Hi,

Does anyone know where I can purchase the 'Lose your mummy tummy' DVD and splint in the UK please?
I've sone a google search for both items and get just 1 result for a US company that does ship to the UK but the costs are quite steep!
Can anyone help?
THANKS

This is slightly off topic but still about pilates! I don't want to end up doing the wrong exercises (I'm 19 weeks pregnant) so am desperately trying to find a pregnancy pilates class in the Worthing area where I live. I don't suppose anyone has any suggestions?

Ah have now seen other thread! Thankyou

Oh golly. Julie - if you see this - please let me know where I can find out about your technique, as I have a small hernia since childbirth - it is probably only about an inch and my separation is less than two fingers, the gP says it is tiny and not worth surgery but I hate it and am afraid it'll just get larger.

I'll try anything
Thankyou

This is Julie Tupler

Those of you that have considered surgery or have an umbilical hernia around your belly button, I want you to read this email that just was sent to me by a client:

Re: Question and referral?
Monday, June 15, 2009 9:22 PM
From:
This sender is DomainKeys verified
"Kimberly Cowell-Meyers" <kbcowell@gmail.com>
View contact details
To:
Julie@spa-bebe.com
Cc:
maternal.fitness@yahoo.com

Julie,

Great news! You would not believe it but the surgeon has determined there is no longer any medical reason for surgery! I was scheduled to go under the knife three days ago and the dr., who hasn't seen me since Dec, couldn't believe the changes. There is still a small hernia, visible to the naked eye, but we can't make it pop in or out the way a hernia should so the dr. thinks it's not worth undergoing surgery at this point. I'm not sure I communicated this before, but when I saw him in Dec. he recommended a repair including 5" of mesh! Now the area surrounding the defect is so tight that if we did surgery, we would need a teeny circle of mesh, less than an inch.

Thanks so much for teaching me how to tighten my transverse. Your exercises have changed everything. As I mentioned before, I've lost 1 1/2 inches off my waist, I've noticeably toned my abs and I don't have to have a surgery that was supposed to lay me up for 2 weeks and prevent me from lifting my son for 6! I'm am eternally grateful and a total convert to the cult of Julie. Can I write you a letter of endorsement?


Best wishes,

Kimberly

Hi Kitstwins! thanks so much for your detailed explanations. I have read a fair amount on the stomach muscles as well and what is interesting is that I have learned hwo to isolate and contract my transverse really well. My tummy would get really hard ans strong look during most exercises showing I can in fact contract my muscles but since I have been increasing my gap with all the wrong exercises, it has bene impossble to see any improvement in toning up the muscles but what you see is rather a more protruding stomach!

I received the courier frm amazon yesterday, the much desired Julie Tupler book...I had a very quick look at it last nite and need to read it carefully and digest the initial exercises... I felt so awful reading all the DON'TS! she is listing during pilates which I have been doing extensively... no wonder I have an additional finger's gap!!!

All her advise for incorporating her technique and engaging transverse in the day-to-day activities sounds so wise...

Now that I know I have DR, I can now pinpoint all my complaints that has been exaggratedly increasing thru the pilates classes I have done the last while, I can see how sensitive my belly button area got and how hollow it is there when I touch... &#305;t was nothinlg like that with my less then 2-fingers before I started the heavy pilates exercises...

What is interesting is that Julie Tupler says even if you get surgical repair of DR, if you exercises incorrectly later, you can open it up again!

Well it does sound like you've been unlucky and I do think you've been doubly unlucky in that you've had the diastasis as well as quite extensive abdominal weakness. It's not at all uncommon - my previously strong stomach muscles were absolutely hammered into submission by one twin pregnancy and caesarean - but I think diastasis always makes it seem worse as there's a physical, actual manifestation of the weakness. It's an actual area of negativity to focus on.

