Diastasis Recti….sounds like some sort of gross contagious disease right?  Well, it isn’t contagious, but I have it.  It is really just a fancy medical term for separated ab muscles.  It typically occurs during pregnancy particularly when there is rapid expansion of the stomach.  Yep, that happened!  Thus, I traded my six pack for a four pack.  Of course, I would never trade the two again, but this is a bit of a problem.  While I’ve been lucky enough to shed most of the baby weight, my stomach is a bit, um, well saggy.  I liken it to stretchy, baggy elephant skin.  When I lay flat on my back, my stomach is flat and squishy, but when I stand it sags down.  I know I’m making this sound like a cosmetic problem, which it is.  The bigger issue is that my ab muscles are disconnected and I have NO functional core.  We use our core muscles for most everything from getting out of bed to sweeping the floor.  It is even difficult for me to bend over to pick up the babies.  Can you imagine how bad this will be as they grow? Without a strong core, back problems can ensue.  This is just not good!

I’ve done a bit of research on this and of course consulted quad mamas.  While some believe that
Diastasis Recti can only be corrected with a tummy tuck, there are some exercises that are supposed to do the job.  Unfortunately, pretty much any familiar ab exercise e.g. crunches, planks actually exacerbate the problem.  I am not in the market to go under the knife for a tummy tuck for several reasons.  I would like my children to have a chance at a college fund, plus I’d rather not be recovering from abdominal surgery with four babies at my side.  Yuck!

I am committing to doing 50 modified crunches (small crunch only lifting the head and shoulders while pulling the abs together with my hands) twice daily.  I’m going to take a before picture now for reference.  If you thought I’d show you the “before” picture…you’ve got another thought coming.  When I pull myself all together again, I may have the moxie to post the “before” and “after”, but until then I don’t think so.

While I may not be brave, Christina over at the http://www.ThreeLeggedRace.us bared her belly just four weeks after delivering her triplets.  My belly is not a far cry from hers so you get the idea!

http://www.threeleggedrace.us/the-post-babies-bump-1-month/

here are links to videos of the modified crunch I do:

http://www.nowloss.com/How-to-get-rid-of-diastasis-recti-exercises-after-pregnancy.htm

http://www.pregnancy-info.net/separated_muscles.html

And of course I will share four pack pictures!

Here’s to putting myself back together again!

 

hugs!

 

Amber