The Tummy Team Journey

What happens when you know you need to make a change, but you just can't seem to get started? Or maybe you started strong, but life got busy, you missed a few days (or weeks!), and now you're struggling to find your way back.

You're not alone. And you don't have to start over every time life gets in the way.

In this episode of The Tummy Team Journey Podcast, Kelly Dean, MPT, is flying solo to talk about something that comes up again and again with her clients: motivation and accountability.

As a physical therapist who has spent nearly 30 years helping people improve their strength and function, Kelly understands that knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things. She's experienced those same challenges herself, especially during her own journey of healing a significant diastasis recti.

Kelly shares why getting started can feel so overwhelming, how The Tummy Team's approach is intentionally designed to make rehabilitation manageable, and why lasting progress isn't about perfection. It's about taking small, consistent steps that fit into your everyday life.

Rather than adding another overwhelming list of exercises to your already busy schedule, Kelly explains how functional core rehabilitation can become part of the things you're already doing, from brushing your teeth and washing dishes to sitting at your desk and picking up your kids.

In This Episode, You'll Discover:

• Why motivation can be so difficult: Understanding the physical and emotional obstacles that can make starting or continuing rehabilitation feel overwhelming.

• The importance of knowing your "why": How reconnecting with your original goals can help you stay motivated when challenges arise.

• Why education comes before exercise: How understanding your body and the purpose behind each step empowers you to take ownership of your recovery.

• How to set yourself up for success: Why choosing the right starting course, completing your self-assessment, and recognizing your progress matter.

• The power of bite-sized learning: How short educational videos, weekly action steps, and practical tools make rehabilitation more approachable.

• How to build rehab into your everyday routine: Using habit stacking and simple strategies to create sustainable changes without overhauling your schedule.

• What to do when life interrupts your progress: Why missing a week doesn't mean you've failed and how to get back on track without starting over.

• Why accountability matters: How scheduling a weekly appointment with yourself, involving your family, and connecting with The Tummy Team community can help you stay consistent.

• The importance of celebrating small victories: Why an "I did" list might be more encouraging than another overwhelming to-do list.

One of Kelly's most important reminders throughout this episode is that it doesn't have to be perfect to be effective.

You don't need unlimited time, endless motivation, or a flawless routine to make progress. You need a starting point, realistic expectations, and the willingness to correct and continue.

Kelly also shares how The Tummy Team Membership, eSessions, and weekly live Office Hours provide education, practical guidance, and opportunities for accountability along the way.

Whether you're just beginning your core rehabilitation journey, feeling stuck halfway through a course, or trying to rebuild consistency after a busy season, this episode is filled with encouragement and practical strategies to help you take that next step.

Because the goal isn't simply to finish a rehabilitation program. It's to build the strength, confidence, and connection you need for the life you're meant to live.

Ready to take your next step? Explore The Tummy Team's online rehabilitation courses and support options at https://thetummyteam.com/.

Feel Connected Again.

What if the postpartum symptoms you've been told are normal don't have to be your new normal?

After years of pregnancies, persistent diastasis recti, urinary leakage, back pain, and pelvic floor dysfunction, Megan had begun to accept that her body would never feel the same again. Despite being a lifelong athlete and an experienced doula, she struggled to find answers. One doctor even suggested that surgery might be her only option once she was finished having children.

But Megan wasn't ready to give up.

In this From the Archives episode, Kelly revisits a powerful conversation with Megan, a mother of seven, doula, and personal trainer, who discovered The Tummy Team after years of trying to exercise her way back to strength.

Megan shares how learning to reconnect with her functional core and pelvic floor changed her understanding of postpartum recovery. Through The Tummy Team's Floor of Your Core, Core Foundations, and Prenatal Core Training programs, she began addressing challenges she had previously considered unavoidable.

One of the most remarkable parts of Megan's story is her seventh pregnancy. After six pregnancies marked by significant abdominal separation and pronounced belly protrusion, Megan describes how differently she carried her seventh baby after incorporating functional core rehabilitation into her daily life. She also shares how her labor experience changed and how the tools she learned helped her navigate recovery following a frightening, life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage.

