So how much time do you think you have to heal your diastasis recti after you've had your baby?
Perhaps three weeks, three months, just not sure at all? The answer to the question is you actually
have eight weeks after your baby is born for that healing to take place and for the gap to close.
Now, don't worry, there's plenty of things you can do after that timeframe.
Hi I’m Michelle, and today I’m going to guide you through
healing your rectus diastasis and what to do to get it to heal really fast, to close the
gap during that first eight weeks, and then what to do after that eight week timeframe as well.
So what is a diastasis recti apart from being really hard word to say? I’m going to refer to
it as a diastasis from now on during this talk. But diastasis means a separation,
and if you just take a look here, I think you'll understand what we're doing and why, if you
understand what's going on with your abdominal muscles. So you can see down the midline of the
abdomen, there's a line or a ridge and that's a ridge where those six pack muscles join together.
Now, next to that you can see the white stripe, that's the tissue, and that's called the linea
alba. So when you're pregnant, that tissue actually stretches because there's stretch
in the abdomen in all directions. Now, the muscles underneath stretch as well, and when they stretch,
that little band of tissue in the middle separates. So I've got a little band here just
to use myself to show you what happens. So we've got our tissue and the tissue stretches, so before
you're pregnant, before this tissue stretches, this tissue is elastic, so it'll stretch a little
bit and then it'll go back into shape. However, if it stretches beyond its elastic limits,
it loses that flexibility and it becomes thin and weak, and that's why it bulges forward when you
sit straight up, and you can see that abdominal bulge or that mound,
because what you're basically seeing is that, with your insides pushing that forward. So
during that first eight-week timeframe, that's when all your little cells in this area
work really hard to heal and lay down extra collagen which is the material that makes that up.
Now, after the eight weeks, you'll be left with that wider gap. If you do sit-up exercises,
so intense sit-up exercises, what you'll be doing is that every time and making that
diastasis worse. So what we want to focus on is actually pulling that tighter, so, in effect,
not to close the gap, and that's been a mistake that we've made with treatment in the past.
We want to think about tensioning that material, so it'll actually flatten your tummy, and these
tissues here will provide much more support to your trunk and also to your lower back.
So let's now go through the steps that you need to maximize healing and get these abdominal muscles
back into the shape that they should be or they were before your pregnancy. Now, the first thing
you can do is wear an abdominal garment, now the abdominal garment that I've got here show you now
is the SRC recovery pants, and they're from SRC Health. And you can see that this garment
actually covers the abdomen, it should feel like a light hug around your tummy. Now,
if you wear a really tight abdominal brace like this or like a corset, what will happen is your
abdominal muscles will switch off all together. So while it might feel good while it's on,
when you take that off, you haven't been using your tummy muscles at all, and it's actually
going to make things worse or floppier in terms of your muscles' ability to flatten the tummy and
support the spine. So avoiding something that's too tight and making sure that it's just a gentle
abdominal wrap, so an elastic wrap, not a firm rigid brace, that is really important.
Now, if you're using one of these and that is, I would say, to start using it, straight away if you
can, if you're able to, after you've had your baby, particularly for that first eight weeks,
you need to be doing gentle core abdominal exercises as well. Now, these are really specific
exercises, not the sit-up exercises that we were talking about before, these are really gentle
core exercises to exercise the muscles that are underneath the six-pack. So if you peel them back,
they wrap around and wrap around the trunk onto the spine called the transverse abdominis muscles.
Now, I have a whole separate video on how to actually find and start rehabbing these exercises.
They're here, it's linked here, and also down below,
if you'd like to get those exercises as well. So that would be a really good way,
a combination of getting your garment and starting your exercises to start that healing right now.
Now, if you've missed that window, that's okay, let's go on to some of the things you can do;
and if you're still in that window, that eight-week period,
these things will apply to you as well. The second thing we need to think about is reducing
how much strain that you have in that area of the separation. So the first thing you can do is when
you get out of bed in the morning, you think, when you sit straight forward and up, you'll
see that bulge and that dome. Don't do that. I want you to roll onto your side like a log,
and then push your body up sideways, and then returning back into bed the same way, lowering
yourself down sideways, and then rolling over onto your back. And the same principle applies any time
you need to get up and down, forward out of bed, out of a lying down position or off the ground,
roll onto your side, sit up, roll back onto your side, and then roll back onto your back.
