Episode 10: Will a Tummy Tuck Fix My Back Pain?

In this episode of Tummy Tuck Talk, we’re tackling a BIG and very common question we hear all the time:
“Will a tummy tuck fix my back pain?”

If you’re dealing with persistent low back pain postpartum, especially if you have diastasis rectus abdominis, this episode is a must-listen.

Munira and Lisa break down why the relationship between diastasis, back pain, and tummy tuck surgery is far more complex than most people are led to believe. We explore what the science actually says, why pain doesn’t always come from damaged tissue, and why narrowing a muscle gap isn’t the magic fix many assume it is.

This conversation will help you understand your pain, feel validated in your experience, and approach recovery with more clarity and confidence.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

✨ Why diastasis does not automatically cause back pain, and what research really shows
✨ The difference between nociceptive pain and nociplastic pain, and why chronic back pain often persists even when tissues have healed
✨ How postpartum stress, sleep deprivation, fear of movement, and nervous system sensitivity can amplify pain
✨ Why the “weak core = back pain” narrative is outdated, and how this belief can actually hold you back
✨ How overprotecting your core and avoiding movement can increase pain instead of reducing it
✨ Why some people experience back pain relief after a tummy tuck, and why it’s not always due to muscle repair alone
✨ How rebuilding strength, confidence, and trust in your body plays a major role in pain improvement
✨ What to consider before choosing surgery as a solution for back pain
✨ Why a biopsychosocial, whole-person approach matters for long-term healing

If you’ve ever felt confused, discouraged, or stuck in fear about moving your body because of diastasis or back pain, this episode is here to remind you: your body is not broken, and there is more than one path to healing.

Resources Mentioned:

✨ Tummy Tuck Core Rehab Program, a structured rehab program designed to rebuild strength, confidence, and function after surgery:
https://www.tummytuckrehab.com/tummy-tuck-core-rehab

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Tummy Tuck Talk. If you've ever said, I'm thinking about getting a tummy tuck to help with my back pain, you're not alone. We hear this all the time, and it makes total sense. Chronic back pain can be exhausting, frustrating, and incredibly disruptive. And when you have diastasis recti, it's as easy to assume that the two are connected, but is diastasis the cause of your back pain? And will a tummy tuck actually fix it? That's what we're going to unpack today.

Lisa 0:35

Hi, I'm Lisa Ryan, a CrossFit trainer, pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, and a former tummy tuck patient.

Munira 0:43

And I'm Munira Hudani, a physiotherapist with a specialized interest in diastasis rectus abdominis and post op recovery. Together, we are bringing you the first podcast specifically on tummy tucks that takes you beyond the surgery table, giving you the real unfiltered truth about tummy tuck recovery, rehab, and returning to fitness with confidence.

Lisa 1:05

Before we dive in just a quick reminder, this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not replace medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider for personalized guidance.

Munira 1:19

We are here to break down what no one else is talking about from navigating the highs and lows of recovery to practical tips for healing movement and feeling like yourself again. Whether you're preparing for surgery Or are deep in recovery. We've got you covered.

Lisa 1:36

This is Tummy Tuck Talk!

