A diastasis is a stretching and bulging of the midline connective tissue and is typically not painful but tents out when you strain, crunch, cough or beard down. A hernia is a tear in the connective tissue that bulges most of the time and becomes worse when bearing down, crunching or bracing. It can be tender, discolored or painful.  Our approach treats the cause of both conditions, functional core weakness and poor compensation patterns when activating your core. If your medical professional does not recommend immediate surgical intervention, it is likely that you have a diastasis and will likely be able to heal without surgery. If surgery is immediately recommended then you will benefit from our prehab Core Preparations before surgery and our Core Foundations for Men after surgery. Either way, we have got you covered!

In most cases, yes.  Diastasis recti and functional core weakness is best treated by specialized rehab to balanced out the internal and external muscle activation of your core. Both can be effectively treated without surgery.  However, if you need abdominal surgery for a different condition, it can be very important to properly prepare for that surgery and the impact it can have on the core.  This Men's Core Rehab Collection, covers all the possible scenarios.  We give you a comprehensive plan to fully restore your core and be strong for your life.

Specific healing time depends on a series of factors including: how severe your diastasis is, how long you have had it, how much muscle imbalance is present, how much stress is in your life, how consistent you are with the rehab and how much you are willing to adjust activities the push out on your abdominal wall.  Most clients notice a meaningful improvement is symptoms within the first 2 weeks of our rehab process.  After 6 weeks there is typically a significant reduction in the diastasis with clients feeling confident about their ongoing plan to keep it improving.  After the initial strategies are learned, it ultimately takes time and consistency to completely heal.  But don't worry, we give you easy doable tools to build the rehab into your real life and progress you back to the activities you love so that you will continue to heal without feeling like a slave to rehab. It is easier than you think and completely worth the strength and pain relief that comes with the functional core strength.

Yes you can continue to exercise and be active.  However, some of the typically fitness choices clients make especially related to core weakness will need to be reevaluated so you are not making your condition worse in an effort to gain strength.  Fitness is a challenge for your body and we want you to have a strong foundation to build that challenge on. So, initially we will give you ways to modify your workouts to be sure you are getting the best of both your rehab journey and your fitness lifestyle.  Once you have a strong connected core and can coordinate your core activation with other movements you can gradually return to almost all the things you were doing before but with more strength and less potential for injury.

There are few physical therapists that truly specialize in treating diastasis recti and functional core weakness (especially in men).  For this reason, our online approach can be exactly what you were hoping for, an expert that comes to you.  After years of working with clients in our clinic, we took those tools and put them into this step by step online course.  Each week you will watch about a 45 minute series of videos combining education, exercises, tools, strategies and functional things we want you to incorporate into your daily routine. We give you a clear rehab plan for the following week with the flexibility to add the strategies to the activities and postures you are already doing.  At the beginning of the next week, you will get access to the next set of videos.  We also include downloads of handouts, charts and images of some of the key exercises to help support you throughout your week.  It is very similar to how you work with a PT in person, you see them once a week, work together, and then get a plan to work on at home and then return the following week to monitor your progress and progress you to the next step.  The big difference is that Functional Core Rehab is our specialty and we empower YOU to be a big part of helping your body fully heal.  This approach has been incredibly successful and gives you ongoing tools to be strong for life!