Throughout their conversation, Kelly and Megan explore why postpartum recovery deserves more attention, why traditional fitness isn't always the first step toward rebuilding strength, and how small, intentional changes in posture, breathing, and core coordination can make a meaningful difference.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why urinary leakage, back pain, and abdominal separation shouldn't automatically be dismissed as inevitable consequences of motherhood.

• How diastasis recti and pelvic floor dysfunction can be connected.

• Why rehabilitation may be the missing link between pregnancy, childbirth, and returning to fitness.

• How Megan's experience with online core rehabilitation changed her approach to pregnancy and postpartum recovery.

• The importance of learning to coordinate and relax the pelvic floor, especially during childbirth.

• How Megan navigated recovery after a serious postpartum complication.

• Why building strength should be about supporting your body for everyday life, not pushing it to exhaustion.

Today, Megan uses her experience as a mother, doula, and personal trainer to encourage other women to approach their bodies with greater understanding, compassion, and confidence.

Her message is simple: "It doesn't have to be that way."

Whether you're six weeks or sixteen years postpartum, this conversation is a reminder that it's worth exploring your options, advocating for your health, and finding the support you need to Feel Connected Again.

What if the leaking you've learned to live with isn't something you simply have to accept?

For many women, incontinence becomes an accepted part of life. We wear pads, avoid certain activities, and tell ourselves it's just what happens after childbirth, during menopause, or as we get older.

But common doesn't always mean normal.

In this special episode of The Tummy Team Journey Podcast, we're sharing a conversation originally recorded for The Underlying Answers Podcast, where host Cindy Costley interviews Kelly Dean about the often-overlooked connection between functional core strength, pelvic floor health, and the body's ability to heal.

What begins as an educational conversation takes an unexpected and deeply personal turn when Cindy opens up about her own struggles with incontinence.

After years of chronic illness, prolonged bed rest, and a difficult journey of healing from trauma, Cindy had come to accept leaking as something she simply had to manage.

But as Kelly explains how the core and pelvic floor are designed to work together, Cindy realizes she has spent years healing other parts of her body without ever learning how to reconnect with her pelvic floor.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why incontinence is common but shouldn't automatically be accepted as inevitable.

• The difference between stress and urge incontinence.

• Why Kegels aren't always the answer to pelvic floor dysfunction.

• How posture, breathing, and core coordination support pelvic floor function.

• Why prolonged inactivity, chronic coughing, and sneezing can contribute to leaking.

• How physical disconnection and difficult life experiences can affect our relationship with our bodies.

• Why it's never too late to begin rebuilding functional core and pelvic floor strength.

An Unexpected Real Life Rehab Moment

As Cindy shares her experience, Kelly guides her through a few simple techniques involving posture, intentional breathing, and gently engaging her deep core muscles.

For the first time in years, Cindy begins to feel a connection to an area of her body that had felt disconnected.

And something unexpected happens.

She begins to cry.

Cindy experiences a powerful emotional release as she recognizes how much her past experiences have influenced the way she relates to her pelvic floor.

What started as a podcast interview becomes a meaningful moment of reconnection, hope, and a new perspective on healing.

Throughout the conversation, Kelly reminds us that functional core rehabilitation isn't just about fixing a symptom or completing a series of exercises. It's about learning how to support your body through everyday life, from lifting your children to maintaining strength, balance, and independence as you age.

And even if progress happens gradually, better is better.

Whether you're struggling with incontinence, pelvic floor weakness, or simply feeling disconnected from your body, Cindy's story is a beautiful reminder that healing can begin with understanding, compassion, and the willingness to try something new.

It's never too late to Feel Connected Again.

Nate had always thought of himself as a pretty fit guy.

He spent years in the CrossFit and functional fitness world, measuring progress by how much he could squat, press, and lift. But looking back, he realized something important:

He trained the top. He trained the bottom. But he had largely ignored the middle.