The second thing that's really important to do is to avoid straining when you empty your bowels,
because once again, you don't want to be really pulling in and straining through
your tummy and pushing down hard, and this can particularly be a problem if you're breastfeeding.
So what you can do is to use the correct brace and bulge technique, and again, you can refer
above to the video that I’ve got on how to brace and bulge to empty your bowel well, and also to
how to keep your stool consistency soft so that you're actually emptying and not having to strain.
Now, the third tip I’ve got for you is to avoid heavy lifting. Now, you know that being a new mum,
you're lifting prams, you're lifting bathwater, you're lifting laundry, lots of lifting in the
course of your day. That can progressively overload and strain through your tummy.
So the idea is to avoid heavy lifting if you can, particularly while you've got the diastasis. Just
lift small to moderate amounts, and if you are lifting, make sure you're lifting safely.
So you need to get really close to the object, you really need to bend your knees as you lift,
slide it towards you, and then brace your tummy muscles very gently as you lift
and carry. You keep those tummy muscles braced until you've put the object down.
And you might have some other suggestions you might like to leave down below as well.
Now, last but not least, posture, and this is probably one of the most
important things I’m going to go through with you today. If you think about your sitting posture,
and imagine someone slumped in their chair and the abdominal pouch, you can just about see that split
moving wide. Plus you don't need to use your core muscles when you sit like that, and let's face it,
when you've had a baby, you spend a lot of time sitting and nursing. So to sit well,
put your bottom right to the back of the chair, then lift your chest, and that way once you
give this area space with the inward curve in your back, you'll engage these core muscles.
You need to think about lifting your spine, lifting the crown of your head towards the ceiling
and relaxing your shoulders down. So in this position, I have my core muscles active already,
so I'm actually doing a form of training without realizing it. If you're feeding your baby,
put your baby on a pillow, and rather than bending forward and pouching,
bulging through your tummy, bring your baby up to you to the height of where you're feeding
or whether you're breastfeeding, so bringing your baby up to you, not slumping forward.
Now, the same thing applies in standing, so let's go through your standing posture now too.
So if we think about your standing posture, let's practice now good standing posture. So
where you are, take your feet slightly apart as you would normally. Remember that after your baby,
that's normally the standing posture, so we really – so normally,
you'll stand forward and go through your hips because you've been trying to counter balance
and taking your shoulders, well, that's a really exaggerated version of how you stand after your
baby. And that actually pouches the tummy forward, doesn't use the abdomen at all. So if you bring
the legs back and you tuck your pelvis under just slightly, so away from that big curve,
you're tucking under that way, and you're lifting the crown of your head towards the ceiling.
So right up really lengthening through your spine and taking your shoulders back and down.
So you can see I’ve gone from that, back up to that. You can see that creates a big difference.
Now, in terms of my core muscles, my core muscles aren't working there,
they're working here, and these are the wraparound muscles that we talked about
that support that diastasis area, and help to heal it and firm this area as well.
So sitting with good posture and standing with good posture are both really important for your
overall healing. Now, finally for exercises and after eight weeks you can start the beginner's
core exercises that I’ve gone through up here in that video, but also too, I'll bring you in
coming weeks a progression on these core exercises too, so you can actually progress those exercises.
So if you're after eight weeks, you're really working on your core exercises and you're really
working on avoiding straining through your wound in the ways I’ve just talked to you about already.
So I think you can see there's quite a lot of things that you can do
to actually manage your diastasis and actually promote healing. So remember that we talked about
in the first eight weeks wearing a supportive garment that just feels like a hug and doing
your basic beginner's core exercises, and then we talked about ways to avoid straining,
and then finally we talked about the importance of really good posture both sitting
and standing. So if you'd like to get all these exercises in one place, you can download my app;
and if you've enjoyed the video today, I would really appreciate if you could give
a like below, because this helps other ladies like you find the video too.
So thanks so much for watching today, I really hope you benefit from these exercises,
and I’ll see you next time. Bye for now.