It's been 3 months since I no longer had to peek over my enormous belly to see my toes. Even though losing a good deal of the baby weight hasn't been too horrific of a process, my tummy is still recovering from hauling around such a large package. It's also been screaming from carrying said package on the outside of my tummy!
At the beginning of my pregnancy, my dear friend Sarah recommended to me a book by Julie Tupler called "Lose Your Mummy Tummy". I'd forgotten about it until just a few weeks ago. If I recall, it came to me as I was lying on the bed attempting to try on a pre-baby swinsuit. :-p After a fruitless search at our library, I defaulted to dear-ole Amazon. Swinging through the search box I found the book and anxiously awaited it's arrival.
In-between baby's naps, I discovered that anybody can have a "Mummy Tummy". Think beer-bellies, the belly and muffin-topped, overweight, the young and old alike...not just Moms with pregnancy stretched stomach muscles. The buldge is a problem called diastasis which is caused by the separation of the outer abdominal muscles. A look into how our bodies work, reveals that typical crunches, sit ups and criss-cross exercises will exacerbate the diastasis instead of helping to correct it.
The good news is that with simple, specific movements, the problem is not permanent and can alleviate not just tummy troubles but lower back pain as well. This helps not just recovering Moms, but anyone with a flabby stomach and back issues. Since our muscles help to support each other, it only makes sense that if you strengthen the front, the back with be better supported in the process.
I know I'm putting myself out there for scrutiny by writing a review on a no-more-flabby-stomach book, but as I've been working at it and slowing seeing and feeling results, I had to share. I've been reminded and better educated on how to make the most of my daily activities to regain strength in my core. In doing so, I'm a healthier, and as my clothes fit around the waist, happier, wife and Mommy. I highly recommend this book, and at some point in the future I'd also like to read Julie Tupler's book called "Maternal Fitness". Maybe it'll be in the our library system by then...
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I think our library can get books from the FW library. Have you asked about that? Also, what make the exercises different from regular crunches? Never would have thought that the old-style ones wouldn't work for that! Interesting.
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