How are your New Year’s Resolutions going?
Whoops. Sorry I asked. Wait–you’ll forgive me in a minute when I share this great resource I discovered.
One of my goals for the new year was to close my diastasis Do you all know what diastasis is? It’s where the muscles that hold in the stomach separate during pregnancy, and afterward, they rarely go back in place on their own without help. Many people do hundreds of crunches, believing that’s the secret to a flatter tummy but that actually can make the problem worse. Finally, some resort to tummy tucks as a desperate effort to bring the stomach back where it belongs. But that’s major surgery and freakin’ expensive.
So, what’s a momma to do? I was asking myself that question last month when I happened upon Bethany Learn’s AMAZING website, Fit2B.us,
The exercises that Bethany teaches are tummy safe and all the workouts are designed to heal diastasis and help moms sculpt their core (and the rest of their body) so they can carry babies well and maintain a fit figure through pregnancy and beyond. And all from the comfort of your own home. No going to the gym.
To say I was excited was an understatement.
In fact, I was so excited, I cooked up this plan to post my fitness goals and have ya’ll join me and together we were gonna do this whole ‘get rid of your mummy tummy’ together on the blog in January. I got the post all written but then I didn’t have a peace about publishing it. (I didn’t know why, God just said, ‘no’.) So it sat in drafts for a week or two, and then we discovered the mold in our house was making us sick, so we evacuated to a house that didn’t actually have internet. Looking back, I realized that was probably why the Lord hadn’t given me a peace about my fitness initiative here on the blog, because without internet, I’d have been really stressed trying to follow through on something I’d started. (Pardon the Bunny Trail!)
But you know what? Even with how sporadically I was able to work out so far this year, I’ve had something really amazing happen: I’ve closed by diastasis.
Now here is where, if I was brave enough, I’d post before and after pictures. But people, I’m chicken. That was just way to much skin. Instead, I’m just gonna describe it for you. (trust me, this is better)
Before: I look 3 months pregnant. I had a 2-3 finger width diastasis (you can learn to measure your level of diastasis here) and my belly pooched out over the top of my jeans.
After 6 weeks of (intermittent) working out for 10 min. at a time with Beth’s techniques: Belly visibly flatter. Waist more clearly defined. You can actually almost SEE my abs, and my diastasis is completely closed.
I don’t know about you, but I am seriously impressed. Not with my dedication–oh no! we already talked about how sporadic my attempts at regular workout have been–I’m impressed with the workouts Beth has developed, so custom fit for a mommy’s body and needs.
{If you really, really wanna see some great before and after diastasis photos, check out the blog Beautiful after the Belly. Very inspiring.}
So now, I’m finally getting around to sharing this awesome concept and resource with you. If you’ve had a pooch that traditional fitness isn’t helping, here’s what you do:
- Quit doing crunches.
- Go to Fit2B and learn about what diastasis is and why many fitness programs actually make it worse.
- Sign up to Beth’s newsletter (in the sidebar here) so you can get access to her free sample workout (this is the one I used to get the above results)
- If you like it and begin to see results as quickly as I did, get yourself a subscription to the her online gym and dozens of videos like I have!
Then, we can work out together (you in the comfort of your home, I in mine!) and we all can enjoy finally loving our core.
Do you have diastasis? Have you ever heard of it before? Do you like the idea of an ‘online gym’ as much as I do???
This post contains affiliate links.
My muscles may not thank you tomorrow, but thank you for sharing this! 😉
Thank you THANK YOU for this. My diastasis has been sitting at three fingerwidths for the last 23 months and I’ve been looking for exactly this kind of thing. Wonderful!
Hey Trina – It’s me again! I did the free workout today. Soooo much faster than the Tupler Technique level I am at. I loved having some variation. Praying for good quick results. I just had to mention your post on my blog. 🙂
I’m definitely going to try it! I was doing a postnatal workout video and realized my stomach and abs looked different but didn’t know there was something more I could do. Thanks!
Ugh! I HATE my diastisis! I’ve lost almost all my post-pregnancy weight in 5 months (thanks to the “Trim Healthy Mama” book) but my annoying diastisis lingers. I’ve closed a lot of it with the Tupler method. But doing thousands of the stomach exercises a day has just gotten too overwhelming and it’s been 2 weeks before I really did them like I should. I’m ashamed of that and hate that and hate my stomach. So since I feel that way why is it so hard for me lately to do these exercises? By the way – doing all of them takes me about 45 min. a day total (3 sessions). When you said 10 min. for your exercises- was that all you did in a day? If so I need to check out the exercises you’re talking about!
Lisa, I’ve done the Tupler technique, too! That’s certainly the reason my diastisis wasn’t worse than 2-3 finger widths. I agree the repetitions can be overwhelming. Bethany’s workouts give me variety and I’m toning more than just one muscle group. Also, I like doing my workouts with a real person talking me through breathing and posture and such. I think you will love fit2b!
Thank you! I will try it! Must lose this mummy tummy! 😛
Oh thank you!!! I run and still have this pooch and it drives me crazy!! Going to,try this!!!
Hi ! This is so awesome. I had herd of it before but never really looked into it because “surely I don’t have that problem” Even though I have had three babies so far. But despite loosing weight my problem area has always been my belly “pooch” While yes some of it is “fat” from the last 20lbs I want to loose, I am guessing that a lot more of it can indeed be closed! Yay! I was wondering though How do I get the 6 months free when signing up? It doesn’t have a coupon code?
woops, Faith–looks like we forgot something! thanks for pointing that out–I’ll get that fixed for you asap
OK, Faith–I made a mistake! the coupon for 6 months free was supposed to be a giveaway prize, not a freebie for all my readers. Whoops! I will be offering said giveaway next month so keep an eye out for it, ok! My apologies!
ok, Thanks so much for getting back to me!
I’ve been talking about how to heal mine with my midwives. One of them suggested the Tupler Technique, which I had never heard of. It’s nice to know from someone firsthand that it worked! Of course, I have to have the baby first, and a few weeks of healing, but I’m excited to try it. The diastisis has caused a lot of problems with my hips this time around and I really don’t think I could be pregnant again without complete healing of my core muscles.
I did the check just for kicks, and it turns out that you don’t have to have kids to have core issues =) My goal is once a day for two weeks, and we’ll see how it goes. Looks like the poochy tummy might not just be from stress/thyroid levels.
Natalie–Hooray! We’ll do it together.
Yeah, I neglected to mention that diastisis is not just a mommy problem. Even men can have it. Crunches can be so detrimental.