4 more diastasis questions and "taking a break from rehab training"..will it set you back to square 1?

In this week's episode I am lucky enough to answer several great questions from someone who emailed in.
Here are the questions I was asked;

1. I'm not sure I'm doing the home workouts right. When there is a spot that says "breathing (lying)" or "(standing)", does that just mean I do the upward motion breath that many times while lying or sitting? (I explain why we do this) And am I supposed to breathe up from my lower abdomen as shown in the breathing video every time I exhale in an exercise?

2. So, I was super diligent the first 6 weeks, but then I had a whole bunch of things come up right after the other and I've been pretty inconsistent for the last 6 weeks. I got all the way through weeks 1-4 and noticed a huge difference in strength and my diastasis gap and then got half way through weeks 4-8. I've done the workouts off and on since then but my gap seems to have digressed and gotten bigger... is that possible or am I imagining it? And if it is possible, how do I stop it from spreading apart again, are there certain motions I just can't do anymore? 

3. Are the exercises you have us do in this 12  week program safe for early pregnancy as well, or just for postnatal?

4. And last question, how will I be able to tell once my body is strong enough again and how can I know that my diastasis is healed? (Since it's apparently normal to have a small gap there, I'm not sure how to tell once I've achieved a healthy level of separation.)

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Playing us out this week "I will survive" by Moses Kidd

Transcript

Peter : 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert, peter Lap. That, as always, would be me Today. More questions, questions, questions, questions. It's my favorite thing in the world. We're talking about the core breath. We're talking about taking a break whilst you're in the rehab stages of your exercise and what happens then Whether postpartum exercises are fine for early pregnancy and, finally, how will you actually know that your body is strong enough to do normal things again and that your diastasis recti is healed. All that without further ado. Here we go. Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with little old me. This is the podcast for the 21st of April 2022. 2024. 2022.

Peter : 1:16

Covid messed everything up and we missed a couple of years. I'm with Kitty and Bob and Buddy, and that's about it, and I am answering questions because I have not gotten around to editing interviews yet. I am so busy. It's absolutely crazy, but I had a wonderful email this week which had four questions in it, and you know I like nothing better than to have one simple email. Obviously, I also responded to the email separately, by the way. That's what I was going to say. I like nothing better than getting one email with loads of questions, because it fills up an entire podcast episode, or at least I hope it will. Right, here we go. Hi, Peter, I have a couple of quick questions for you. Number one I'm not sure I'm doing the home workouts right.

Peter : 2:06

So this is someone who's a member of the Healthy Postnatal Bodycom thing. When there's a spot that says breathing lying or standing, does it mean I do the upward motion breath that many trials while lying or sitting? And am I supposed to breathe up from my lower abdomen, as shown in the breathing video, every time I exhale in an exercise? So that's basically two questions about the core breath, right, first of all? Yes, questions about the core breath, right, first of all? Yes, so the core breath. Let me, for people who don't know, let me quickly explain it. It's the way I tell people, tell postpartum women how to breathe, and, to be honest, I even do this with athletes who are not postpartum.

Peter : 2:40

So when I do any sort of core stuff, I like people to exhale a certain way, and by that I mean like people to exhale a certain way, and by that I mean contract the muscles in a certain way whilst they're breathing. This takes a bit of getting used to, um, but I find it's massively beneficial because it stops what I call the collapse at the top of a range of motion. So when you see people I don't know deadlifting or picking a weight up off the ground, for instance, what happens? A lot of motion. So when you see people I don't know deadlifting or picking weight up off the ground, for instance, what happens? A lot of the time they hold their breath through the motion and at the top of it, when the weight is up in the air, they exhale and they almost collapse on themselves. And that is not the way I like people to breathe. I don't think it's the healthy way to breathe. I get it when you're doing like a personal best and you're a powerlifter and all that sort of stuff. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who are athletes, who play a sport, or just postpartum women or postpartum athletes even as well, and just men as well. There is a better way to breathe and that's to breathe through the motion, so that you're relaxed in all the right bits during the motion and that you're not unnecessarily tense, that you teach the right muscles to function at the right time. That's what we're going for. The core breath video is obviously. It's on the YouTube channel as well. I will link to it in the podcast description, if I actually remember to do so this time, because I've forgotten that once or twice now.

