The Tupler technique

Weekly physical therapy sessions since P’s birth have been a serious blessing. It started off because of my mild prolapse symptoms -which ended up being attributed to my healing from an incomplete repair, which I’ll be having surgery to remedy- but I’ve continued the physical therapy for a variety of situations following the birth. To all of my fellow mama friends, if you can get a referral for pelvic floor physical therapy following the birth, I highly highly recommend it! In other countries, like France, it is required for mamas post-birth and can help to help and protect pelvic floors. If the US had the same benefits and requirement, it would help out so many moms.

Through physical therapy, we’ve worked on quite a few things: pelvic floor strength and exercises, core strength and diaphragmatic breathing, posture, hip strengtheners (my hip rotators and glutes are weak), and tips for exercising. In the past few months of physical therapy I’ve learned strategies and exercises that I will continue to use from now on. This diagnosis SUCKED in many ways, but also was a huge blessing in this regard.

Through all of the research I did for the prolapse symptoms, I came across the Hab It! website and DVD. The exercises in the DVD and on the website can (and should!) be used by women in various stages of life. (Of course, check with your doc first and all that good stuff.)

Through my fantastic Physical Therapist, I also learned of the Tupler technique. The good news is that my core is healing together well, and I do not need to worry about Diastasis Recti (DR) for this pregnancy. (For tips on core training, check out this post!) But, the Tupler exercises can help to bring the core back together, whether you have DR or simply want to promote healing. Here is the website if you’d like to check it out. My Physical Therapist is having me do the exercises in addition to diaphragmatic breathing each day. I actually learned how to target my transverse abdominis, and it’s funny, because even as a personal trainer, I’d been doing it incorrectly all these years. I would just squeeze my entire core in, but I finally learned how to bring everything UP and in. Pretty bomb.com.

So tell me friends, what’s something that helped you the most in your physical recovery post baby? For me, I learned that rest was #1. With Liv, I overdid it, and instantly felt the consequences. It’s really important to take it more slowly than you think you need to. While you may feel great on the outside, a lot of internal healing still needs to take place.

xoxo