Yes, that means you! I honestly believe that everyone should check themselves for a diastasis recti, but especially if you’ve had a baby. Your first question is probably “Diastasis what?” The short version is that diastasis recti is when the tissue that holds your abdominals together stretches and thins too much so that the right and left sides of your abdominals separate too much.
Some stats say that up to 2/3 of women who’ve had babies develop a diastasis recti. Based on my experiences and training, I’m starting to hypothesize that even people who haven’t ever had a baby, who have a belly that sticks out, or look like their pregnant, or complain about still having a pooch, may have some level of diastasis recti. With that said, I highly encourage you to watch the video I made about how to check yourself, as well as my other videos, on what diastasis looks like in pregnancy, my daily diastasis routine, and videos of exercises to do to heal a diastasis recti and exercises to avoid.
Why should you check yourself? You could be doing exercises or movements that continue to make your diastasis worse, which could result in an even more extended belly, low back pain and in severe cases, a hernia. Plus, just like any injury, you should want to fix the issue so you can live life knowing your body is strong and intact. Furthermore, for women who want to continue having babies, a diastasis can get worse with each pregnancy, if you don’t heal your muscles after each pregnancy (which is why a diastasis often occurs in women who’ve had multiple pregnancies, especially ones that are close together).
As always, if you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the section below, and I will do my best to answer them. Please share this information with anyone you think might have or be concerned about having a diastasis recti.
Hi! Thanks so much for this post – I am actually still pregnant (7mos) and your video on identifying diastasis recti while still pregnant helped me figure out that I’ve got it…much to my chagrin. I was wondering if you have a post or video on which moves I should not be doing and what moves I should be doing the rest of my pregnancy to make sure I don’t make it worse. Thanks so much – I’ve got your Expecting More DVDs and have really enjoyed them!