1:44

Welcome to Tummy Tuck Talk, the podcast where aesthetics of the core meet function and fitness, and we explore how to get the most out of your tummy tuck journey. If it's your first time joining us today, we are so excited to have you here and if you've tuned in before, welcome back. I'm Lisa Ryan, a CrossFit trainer and pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, along with a tummy tuck patient. Back in 2019, I had my surgery and let me tell you, there was so much I didn't know about recovery. Now I'm here to share the real deal, what works, what doesn't, and how you can get back to doing the things you love safely and confidently. And I am Munira Hudani, a physiotherapist who helps patients rebuild strength and function and confidence after the surgery. So together, Lisa and I are here to empower you with practical guidance for every stage of your tummy tuck recovery. Today we're diving into a very hot topic. Will my tummy tuck fix my back pain? But before we dive into the details, let's acknowledge something important. Pain is complex. We often see pain as something that has a very clear answer or reason behind it. And while sometimes that is the case, other times it has many more pieces to the puzzle. So let's unpack it together. The different types of back pain, how it may or may not be related to your diastasis and much, much more. Okay, so first and most importantly, if you are experiencing back pain, it is real. Okay? We are not here to tell you that it's all in your head and I've heard that before. I've heard patients come in tell me that other people have told them that their pain is all in their head. Yep. And it's not. Your pain is valid and we know how desperately you just wanna feel better in your body. So at the same time, it is important that we take some time to understand the relationship between diastasis and back pain because it is a complicated one. It's not very straightforward and it's not as clear cut as saying, I have a gap in my abdominal muscles, and that is why my back hurts. We actually don't have any solid evidence at this point in time that diastasis directly causes back pain. In fact, there are many people with a more significant diastasis who have no pain at all, and then others with even just a mild separation who are in a lot of discomfort. So that might tell you that pain is influenced by many factors, not just the anatomy and not just the physiology of your body. So when we're talking about persistent back pain or chronic back pain, which is pain that's been there for more than three months, we're actually dealing with a type of pain that is somewhat unique. It has unique characteristics, it's a different category of pain. And so we're gonna get a little nerdy here for a second and just bear with me for that bit of time. But I'm going through this because I think it's important to understand. Since we're gonna relate it back to diastasis, back to back pain, and back to the tummy tuck surgery. So there is a difference in, in types of pain that you experience and broadly speaking, there is nociceptive pain and nociplastic pain. Okay, so normally when we think of pain, we're thinking about nociceptive pain. That's like that classic kind of pain that's caused by an injury or damage or surgery or inflammation to a particular area. It's just the body saying, Hey, something is wrong here. Something went wrong here, and It's pain in response to a definitive clear tissue injury. Okay, so that's what we're typically thinking of, right? You sprain your ankle, you've got pain. That is the classic nociceptive pain. Moving on to nociplastic pain, this is where it gets a little bit more confusing. It's, and not so straightforward, okay? Because this, the pain is real. You still have pain, but it's not caused by clear tissue damage. Okay. The process underlying that kind of pain is a process called central sensitization. Simply meaning your nervous system has is a bit more sensitive. Okay? It happens when the brain processes normal input, just light touch or light pressure. Something that happens normal and all the time, but it takes that and it processes it and interprets it as threatening even when there is no actual tissue damage or after the tissue has already healed. So the tissue is no longer going to typically produce pain after the tissues have healed. But in nociplastic pain, it still produces that pain. You still feel it. So in this case, it's more about how your brain is interpreting some of the signals coming from your body and how your brain is interpreting all of what's encompassing that. Okay? So it's not just about a physical injury. So think about this as an alarm system that's just become too loud or the threshold for that alarm to go off is much lower. And this can happen even if you don't have a fire. You're thinking of an alarm and there's a fire and an alarm goes off. But this can happen even when there really isn't an actual fire. For example, if there's an area in your body that is already sensitive, a little more sensitive, a little more vulnerable. Instead of reacting to a normal stimulus, like I said, like someone may be accidentally bumping into you causing some mild temporary discomfort. It could be a bit of pressure. That sensation in the case of nociplastic pain, the alarm will go off and you'll likely feel more of that sensation and feel it as pain and potentially more so than what you would normally expect. Or it could take even less of that stimulus to produce the same amount of pain or even more pain. Like I said, it's not clear cut, but it's. What we do know is