Abs not meet in the middle, or you’ve got a little abdominal bulge that just won’t go? Keep reading 👇🏻
I had a client attend clinic today who had been having lower back pain for a while, but since they’d upped their fitness regime had started getting groin pain and now the back was so bad they couldn’t rotate left or right properly. There was nothing of note recorded in the history, so we started some testing.
Upon testing the abdominal muscles, I noticed a centralised bulge would appear along the linea alba. I checked how long that had been happening > as long as they could remember but it had possibly gotten worse recently.
Diastisis recti is where the rectus abdominus (6 pack) muscles (left and right) separate either entirely or, a portion thereof, along the mid line (linea alba), allowing the abdominal contents to push through as pressure builds, as happens during testing, lifting items etcetera.
To be qualified as true diastisis recti, it must be a gap larger than 2.7cm, but really anything greater than your own fingers width should be addressed.
👉🏻 Contrary to popular belief, doing lots of sit ups / crunches / most other traditional ab based exercises, is not what is required, and can often be detrimental. 👈
This is because it’s actually the tendonous fascial sheaths of the TVA and the obliques which are dysfunctional.
In this particular case we found portions of their diaphragm and external obliques over active, and their internal obliques and TVA under active. Calming the overactive areas, and stimulating the under active areas corrected the neurology. The groin pain dissipated, and rotation was a little easier. Giving specific homework, pendulums and breathing drills (all videoed for reference) with careful progressions will ensure the dysfunction is corrected and the gap will close up safely. We’ll be monitoring this over the next few sessions to ensure progress is being made, and intra abdominal pressure is being built correctly. 👍🏻
Common reasons for diastisis recti occurring might be: #Pregnancy #CSection #AbdominalSurgery , fast or progressive #WeightGain , although it may not always be noticeable until some of the weight comes off again.
Diastisis recti – Image credit unknown
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