Peter : 4:05

In the beginning, when you do the healthy postnatal body program, the very early stages of your postpartum recovery, you kind of your body probably doesn't know how to do the core breath because nobody really does that. I find the most effective way in the beginning to get people to used to to the core breath is by saying, okay, the first 10 exhalations you do lying down, and it helps that the rest of and this is by design, but it helps that the rest of the program for the first few weeks is also starts on the floor. So you start by breathing a couple of times, finding that that mind-muscle connection right, focusing on the right bits and feeling what your body should feel like, trying to get that feeling, at least In the beginning. You're not going to get this right, you're just trying to get used to it right. It's quite tricky to get used to, admittedly, but you will get there if you stick with it. And then, towards the end, after we've done so, the home program consists of like six exercises in the first four weeks, and the first three are lying down, and then you do some squats and some lunges and all that sort of stuff and the last, at the end of that session, you do 10 seated core breaths and that is then just the next stage of, and hopefully after three or four weeks you will feel that you have a bit more muscle activation and all that sort of stuff and that breathing sitting down then becomes easier. You kind of then know what I'm talking about and you kind of know what to do, and that means that you can even start breathing and thereby healing your diastasis recti using that core breath when you're sitting in the car or when you're just, you know, doing stuff sitting watching television. Get 10 nice quick core breaths in just to improve that mind, muscle connection and all that sort of stuff.

Peter : 6:00

I find that's massively beneficial. This is also why I think the core breath as we do it in the HPMB program is much better than the diaphragmatic breathing and all that sort of stuff. So it's exhaling from the bottom up. So to breathe up from my lower abdomen, as the lady asked, am I supposed to breathe up from my lower abdomen as shown in the breathing video? Every time I exhale in an exercise and the answer to that is yes, but you go with the pace of the exercise. So, for instance, if you do a squat and it takes two seconds to come back up, then the exhaling takes about two seconds. If you do a kettlebell swing, which is much quicker, then exhaling is also much quicker, but the muscle contractions is exactly the same. If you do a kettlebell swing, which is much quicker, then exhaling is also much quicker, but the muscle contractions is exactly the same through both forms of exercise, through both exercises, and that is really beneficial, especially when you then translate that to a sport or daily activity.

Peter : 7:01

So tennis players, you know, exhale through the rotation or your core, using the core breath, exhale through the rotation and, like I said, this becomes instinctive after a while. We'll have you so much better balanced and you generate so much more balanced force that your game improves almost automatically. I worked with a football player who found that just his turning on the spot was easier because he, because this was a guy, because he learned how to exhale during the motion rather than get deep breath, and now we sprint. When everything is placed, if the muscles work properly, in the right order, you can gain valuable seconds. For us, mere mortals that have like a normal life and are not athletes, what that means is that, basically, as you learn to exhale through an exercise and that's exhale through the effort it means that there's less chance of injury. For instance, lifting your child out of the car when you move side to side, you don't need to think about bracing everything and all that sort of. You just pick your child up, exhale through the motion boom and it becomes automatic. Your body will know which muscles to use at which time, rather than bracing everything or you know, using your back to lift with everything and all that sort of stuff, which you see, a lot of which can. I'm not saying it always leads to injury, but it definitely can do so. Yes, we start by lying down, then we move sitting and then we move to standing up, because standing up core breath is actually a little bit trickier than lying down is and you exhale like that every single time and before you know it and by before you know it I mean usually at four to six weeks, but definitely after three months it kind of just becomes a norm. That's kind of just what you do and you might need to remind yourself of that every now and again, especially when you start lifting heavier things or when you carry something really heavy, but it is by far the easiest way to lift, I find so.

Peter : 9:17

Question two so I was super diligent the first six weeks, but then had a whole bunch of things come up right after the other. And I've been pretty inconsistent for the last six weeks, but then had a whole bunch of things come up right after the other and I've been pretty inconsistent for the last six weeks. I got all the way through weeks one to four and noticed a huge difference in strength and my diastasis gap, and then got halfway through weeks four to eight. I've done the workouts off and on since then, but my gap seems to have digressed and gotten bigger. Is that possible or am I imagining it? And if it is possible, how do I stop it from spreading apart again? Are there certain motions I just can't do anymore? So again, there's a couple of questions in there. First of all, let's start at the beginning. Well done for being super diligent in the first six weeks, because, let's be honest, this stuff is tricky sometimes and life does get in the way.

