Journey Back to a Six-Pack (Diastasis Recti and Physical Therapy)
Especially for anyone currently trying to heal their diastasis recti (DR), I wanted to share my progress after going to physical therapy (PT) to help treat my DR for the past couple of months. (See my first post about this for my full back story.) Frankly, I wasn’t super confident that I would make too much progress and was pretty disheartened by the fact that I had to do PT. I went though, one-to-two times a week depending on my schedule, and tried to trust the process. I honestly just felt like I could do most of these exercises at home, but for me it was more about the scheduled time to focus on this one issue, getting new exercises, tracking progress and accountability.
Another major thing that PT helped me with was just understanding physically what I needed to pay attention to while exercising to engage my Transverse Abdominals. I didn’t fully understand how to properly engage these prior to PT, for some reason. When I was there, they were able to show me exactly what I needed to focus on and what it would feel like when those muscles were appropriately turned “on.” It sounds simple, but it hadn’t been explained to me in a way that clicked before that.
Last Thursday was my last day, and while the gap is not completely closed, I did make what I feel like is pretty good progress. And I left PT armed with a number of exercises I can do at home to target the area and hopefully continue to progress on my own (crosses fingers).
Initially, my measurements were 3-finger (above and below belly-button) to 4-finger gaps (at belly button). On Thursday, my measurements were 2 (above), 2.5 (below) and 3-finger (at belly button) gaps. A 2-finger gap is what’s considered “normal,” so I’m feeling pretty good about that progress.
It’s definitely encouraged me, and motivated me to do the DR-specific exercises consistently, to try and close the remaining gap. I am not the most patient of people, and I like to workout. So having a list of exercises that are “safe” for DR as well as how to modify in general to ensure I’m not worsening my problem has helped immensely. I plan to continue the workouts she’s given me to target more progress in my mid and lower abs, as well as get back into my normal workouts with modifications as necessary and properly engaging my core throughout.
Here are a handful of the many exercises I am doing to focus on healing my DR, include progressing levels/versions of each:
- Glute bridges
- Bird dogs
- Side planks (on my knees to start)
- Diagonal chops and lifts (with a med ball or resistance band)
- Squats
- Lunges with twists
To help myself continue at home, I ordered myself an exercise ball (my kids are loving it), and have a list of all of the DR-safe exercises and knowledge of different levels I can upgrade to once those muscles have strengthened a bit more (i.e. those exercises are getting easier or where there was “doming” present, it no longer is).
Being diagnosed with Diastasis Recti felt like just another “thing” to work on for me, as I’ve dealt with my fair share of postpartum issues related to my body and/or healing. I really was dreading it and since I had my kids at home for a while due to COVID, I had an excuse to not have time for it. But putting focused time in towards it, with trained guidance, has helped me feel more confident in progressing towards bringing those muscles back together, and in turn has helped some of my other issues related to weakened muscles begin to improve.
By the time I left PT, I also felt a personal connection to my physical therapist who went above and beyond to seek out new information and solutions as DR isn’t an issue they treat often (shout out to Olivia from Pivot PT!) DR can be a very personal problem, and while I’ve always been a pretty open book when talking about personal medical issues (with other women anyways), initial conversations with a stranger about those kinds of issues can be awkward and she was great at making me feel comfortable.
If you’re out there dealing with diastasis recti and feeling stuck, talk to your doctor and see if Physical Therapy may be a good option for you. We don’t have to just deal with it, and any subsequent issues as a result, but it will take some focused work to see improvement.