Okay, chances are, you have Rectus Diastasis. Maybe it’s small and you’re not worried—if so, great! But let’s say it’s pretty big—ten centimeters wide.
What do you do now?
If you’re a man, doctors will usually tell you to just live with it. If you’re a woman, they’ll tell you to wait until you’re finished having kids, and then have surgery.
My feelings on the matter are pretty straightforward: in most cases, there’s no reason to get surgery when you can fix the problem non-surgically. On the one hand, why put yourself at risk with an unnecessary procedure?
On the other hand, surgery is generally ineffective for the long term if you don’t learn to keep your recti muscles in their proper position, anyway. So if you’re going to do the work to learn The Tupler Technique® to maintain your abs, you might as well use it to heal them, as well!
There are exceptions to this standpoint, however. Sometimes surgery is just necessary. These cases include situations when a person actually has ripped their connective tissue, rather than just widened it. An umbilical hernia—the result of a Rectus Diastasis—which causes great pain, is another reason to opt for surgery, when time is of the essence and a person can’t wait to heal the separation.
Watch the video if you need to close your Rectus Diastasis surgically:
The other time I’d advise someone to consider abdominal surgery is in cases of weight loss, if excessive hanging skin on the belly is causing significant unhappiness. There is literally no other nonsurgical way to successfully treat the excess skin issue, so if a tummy tuck is in order and a patient also has a Rectus Diastasis, it might sense to take care of both issues in one procedure. Rectus Diastasis repair is routinely performed during tummy tucks—or more accurately—surgeons generally do tummy tucks during Rectus Diastasis repair, since the latter generally requires a hip bone-to hipbone incision anyway. One surgeon estimated that out of an approximate 120,000 Rectus Diastasis-repair surgeries that are done in the U.S. per year, probably 100 of them didn’t include a tummy tuck. So if you’ve got the bad fortune to have a tear in your connective tissue or a painful umbilical hernia, at least enjoy a little cosmetic perk thrown in!
Tummy tucks these days come in a variety of flavors: mini tummy tucks, full abdominoplasties and even hybrid combinations of both. Although the mini nomenclature might lead you to believe you get a smaller incision with this type of procedure, unfortunately that’s not the case. The key difference is that with a full tummy tuck, the navel is moved and recreated. With a mini, your original bellybutton is left intact. Moreover, mini tummy tucks are generally recommended for women who don’t have much excess skin and only wish to reduce below the navel. So if you’re following my recommendation and you don’t have much excess skin to begin with or a painful hernia, skip the surgery altogether.
To learn more about Rectus Diastasis & the Tupler Technique® read this article: DIASTASIS RECTI RESEARCH AND EVIDENCED BASED EXERCISE PROGRAM
To view my women's programs click this link: WOMEN'S PROGRAM PACKAGES
Watch the short video below to know what a Rectus Diastasis is.
RECENT ARTICLES
Okay, chances are, you have a diastasis. Maybe it’s small and you’re not worried—if so, great! But let’s say it’s pretty big—ten centimeters wide.
What do you do now?
If you’re a man, doctors will usually tell you to just live with it. If you’re a woman, they’ll tell you to wait until you’re finished having kids, and then have surgery.
My feelings on the matter are pretty straightforward: in most cases, there’s no reason to get surgery when you can fix the problem non-surgically. On the one hand, why put yourself at risk with an unnecessary procedure?
On the other hand, surgery is generally ineffective for the long term if you don’t learn to keep your recti muscles in their proper position, anyway. So if you’re going to do the work to learn The Tupler Technique® to maintain your abs, you might as well use it to heal them, as well!
There are exceptions to this standpoint, however. Sometimes surgery is just necessary. These cases include situations when a person actually has ripped their connective tissue, rather than just widened it. An umbilical hernia—the result of a diastasis—which causes great pain, is another reason to opt for surgery, when time is of the essence and a person can’t wait to heal the separation.
Watch the video if you need to close your diastasis surgically:
The other time I’d advise someone to consider abdominal surgery is in cases of weight loss, if excessive hanging skin on the belly is causing significant unhappiness. There is literally no other nonsurgical way to successfully treat the excess skin issue, so if a tummy tuck is in order and a patient also has a diastasis, it might sense to take care of both issues in one procedure. Diastasis repair is routinely performed during tummy tucks—or more accurately—surgeons generally do tummy tucks during diastasis repair, since the latter generally requires a hip bone-to hipbone incision anyway. One surgeon estimated that out of an approximate 120,000 diastasis-repair surgeries that are done in the U.S. per year, probably 100 of them didn’t include a tummy tuck. So if you’ve got the bad fortune to have a tear in your connective tissue or a painful umbilical hernia, at least enjoy a little cosmetic perk thrown in!
Tummy tucks these days come in a variety of flavors: mini tummy tucks, full abdominoplasties and even hybrid combinations of both. Although the mini nomenclature might lead you to believe you get a smaller incision with this type of procedure, unfortunately that’s not the case. The key difference is that with a full tummy tuck, the navel is moved and recreated. With a mini, your original bellybutton is left intact. Moreover, mini tummy tucks are generally recommended for women who don’t have much excess skin and only wish to reduce below the navel. So if you’re following my recommendation and you don’t have much excess skin to begin with or a painful hernia, skip the surgery altogether.
To learn more about Diastasis Recti & the Tupler Technique® read this article: DIASTASIS RECTI RESEARCH AND EVIDENCED BASED EXERCISE PROGRAM
To view my women's programs click this link: WOMEN'S PROGRAM PACKAGES
Watch the short video below to know what a diastasis is.
RECENT ARTICLES