Peter : 9:59

The issue with life getting in the way of rehab exercise is that, as you are recovering and if you then stop, the body kind of um, regresses a little bit, right it's. It gets a little bit weaker again because it's not fully recovered yet. Um, now, usually if you don't have any injuries and you just skip the gym for six weeks, you might feel a little bit no more meh and a little bit weaker and all that sort of stuff. Uh, when you're in the process of healing, still, you feel that little feeling a little bit more. That's kind of all it is. You still have some benefit, of course you do. You put six weeks of effort in so you're not back to square one. You will find that, um, that the, and when you pick the exercises back up again, everything you had six weeks before then comes back a lot quicker. But yeah, you could regress a little bit and the gap could feel a bit bigger, even though it isn't really. The gap doesn't necessarily open up the muscles around it just get a bit weaker and it feels a bit. It feels like the gap is a bit wider, but it's not necessarily um, it could, of course, be that if you've done I don't know if you, if you've done six weeks of of exercise and a reasonable diet and by diet I mean the diastasis recti type stuff to prevent you, prevent you bloating and all that sort of thing. So it doesn't matter what you eat, you just didn't eat the things that made you bloat. And if you stayed away from that and then you started eating those things that make you bloat a little bit and you haven't done your exercises, yeah, then it could get a bit bigger. The gap could get a bit bigger again. But your muscle activation, your muscle functionality, is still there somewhere, right, it's just a little bit less, but when you go back into it you'll get the results a lot quicker.

Peter : 12:05

Exercise always, always, always pays off and it always has a benefit somewhere. Having to take a break for six weeks is not the end of the world. Sometimes that just happens. Having to take a break for six weeks is not the end of the world. Sometimes that just happens. It is what I always tell people, that you know if you can keep doing the home routines as often as you can, right, it's, the home routines. Are the bread and butter, and they kind of only take 10 minutes. Are the bread and butter and then bread and butter, and they kind of only take 10 minutes. So even if you can't do the strength weeks and for the strength sessions anymore, then definitely, uh, try to get the home routine in once or twice a week just to stay on top of it and I know that's difficult, but it it really does help. And if you can't, then you just accept that you're not going to be on top of it for a while and you can get back to it later on. Like I said to somebody and I mentioned this on Fred's as well, but like I said to somebody earlier in the week there isn't that much difference between postpartum recovery, six months postpartum and six weeks postpartum, and by that I mean that you'll be fine if you have to start a bit later or take a little bit of a break. It really isn't the end of the world. That is just not how it works.

Peter : 13:32

So, with regards to the second question, are there certain motions I just can't do anymore, because the way to stop it spreading apart again, so to speak, is to prevent internal pressure, right? So, no bloaty foods and do your exercises and all that sort of stuff. Once it's healed, it's healed, though. Once it's healed, it's done, and we'll get to that when it's question four because she touches on that a little bit in question four Are there certain motions I just can't do anymore? Well, you might find it's a bit more difficult to control the exercises you used to be able to do in the week's four to eight program compared to the week's one to four program. I'm sorry, the exercises you're struggling a bit with now from the program that you used to be okay with. That just means you regress the program a bit.

Peter : 14:21

You go back to doing stuff from weeks one to four and just build it back up again. You're not missing anything and you can always. You know, if you don't want to pay for the HPMB program, it's completely fine. You copy and paste this stuff before your trial expires, right? You can always go back into it. The links always work, right. You just don't have access to the site anymore. But you can always copy-paste the thing into a Word document, and I really shouldn't be saying this.

Peter : 14:45

But there you go and then go back to weeks one to four and just say, okay, I don't want to pay for it, but I don't want to miss out on that first three months program. You don't keep progressing through the program if you feel that the program is moving at too fast a pace for you and you set your own pace. That's the whole point of of of me giving so much access is that you can. You can time it yourself. An ideal world. If you're very diligent, then you can probably do weeks one to four in four weeks and weeks five to eight in four weeks and all that sort of stuff. But if you find you need to slow down a bit, then you can Nothing to stop you doing that. Again, even if you pay for the whole Healthy Postnatal Body Program, you pay your $50 or your 40 pounds, whatever currency you are in. You have lifetime access, right, you don't need to rush through it.

Peter : 15:47

The whole program takes 9, 10 months and very few people stay diligent for 9, 10 months. But a lot of people do come back to it after child two and after child three and they just take their time. So the only motions you can't do anymore are the most that is. First of all, it's not permanent that you can't do those motions anymore and secondly, it just means that your body isn't quite strong enough to do them anymore. So it's the same.

Peter : 16:18

As I don't know, I can squat 100 kilos one week because I keep training squats and I build that up to 100 kg squat and then I don't do squats for six weeks. Yeah, I can't go back to 100 kg squat. I can go back to an 80 kg one and build the 100 back up. That's kind of the approach you want to be taking. Take a step back in order to move forward again and you might well find that taking a step back. Actually, you know, it comes back so quickly Once you've been diligent for six weeks or so. It comes back so quickly. Your body remembers I'm not talking about physically the muscles remembering and that's not what I mean by muscle memory, but it's your body remembers how to move Right. That this is how you always can tell the difference between someone who used to say be an athlete and someone who wasn't. You know, someone who's never exercised before will take a lot longer to learn a new exercise than someone who used to be really good at any type of movement. The body just kind of gets it Right. Question three I of gets it Right. Question three I hope that helps. This helps, by the way. Question three Are the exercises you have us do in this 12-week program safe for early pregnancy as well, or just for postnatal Okay?

