Diastasis Recti Abdominis (DRA)
Overview of Diastasis Recti:
Diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) is the separation of the rectus abdominis muscles (your “six-pack” muscles), often seen as a bulge down the midline of the abdomen, especially when straining. This ab separation is a normal and good adaptation during pregnancy if you carry to term. Diastasis recti is often seen as a problem, a fault, or a dysfunction, but it’s truly just how are bodies are made to adapt to a growing baby and uterus! It’s actually amazing our bodies can do this. So first of all, let’s not stress about the gap, okay?
Diastasis Recti Causes:
Pregnancy (most common cause and occurs in 80-100% of women, occurs in all women at the end of pregnancy)
Repeated abdominal pressure
Incorrect core engagement or core weakness
Lack of postural support
Impact on life:
Ab separation may cause feelings of weakness or instability, trouble lifting or exercising, or a visible bulge that affects body confidence. Some women feel like their core is “missing” or not responding. Some women talk about back pain related to their diastasis recti, although research shows these two might not be directly connected. We have seen many patients have decreased inner core (or deep core) engagement, which leads to decreased stability of the entire core and can cause all sorts of symptoms. Many of our patients feel distressed about the visible “pooch” they now have, which is often perpetuated by posture habits. We work with you to overcome these habits, gain strength, and feel strong and stable again!
How pelvic floor therapy helps:
Pelvic Floor Therapy helps restore the function and integrity of the core through targeted strengthening and improved pressure and breath management. A piece of the puzzle that is often missed is mobility. If the tissues in your body don’t have enough mobility, the muscles are not going to go back together easily. We address all the pieces together, giving mobility + length and strength + stability where needed. We look at your ribcage mobility, diaphragm length and function, abdominal muscle strength and engagement, pressure management strategies, postural tendencies, and overall coordination to help reduce your diastasis and get you strong again!
Our treatment:
We use a full-body approach, integrating breath, core, glutes, and posture. We guide you through safe progressions and functional movement to restore strength. We put a big emphasis on improving mobility to your joints, muscles, and fascia. We use an analogy that if you cut a slit up the front of your shirt and then bunched all the fabric to the back, there wouldn’t be much fabric to sew the front of the shirt up. This is like having tight back muscles and fascia. But if we lengthen out the fabric and bring more around the front, it is much easier to sew up the shirt. This demonstrates how important it is to increase length and mobility to the back, front, and sides of your body. Our goal is to help you get back to feeling strong in your core and get back to doing all the things you love without worrying about coning or if your abs can handle it.
Ready to truly heal your core after birth? Book your evaluation today.