that it's not coming from a tissue that's been injured. It's coming from more about more from the whole body and how your brain is interpreting what's happening. That was great. So now what about chronic back pain? Because we hear about this a lot when going for tummy tuck surgery. Research shows many cases of chronic back pain, especially when it lasts more than three months, are not due to ongoing tissue damage. Instead, it's nociplastic in nature that is, it is driven by the changes in the nervous system and the brain's interpretation of input from the body where over time that area of the body can become more sensitive, like Munira was talking about, instead of less sensitive, which happens with nociceptive pain. This doesn't mean that pain is in your head. Again, we're gonna keep saying that because it's very important. You have pain, and we need to figure out how to help you, right? But it means that your system is doing its job too well, protecting you. Yeah. Even when there's no longer a danger there. So how might this show up? People with nociplastic back pain may say things like this, it flares up randomly or on the other end of the spectrum. It shows up consistently and frequently, but sometimes a small thing will trigger a huge flare or imaging didn't show anything wrong, but it still hurts. Still have pain. I've tried everything. Nothing sticks. These are the hallmarks of nociplastic pain when pain is stemming from a nervous system that is more sensitive and in protective mode towards a certain part of your body rather than an actual injury that is trying to heal. There are two very different entities. So how does this relate to back pain that shows up postpartum? What are some reasons why mom might develop nociplastic back pain? There's many. So let's look at the first one. So there's pain that starts nociceptively, but persists too long. So initially there may have been tissue injury, strain ligaments, muscle overuse. But if pain persists beyond the normal healing window, six to 12 weeks, the nervous system can become sensitized. This turns up the volume knob on the pain, even if the tissues are no longer injured. And when you give birth, your body's going through all kinds of pains and changes, and things that need to heal. So that's why postpartum is an extra tricky time. On top of that, you have sleep deprivation and fatigue, right? So chronic sleep disruption, nursing, wake night waking stress can lower our pain thresholds. Sleep loss affects the brain processing pain, making it easier for the nervous system to become way overreactive. Moms are running on empty, are more vulnerable to central sensitization. So the next thing people have chronic stress and high cortisol load. The postpartum period is often filled with stress. Overwhelm identity shifts emotional fatigue. Chronic stress keeps the body in a heightened sympathetic fight or flight state, and this state sensitizes the nervous system and makes it more reactive to normal body input, leading to persistent pain, even when the tissues are healthy. So then what can happen is there's fear of movement or re-injury because they've been feeling this types of pain, right? So many postpartum women are told to protect their core or be careful about their back, especially if they have diastasis or a history of pain, or if they're just experiencing pain postpartum after birth. So this messaging can lead to movement avoidance, weird bracing. It may reinforce pain pathways and increase sensitivity over time. And this overprotection can send the brain the message that this area is unsafe, even when it's not. Yeah. There, like Lisa was just mentioning and following up on that there is often a lack of proper diastasis rehab or a gradual return to activity where people are. Maybe doing some things for their core, but being held back. So there's this fear of movement. It's called kinesiophobia. There's a fear of doing things. And so that's this, it's an emotional and cognitive aspect to pain that can actually make you more sensitive to feeling it. Without proper reloading of the core because of fear, then the tissues can also remain weak, and the brain can keep perceiving movement as a threat, and whenever it perceives it as a threat, it can send the signal of pain, you'll, you can experience that as pain. So it amplifies it through a nervous system lens. It's not just mechanical like a tissue and part of your body that's been injured. We're talking about the nervous system now. And then there is another factor here, which is body image and just the emotional load of being postpartum and feeling disconnected to your body and feeling frustrated with your appearance, feeling broken after birth. All of this can contribute to the experience of pain. So like I said, these are emotional and cognitive factors that you may not have been realizing are contributing to your pain and it just causes an increase in the sensitivity of your body in that particular area. So also if there's a previous history of pain or trauma, that can add to this as well. And, adverse birth experiences as well. It can predispose someone to the nervous system going through that central sensitization. So really this postpartum period is just such a whirlwind of events that happen physically, that happen emotionally cognitively, that happen in your life. And so things just can completely throw your nervous system off. And understandably, it can create pain. If your back pain has lasted for months or years after giving birth or showed up, maybe sometime after having kids and you've gone for imaging and it doesn't