Thursday, May 3, 2012

Are sit-ups bad for you?

How I stared my morning

such a good student, even when sick

When I sat down today I had another blog post in mind, then a friend of mine back in TX, K.R., posted a link on her Face Book page http://fit2b.us/2012/05/03/im-not-sore-am-i-doing-it-wrong/ , inquiring about not being sore after working out to the videos posted on the site.

I clicked on the link, read the question she had posted, the reply and then the "about" info. I must admit that the reply that was posted to K.R.'s question made me laugh. I mean who does not like to feel the soreness after a great work out. And the business of being a mom, the number of kids we have had, and the business of our  day to day lives should not, in my mind , be a factor of how you work out or the intensity of that work out. To me all those things make me push harder at working out so that I know at least there is something in my life I have TOTAL control over.

But, then I read the reply that was posted to my own comment and that set my wheels in motion even more.
And the questions that came to mind were, what exactly is diastasis recti ? How do you know if you have it? How do you get it? How can you fix it?

After reading on  wikipedia, and the website fit2b.us, about diastsis recti, the understanding I got was that diastasis recti, aka abdominal separation, is where your rectus abdominal muscle separates into right and left halves. It is very common among pregnant and postpartum women, aka mothers,since the growing uterus stretches the rectus abdominis. And that doing traditional sit ups may actually do more harm then good.

I also learned that there are ways to "feel" if you have diastasis recti and if so there are modified or special work outs that you can do to help strengthen your core.

So I watched the video on how to feel if you have abdominal separation , then I did the "test" on myself. From what I feel when pressing my fingers into my abdomin, like the lady shows, I just might have diastais recti. But how can that be, I mean I was the mom- to- be who was running while I was pregnant with babies #4 and 5, and when I could no longer run with #5 I did Turbo Jam uptil a week before I delivered.

And then a light bulb went off.

If I do indeed have this, I am the major factor as to why I do. Meaning I helped contribute to my abdominal separation, by doing these things while pregnant. Pregnancy , as we all know, places a ton of stress on your body and your ligaments to begin with , but then you go and run or do any other exercise that you need to engage your abdominal muscles to perform and WALLA you just up the amount of stress placed on your rectus abdominis. Way to go me, NOT!

Now the question is if I do in fact have this, which I am NO DOCTOR and have not seen one and really do not plan on it either, what , if anything, do I change in my own core workouts that will help.
Or do I just continue on with my workouts like I always have before I learned of this?

what is your thought?







4 comments:

  1. Well hello there! I found that you'd written about my article by following the backlink, and I just LOVE how you are processing all this. I was asking myself the same questions and having the SAME realizations a couple years ago. Of course I could say to just go to my site and do the free workout and join... but because I am so honored that you wrote about it, I'll just give you a few hints. Here are three exercises you CAN do! Side bridges/planks. Mermaids from Pilates. And squats! Lots of squats! But if you want more than that, I'm here for you! Thanks again for writing your thoughts. Because I seldom know what other bloggers truly think of my site, and I refuse to pay for reviews. LOL! Blessings!

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    1. I am happy to have had the pleasure of reading and blogging about your site, a ton of good info is on there and it took me all day to process the info and my own thoughts on it. Thank you for the 'hints', some of these I already do and some I will need to look into. And I agree you should not have to pay for reviews, come see me :)

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  2. I have the opposite problem, Dede! I'm fat and lazy, lol! I don't really enjoy working out like other people do. But I keep holding onto this weight in my belly and cannot seem to get rid if it! I've tried to tell myself that it's just my body type, but that's a cop out. Let me know what you decide to do! I've been enjoying Bethany's workouts!

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    1. Kara you are not fat and lazy. OMG!! you kill me. But I know that it is hard and we are all our own worst critics especially when it comes to our bodies. I just think it is great that you at least are taking the steps to get yourself where you feel you should be, most people don't even go that far.
      I will be adding some more Pilates and Yoga to my other works outs, that is about as far as I got :)
      Thank you for allowing me to use your post by the way. See you soon :)

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