Nothing is irrevocable. Good, tailored stomach exercises can make a huge difference and there's no reason why they shouldn't work well for you. In fact, reading your descriptions of your stomach it really does seem as if you have an all-round abdominal weakness (as well as the diastasis - poor you!) that would really respond well to Tupler-style exercises. If the deeper abdominals are very weak then they can offer no support to the internal organs and when you factor in the added weakness from the diastasis then its almost inevitable that you would get this stomach pouching and '5 months pregnant look'. Am sitting here now doing one of my Tupler exercises just to think it all through and it really does fire up my Transverse Abdominus (the deepest, girdle-type abdominal muscle) in a way that standard abdominal exercises don't really manage. And it makes sense that if you get your upper layer of abdominal muscles strong and close a separation then that will help hugely, but if your deepest muscles are still weak then pouching will still occur. It won't be as severe as before you strengthened the upper layers but you'll never get as good a result.

Hope this makes sense. I just want to reassure you that all is not totally doomed. I actually think you'll respond really well to the specific exercises and it's worth a go. My tummy was annihilated post-section and post babies and I did worry that I'd never get my tone or strength back, but I did. It probably took me a good six months of key abdominal exercises but the change was steady.

Don't despair!

I think you are pretty right Kitstwins.

In fact, the reason why I did not think I might have abdominal separation that needed specific exercise to get fixed before I would start pilates was because 1) just about 2 fingers of gap I was measuring was said to be acceptable and 2) because I used to think I actually have extremely weak stomach muscles... Now that I have completed my "6-week increase your diastasis gap pilates program" successfully I officially have a gap larger than the acceptable measurements. Perhaps I have the 2 cases together... the gap and the weak muscle combo! Nice lottary... ? NOT!!!!

You seem to know quite alot about the core area anatomically and fitnesswise... so let me tell you abit more Kitstwins.

I used to be always very very slim with very flat stomach whereby I never knew what it meant to have body fat etc that would restrict in choice of clothing.. I also have never worked out... I was just lucky that I was a very very slim person...

With the 1st baby I gained 21 kgs (from 49kgs went upto 70kgs) but within 6 months after delivery I was back to my usual look with a couple of kilos more but with stomach area that sure changed where I could see my skin had stretched as I had a little amount of soft extra skin but not in a really disturbing way... also after I would have a full meal I would start experiencing a little bulge coming out which was a whol enew thing for me... I was 30 when I had my first baby... but I was still totally fine to wear my bikinis or tight outfits the way I used to... It was that my tummy was not washboard flat as it used to be... Then I turned 35 and was in a time of my life with an increased social life making me have a glass or two of wine afew times a week... over a year or so of this active social life, I started seeing my stomach getting slowly but surely a little bigger than it ever seemed it could be. the year before I got pregnant a 2nd time, I started not eating too much when dining out since it was making me need to undo the button of my pants at the restaurants... in fact I could see my stomach area was changing further whereby the tiny little bit of extra soft skin from 1st pregnancy was getting more pronounced and I really had to start watching ho wmuch I eat and drink when we were out. I also started noticing that my stomach was not responding to wine well as it was making me feel bloated... just around exploring this new era of change in the nature of my abdominal area which was surprising and kind of worrying me day by day, I got pregnant a 2nd time, at the age of 37,5 and unfortunately with a stomach that is getting somewhat older without any exercise for recovery after a pregnancy already. I carried this 2nd baby so exaggratedly forward going that I had nothing from side to side but everything was going and looking forward... an enormously forward stretched tummy... the baby arived about 3,5 weeks early and I had an unplanned c/s. As I wrote in my initial message, the day after the delivery, the nurse was in shock seeing how HUGE my stomach was... I seriously looked at least 7 months pregnant. The tummy shrank down to looking 4-5 months pregnant, coming out after eating and drinking which is where I am now...
So, I think my stomach was already giving enough signals asking for attention before I got pregnant a 2nd time. But surely there are millions of women out there who do not exercise and do not necessarily get such weak stomach muscles and abdominal separation even despite multiple pregnancies, such as my mom who had 6 pregnancies and such as my 3 sisters each of whom had 2 babies with all flat stomachs afterwards and none of these women in my life have ever never exercised either but they did nto carry any of their babies in such an unfortunately stretchy way... I had always trusted my good genes for my slim figure and the post-baby bodies in good shapre of the ladies in the family but I would not have a clue I would carry so forward and stretch my tummy eternally...

having been such a slim person all my life (disregarding the last while before baby #2 with bloating after wine and dine) and now having this bulge sitting righ tin the middle of tummy is indigestible for me... I have not seen my pubic area when I look down standing up since my tummy started growing during last pregnancy...