Peter : 17:41

So first of all, little caveat the Healthy Postnatal Bodycom program is 13 weeks completely free access. The program is much longer than 12 weeks, right. Everything in the program, however, is fine. For early pregnancy, the only thing. And for early pregnancy, even late pregnancy, you can keep doing most of this stuff. The only thing we don't do is in the lastester. We don't do exercises on your back anymore. That is the only change we make. So you can, especially things like squats and lunges and all that sort of thing. Woodchoppers are very beneficial later on in the pregnancy. Glute kicks, all that sort of stuff are very, very useful. So they're completely safe to do All exercise, and this goes for all types of exercise during pregnancy.

Peter : 18:33

As long as your exhaustion level isn't above roughly a 7 out of 10, you're completely fine to do almost everything. I've had and I've mentioned this before I had someone pregnant with twins who scheduled her C-section on I don't know Friday, who did a 100-section on I don't know friday, who did 100 kilogram squat on a thursday, the day before her due date, because she wanted to prove that she could do it. It's completely safe because she was already used to doing it right. That is the thing. During pregnancy, you can keep doing what you are already doing and you can even, in a lot of cases, if you're coming from a relatively say, low bar where you don, in a lot of cases, if you're coming from a relatively, say, low bar where you don't exercise a lot, starting exercise in pregnancy will benefit you. You might just, if you're I don't know if you're an athlete, a more athletic person or you train a lot anyways you might dial down the intensity a little bit. That's all you need to do.

Peter : 19:23

Everything else is always completely safe during pregnancy. I I have never come across anyone that trained too hard, that trained reasonably during pregnancy, that where something went wrong because they exercised too much or they exercised reasonably do you know what I mean? If you don't go overboard, you will be fine. I've got an interview coming up with somebody about pretty much just that, but from a postpartum angle. Hopefully it'll get in two or three weeks or so when I can actually get around to it. By the way, if you have any questions yourself, peter at healthy postnatal bodycom, right, or just reply to the to the healthy postnatal body emails, if you're, if you're a member. If you're not a member, also cool, peter at healthypostnatalbodycom. Right.

Peter : 20:11

Last question, and maybe most importantly, number four and last question how will I be able to tell once my body is strong enough again and how can I know that my diastasis is healed In between brackets, since it's apparently normal to have a small gap there? I'm not sure how to tell once I've achieved a healthy level of separation. Right, that is a phenomenal question. It's a good one. Yes, it's completely normal to have a gap there, and the reason you don't know what the normal level of separation is is because nobody checks this prenatal. Nobody ever checks this before they fall pregnant. There's never been a 16, 17, 18, 19 year old girl who does a diastasis type check to check what their normal level of of separation is. So nobody knows what.

Peter : 20:59

We do know with regards to the gap anything below two and a half, 20, two and a half centimeters, 25 mil, is no longer classed as diastasis. But if that's normal for you, it might be a bit smaller, might be a bit bigger, but anything below doubt. Technically, gap wise, we don't class as diastasis anymore. Um, how will you know once your body's strong enough again and diastasis are healed are two separate questions. Diastasis is healed is basically when your stomach is back to the new normal, back to where that gap feels normal again for you. And, like you said, that's completely personal for everybody, but it's usually around that 25 mil 2.5 centimeter two, two centimeter gap. Any anywhere near there is actually completely fine. Now don't worry about it. Even if it's slightly bigger, it's not necessarily something to worry about.

Peter : 21:57

How will I be able to tell once my body is strong enough again? That is the key question, because that's the one that really matters, because once your body knows how to function well enough again, everything you do will help heal your diastasis. Let me repeat that once you because that's an important lesson once your body functions well, everything you do will help heal your diastasis. If you breathe properly through an exercise and you do bicep curls or back flies and you exhale properly through it and your body functions well and your muscles work well enough, that back fly will help heal your diastasis, just because of how you're breathing through it Right and this is really important Now GAP will get back to normal normal for you by itself.