show that there's anything major going on. It may not be that there is something wrong with your tissues. It could be that your nervous system has gotten stuck in a loop and just overprotecting you even when there really is no danger, that pain is still real. You're still feeling it, and it's still coming from your back. Like it's, you're still feeling it from your back. But it's possibly that the volume knob of that pain has been turned up in your nervous system when things happen. And it's not necessarily from the tissues being damaged.'cause like we said at the beginning, it's tissues typically heal after an injury within six to 12 weeks. So when you're feeling pain beyond that time, we're thinking more nociplastic. But in a way that's actually. Helpful and hopeful because it means that there are things that you can do to turn the volume back down. Okay. So with the right kind of support movement and education and working with the right kind of professional things can get better. It just takes a different approach. Absolutely. So really guys, the bottom line here is that women. Postpartum with longstanding low back pain are not imagining it. No. And it's not just weak muscles or poor posture. Their pain may be nociplastic driven by a nervous system that's been through a lot and has become more sensitive to input. The good news nociplastic pain is changeable with the right movement, education support, the system can calm down and pain can improve. And this is why working with professionals who really understand the difference between the two and approach things from a biopsychosocial approach, A.K.A. a holistic whole person approach is absolutely necessary if you have diastasis and you have back pain. And not all therapists are created equal. It's not always easy finding a therapist that's a good fit for you. We know this can be a lot of work, but we really encourage people to not give up when looking for quality care. This is really tricky'cause sometimes people think. Oh, if this person said it, it must be true. And that's not really the case. You need to get more opinions and you also need to find a professional that works with your personality, right? Because when we're talking about these sensitive things and nervous system and all this stuff, you have to feel safe with your provider and you have to have a provider that understand that's a consideration for you to get better. Yeah. And so it might not be. The first fit of someone that you work with. And so we always just say over and over again, take your time and try keep searching because there is quality care out there. Yeah. And so what we mean by that also is just finding someone who's not just looking at your back pain as. Something local to the back. Yeah. And digging a bit deeper and seeing what might be happening in your life. What are some things that happened may more recently, or if you've had any traumatic experiences in your history and what is your sleep like, nutrition and stress and all of that. What kind of emotional supports do you have at home? Those sorts of things. Yeah. And I hope you're starting to see that these, even though you may not really think of those in terms of creating pain, they can contribute to what you're feeling and the pain that you're experiencing. Okay, so now that we've covered in great detail, what is nociceptive nociplastic and that there's a difference here. And often when we're talking about back pain in the postpartum period, because it often lasts longer than three months that we're referring to nociplastic pain and it all gets thrown in together with having diastasis and all of that. So where does this idea of diastasis causes back pain? Where did that come from?'Cause here we are telling you it doesn't come from back pain isn't necessarily because you have a wider space between your abdominal muscles. Where did that take off? Why is that a prevalent belief right now out there? It comes from the idea that diastasis causes a weak core and that a weak core causes back pain. Okay. So it comes from all of that. If we just keep going deeper and deeper and digging. That's the premise behind it all, but it's not actually true. These things are beliefs that were held long time before and they have all been debunked by research, but it came essentially from some research that. Was put out in the 1990s and early two thousands where it basically said that this type of research basically said that people with low back pain had delayed activation of the TA muscle. Okay? And then it led to the conclusion that this delay in the TA muscle, the transversus abdominis, contributes to it. It is contributing to weakness in the core and this poorly coordinated system of deep muscles is the cause of back pain and could be contributing to it. So then from this came the rise of core stability training, where there is the idea that retraining these specific muscles will then help to reduce or prevent back pain. Just from a few small studies in the 1990s, early two thousands, some beliefs were, came out of that. The, rehab and fitness world just ran with the idea that, there's an issue with the TA muscles. The TA is a deep core muscle and there's, there are problems there, and that is the cause of back pain because those who have back pain have been shown to have a delay in them. However. And so they were always suggesting to activate your core and to do that, to prevent and treat back pain. But what happened is later on research debunked that more research came out and it found that the TA. The delays that they were finding initially were not consistent