After marriage, fatherhood, divorce, changes in activity, and years of less-than-ideal posture and movement habits, Nate decided he was ready to reconnect with fitness. As he lost weight and began seeing more definition in his abdomen, he also noticed something he hadn't expected—coning through the center of his abs.

At first, he wondered if something was seriously wrong.

Then he discovered diastasis recti.

His search for answers eventually brought him to Kelly's videos about diastasis recti in men and then to The Tummy Team. What began as a desire to “fix” his abs has become a much bigger shift in how Nate understands strength, fitness, and his body.

In this episode, Kelly and Nate talk about why core rehab is about so much more than a series of exercises. They explore how posture, breathing, parenting, fitness habits, major life changes, and even the way we respond to stress can influence how we use our bodies.

Nate also shares what surprised him most: some of the simplest strategies—slowing down, breathing, connecting to his transverse abdominis, improving his posture, and consistently practicing what he's learning—have made a noticeable difference in how his entire body feels during exercise.

And because Nate is still in the middle of his rehab, Kelly helps him think through what comes next.

They discuss:

• Why diastasis recti isn't just a postpartum issue—and men can experience it too
• How being fit or muscular doesn't necessarily mean your core is functioning well
• The difference between bracing your core and creating functional core connection
• Why breathing and transverse abdominal activation can feel deceptively simple—but be foundational
• How to incorporate core connection into squats, push-ups, lunges, lifting, chores, and everyday movement
• Why “slow is strong” when you're retraining coordination
• How to know when you're ready to progress back toward more challenging exercise
• Why the goal isn't a permanent list of exercises you “can't” do
• How awareness can help you recognize compensation patterns and make adjustments sooner
• Why your goals for fitness may change as you get older—and why being strong for your actual life may matter more than hitting an impressive number in the gym
• How online rehab can give you tools to better understand and take ownership of your own body

One of the biggest mindset shifts for Nate has been realizing that he doesn't have to return to the exact version of himself he was before.

He's building something different.

As Kelly explains, sometimes we set a goal based on where we think we want to end up—and then discover that healing gives us something deeper: confidence, connection, awareness, and a kind of strength we weren't measuring before.

Nate is still on that journey. He's still working through Core Foundations, still experimenting, still learning, and still rebuilding.

But this time, he's not just asking:

“How much can I lift?”

He's learning to ask:

“How can I build a body that supports the life I want to live?”

And that may be a much better definition of strength.

What happens when you know how to connect to your core, you've been practicing functional movement for years, and you're still dealing with recurring back pain?

In this Real Life Rehab episode of The Tummy Team Journey Podcast, Kelly reconnects with longtime client Hannah Yackley, whose Tummy Team journey has spanned nearly 14 years, four children, pregnancy losses, different seasons of motherhood, teaching Pilates, homeschooling, and a whole lot of life.

Hannah first discovered she had a significant diastasis after having her first two children just a year apart. Despite entering motherhood in some of the best shape of her life as a Pilates instructor, she found herself with a deep abdominal separation, a body that felt completely different, and back pain that showed up even while doing something as ordinary as holding her babies.

She eventually found The Tummy Team and began learning something that would change the way she approached her core:

Core rehab has to go beyond exercises. It has to become part of how you live.

Over the years, Hannah has learned how to connect to her transverse abdominis, adjust her alignment, incorporate movement throughout her day, and recognize many of her body's signals.

But now she's in a different season.

Her youngest is almost two. She's homeschooling four children, teaching Pilates, carrying a very big toddler, and noticing that mid-back tension is increasingly affecting everyday moments—including sitting through church, driving, working at the kitchen table, and even enjoying a date with her husband.

Instead of continuing to spend the end of every day trying to release an aching back, Hannah came back to Kelly with a new goal:

What would it look like to become proactive instead of reactive?

What follows is a real eSession-style conversation as Kelly and Hannah work together to identify what's actually happening.

