Do You Really Need To Wear a Splint To Heal Your Diastasis?

Do You Really Need To Wear a Splint To Heal Your Diastasis?

Let's start first with the benefits. 

These are the benefits of wearing the splint:

  1. It puts the connective tissue in a narrower position and thus a better position to heal. In this narrow position when you do your exercises, it uniformly brings blood flow to the connective tissue and helps it heal. The position of the connective tissue is key!
  2. It brings the muscles closer together. When the starting position of the muscles is closer together it makes the exercises more effective because the muscles are moving backwards instead of sideways. In this position you can feel them working better.
  3. It protects the organs and back because now the muscles are supporting them instead of the connective tissue.  

YOU NEED PROTECTION

When I talk about protection, I’m not talking about birth control—though that certainly does help in preventing your diastasis from automatically getting worse without outside intervention! But luckily, you don’t need to forego children to get your muscles back together. I’m specifically talking about protecting your connective tissue from intra-abdominal force,  pressure and movements that stretch it.  

Remember our goal is to take the stretch off of  it!

How can you protect yourself?

By having an awareness of how you are using your abdominal muscles. You use your transverse muscle with every move you make and with every breath you take.  So if you do not bring it back to your spine before you move, it is going in a forward direction. This forward forceful movement puts force that stretches the connective tissue not  allowing it to heal—that’s like whacking that proverbial arm cast on a table repeatedly when you’re trying to get the bones to grow back together. 

With regard to protection, you also want to guard your connective tissue from external pressure which also stretches it.  This includes wearing front-loading baby carriers and letting your toddlers or pets (or whomever else might be so inclined) climb on your belly. You also want to protect yourself from the force of gravity, by staying off of your hands and knees.  

Clients will ask me, “What if I hold my transverse in while in this position?”  I tell them it is almost impossible to hold your transverse in and even if you could, holding the muscles in has no effect on protecting the connective tissue in this position. 

Connective tissue is not muscle and cannot contact and lift itself up like muscles. This position includes everything from exercises like planks and  pushups to scrubbing the bathroom floor to sex. Yes—your significant other is going to have to wait until your connective tissue is properly healed.  (Then you can celebrate in any way you wish—as long as you hold your transverse in.)

So inta- abdominal force and  pressure both stretch and weaken the connective tissue. Remember the goal is to take the stretch off the connective tissue.

To learn more about Diastasis Recti & the Tupler Technique® read this article: DIASTASIS RECTI RESEARCH AND EVIDENCED BASED EXERCISE PROGRAM

To view my programs click this link: Save on Packages

 

Watch the short video below to know what a diastasis is.

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