across all people with low back pain and people without low back pain also had this delay in TA activation. There were some that had that delay and there was the idea that the only way to activate your core was in the specific way that you activate your TA. It just wasn't supported either in research either, and that this excessive bracing or just focusing too much on it actually in what we're saying, actually it can create an increase in stiffness and more fear of movement. Okay. So it's all been debunked, but unfortunately the damage was done. And we're still climbing ourselves out of that mess right now. Absolutely. So we just wanna say now, okay, what do we know?'cause we wanna try to spread the message. We know that movement and strength matter, back pain is not usually caused by just a weak core. Many people with strong cores still have back pain and other pains. Many people with weak cores don't have any pain at all or don't have any back pain. And back pain is better understood through the biopsychosocial model, which considers tissue health, things like nervous system sensitivity movement, habits, fear, stress, and many other just life circumstances. So tying this back to diastasis, similar to the debunked belief that a weak core causes back pain, it's a common belief that diastasis causes a weak core, and therefore it is the cause of back pain. Yeah. And we need to fix the diastasis in order to heal the core and heal your back. So you guys get where we're going with this, right? It's this like weird cycle of stuff, but instead of just looking at the weak core component and working on that by strengthening and building up the muscles, the focus has been on the diastasis and narrowing that gap. So that's the stuff Munira was talking about, what the focus has been so far. Under that premise, you are left to believe that when your gap is narrow enough, your core is now quote unquote, safe to do harder exercises and is now ready and able to handle more challenging tasks. But some issues we run into this are, it implies your core is not ready for more and will only be ready after your diastasis is healed. So this is backwards. Because if you aren't allowed to train your core in ways that you need to with exercises, that would help strengthen it and be beneficial, and those are labeled bad and are gonna make it worse, but those are actually the things you need to do to strengthen your core to maybe feel better. So restricting those exercises and only doing these quote unquote diastasis safe ones, which you'll see on the internet if you Google things right, limit your progress by keeping you at this beginner stage and implies that some of the specific set of diastasis safe exercises will heal your diastasis. That implies that, right? Which that's not always gonna work. So this type of thinking makes women truly believe they have weak and here's the word that's often used, dysfunctional cores that can contribute to back pain.'cause you hear the word dysfunctional. Of course my back hurts. My core is dysfunctional. And other pain and symptoms as well, but in how they're moving their bodies, that is affecting what's going on in your mind too. So this is where this again, turns into this really bad cycle of things. Focusing on and being fearful of so many movements and worrying you'll make yourself worse, also creates stress and tension in your body, which then can create more pain. So if you're really stressed out, oh my gosh, I moved the wrong ways. Oh my gosh, I'm doing undiastasis safe things dah, then it's gonna make your nervous system go crazy. And like we talked about earlier, that's not good for pain. So I know for me personally, once I understood I had a very large diastasis, it was scary looking. Okay. But once I viewed that differently and realized, oh, I can, I am ready to do some of these like higher level exercises I used to do as a competitive CrossFitter. And I worked back up to it slowly and progressively, but once I did. And I just could I just moved without overthinking about what my core was doing and what was happening, a lot of my excess back pain and other aches and pains went away and I was honestly shocked because I did not think that was gonna happen at all. It just naturally happened, and I know that's just my personal story, but it was a very powerful thing for me to realize that once I just was set free and went back to doing the things I knew how to do. It had been, I was a long way down postpartum, so I was definitely ready for it. It wasn't like super early or anything guys, but very ready for it and my whole body, nervous system, muscles, everything just totally changed for the better. It was really cool. That's amazing. Yeah. And so thankfully that's a, what a lot of people are experiencing now just due to a shift in how we're approaching diastasis. Which is happening in parallel to just the steady belief that still is out there that diastasis is causing the back pain in addition to a weak core is caused by the diastasis and, et cetera. So now there's another approach that is just a much more scientifically based approach based off of exercise physiology where instead of limiting strengthening, limiting loading, we actually promote that to get the muscle stronger, which can then create changes within those muscles and tissues and create muscle tone and changes in the fascia connective tissue and hopefully thickening it, stiffening it. So, the thinking there has changed drastically over just this recent period of time. I would say 5, maybe 10 years. So instead of this black and white, Yes and No to certain