In this episode:

• Why your rehab needs can change as your life and body change
• How pregnancy, loss, postpartum seasons, and aging can influence your relationship with your core
• Why being fit—or even teaching Pilates—doesn't eliminate the need for functional core support
• How compensation patterns can show up as recurring mid-back tension
• Why Hannah does better when she begins her day by intentionally connecting to her body
• How just 3–5 minutes of intentional movement can change the way the rest of the day feels
• Why “all or nothing” thinking can sabotage consistency
• How visual feedback helped Hannah recognize when she was truly engaging her core
• The difference between hinging and hunching while working at a table
• How something as simple as the wrong chair can keep irritating an existing compensation pattern
• Why changing positions and taking postural breaks can matter
• How Kelly uses rest, release, replace, reset when Hannah's muscles are already overworking
• Why meaningful movement doesn't have to mean adding another workout to your schedule
• How to listen when your body is whispering instead of waiting until it has to shout

One of the most important parts of Hannah's story is that she isn't starting over.

The work she's done over the past 14 years still matters. But her body, responsibilities, capacity, and season of life have changed—and now she's learning how to apply what she knows in a new way.

Sometimes progress isn't about finding another complicated exercise.

It might be buying a better chair. Taking a postural break before your back starts aching. Slowing down an exercise so your core can actually engage. Spending three minutes connecting to your body in the morning. Or recognizing that the strategies that supported you five years ago may need to evolve with you today.

Your body isn't a project you finish. It's a relationship you continue to learn.

And sometimes the biggest shift is learning to give your body what it needs before you're in pain and desperately trying to fix it.

Have you ever tried pelvic floor physical therapy—or an online core or pelvic floor program—and walked away thinking, “That just didn’t work for me”?

That doesn’t necessarily mean pelvic floor rehab won’t work for you. It may mean you haven’t found the right kind of support for you yet.

In this episode of The Tummy Team Journey Podcast, Kelly sits down with her friend and colleague Megan Miller, a physical therapist with nearly three decades of experience and 27 years specializing in pelvic health, to talk about the growing number of options available for core and pelvic floor rehabilitation.

Pelvic floor PT has changed tremendously over the years. Today, you might receive care through a large outpatient clinic, a hospital system, a private pelvic health practice, an online program, one-on-one virtual sessions—or a combination of several approaches.

And those experiences can look very different.

Kelly and Megan discuss how insurance requirements can influence the frequency, length, and structure of traditional physical therapy visits, while private-pay practices may have greater flexibility to individualize treatment and space appointments according to a client's needs. They also explore the benefits and limitations of online programs and why not all online core and pelvic floor programs are created the same way.

Most importantly, they explain why effective rehab is about more than simply following a list of exercises.

Your symptoms happen in your real life—while you're lifting your kids, sitting at your desk, getting out of bed, exercising, using the bathroom, working, having sex, or navigating pregnancy and postpartum. Understanding those patterns and learning how to support your body within your life can be an important part of making meaningful progress.

• Why one experience with pelvic floor PT doesn't represent every type of pelvic floor care
• The differences between insurance-based clinics, private practices, and online rehabilitation
• How insurance requirements can affect the structure and frequency of physical therapy
• Why individualized care can be especially valuable for core and pelvic floor symptoms
• How online education can help you understand what's happening in your own body
• Why a generic exercise program may not address the whole picture
• How in-person and online care can complement each other
• Why Kelly's online programs focus on education and integration—not simply following along with exercises
• How eSessions can provide personalized guidance when you need help applying what you've learned
• Why your therapist or provider should understand your goals, lifestyle, and individual needs
• How to recognize when it may be time to explore another approach if you're no longer making progress

If you've tried pelvic floor rehab before and felt discouraged, this conversation is an invitation to stay curious rather than give up.

As Megan explains, the path forward won't look exactly the same for everyone. Your needs, resources, history, schedule, comfort level, and season of life all matter.

There isn't only one way to do pelvic floor rehab—and there may still be a path forward that works for you.

In this episode, you'll hear:

What if the missing piece in your core rehab isn’t another exercise—but learning how to use your core during the other 23 hours of your day?

