Hope For My Backache {In which I meet the Tummy Team}

Pssst! I think I’ve found the solution to my constant backache! I’ve just started the Tummy Team’s Core Rehab Program and it’s amazing! But here–let me tell start at the beginning, because I don’t think you even knew my back’s been aching for months…

Discovering Mommy-Friendly Fitness

My personal fitness journey started 3 years ago when I ran a 5k for the first time. It was a year after baby #3 and it felt great to know my body could still do things like that after carrying 3 babies!

But that winter I learned the term ‘diastasis recti’ for the first time, and realized that though I could run 3 miles and had lost my baby weight, I still had something that was out of shape. The great thing was that right alongside my awareness of this important muscle came the knowledge of how to repair it. I shared my excited discovery of Beth Learn’s awesome online fitness program in this post. I closed my diastasis in a month with her routines, just in time to carry #4!

It was my best pregnancy yet, and I credit the work outs and increased awareness of my core for the decrease in back and hip pain and very smooth delivery. It was incredible to not be chained to a weekly chiropractor adjustment in order to move pain-free! I began tummy-safe workouts again within a week of Lydia’s birth, and loved knowing I was loving my core well and that pregnancy didn’t have to have long-term negative side affects.

Working out with Lydia, and my belly 4 weeks after her birth!

I kept doing the workouts–sometimes with Lydia in the Ergo (which she loved!) and made progress closing my diastasis again.

Then we moved south and didn’t have internet for 6 months. There went my daily workout. 

I might have been OK if it weren’t for the fact that I was requiring more of my body in this season than ever, and hadn’t yet completely recovered my core strength. From carrying a steadily-gaining baby to hauling moving boxes and laundry baskets and groceries and even the moments when I fell exhausted into a (slouched) heap on the couch, I was requiring a lot of my body without providing the support it needed.

Even while I lost my baby weight and was looking great on the outside, I was deteriorating on the inside. 

Symptoms began to emerge. My back started to ache–all the time, with regular spasms between my shoulder blades. I had pain when I took a deep breath, or rotated my torso at all (so, kinda all the time). I blamed it on being out of adjustment, and went to find a chiropractor. After 5 adjustments in 11 days and lots of icing and moaning on the couch, it was no better. I booked an appointment with my old chiropractor while I was in NY and she was able to pop a rib back in place and I had temporary relief. But the muscles in my back were so angry, I quickly lost my adjustment, and once again I was back to where I started, with $200 less to my name.

Hope for an aching back

I knew I needed to work out, but whenever I tried to do one of my favorite Fit2B videos, even a gentle stretching one, it sent my back into spasms again. I had lost hope when I posted in the private Fit2B Facebook group, asking for advice.

“I’m kinda at the end of my rope with this issue–some nights the pain keeps me awake, and I seriously have forgotten what it feels like for my back not to have a kink in it. I’d love any encouragement or advice ya’ll have to offer, and prayer that I’d have some direction and hope.”

Beth Learn is incredible gracious and available to her customers, and she popped into the convo within a few hours and said,

“Have you gone through Kelly’s program? Fit2B is fitness, and she is full rehab.”

I never considered myself a candidate for rehab–that was for people who were broken, right? Beth filled me in,

“It sounds like you have a pesky rib that is likely related to a deeper compensation pattern that is related to your core… and I think you should reach out to Kelly Dean of The Tummy Team.”

And so it was that I contacted Kelly, and 3 days later, I began rehab. In exchange for working with me, Kelly asked me to blog about my experiences, which I will gladly do–I hope it will bring hope to someone else!

Week One of the Tummy Team Core Rehab

At the beginning of the course, we’re encouraged to detail where we are so we can see our progress. I’m only too glad to paint a picture of my current state if it can indeed be temporary!

Pain

For the past six months, I’ve experienced more and more frequent back pain, beginning as fatigue and progressing to spasms, lack of mobility, and sometimes too much pain to sleep. I wake up with my back stiff, and struggle to lift or bend. Chiropractic care wasn’t the solution and my normal fitness routine wasn’t helping.

Measurements

Currently, thanks to the instruction and awareness I’ve already received from Fit2B, my diastasis is small–measuring at barely a 2 in the middle, and narrowing to .5 above and below my navel. My waist is 35 1/2 inch.  If those were the only indicators of core health, I’d be good. But the reality is my transverse (beneath the rectus abdominus) is really weak, and my belief is growing that that is the root of all my pain and back issues.

I sound like I know what I’m talking about, don’t I? That’s because the content in this course is very thorough and I’m already learning so much! I also find I retain the information better via a real person on video than if I were reading it somewhere.

Emotions

I’ve begun the simple, gentle movements (exercises is too strong a word) introduced in week one and am amazed at the weakness it’s revealing! This mamma needs help, and badly! I’m pretty certain at this point that this program is the answer to my backache and my prayers, and am so excited for what the next 8 weeks holds!

I’m so grateful that women like Kelly have taken all the professional knowledge and experience and put it in a format that allows me to get the help I need right at home. Another great thing about the course is I’m not in this alone–there’s a private Facebook page where I can talk with other woman who are going through the same things, and I also will have a live Skype session with Kelly to get her professional input and coaching.

If all of this is new to you, I’d encourage you to read my other posts about mommy-friendly fitness, and check the Tummy Team’s website if your current fitness routine isn’t getting you the results you are looking for.

Affiliate disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links, and I may receive compensation if you visit sites and purchase through my links. That could get awkward except that I only share things I’m totally excited about and would blog about anyway!