exercises, thought leaders and research is following behind, but we are waiting for a lot of this to come through, specifically for diastasis. But we're realizing that instead of avoiding exercises until the diastasis has closed, that we need to load the core, load, the linea elba strengthen the muscles because, by strengthening them, they're the ones that are going to help create potential changes in the linea alba. So it's all about progressive building and rebuilding and overloading. It isn't to say that after you have your baby that you start every core exercise on the internet it's about doing exercises that your core can handle at the time, and then just working them up until you can do more, and then just keep trying to keep up with your body. So what you're capable of doing is exercise specific. It's very unique to each individual. It's not dictated really by how wide your linear alba is, so it all we're throwing the way we used to approach diastasis upside down and throwing it on its head. Just the idea of being capable of doing lots of exercises even though you have diastasis in the presence of diastasis, it's just something that we wanna keep putting out there because we are seeing how important that actually is. So yeah, if you are searching for things online and people talking about good exercises and bad exercises for diastasis, just understand that it's coming from a previous model or paradigm of how we used to think about diastasis. You may want to continue looking for other sources of information that are more promoting the idea of progressive overloading. Okay, because you can get strong, you can feel good with diastasis and even a large one. And as Lisa has already mentioned, and will likely share more about, your pain can improve in going through this process. And it may not even be because you had weak muscles, but because you no longer are fearful of moving and doing something that's gonna hurt you, so your nervous system can just relax and you can move freely, and that is, is just such a huge relief to the body. Yeah. I remember going when I went through this, like I was pretty shocked,'cause so many of these things were drilled into my head and I was so afraid for so long. Having such a large, scary looking diastasis. But it's so true. How that nervous system just plays a huge role. We don't hear very much, you can be strong even with a large diastasis, right? It's just not a statement. We hear a lot. We're hearing a little bit more now. We've been all, we've been doing work in the space, but it's just not something most people hear. And so our mission is to empower women that have a diastasis, that they do not have to be miserable and in pain, whether they're waiting to have surgery or maybe if they cannot afford surgery or cannot get surgery due to medical issues, then we definitely don't want them in pain because they're gonna think they have to live the rest of their life like this. Yeah. I just hate that so much. So for many different reasons, and that's why we're talking about this at Tummy Tuck Rehab, right? Because there's a big reason sometimes people get surgery. We want people to know there is hope and help and quality care that can help you with your pain if you have back pain. Right now whether you're waiting to get surgery and you plan on getting surgery, you're not sure if you're gonna get surgery or you just can't for whatever reason. Yeah. I shared a little bit about my story, I used to be a competitive CrossFitter and I used to do all these gymnastics things and core things and heavy lifting and all this stuff. And once I actually got back to just moving the way I used to move, and again, like I told you guys, I worked up to that was about 18 months postpartum. Probably could have started that more closer to a year. But I had a lot of fear and wasn't quite sure and took me some time to navigate that, find the right support people and everything. But once I did that, I realized some of these pains are going away and oh, I just feel better. And all this stuff people are telling me, I post pictures online and people are like, don't do that. You're gonna get worse. And'cause it looks scary. But I was getting better. Like my core was getting stronger, I was having less pain, all this stuff. I couldn't believe it. And I like to share that story because I want people to know those things are possible, especially when you're not seeing and hearing that in the spaces often. Yeah. And then, here's another kind of tricky thing with back pain and diastasis and tummy tuck surgery. It's the fact that so many people for many obvious reasons need to have the surgery covered through insurance or want to have it covered by insurance, yeah. But we also know that the insurance, this can be tricky because in some systems, depending on, which country you're in. The only way to get a tummy tuck covered is to claim that it's for back pain. And it's not fair because it puts people in a tough situation. It just suggests that your pain has to be justified by something that is structural or severe enough to be worth fixing, and it can mess with your head. And it make, it can make you feel like you have to prove how bad you are in order to get help. And as we're talking about this from a nociplastic lens, we can now see and appreciate what that might do to your experience of pain, where you might start feeling it more because you have to prove it that you're in that much pain. And it's just this vicious cycle. And then it can make it seem like surgery is your only way out. Again, we're here to tell you that your experience