Client Testimonial: Staying Fit During and After Pregnancy

Did you have any fears in exercising while you were pregnant? How did you address them to feel safe?

Yes. A friend was super fit pre-pregnancy and kept working out when she got pregnant. She had a scare where she’d worked out too hard one day and started bleeding. She went to the hospital pretty freaked out, of course, and her doctor told her to stop working out. That scared me a lot! But I felt that if I focused more on maintaining rather than building strength, I’d be okay. And honestly working out with a trainer was a huge part of that, someone to help me adjust and know when to push me and when to ease off.

What changed in your experience of exercising while pregnant (cardio, body positions, resistance training, rest time, recovery, breath)?

Breathing and rest time between sets was a big thing for me. Body positions too, of course, because there’s only so much you can do when you’ve got a big belly like that!

Any tips, inspiration, or story you can offer to mamas to be?

My first tip would be to get a trainer because without one I am not sure I would have worked out as long as I did. I worked out like 4 days before he was born! It was awesome.

Also, the idea of eating for two is everywhere, but mostly it comes from people who’ve never had a baby. I think everyone loves this idea that cupcakes for lunch is “allowed” when you’re pregnant cause you’re not trying to stay thin. But you are trying to grow a healthy human (who is not an adult), so eating for two is totally misleading. So tip #2 is to definitely have that extra cookie once in a while or eat pasta more often than normal, but generally eat as healthy (if not more healthy) than you did before getting pregnant!

What about now in your post natal program? I remembered you saying that exercise and yoga exercises felt like you were “dusting cobwebs out of your joints” with the movements. So brilliant!

Go easy on yourself! It’s super hard because you want so badly to feel more like yourself after you have your baby, but really your body needs time to recover. I expected to feel really good by 2 weeks postpartum, but you’re still walking slowly and really tired and everything’s new and it’s all a blur. So my biggest thing is, take it easy and gently and get back into moving your body around 2 months. Even now, Finn is almost 4 months and I am still taking it slowly and easy. It is very much like dusting cobwebs out!

Nicole, The L Trainer cannot thank you enough for taking the time to share with us! You’re amazing!