Ab Rehab
I do life hard. I play hard.
I laugh hard.
Most of my life is pretty full blast....from my temper to my tennis game to my laundry folding...big and loud and with tenacity. Why not? I have stuff to do! Things to accomplish! People to make laugh! Hugs to give! Kiddos to tickle and backyard baseball games to have! A body after my third baby at 35 to whip back into shape!
And yet....there's some downsides of going at life hard - one of which I am in rehab for. Ab rehab.
Have you heard of a diastasis recti? Exactly. No one has. And yet, if you do a little research, you'll find "mummy tummy" language, that pooch that won't go away talk, and famous people like Julie Tupler.
After my second pregnancy with Olive I noticed a hernia - very common - from that beautiful load I hauled around for 9 months. Never painful or bothersome.
After this last one, Judah - my third and final production! - the hernia is much more pronounced. And I noticed after I jumped full force back into p90x after my 6 week check up - AbripperX included - that my stomach was not getting flatter. It was if my stomach was bulging and had ballooned and now, right now, 5 months postpartum, my stomach looks about 4 months pregnant. When it was flat about a month after. Like I went backwards.
It was not until I began doing core work, ab work, extreme work, that my body started to balloon.
Enter a diastasis recti. A gap in your abs. The outer abs that our culture LOVES to shape and sculpt (I did!) has had so much pressure on it, combined with a weak inner core (- your God given girdle - the Transverse Abdominus -) that I was shredding what connective tissue I had left and weakened the whole thing.
Sad. I didn't know I had a gap. I did it to myself.....boo. I injured myself. I have actually mourned this fact and had to sit in some tears for a while. I felt like I got punished for working out and "taking care" of my body again.
If you have lost all your weight (or most! still nursing here...I hang on to about 5 lbs) and you have started to regain your shape save your belly...it may not be "extra fat" from the baby....your muscles could be weak, have a gap, and/or a hernia could be pushing your belly button out again because of the pressure.
There's a lot of help you can get - namely transverse ab rehab workouts and help here. I like this site too. You can do a simple test to see if you have a gap and go from there. Julie Tupler is one of the leading belly experts and you can find great things here.
I have ceased working out all together right now and am taking 12 weeks to rebuild and strengthen my core. My inner abs. I need to fix this hernia and I need to take care of the right things.
Whew. It's hard to not wake up and sweat like crazy and go after the weights and yoga and burpees. But the gentle rebuilding and binding is what I need right now...I am sure there is some kind of life metaphor in that.
I look forward to posting my progress as I have measured my stomach before I began my rehab.... and to encourage you that it might not be that extra pizza. It could be an injury.
Well, that's all for my WARNING -this could happen to you- post for today.
