What is Diastasis Recti?
What is Diastasis Recti?
In most cases women develop Diastasis through pregnancy, as the belly expands and the connective tissue (linea alba) located between the two halves of the rectus abdominis muscle thins, stretches and weakens. Sometimes this happens more below the belly button, around the belly button, above it or all the way. It is a normal, natural experience (degree varying) as the body adapts to create space for the growing bump and then goes on to heal postpartum.
However, sometimes, in the weeks, months or years after pregnancy and birth, healing hasn't occurred. Diastasis can also occur through (non pregnancy related) excessive intra-abdominal pressure, improper core training, or prolonged pressure dysregulation.
What are the symptoms of Diastasis Recti?
- Long after delivery, you feel like your tummy still looks pregnant or bloated.
- When you go to ‘sit up’ from lying down on your back in an abdominal curl up, a bulge is visible, or you feel a gap with your fingers where the Linea Alba has thinned.
- You still feel weak in your centre, despite resuming traditional abdominal exercises (note - this may worsen the condition adding more pressure to the already thinned tissue).
- You may be having pelvic floor issues like stress incontinence (urinary leakage for example when coughing or sneezing).
- Some women may experience lower back aching, this can often be the result of weakened core muscles.
Why it’s important to heal from Diastasis:
Because the core and pelvic floor work together as a unit, other issues such as bloating, incontinence, poor posture, back pain and organ prolapse can go hand in hand when diastasis is present. If not all the parts of the inner unit are balanced (pelvic floor, diaphragm, back muscles, abdominals) parts compensate by becoming either too weak or overly tight, both of which can lead to dysfunction. A functionally healed diastasis might not look the same for everyone - instead of thinking of healing being achieved when the ‘gap’ is completely closed, we can reframe it to focus on the connective tissue instead, aiming to bring tone back to the linea alba, even if the gap is wide, potentially it can still be functional.
Part of your core abdominal muscles is the Transverse Abdominis, often described as the corset that wraps around your waist, which acts as a tensioned sheet of tissue that gives internal support to your body, low back and organs. If it is unreactive, when you eat and the stomach expands, the transverse isn’t able to support the stomach in place. This weakened tension of the deep abdominal wall makes bloating more noticeable. Pair that with Diastasis and bloating is all the more pronounced. It’s common for women with Diastasis to have underactive engagement of this muscle, hence the feeling of a bloated belly after a meal (being a symptom associated with Diastasis).
Through Hypopressives, we work to restore proper pressure management and muscle coordination whilst restoring the tension and integrity of the Linea Alba to enable it to become more resilient. We start to stimulate healing by progressively overloading the connective tissues in various poses and vacuums to engage the oblique lines in a crossed pattern. Poses such as Asymmetric Demeter, Freya and Persephone help with this. We improve the force transfer through the whole system to increase stability, and overall function of the core unit too.
If this is something you are dealing with, I hope that this information has helped a little more to clarify how this method can help you.