The Tummy Team – A Story of Healing
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
- Back to the Basics! - February 24, 2020
- Blessing Others with a Valentine’s Day Heart Attack - February 10, 2020
- Are You Willing to Be Humiliated? - December 9, 2019
Disclaimer: We have partnered with The Tummy Team, in order to bring you a great giveaway that you will benefit from physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually. We have used personally used The Tummy Team in our own healing journey. All opinions are 100% ours. Enjoy!
If you can answer yes to any of these question, then you need to read on!
- Do you exercise?
- Do you do crunches to get rid of the belly that won’t go away?
- Are you pregnant?
- Have you been pregnant?
- Do you plan on having a C-section or abdominal surgery?
- Do you look pregnant but aren’t?
- Do you have back or belly pain?
- Do you sit or bend over a lot?
- Do you accidentally wet yourself and can’t do certain activities because of it?
- Do you have an outie for a belly button?
- Are you a female or male? (This can affect both!)
- Are you going to have abdominal surgery?
Even if you haven’t answered yes to any of these, yet, this is info YOU NEED TO KNOW. Why? Because I DID NOT KNOW this. I didn’t know the warning signs or that this was even possible. So I continued on in my “no pain, no gain” mentality and missed what my body was trying to tell me.
I Want You to Know because I Didn’t Know
I went from a runner to a mother who could barely walk without major pain after her 4th child was born because I DIDN’T KNOW and ended up hurting myself because I DIDN’T KNOW any better.
BUT now YOU CAN KNOW! And if you are facing this now or ever do in the future,
YOU WILL KNOW where to turn to heal your body!
My Story
A few years ago all of a sudden my body was not working but I didn’t know what to do, other than exercise to try and get back into shape! And NONE of that worked. It just kept getting worse.
The Realization of Why my Body wasn’t Working
I couldn’t figure out what in the world was going on and one day, while I was talking to my Pilates instructor, who was pre & post natal certified, She asked,
“Did your doctor mention Diastasis Recti?”
I replied, “I’ve never even heard of that. What is it?”
She stated, “It’s when your abs muscles separate. Go home and self test and see if you have it.”
So after self-testing, I realized that yes indeed, I had Diastasis Recti. (Watch the video below to learn how to self-test.)
They determine the level of severity based on how many fingers you can fit between your abs and how far you can push down. Normal is 0-1 fingers, but at the time, I could fit my whole first in between my abs and push down quit a bit!
What is Diastis Recti?
It’s a separation of the abdominal muscles.
I was so thrilled to finally KNOW what was wrong, but now had to figure out how to fix it! I immediately called my doctor, who sent me to physical therapy without hesitation.
My first go round with physical therapy actually hurt me a little more than helped. The second therapist I tried had helped others with Diastasis Recti, but our schedules didn’t mesh at all, so I was stuck at home trying to work on what I had gleaned from these therapists and not doing very well.
THEN, I Found the Tummy Team!
So after becoming frustrated and not getting any better, I began researching. I found a blog post about Diastasis Recti written by a lady who was sharing her personal experience. She had been able to retrain her muscles so that she didn’t suffer from Diastasis Recti anymore. And she did it from her very own living room with the help of The Tummy Team!
What I love about The Tummy Team
1. My Body started to heal because of what The Tummy Team teaches!
After working with The Tummy Team’s online courses on and off for the past year and a half and using the techniques they provided, my Diastasis Recti has gone from being able to insert my entire first to only 3 fingers! But better than that my core is strong and I can do amazing things like jumping and chasing after my kids again!
I cried the first time I was able to chase my kids again. It was such a momentous occasion.
And if I happen to do something stupid, like play Wipe Out on huge inflatables (don’t judge), then I KNOW what I need to do when I hurt myself again!
2. For those you can’t make it into their office in Washington, they have online courses!
Being able to watch an online session at any time of day or night, was just what this busy momma of 4 who lived in Oklahoma needed.
3. The Online Courses are Affordable!
I was amazed that an entire online course was less than what I was paying for one rehab session!
4. They teach you techniques that you can use in everyday life!
Because I had the “No pain, No Gain” mentality as an athlete, I have had the opportunity to go to rehab therapy multiple times. What I loved about The Tummy Team’s program is that instead of just teaching you how to engage your muscles while you are laying down on the therapy table, they teach you how to engage your muscles during the course of life.
My family leads a very busy, nonstop life, so being able to take the concepts that I learned in the online course and use them while I was driving, in the shower, playing and lifting my kids, sitting on the floor and reading to them, and even while working, truly made all the difference.
5. They explain how your body works and why engaging your core is so important.
Did you know that we were all gifted with a God-given corset? Yes, it’s called the transverse muscles. In fact they are the only set of muscles that wrap around your entire body. They hold all the organs within your upper body together. So if your transverse muscles are weak, then they can no longer hold all those organs in place and now your body has to work extra hard to compensate for it and your energy is used up faster.
