Lana Dawkins and Stephanie Snelling are great friends who co-founded The Belly Firm and pioneered the Tupler Technique® in Australia. Based in Melbourne they run group workshops and private consultations for both women and men and have a thriving online business promoting the Tupler Technique® within the southern hemisphere.
Like most licensees our journey to the Tupler Technique® was an experiential one – we both developed diastasis recti during our pregnancies and, despite being experienced fitness professionals we had limited knowledge of the condition and/or how to heal it. As luck would have it we both went to the same Chiropractor who had come across Julie’s LYMT DVD during his research and introduced us individually to her program. After achieving positive results very quickly we made the decision to go to New York and train with Julie so we could bring her program back to Australia.
That initial recommendation from our Chiropractor set the course for our business focus thereafter – we encourage Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, midwives, personal trainers and yoga and Pilates instructors to attend our workshops so they can learn more about diastasis recti and the Tupler Technique®. By participating in the program they often discover that they have an abdominal separation and they get to ‘feel’ the results for themselves – and from there they are readily converted to our cause! As a result we consistently receive recommendations from those medical and fitness professionals who recognize and respect the beneficial long term results that the Tupler Technique® brings. We have been told that spinal and muscular adjustments ‘hold’ for longer when patients are following the Tupler Technique®; and the increased core strength improves postural alignment resulting in speedier physical recoveries.
It still amazes us how often we hear fitness professionals talk about strengthening the core and then give exercises that do the exact opposite! That, or they give advanced core exercises (like Plank) to people with minimal core strength. From the celebrity trainers on shows like The Biggest Loser to Yoga/Pilates gurus we have been appalled to see them encourage crunching style exercises where the transversus abdominius cannot be engaged and the linea alba is placed under strain. Our biggest concern is that too few people know about the condition diastasis recti and even fewer fitness or medical professionals know how to respond, treat and repair the condition.
We know that education is key to raising awareness and improving knowledge and we 100% believe in the efficacy of the Tupler Technique®. By providing that education to the fitness and medical profession we find that they are then driven to promote Julie’s program – and therefore our business – and so far we have been gratified and uplifted by the support and interest we have received.