Peter : 22:53

Once you know how to breathe properly and that your body functions properly, how will you be able to tell what. Your body is strong enough again, that is just by being able to do the things you want to do Right. And I've said this before Once your body is, you know pretty much all there, so to speak, and you're fine and you have full muscle functionality. As long as you don't overdo it, you don't try exercises that you can't control your core on, then you will be completely fine. Everything in life as in if I know I can deadlift 150 kg, I can pick 150 kilos up off the floor safely, then I'm strong enough to do. That Doesn't mean I'm strong enough to do that. It doesn't mean I'm strong enough for 250 kg, but I do know that if we go from 150 to 160 to 170 to 180, sooner or later I'll get to 250 in a safe way. I hope that kind of makes sense. That analogy Some people, some women, at the end of three months of the Healthy Postnatal Body Program can do things like crossover crunches or individual leg raises.

Peter : 24:15

That doesn't necessarily mean they're strong enough to do full leg raises or bicycle crunches, so where you kick your leg all the way out, because they might not have the control in their core yet. But if your body functions well enough so you can do the crossover crunches nicely. You can add a degree of difficulty and build it up in a completely safe way to get to do the bicycle crunches. You're very unlikely to make your diastasis worse during exercise. To make your diastasis worse during exercise, right, unless you're constantly doing exercises where you are not in control of your core, your diastasis is likely never to go and get worse once you have good muscle functionality and all that sort of stuff.

Peter : 25:05

Because, like I said, if you're in control and you're breathing properly, every exercise you do makes your diastasis better, right, improves your diastasis so, um that that that is an important part to remember that you don't need to be on a postpartum program forever. You don't need to and this is why the, the hpnb program splits up in in uh, after four months I think it is right into a legs and glutes, into a core and and upper body or posture type type program. I can't even remember at the top of my head. I know I should, but but I can't. Um, and you know you can focus on the things you want to focus on, because everything you do at that stage, if you do a posture related exercise exercise. So a lot of in the posture sessions, a lot of that is back and back of the shoulders and and all that type of stuff, glutes, a lot of glutes. There's always glutes, um, that will help heal your diastasis if you still have some and your body will be strong enough to do those exercises or the variations of that doesn't mean your body is strong enough, like the session that this lady sent in uh was the home strength, uh weeks 13 to 16. So that's the emails she responded to.

Peter : 26:26

And there is the home and strength weeks and there's advanced strength, right. So because from day one in hpmb I split it up into the normal home sessions and the normal strength sessions. And the normal home sessions because they're the same for everyone, and the advanced strength sessions depending on what your level of uh, of fitness of or of ability is. Because a lot of people on the hpmb program come to this with uh, quite a high level of fitness, so there's no point in giving them really normal entry level type strength sessions. They get bored, they never stick to it. And by high level of fitness I'm not talking about comparing people who sat on the couch to professional athletes. The strength sessions are for everyone. The advanced strength sessions. They come in levels as well, and the top ones of those are athletes. Strength sessions are really just, they come in levels as well, and the top ones of those are, you know, athletes. Strength sessions as in. They have better muscle functionality and all that type of stuff.

Peter : 27:40

I hope that helps. But at the end of the day, right your diet sizes. Once you've recovered and once you've got muscle functionality, your diet sizes won't get worse. By once you've good muscle functionality, your diet sizes won't get worse by itself. That just doesn't happen. If you have to take a break midweek, midway through your uh, your rehab program, you are going to get a bit weaker, but that doesn't mean you won't have any benefit, right, and when you get back into it, you just take a couple of steps back, a couple of weeks back, and then you go again.

Peter : 28:11

In case of the hp and v program, you can just copy paste this stuff. I don't care. If you're like I'm not going to be paying for this beat, then that's fine. Just copy and paste this stuff and put it in the thing and take your, take your time, right. That is the key. That is the thing to do. I hope that helps. I hope that helps everybody. I hope you got something from this. Peter at healthypostnatalbodycom, if you want to get in touch, if you have any questions, I hope I find the time to edit some interviews and record some intros and outros and all that sort of stuff. I have several in the pipeline. I just can't find the time to get them done Because, believe it or not, it takes longer than it sounds like it takes. Anyways, here's a new bit of music. You take care of yourself. Bye now.

Speaker 2: 29:01

Guitar solo In the well I dug myself Cause I fell under that spell and the fireflies in the sky Spelled my name in lies. All the hope I just can't see While I'm hurting and bleeding. But the help is on its way. Way too late. I will survive. I will find a lifeline. I will survive and you'll beg yourself to see me one more time, guitar solo. In the days that I can't see the forest for the trees, in the hours I spend alone Searching for my home, all the hungry nights awake, where my tears are all I taste. And the help is on its way, way too late. I will survive. I will find a lifeline. I will survive and you'll beg yourself to see me. You'll beg yourself to see me. You'll beg yourself to see me one last time, guitar solo. Thank you.