good position. this is gonna go right behind
dr. Jo's back under her belly button. right at midline. okay. and then
whenever you're ready go ahead and lie back down. all right the first thing you
might be asking is how do I know if I have a diastasis? I feel weak. so there is
a way for you to check this. we can do that easily while Jo is here. I'm
actually going to lift up her top shirt. again this is a midline separation, so
right at your belly button, you can just place one
finger at your belly button, apply gentle downward pressure, and do it really small
sit-up. so lift your shoulders up for me. Jo has absolutely no separation. I can't
even fit one finger in there. go ahead and lie back down. but what you might
find if you have a baby as you lift up you may either see that visible bulge, or
you might be able to fit two maybe even three fingers in that space between. so
that's the first step. is do I have a diastasis. if so you talk to your doctor
and as long as you're clear, you can start some of these exercises. the next
step is figuring out how to activate your abs in the right position. so we
have Jo in the proper position on her back with a pillow case or whatever
you're using to help approximate or pull those abs into a good position. with dr.
Je's left hand, she's going to grab the right side of the blanket, and then
she'll reach across and under and grab the other side of the blanket. we want to
do our crunches, or our core strengthening with your rectus abdominus
lined up, or what we call approximated. so step one. dr. Jo this is a little tight,
not uncomfortable, go ahead and pull the two sides of the blanket together
aligning those two six-pack muscles. if you have a little bit of excess skin
postpartum, you might find that that bunches. that's completely fine. we just
want your six-pack muscles to come together. so step one is completed. the
next is to activate your deep core. so we want some good stability. so I want dr.
Jo to just gently pull her abdominal muscles in as if she's tightening her
inner corset. sometimes that looks like a very small pelvic tilt.
but she's activating her deep core, and then the third step is to bring on the
six-pack muscles. so just subtly dr. Jo lift your chest up towards the ceiling
as well as your shoulders, and then come back down. the last piece to this puzzle
is making sure that you're exhaling with every effort. okay? so you inhale, exhale
abs come in, pull tight, lift, breathe out, and come back down.
perfect. Ohh. I know that's a little challenging. there's a lot to think
through, and this isn't just muscle retraining, this is brain retraining. so
we're getting her deep core firing to give that stability first. then we're
getting her muscles in a good position. lastly she's lifting up her head and her
shoulders to activate rectus abdominis, and come back down. this should be
completely pain-free. if you're lifting and it's uncomfortable, I would seek help
from a specialist. if this is pain free and you feel those six-pack muscles
working, I would work my way up from 25 to 50 repetitions about once or twice a
day. always making sure that you're breathing out. the big kicker here is
after you have a baby, you want to be very very cautious of your bottom or
your pelvic floor. so when I say exhale with every effort, we're doing that to
prevent excessive pressure from pushing down and causing any sort of trauma,
discomfort, or any other further symptoms. excellent. that's it. do you recommend
resetting every time? I think that's a really great point. initially for those
patients who may be a little out of shape, we're just feeling a little bit of
tightness, or trying to get in the hang of things,
absolutely. reset between every one. mastering that contraction of the abs, or
the deep core, with the abs, and coming back down. as you're getting stronger,
you'll find you're able to do 10, 15, 20 still breathing and not really feeling a
ton of fatigue. but I think it is better to start a little bit slower. yeah. easy
peasy? easy peasy. so men, women, if you want to
get rid of that midline bulge, this is an easy way to do it as long as it's
pain-free. excellent. cool. so there you have it. if you like to help support my
channel, make sure and click on the link on the other side of dr. Jen, and don't
forget to subscribe by clicking down there. and remember be safe (keep
everything together), have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.