In this From the Archives episode of The Tummy Team Journey Podcast, Kelly sits down with longtime client and family medicine physician Dr. Hilary Frescoln to talk about her journey from collegiate athlete and chronic back pain to motherhood, diastasis recti, and ultimately discovering what functional core strength really means.

Hilary had always been active. She played collegiate volleyball, lifted weights, ran, and did plenty of traditional ab exercises. But despite being in great physical shape, she struggled with recurring back pain and SI joint instability. Looking back, she realized she had become very good at using her strongest muscles to compensate—without ever really learning how to connect to and use her core for stability.

After having children and developing diastasis recti, Hilary tried multiple core programs before finding The Tummy Team. What made the difference wasn’t simply a new collection of exercises. It was learning how to connect to the right muscles and then integrate that connection into everyday life—while cooking, unloading the dishwasher, caring for children, working, lifting, sitting, and moving.

Years later, that approach has become part of how Hilary lives, parents, exercises, and even cares for her own patients.

Kelly and Hilary also talk about why sustainable change often starts much smaller than we think. A one-minute “fitness minute,” stretching while brushing your teeth, doing squats while helping a child practice piano, or taking a few moments to reset between patients may not look like a traditional workout—but those small choices can build consistency.

As Hilary puts it, consistency wins.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why being physically fit doesn’t always mean you have a functional core
• How compensation can contribute to recurring pain even when you’re doing “core exercises”
• The two pieces Kelly calls the “secret sauce”: connection + integration
• Why one workout can’t compensate for the way you use your body throughout the rest of your day
• How Hilary incorporated The Tummy Team through seven children, including a twin pregnancy
• Why tiny habits can be more sustainable than committing to another big workout
• How to “habit stack” movement onto things you already do every day
• Why awareness of posture, alignment, breathing, and everyday movement can be so valuable
• How Hilary uses what she has learned through The Tummy Team with her own patients
• Why the best exercise may simply be the exercise you’ll actually do

This conversation is a great reminder that building a stronger body doesn’t have to mean adding another overwhelming task to your schedule.

Sometimes the most powerful changes happen when you learn to use the body you already have, in the life you’re already living—one small, consistent choice at a time.

If you've ever been a competitive athlete, there's a good chance you learned how to push through discomfort, work harder when things got difficult, and keep going when your body wanted to stop.

Those qualities can become incredible superpowers—but what happens when the same mindset that made you successful in your sport starts working against your recovery?

In this episode of The Tummy Team Journey Podcast, Kelly sits down with fellow physical therapist Dr. Christina Trautman, owner of The Pelvic Floor Place, for a conversation about athletes, core and pelvic floor rehabilitation, pregnancy and postpartum recovery, and the complicated relationship athletes often have with pain, rest, and slowing down.

As two physical therapists who are also athletes and coaches, Kelly and Christina understand how difficult it can be to hear “you need to back off” when movement is part of your identity. Their goal isn't to take away the activities you love. Instead, they discuss how learning to recognize symptoms, modify intensity, build a stronger foundation, and prioritize recovery can actually help you keep doing those activities longer.

They also take a deeper look at the unique challenges female athletes may encounter during pregnancy and postpartum. Building a baby, giving birth, producing milk, changing hormones, disrupted sleep, and the physical demands of caring for a newborn are all significant demands on the body—even when they don't look like a workout. Returning to sport isn't simply about trying harder. It's about understanding what your body is doing now and giving it the tools it needs for this season.

And this conversation isn't just for women. Kelly and Christina discuss how both male and female athletes can get stuck doing the exercises they've always done without asking an important question: Is this actually helping me do what I want my body to do?