Then, there is your pelvic floor, which if strong and engaged, holds everything up in the body nicely by acting as the floor to the corset.
Through this program I learned that I not only had Diastisis Recti but also learned that my pelvic floor had dropped. This is why I hurt so badly and had problems walking and running.
6. They teach that no amount of crunches will get that belly that looks pregnant back under control.
The transverse muscles are the muscles that allow our bellies to stretch out when we are pregnant. When these muscles become weak due to pregnancy, working out or in the normal course of moving through life, they begin to not be as tight a corset as before. If we do exercises like crunches, we can actually make them weaker because crunches cause them to pull apart more.
Yikes! I did so many crunches and cross training workouts when trying to get back into shape. I KNOW now that only made my Diastasis Recti worse. Who knew? I sure didn’t but now YOU KNOW!
7. They teach us how to love our bellies.
I don’t know about you but I found myself becoming very upset with how I looked. I was frustrated that I looked 6 months pregnant when I wasn’t. Kelly challenged me to rethink these thoughts and appreciate what my body has endured. My body has served me well. I have 4 beautiful children and have put it through so much in my 37 years. If I’m going to heal my transverse abdominals then I needed to emotionally connect with them again and love my body.
8. Last but not least, The Tummy Team “Team”- Kelly & Gillian
is led by Kelly Dean, a physical therapist specializing in the rehabilitation of the internal muscles of the abdominals and back, and Gillian, a core rehabilitation and pelvic care specialist.
These two amazing ladies have lived through this same thing, have healed their bodies and now are helping others do the same! They understand that this is more than just physical. It is mentally and emotionally draining as well. KNOWING this, they not only work on healing the physical side but encouraging healing on the emotional side as well.
New Habits to Strengthen our Cores
When we, in the normal course of living, stretch the transverse muscles either through exercise, positioning our bodies incorrectly, pregnancy, etc, we have to learn new habits and ways of engaging our bodies so that they can function the way God intended. And that is exactly what The Tummy Team does!
Giveaway
Check out their list of online courses and see how they can help you! Sign up below for your chance to win YOUR CHOICE of any one of these online courses.
1 person will win an online course of their choice & 3 will win a 40% discount to any one of the courses! How awesome is that?
The Tummy Team – Online Course of Your Choice Giveaway
Online Courses
Core Foundations is designed for anyone with core weakness, low back pain, diastasis recti, pelvic floor weakness or just a poorly functioning core. Core Foundations builds the foundational strength of the internal corset muscles and gradually integrates that essential strength into your everyday life.
This program is also our recommended program for women recovering from birth.
Core Integrations is the next step of your rehab journey. When you have restored your core and are ready to challenge those muscles in a new way, this program takes the foundational core strength you learned to the next level.
The prerequisite for this program is either personal clinic work with The Tummy Team, Core Foundations or Prenatal Core Training.
Prenatal Core Training is designed to help expecting women prepare their abdominal wall and pelvic floor for pregnancy, labor, delivery and birth recovery. The Prenatal Core Training Online Program will systematically and safely help you rebuild the internal core muscles and then effectively prepare the pelvic floor for delivery.
This is a perfect program for any expecting mom and is especially popular with women who had difficult previous deliveries, c-sections or excessive tearing and want a better experience. This program is also very helpful for women who have a diastasis and are now pregnant and do not want the separation to become worse.
The Prenatal Crash Course is designed for pregnant moms who may not have 6 weeks left in their pregnancy to complete our Prenatal Core Training (PCT) online course.
This condensed version of PCT includes the essential information our Core Rehab Specialists™ would give a client if they could only be seen for one session. The course will provide clear background education about the anatomy of the core, the role of the core in labor and delivery, and step by step exercises to help you prepare for effective pushing and birth recovery.
This is a perfect program for expecting moms that do not have much time before delivery but still want to prepare physically for birth.
The Core Preparations for Cesarean birth is a 4-week online program helps expecting moms prepare physically for a planned cesarean birth. The strength of the core and optimal awareness of alignment during pregnancy and birth recovery can make all the difference in your birth experience.
This program is great combination of the information from our Core Preparations (for abdominal surgery) and our Prenatal Core Training program. It includes specific information for C-section birth preparation and birth recovery, and provides you with an effective and realistic post-partum plan.
The Core Preparations for abdominal surgery is a 4-week online program helps clients prepare for abdominal surgery. The strength of the core and awareness of alignment and optimal movement are key to helping clients recover from abdominal surgery. Preparing the muscles and body prior to surgery can prevent so many complications.
This program is great to prepare physically for any surgery but we specifically see clients with hernia repairs, hysterectomy, bowel resections, back surgery, scoliosis surgery, tummy tucks, gastric bypass, gall bladder surgery and more. This program is beneficial whether you are having a full incision or a laproscopic procedure.
Which course would help you the most right now?