I am more than committed to do any exercise as long as there is hope...

I want to be proud of myself by fixing my problem with my own body power and not under a surgeon's needle and stitches...

Hi there,

Well I do think my prior fitness helped in the sense that my muscles were strong and so it was perhaps easier for me to use them post-birth in the exercises. But I don't think having strong muscles stopped me getting a diastasis recti - I think I could have had abs of steel and it still would have happened as it is just one of those things. Down to having twins and expanding rapidly in my case.

I also read that two fingers was 'acceptable' and in a sense it is because the separation isn't so great. You'll still have abdominal weakness with two fingers or less and so will have the risk of referred back pain, etc. (the pelvic girdle of muscles is vital in supporting the lower back as well as all the internal organs) but it won't be as severe as it might with a larger separation. That brings with it the real risk of debilitating, long term back pain and degeneration.

You say you look five months pregnant which does imply that your muscles are very weak in your abdomen, especially as it increases after you have eaten and drunk. This would imply that your internal organs (digestive system, etc.) is pushing against your weakened muscle wall and causing your abdomen to pouch forwards. Given this I DO think it's worth you trying the tupler exercises (or something similar) as although you might not get a radical closure of your two finger separation, the exercises will help with the overall strengthening of your abdominals. There are complex muscles in this area that underly and overlap one another and so the weakness doesn't just have to be in the rectus abdominus - it can be in the deeper layer of abdominal muscles. The Transverse Abdominus muscle for example which is the deepest abdominal and wraps around the torso (a bit like a belt). This muscle is quite hard to locate in exercises because it is so deep and, if your abdominals are weak, it just doesn't get fired up. Unless I really focus on this muscle during pilates, etc. I tend to use more superficial abdominal muscles in its place. The Tupler technique really helped me strengthen this muscle which, post pregnancy/caesarean was quite weak. Again, I'd been quite strong prior to pregnancy so it wasn't impossible for me to 'find' these muscles in the exercises but I was really surprised at how feeble they were following the birth of my babies.

So I don't think for you it is just about the separation - I think that's just the most obvious point of your abdominal weakness and hasn't helped matters. It's probably more helpful to view the whole of your abdominal area as very weakened and concentrate on that. Given this, the right tailored exercises really could help and although you might not close the separation much, if you strengthen the lower muscles below the rectus abdominus (the top layer of muscles) you should tone up. The stronger abdominals will act as a corset - holding all your internal organs in place.

Hope this helps. From personal experience, I don't think people should underestimate how distressing it can be to have this post birth and I do think there is a bit of an assumption out there that women should just accept their new, post-birth body as part of the experience; a necessary casualty of pregnancy if you like. I think a drastic change in body image post birth can be hugely distressing and can cause big self-esteem issues and the prevailing mentality that women should somehow just accept it and lump it is wrong.

Let me know what you make of the book. .

thanks kitstwins! what &#305; dont understand is that almsot all info on the web has been referring to the 2 fingers and less as acceptable... and mine has been measuring less than 2 fingers and how come I had this BIG bulge making me look like 5 months pregnant especially after I eat and drink anything?

kitstwins, your story is extremely encouraging and motivating but given your fit stomach muscles before pregnancy reminds me to think that all stories arent like yours as I have read about more people who had to opt for the surgery since they couldnt close theirs than those who could close theirs... especially I read in one site/blog about a mom's story where even though she did Tupler religiously for about a year she showed no improvement and then got herself fixed with Helene Byrne's "exercise after pregnancy" (www.befitmom.com). I have this book as well but her book focuses more on strenghtening stomach muscles and getting a flat tummy after your DS is healed and she gives very few exercises for working on DS.

I have just ordered also the LYMT DVD and the splint and my book is on the way too...

Oh dear...