So six weeks has gone by since I started my ‘How To Fix Diastasis Recti’ journey.  Check out Part 1 if you missed it.  And I’ll tell you now, my journey isn’t over. 🙁

How To Fix Diastasis Recti

To do a quick recap, diastasis recti is basically when your abdominal muscles have separated more than normal after having babies.  The interconnective tissues are stretched and don’t come back together without some help. (Read more here.)

This leads to:

• mommy tummy
• belly bulge
• the constant bloated look
• weakened abdominal muscles
• lower back problems
• other long-term problems like incontinence

Do you want that?  I don’t.

I didn’t know I had DR until I noticed, from my third pregnancy symptoms with exercising, the abnormal shape my middle was taking from doing planks.

So my midwife gave me a belly binder and a book on the Tupler Technique.  I’ve been consistently doing:

1. tummy tightening exercises upright
2. head lifting exercises laying down 
3. wearing a binder, and an extra one during exercises
4. getting up and down properly (same thing as my pregnant roll over method)
5. holding in my transverse muscles when lifting
6. Occasional side planks and glute bridges

That’s the short and sweet, ultimate goals.  But it’s not the full reality.

My (In)Consistency of Effort

One big thing that’s emphasized with the Tupler Technique is that you have to do all the exercise repetitions THREE times a day.  Tell you what, I have never hit that.

As the weeks go by, the repetitions increase, adding another two minutes or so onto what I’ve been doing before, and it’s time-consuming!  Add that on top of breastfeeding, five to six hours of sleep each night, and wrestling with two other toddlers day in and day out (I’m even trying to potty train one of them)-I’m not getting three cycles of them in daily.

I’m averaging two.  But then sometimes I don’t finish the entire quantity of the whatever-set of 100 I’m on.  (Check out the book here if you want the exact numbers; they change weekly.)  When one, more likely two children are crying endlessly for some reason, I just can’t finish every single count.

But anyway, the good news…

Measuring My Separation

One of the first things to do when you’re working on fixing your DR is to physically measure your separation.  There’s a little walkthrough in the Part 1 post.  Measure your:

• lower abdomen below your belly button
• in the center just above your belly button
• upper abdomen just below your navel

I took my measurements with my finger widths a few days after I got home from the hospital after having my third baby.  They were:

Lower - 1.5 fingers

Center - 2 fingers

Upper - 2 fingers

Apparently having a two finger separation is a sign of significantly weakened tissue.  Yet I’ve read and heard stories of women with gaps even larger, like seven or eight fingers wide-gosh!

It’s a weird sensation when you feel that depression up your middle, BTW.

So I took my measurements again yesterday, six weeks from my first measurements and got this:

Lower - 0

Center - 2 fingers

Upper - 2 fingers

I felt good at first, but then was disappointed.  Everything below my belly button is tight together and I can no longer feel a separation.  But when I moved upward I don’t feel a difference. After six weeks of annoying tightening exercises, I’m getting really tired of doing them without seeing improvement across my entire middle.

My Midwife’s Explanation

Same day, yesterday, I had my post-partum follow-up with my midwife-the uneasy pelvic exam that’s (supposedly) after everything healed.  And I asked her about my DR.

She felt it herself and was actually AMAZED that my lower abdomen had already brought itself back together so quickly.  Apparently, the propagated idea that separation can be cured within six weeks is very rare for most women; it takes much longer amounts of time on average.  I just pray mine won’t take the forever 18 months as the common longest amount of time.

I asked if it’s odd that my upper and central area haven’t come together anymore yet.  She explained that it’s not odd because I have had improvement completely in a single area, my lower abdomen.  Every woman has different natural ways of coming back together.

1. Top to bottom
2. Evenly across the entire belly
3. Bottom to top

Apparently I’m in the third category.  But I also must be doing something right, even though I haven’t been super consistent with all of the repetitions asked of with the technique.

Is It Worth It?

She encouraged me to keep going, keep doing them, and keep tightening and things will come together.  I sure as heck hope so.

You know how you’re sick of doing kegels during the months and months of pregnancy?  These are like that-too many every single day is just SO boring and annoying after a while that you start to wonder if it’s all worth it.

So here’s a reminder for you and me:

℘  If you want it enough, it’s worth it.

℘  If you can take those before and after pictures and feel much better about your efforts, it’s worth it.

℘  If your core becomes more deeply strengthened to support the rest of you, it’s worth it.

It’s just getting from the ‘if’ to the ‘when.’  I’m not there yet, but ‘when’ I am, you’ll be the first to know. In another six weeks, I’ll take the measurements again and see how I’ve improved.

I haven’t had a flatter belly for years, even with all the core exercises that I do on a regular basis.  Plus my boobs are just small.  So it always looks odd and unflattering when my belly sticks out just as far or beyond my breasts (and they’re often covered in a padded bra already).

There are other factors I’m starting to realize are at play when it comes to one’s belly size in addition to a DR problem.  But you can’t know and deal with those things until your separation is repaired in order to eliminate that variable.  Then there’s the little things that can make a big difference like wearing a belly binder.

Get Your Belly Binder For Every Stage Of Maternity Care

So look for Part 3 in another six weeks and I’ll let you know how the Tupler techniques have been working for me.  If things don’t continue to improve, I just may switch to some other method and go from there.  **Update:  Here’s PART 3!

If you’re working through fixing your diastasis recti, let me know!  We can help each other get through the not so enjoyable exercises.  I’d love to hear your comments.  Have a great day!