Julie Tupler, RN
Executive Director, Founder Spabébé!
Julie Tupler, RN, was asked to teach a prenatal class at a local health club in 1987 because she was a Registered Nurse. When the women in the class found out that she was a nurse they started picking her brain about labor. In order to find out more about labor she became a childbirth educator. She realized that traditional childbirth education came at the end of the pregnancy and only prepared the mind. As in training for any athletic event, she realized you must prepare both the mind and the body. So Maternal Fitness® was conceived in October, 1990.
Julie is a Registered Nurse, NCSF Certified Trainer and a Certified Childbirth Educator. She has authored two books that quickly became a leading resource on pregnancy and postnatal recovery: Maternal Fitness®...Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy, an Easier Labor, and a Quick Recovery and Lose Your Mummy Tummy. Julie is an Advisory Board Member of Fit Pregnancy, Alpha Moms TV, iParenting, PBS Savvy Moms and the Women's Sports Foundation. She provides continuing education to numerous professionals, and is an Independent Health Council Member of The Association of Professional Team Physicians, a frequent keynote speaker and a consultant. She was recently on Oprah & Friends featured as the leading expert on diastasis recti.
Julie lives in Gramercy Park with her daughter Flo, who is 6 years old.
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NO MORE CRUNCHES…….EVER…. by Julie Tupler, RN
It is something everyone wants. A flat belly. In our minds we think we must do crunches to achieve this.
This is a grave error in thinking because crunches are harmful for both our bellies and our backs! In order to understand why, it is important to understand how the abdominals work. So bear with me as we have a little bit of anatomy 101. We have three layers of abdominals. The outer is the rectus abdominis. There is two halves of this muscle which is joined by a piece of connective tissue. The function of this muscle is to support your back and organs. During pregnancy (or when men get a beer belly) this muscle both stretches and separates. This separation of the muscles weakens the support for your back causing back problems and weakens the support for your organs causing the “mummy tummy.” Women who have had babies know what I am talking about! When the muscles separate it is called a diastasis recti or separation of the recti muscle. As the muscles separate the connective tissue joining the muscles stretches sideways. So now the organs are being supported by a thin (saran wrap like) piece of connective tissue instead of the muscles if they were together. So those protruding bellies are really your organs not being supported effectively! Any trauma to that thin connective tissue can tear it away from the muscle thus exposing your organs. It is called a ventral hernia. Not a fun surgery to have repaired. Women show faster in their second pregnancy as they are starting that pregnancy with the muscles separated. This separation will get larger with each pregnancy. This separation will plague a woman her whole life unless she does specific exercises the close this separation. The good news is that it is never too late to close it if you do the Tupler Technique program. This program, by the way, is supported by research from Columbia University Dept of physical Therapy.
The middle layer of abdominals is the obliques. They run diagonally down the sides of your body. They insert into the connective tissue of the recti muscle. Because the two muscles are connected, the action of the obliques doing a forward crossover movement will create a shearing effect on the recti muscle and make the separation larger. So exercises and activities like tennis, doing this forward crossover movement, will make the separation larger and should be avoided until the diastasis is closed.
The innermost muscle is the transverse muscle. This is my favorite muscle because you get the best bang for your buck when you work this muscle. Trainers talk about working the core. Well, this is the muscle they are talking about! It is like a corset and wraps around the whole body. It too, like the obliques, inserts into the recti muscle. The action of this muscle is forwards and backwards. It is the muscle we use while breathing. So if the action of the transverse muscle is forwards and backwards…… and the transverse is attached to the recti, then every time the transverse goes back towards the spine it shortens (when shortening a muscle you are strengthening it) the recti from the middle of the muscle and as it goes back makes the separation of the recti muscle smaller. That is a good thing and the foundation of the Tupler Technique exercises!
Now we are finally ready to talk about why crunches don’t work! To work the recti muscle effectively you must shorten it from the top (when lifting the head), the middle( when engaging the transverse) and from the bottom when doing the pelvic tilt. So when doing a crunch what happens is the middle of the recti goes forward forcefully. A forward forceful pressure on the weak spot of the connective tissue (belly button) will make the diastasis larger if you have one…or create one if you don’t have one…..So if the middle of the recti goes forward we know we are NOT engaging the inner most transverse muscle. To work the core (transverse) means being able to bring the belly button towards the spine and HOLD it there. If you cannot hold it back that then you are not working the core and also making the diastasis larger or creating one. Here is the main problem. In a backlying position, when the shoulders come off the floor, it is physically impossible to hold the transverse in. That is why when doing backlying exercises you should just bring the head off the floor…not the shoulders. When the shoulders come off the floor, not only can you not engage the transverse muscle but it also bulges the disks of the spine in the wrong direction. So that is why crunches are harmful for the belly and the back.
So you ask, what should I do? The most important thing you need to do is strengthen the transverse muscle in a sitting position. This is the missing link in all abdominal work! In a backlying position gravity makes it very hard to engage your transverse muscle. So if you strengthen it first in a seated position…. the muscle will then be strong enough so you will be able to engage it in a backlying position.
One of the seated exercises you can do while watching TV or driving in a car. Just make sure your back is supported and does not move while doing the exercises. Put your hands on your belly so you can tell that the muscles are going back towards your spine. Now imagine you are bringing your belly button to your inner spine. Hold it there for the count of 30. Count out loud as it forces you to breathe. Now close your eyes and imagine that your belly button is going from your inner spine to your outer spine. It is a little isometric squeeze. After you squeeze remember to keep it at your inner spine. Do 10 of these little squeezes as you count out loud.
End with a big belly breath. Do 10 of these exercises every day. You should feel this in your back..
Closing a diastasis is a 4-step program:
1. Doing the seated and backlying Tupler Technique exercises
2. Wearing and holding a splint. Purpose of splinting is to pull the muscles together. This makes the exercises more effective and also helps heal the connective tissue
3. Engaging the transverse muscle on the work of everything you do
4, Getting up and down correctly from a backlying to seated position.
If you think you have a diastasis and want to learn more about it there are a few ways. If you live in NYC you should come to a Lose Your Mummy Tummy Seminar. I do them once every other month at my facility spabebe on Sundays from 1 to 4 pm. I get moms of all ages! Some with grown children! They are really a lot of fun. If you can’t get to the city watch my Lose Your Mummy Tummy DVD. Certainly if you have questions please feel free to email me at
