Diastasis Recti/Abdominal separation

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cortney_weiss
cortney_weiss Posts: 57 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Anyone have this? What did you do to fix it? I'm trying to avoid surgery if possible....Any fitness ideas/exercises/splinting....does it work? HELP! Second baby with C section ruined my abs....

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  • JenS2586
    JenS2586 Posts: 85
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    My brother had this and the doc told him to stop working out and time would heal it. It did, but now he's out of shape and going to get tested to see if he has an umbilical hernia. I had the pubic diastasis pretty bad during my last pregnancy and although its not entirely the same my doc said exercise was fine and time would fix it. I have read that you should avoid abdominal exercises for awhile. Maybe just do walking and light stuff for awhile? Give your body time to heal or you'll make it worse. Best of luck to you! Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
  • lionellesanders
    lionellesanders Posts: 19 Member
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    Hi there! I've just came across the blog post about Diastasis and saw that I have a little separation.
    As I've read - you shouldn't do crunches, sit-ups or planks - they will make it even worse.
  • FP4HSharon
    FP4HSharon Posts: 664 Member
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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diastasis_recti#Physiotherapy
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
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    Hi there! I've just came across the blog post about Diastasis and saw that I have a little separation.
    As I've read - you shouldn't do crunches, sit-ups or planks - they will make it even worse.

    Plank is what helped me after my 6 th pregnancy.
  • pandorakick
    pandorakick Posts: 901 Member
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    There are certain exercises that help correct Diastasis Recti instead of making them worse. I'm not that familiar with them myself, but I know there is a group here on MFP about Diastasis Recti and these particular exercises. Perhaps take a look there?
  • cortney_weiss
    cortney_weiss Posts: 57 Member
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    Thx friends, anyone else? I do know that planks and situps make it worse. I'm splinting right now in hopes that it will help close the gap....anyone else splint?
  • reach4thestar
    reach4thestar Posts: 174 Member
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    Planks are good for diastasis recti...not crunches ..sit ups though.....I had a 3 finger seperation...now its around 1 finger..its closing...it took aroound a year....strength training helped me and I used to do excercises that target this problem...there are many youtube videos if you wish to look into.....more than anything you need to give time....I believe it would take atleast 2 years for tummy to return back to pre pregnancy state.....:flowerforyou:
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Planks do not make it worse, but situps do.

    If you lift heavy you can rely on your compound lifts to take care of your ab work (along with diet of course), I hardly do any ab work at all (3 minutes of planks per week) but mine has closed substantially.
  • Vickitc
    Vickitc Posts: 5 Member
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    http://www.momsintofitness.com/diastasis-recti-dos-and-donts-exercise/
    Hopefully this will be useful for you.
  • ostrichagain
    ostrichagain Posts: 271 Member
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    I had this after my last child. What I did was lie down and suck in my belly button in as far as I could (visualizing touching my backbone with my belly button) and hold it as long as I could. Mine is closed and I have no problem doing crunches, pilates and other core or ab work.
    I actually didn't realize what the problem was until I read an article in a fitness magazine describing the problem and a few exercises to help.

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