{"id":986,"date":"2021-05-18T21:34:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T21:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.mutusystem.com\/en-us\/?p=986"},"modified":"2023-12-01T12:23:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T12:23:54","slug":"whats-body-alignment-got-to-do-with-diastasis-recti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutusystem.com\/en-us\/alignment\/whats-body-alignment-got-to-do-with-diastasis-recti\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s body alignment got to do with diastasis recti?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Good ‘alignment’ means how your body is stacked together. It’s how your bones and muscles are positioned to hold and move you. Your posture or alignment and diastasis recti (abdominal separation) are connected. Daily walking is an important element of the MUTU program. The way you stand, move and squat are important to core and pelvic floor muscle weakness. So how does it work?<\/strong> What’s body alignment got to do with diastasis recti?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diastasis recti is a symptom, a sign, of a core that is not functioning entirely as it should. There are a great many factors (some habitual, some historical and some entirely out of your control) that affect the likelihood of your developing a diastasis. Affecting severity (how wide, how deep) and how easily it will heal by itself. But the gap is not the problem in and of itself. The gap is merely a sign of what’s happening underneath. And understanding the root cause offers us more informed strategies to help it improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is pressure inside your abdomen and pelvis called ‘intra abdominal pressure’. It is natural, functional and desirable, and it is your core’s job to contain it, stabalizing your core and your whole body. If there are ‘kinks’ in the system, just like kinks in your garden hose, they cause the pressure to build up. This compromises smooth flow within the pipe, or the ability of your body to bear itself or any further load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously your body adapts and moves all the time, there isn’t one static ‘ideal position’. But if the kinks are there the whole time (butt tucked under \/ stomach sucked in \/ ribs thrust out)\u2026 then we have a pressure problem, Ma’am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Un-contained pressure causes instability and weakness of the core. A \u2018pooch\u2019 stomach AKA \u2018mummy tummy\u2019. So this is why body alignment and diastasis recti are connected, as well as pelvic floor disorder and other pressure conditions like hernia<\/a> or pelvic organ prolapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s not ‘The Gap’ that’s the problem. The gap is the sign that something inside isn’t quite optimal. You may have a small remaining diastasis gap that isn\u2019t a problem<\/a>. If your ribcage, trunk and pelvis are bio-mechanically ‘stacked’ right, and your core muscle system engages and relaxes as you need it. Then the gap doesn’t matter, at least functionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it’s not – if your ribs are way out in front of your pelvis, or your butt is all flat and tucked under\u2026 then your diastasis won’t improve because the midline of your abdomen is on a kink. Alignment and diastasis recti are working together. And a kink in your abdominal midline (not to mention a flat butt or a too-tight pelvic floor) is a Friend to No Woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you know if you’re aligned? Check out this video on how to check your alignment<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can’t achieve core strength or good core function if everything is ‘switched on’ the whole time. You don’t need to ‘engage your core<\/a>‘ all the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Muscles need to be able to work through their full range of motion. They need to fully relax and function at full length, as well as to contract naturally according to what they are being asked to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If something is already pulled as tight as it can go, but then it needs to contract to withstand sudden increased pressure – there’s nowhere to go, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s why a hypertonic pelvic floor<\/a> (too tight) leaks, and it’s why a permanently sucked-in tummy pooches and sags when you stop sucking in long enough to take a breath. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your core muscle system is designed to switch on when needed. So when you lift, push, pull or perform any moment (whether in a workout or in life) that increases intra-abdominal pressure. That’s when your Transverse Abdominis muscle should kick in when your core muscles engage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As discussed above, when this system isn’t working (as it isn’t for many Moms) we have to focus and re-train it very consciously as first. But the aim, the goal, is a core that turns itself on when needed and relaxes when not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Understanding the root cause of diastasis recti<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Alignment and diastasis recti – the connection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Understanding intra abdominal pressure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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How to adjust body alignment to heal a diastasis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/li>\n\n\n\nYour gap is a sign that something inside is not quite optimal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to check your body alignment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Engaging our core the whole time makes it weaker – not stronger<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Re-align and condition your core to function like it’s supposed to<\/h2>\n\n\n\n