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What is TummySafe Fitness for Diastasis Recti?
What is “tummysafe fitness” for diastasis recti? It means that every exercise reinforces and increases your core strength without involving any crunches or crunch-like motions, unmodified planks, jack-knifing motions, or sit-ups while you’re first returning to fitness. It was originally coined by my colleague and good friend, Kelly Dean of The Tummy Team, whose core rehab protocol fixed my diastasis rectus abdominus and inspired me to make all of Fit2B entirely TummySafe.
Every workout I’ve designed for Fit2B since 2011 has included TummySafe strategies for those dealing with core dysfunctions including diastasis, hernia, prolapse, and history of abdominal surgery. Transitioning people back to full fitness after rehabbing their abs is our speciality, but it’s actually not about avoiding those exercises I listed above forever.
Scared to move after ab rehab?
You see, some people are literally afraid to exercise at all after completing certain ab rehab programs because they’re so afraid of re-opening their gap. They’re not sure how to re-enter the fitness world, and they’re certain they’ll undo all their hard work of healing their traumatized tummy if they go back to their favorite yoga or Pilates class or — gasp! — start lifting weights again.
However, Fit2B has over 300 home workout videos that teach our members how to do all those things with confidence using a wide variety of strategic modifications and progressions.
Progression: An orderly pattern that begins with a gentle start that gradually increases intensity and steadily builds load and length without strain or injury.
How does TummySafe Fitness Work?
Myself and the other guest therapist instructors on Fit2B use a lot of progressive vertical and sideways training methods since those offer less pressure to the linea alba which is the connective tissue that is stretched thin during diastasis. Because life is full of prone positions (face down) we strategically progress toward planks with specialized cueing to be sure our members are connecting with their whole bodies, especially their transverse abdominus and pelvic floor muscle group.
We also integrate different word pictures and analogies you can relate to so that you can feel what I’m talking about in the videos. We also make your alignment central to every motion while utilizing various breathing strategies such as exhale to engage before the exhertion which is the first thing I teach you how to do in the first five foundational exercise videos members get instant access to on Fit2B.
As I’m in our workout videos, encouraging you to move and discussing proper form and conjuring creative images to get it all to click in your head, I’m also talking to you about how each move translates into your everyday, walking around, normal, crazy life. After all, if you only move the right way when you’re working out, that won’t be enough to counteract all the slouching and slumping you’re doing the rest of the day.
Fit2B Is TummySafe Fitness
You don’t need your home workout program tearing you apart. Your life is already full of stressors, so you don’t need your workouts leaving you leaking and too tired to sit up straight or carry the things {and people} that really matter to you. If you’ve been shredding yourself apart in your fitness regimen, only to wake up aching and bloated the next day, perhaps it’s time for something mercifully new.
We only have one, you know … One life, one soul, one core, one body. Replacement parts are quite expensive! Thankfully, divine mercy is new every morning, and we get daily chances to have do-overs and do better. That includes fitness, and a muscle is a muscle no matter how old, no matter how small. It’s never too late to rebuild your body, and Fit2B has everything you need.
That’s the real takeaway of TummySafe fitness: No matter how long it’s been since your last baby {or whether you’re currently pregnant} or whether you’re dealing with diastasis recti or other tummy-related problems such as incontinence, bloating, hernia, and chronic back pain, we know how to help you apply functional exercises into everyday motions so that NEITHER your fitness nor your daily activities hurt you anymore.
Give Fit2B a try for 2-3 months and see the difference in your body and your perspective on bodies in general. You could also sample our beginning routines and a few other workouts without joining by utilizing our Free fitness resources here. We promise you won’t find anything else like us!
Here’s an awesome set of comparison pictures shared by Fit2B member Nicole Whitworth, mother of many and founder of Mommy Plus More. She wrote about her story here!
Thank you for sharing, your blogs are always informative.
Hi! Do you have exercises that help close up diastasis recti??? I see tummy safe exercises for if you have diastasis recti. But what about exercises to correct it?
While our workouts have helped a lot of women narrow their Diastasis Recti separations, especially if their method of fitness was keeping the gap open. If your gap is wider than 2.5 cm and changing your fitness hasn’t helped very much, it’s likely you have some deeper core dysfunctions that need addressed. In that case, I strongly recommend that you go through The Tummy Team’s program which is designed by a neuromuscular physical therapist who has the most amazing online program (link below) or that you see a women’s health physical therapist who specializes in DR and Pelvic Floor in your area if possible. Here’s my link to the online rehab with TT > https://thetummyteam.com/programs/online-core-training/?ref=10
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great info…it was such an eye opener to learn about this…I was doing it all wrong!!!