is valid and we want you to feel good in your body and whether that means you have surgery or you don't get the surgery but here's a in question. So, what about the people that do feel better after the surgery? Meaning that they had back pain before the surgery and then after the surgery they no longer have it. So if that is something that you experienced, like we are so happy that you no longer have back pain, like ultimately that's what we want for you, regardless of how you get there. But it is worth understanding why that might have happened and it's rarely just because the linea alba was stitched closer together? Yes. It could be because of some of those structural changes that occurred due to the surgery, but consider that it also might be because of the movement you've regained, the confidence that you found in being able to move your body more freely and being able to strengthen and build it back up. So that stress and that worry and that fear over time just gets lifted as you start trusting your body and you are now engaging with the world differently in your new body. So when someone gets a tummy tuck and their back pain improves, it could be because the body and the brain just feels safer, more supported, not necessarily because the muscles were stitched back together. That doesn't make the relief that you feel any less real. It just means that it may have happened for another reason. And then it just shows how complex our bodies are. Yeah. And how powerful and adaptable our bodies and nervous systems are. So guys, recovery from the surgery, it's hard mentally and physically. So remembering all the things you learned about pain that we talked about, you can understand why pain can be complex when healing from the surgery. Many different types of pain may present themselves at different times, so this isn't the time to panic and think that surgery maybe didn't help your back pain, right? As you're recovering, you need to allow yourself time to go through the entire healing process first. Which can take months to a year, right? And as you slowly regain strength in your core and the rest of your body, you'll start to feel more confident in your body again. You'll have more trust in your body again, and you'll start to move more freely and more like the way you're used to without guarding so much. And that will also help you start to feel better overall. If that doesn't happen, it's time to reach out to a professional. Okay? The big reason why we created Tummy Tuck core rehab program, we know we can't work with everybody one-to-one. Not everybody wants to do that. Not everybody has the money to do that, right? And so we're like, we wanna try to create something that people can get and do it on their own time, their own pace that can help. Because we just felt like there wasn't enough support out there for women recovering from this. And also understanding that the mental side of the recovery too, which is in our program. A lot of check-in videos and just talking you through where you could be and how to individualize the program to move at your own pace. Yeah. So will a tummy tuck fix your back pain? For some yes. For others, no. The key is knowing that your pain is real and that there are many pathways to healing. Surgery is one tool, not the only one. Yes. And so while a tummy tuck may help you feel better. It's not a guaranteed fix. Okay. So it shouldn't be the only reason you're considering surgery. It's a major procedure, and it's, there's a tough recovery for it and it can be tough for a lot of people and that there's a significant cost to it. And there's a deep cognitive, emotional, psychological impact as well. That you go through when you go through the surgery. So we want you to go into any decision feeling informed, and that's what this episode was for. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to the kind of care that truly understands diastasis and persistent pain and postpartum bodies. In addition to tummy tucks and surgery from a holistic whole person approach. But that's why conversations like these matter. It we wanna provide some clarity to broaden your options, to help you understand things to look for when you are reaching out for people to help you. So you can make those informed decisions about who you're gonna be choosing to as someone to help you. We want to ease the frustration in this whole process here. So whether you pursue rehab or you go down the surgery route, or you do both, again, we want you to feel informed and empowered and not desperate and pressured. Okay? We want to reemphasize, reiterate that your body is not broken and you're not starting from zero. With the right support, you can move forward feeling stronger and in more control. Lisa's story is just a prime and perfect example of that. So thanks for being with us and we'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to Tummy Tuck Talk. We know this was a deep dive and if your head's spinning a bit, that's okay. Back pain, diastasis, surgery decisions, it's a lot, but here's what we want you to walk away with today. Your pain is real, your body is not broken, and there is more than one path to feeling better. Exactly. And remember, healing isn't always linear. It's layered, it's complex, and it's deeply personal, but it is possible. Absolutely. Thanks so much for spending time with us today. If today's episode resonated with you, we love if you shared it with a friend, subscribed or left a review. It helps more people find us and feel less alone on their journey. Absolutely. Thanks for spending time with us. Bye for now.