I am so excited to tell you that I am now a certified pre/postnatal specialist trainer! 👶 🎉 🙌
When I was pregnant, exercise seemed like such a minefield! I wanted to keep training as long as I could and was keen to get back to it as soon as I was ready after giving birth but oh my goodness, it was IMPOSSIBLE to find out exactly what I should and should not be doing!
This is exactly why I knew that I wanted to be able to support new and expectant mum's when I qualified as a PT. During my pregnancy I found information on what was safe to do vs what wasn't, really difficult to find and when I did find it, it felt confusing.
Being pregnant (regardless of how experienced you are) is a time of huge change and it can be comforting to keep a little bit of the pre pregnant you, particularly if you were already active. However if you weren't, that doesn't mean you can't take up exercise when you are pregnant, just start gradually.
I wanted to share a few facts with you about pre/post natal training:
Firstly, training when you're pregnant IS safe and is actually strongly recommended by the ROCG (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists). Providing you are having a straight forward, single pregnancy and your doctor has said it's ok for you. We just need to tweak a few things in order to allow for the changes which are happening in your body
Keeping active helps to maintain your fitness levels and contributes towards a faster postnatal recovery
Improves sleep & mood (pre & postnatally)
Improves posture & reduces back pain (pre & postnatally)
Helps to prevent diabetes due to pregnancy & preeclampsia
Performing pelvic floor exercises daily help to reduce dysfunction later on, contribute towards a strong core & even help to turn and push the baby out during labour!
Pregnancy is, for the most part, an exciting time but it can also be very challenging, I learnt this from my own experience. For me, being able to keep active really helped me to cope physically and emotionally. It gave me structure and helped me to manage the demands put on my body.
I was fortunate enough to be able to train right up until I gave birth and to have a trainer during my pregnancy, who guided me safely through sessions, helping me to focus on maintaining (as best as possible) my pre pregnancy fitness. I most definitely would not have felt comfortable training alone.
I was also able to get right back to it as soon as I had sign off from the doctor. However, I wish I'd had someone to help me understand what was safe when coming back to exercise, as I didn't have my trainer and I couldn't find any straight forward information on how to begin.
The biggest piece of advice I will give you is, in the words of S Club 7: "don't stop moving" (if you're a child of the late 90's early 00's you will get this reference 😉 ). Simply walking, doing pregnancy yoga and swimming will help. Just don't forget to do your pelvic floor exercises each day!
If you're at all unsure about what to do or not do, please just message me and I'll happily give you free advice and support, I'm always here to help 💖.
C xx
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