Speaker: Rauf Karsak
Describe how The Tummy Team helped you?
Rauf Karsak: Hi, my name's Rauf and I'm 22 and I live in the UK. Now, the way the tummy team helped me is about six months ago, I found out I had diastasis recti. So I had uh a small separation in my abdo in my abdomen and this was causing me a lot of pain and discomfort. I had already seen a physiotherapist here in the UK. I and also an osteopath and they gave me some generic advice and didn't really address the fact that I was experiencing this unusual pain. Um, I, I tried what they said it wasn't very helpful, um, for a bit. It was, but what ended up happening was I got into this cycle where I would try and fix my, like, do like rehab exercises for my pain, but like I would do the exercises and then the pain would get worse. And I was just in this cycle of whatever I would try would just make it hurt more. So I would just end up having just completely debilitated was doing no exercise, literally couldn't do anything without any kind of pain going on here. So I, I was quite literally doing nothing and whatever I would try, like I said, would cause pain. So it was a very, it was a very dark time cos I, I just couldn't do any physical activity and exercise has been a part of my life for the past decade. It's been so important to me and I just, I just couldn't do anything at all. And it was just, yeah, it was very, very frustrating cos I just felt so clueless and lost and just, I had, I had no idea what to do, but one day I remember I came across Kelly's videos on youtube and um, this was the first time I'd ever like, really had anyone speak directly to men about diastasis recti. So, um I eventually booked a call with her and, you know, got speaking to her and she actually, the main thing was she actually really took the time to listen to me and, like, addressed these unusual things that were going on and didn't just slap on a, a prescription onto me. She just, she actually listened and over a, over a few weeks of work together, um, she really listened to like and gave me tailored advice that actually fit with my mindset. So over, over these few weeks and months of working together, I went from having such strong pain here that I couldn't even sit in a chair without feeling uncomfortable. I couldn't even like stand up and do any kind of exercise without pain, right. But just after a month, like, I, I this completely started to come down like it literally went from, like I would say, like a solid 78 out of 10 pain all the way down to like a 32 to 3 out of 10 pain. And then since then, it's only gotten better as we've worked through our rehab exercises every week. And it's just slowly, slowly actually strengthen my core and really, really taught me how to mentally connect and use my core properly because that's something that I never really knew how to do properly. I was always too hard with it. I was always too aggressive with it. Like I feel like a lot of men are like unknowingly. I was being too aggressive with my own core and it caused me some problems. But yeah, in the past couple of months, it's been literally a dramatic change, literally a complete 180 change. And I don't know what I would have done without Kelly in the tummy team because I had seen multiple different specialists and they just couldn't help me out. But in just a month or two, Kelly completely changed everything for me. So now I'm back to actually doing consistent exercise four or five days a week, which is just, firstly, it's very fun. But secondly, it's just like, it's great that I actually have a clear trajectory for, you know, my future, my, my athletic ambition is back. So it's just wonderful. So, I'd like to say thank you to the tummy team for that.
What was unique about The Tummy Team approach that worked for you?
Rauf Karsak: I would say the most unique thing about the tummy team was the fact that they actually took the time to really listen to my problems and like actually figure out what was wrong before giving me a solution, right? Because this was an online consultation, this was online. So there was, they had no opportunity to like physically analyze me, but they still took the time to really listen and figure out what could be the problem. And it, I mean, it seemed to work very well because the advice that I got given, I implemented it on my own, I would check in with Kelly every week and let her know how the progress was going and I just improved from that point onwards. So, yeah, I'd say that's the most unique things like the expertise to actually sit there and listen and then, you know, come with the best possible solution. That was a real big difference, which in person, physios, in-person osteo's, I would tell them they would cut me off. They would start like recommending me stuff before I felt like I had even really explained what was wrong and how I felt. So, yeah, that was the main, main difference.
What would you say to someone considering working with The Tummy Team?
Rauf Karsak: To someone considering working with the tummy team. I would say, honestly, don't waste your time like avoiding it. Like just book, at least the they did a 15 minute consultation with me where we just spoke. So at least just book that and have a conversation. But I wasted, I literally waited like two or three months to bother speaking to Kelly. Um because I thought, you know, someone in person might have been better, but I was sadly wrong. So I would recommend you just book in the call ASAP and just have a conversation and I'm sure you'll quickly see that the level of attention is just different. So I, I highly recommend you just don't waste your time because I spent three months suffering when I just didn't need to, when I it could have been solved like that. So much time and energy could have been saved. And yeah, I think that's, that's worth it in my opinion. Like, what would you do to end? How much would you pay to end your suffering right now? Is kind of a question I think is a good thing to ask. Like, yeah, to just cut through all the ambiguity. It, it was just, it was cha game changing for me.