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the ability to push through pain can be both an athlete's superpower and their “kryptonite”
• How to distinguish between productive effort and symptoms that deserve attention
• Why rest and recovery are part of training—not a failure to train
• How pregnancy, postpartum, hormones, and parenting postures change the demands on an athlete's body
• Why prenatal core and pelvic floor preparation can support postpartum recovery
• What “cleared at six weeks” does—and doesn't—tell you about returning to exercise
• Why a tight pelvic floor isn't necessarily a functional pelvic floor
• How functional core training differs from simply adding “core exercises” to the end of a workout
• Why your old workouts may not be what your body needs in its current season
• How to shift from an all-or-nothing mindset toward training for strength, performance, and longevity

Your perseverance, discipline, work ethic, and ability to do hard things don't need to disappear during rehabilitation. The goal is to pair those strengths with something athletes aren't always taught: how to recognize what your body is communicating and respond before a symptom becomes an injury.

Because the goal isn't to settle for less—and it isn't to power through everything.

It's to build a body that can keep doing what you love for as long as possible.

What if building a strong core in childhood isn't about exercises at all—but about helping kids move, play, breathe, and trust their bodies?
In this episode of The Tummy Team Journey Podcast, Kelly sits down with pediatric physical therapist Dr. Lizzie Conrath, owner of Little Light Pediatric Therapies, to talk about what functional core rehabilitation looks like for children—and why so many of these principles matter at every age.

Lizzie discovered The Tummy Team after a mother of two young patients with diastasis recti encouraged her to explore Kelly's professional training. What began as an opportunity to learn more about treating diastasis quickly became a much broader understanding of how breathing, alignment, muscle balance, constipation, trauma, and everyday movement can influence the developing body.

Kelly and Lizzie also tackle an important question for parents: How do we support a child's body without making them afraid to move?

Kids climb monkey bars, wrestle, tumble, run, jump, and sometimes do movements adults with diastasis are told to avoid. Rather than creating a long list of "don'ts," Kelly and Lizzie discuss how dynamic childhood movement can actually help develop a strong, coordinated body—and how therapists and parents can identify the patterns that may need additional support.

The conversation goes far beyond pediatrics, exploring the connection between breathing and strength, how emotional and physical experiences can show up in the body, body confidence, and why learning to view your body as a capable tool can change your relationship with movement for life.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why core and pelvic floor health matters even in childhood
• How to support kids with diastasis without making them afraid to move
• Why breathing is foundational to strength and coordinated movement
• How constipation and respiratory patterns can affect core function
• Why dynamic movement is different from repetitive, isolated exercise
• How trauma, pain, and medical experiences can influence the way we connect with our bodies
• Why body confidence should focus on what our bodies can do, not simply how they look
• How The Tummy Team's professional training is helping therapists incorporate functional core principles into their own specialties

Whether you're a parent, therapist, healthcare professional, or simply someone who wants to better understand how the body was designed to move, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective: strength isn't about perfect movement or avoiding everything that could go wrong. It's about understanding your body, building confidence, and giving yourself—and your kids—the freedom to move.

Todd was no stranger to pushing his body. A longtime runner, ultra-marathoner, volunteer firefighter, farmer, and former soldier, he was used to approaching fitness with an all-in mentality. But after a season of reduced activity followed by an aggressive return to exercise, a weighted abdominal exercise left him with a painful diastasis recti—and suddenly, pushing harder wasn’t working anymore.

In this From the Archives episode, Kelly sits down with Todd to talk about his journey from injury and frustration to a completely different understanding of strength. After trying to push through the pain and later committing to an intensive rehab approach, Todd discovered that doing more exercises wasn’t necessarily the answer. What finally changed things was learning to look beyond the diastasis itself and understand how posture, alignment, daily movement, and functional core strength work together.

Todd and Kelly also dig into something that applies far beyond diastasis recti: the temptation to believe that more is always better. For driven, active people, slowing down can sometimes require more discipline than pushing through. Todd shares how shifting his focus from performance and isolated exercises to long-term function allowed him to return to the demanding activities of his real life—from farm work and splitting wood to firefighting—with greater awareness and confidence.

This conversation is especially valuable for anyone who tends toward an all-or-nothing approach to fitness or rehab. Healing doesn’t have to mean doing nothing, and strength doesn’t have to mean doing more. Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is build a better foundation, listen to your body, and focus on being strong for the life you want to live—not just the next workout, race, or goal.

More isn’t always better. Better is better.