The ABCs of Pre/Postnatal Exercise

As a personal trainer with a specialty certification in pre-/postnatal fitness, I’m often asked about basic guidelines for exercise during the childbearing year.  Incorporating information from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and my certifying body The Cooper Institute, here’s a handy reference list:

• Aerobic exercise benefits everyone—including your growing baby—so long as you are having a healthy pregnancy.
• Keeping your balance and maintaining good form are key to pre/postnatal exercise.
• Be consistent with regular exercise—3 to 5 times per week—during pregnancy.
• Drink extra fluids.  Water is best.
• Don’t exercise to exhaustion, and avoid becoming overheated.
• Stop when fatigued; get plenty of rest and sleep.
• Resume previous exercise level gradually following delivery.
• Hold off on beginning a completely new type of exercise program during pregnancy and in the first three months postpartum.
• Reduce the level of intensity and duration of exercise as the pregnancy progresses, as indicated by your body’s cues.
• Become familiar with normal changes in the body—such as joint laxity, swelling in the lower extremities, spinal alignment, and weight distribution.
• Kegel, kegel, kegel!
• Know your limits—when exercising and when stretching—and listen to your body!
• Modify exercises to fit your level of development as the pregnancy progresses.  Individualize your exercise program to your fitness and energy levels.
• Proper nutrition is healthy for you and baby.  Be aware of the need for approximately 300 extra calories/day when pregnant and 500 extra calories/day while breastfeeding.
• Be aware of decreased oxygen available for aerobic exercise during pregnancy.
• Pelvic tilts can help relieve the lower back stress felt as the uterus grows and your center of gravity changes.
• Look for qualified, knowledgeable instructors and classes that are scientifically based.
• Participate in breathing and relaxation exercises.
• Supine (on the back) exercises should be avoided in the second & third trimesters.
• Avoid all types of exercises that have increased risk of trauma to the abdominal area, such as basketball, skiing, or horseback riding.
• Be aware of unusual changes in your body such as severe nausea, vomiting, swelling, or inadequate weight gain.
• Visit your prenatal care provider regularly throughout your pregnancy.  Keep her/him apprised of your exercise program.
• Warm-Up and Cool-Down periods of 10-15 minutes each help your body safely transition to/from exercise.
• Regular eXercise can energize you while pregnant and give you positive eXpectations of life with baby.
• Pre/postnatal yoga is great for muscle tone as well as breathing and relaxation exercises.
• Now is not the time to be a zealot.  Good sense and moderation are important for fit mamas!

If you’re looking for group exercise classes just for perinatal women, come join me on Monday nights!

Plan for Success

It’s been said that failure to plan is planning to fail.

I took some time yesterday to calendar all of my workouts between now and March 23, the day of my goal race.  While it requires some thought and careful attention to how the training cycles fit in with other family events I have already scheduled, I am one step closer to achieving my goal.  Seeing the workouts every day on my Google calendar keeps my training at the front of my mind.  Also, having thought through the entire arc of my training allows me to keep a more reasonable perspective when something (work, family, illness)  inevitably temporarily derails my plans.

Running coaching is one of the services I offer.  I enjoy working with people to get them ready for a target race; moreover, I educate them about how to train to peak on race day.  Drawing on my years of experience on a self-coached competitive running club and developing my own training plans, I combine different types of workouts to make sure my clients are well prepared for their race.  If you’re thinking of running the Capitol 10K, Congress Avenue Mile, or a destination summer marathon but you need a little guidance, let me help you meet your running goals.

If running isn’t your thing, know that working with a thoughtful, detailed personal trainer can help you meet your fitness goals.  One of the ways I differentiate my personal training services from others is that I develop both short-term and long-range workout plans for my clients.  Depending on the client’s needs and wants, I provide homework assignments between sessions and accountability via shared Google calendars.  Whether it’s for myself or for my clients, I’ve seen the benefits of planning pay off time and time again.  Let me know how I can help you plan to reach your fitness goals!

Good health and great happiness to you!

 

Welcome, Summer

After a long weekend during which we remember those courageous men and women who gave their lives for our freedom, we celebrate the arrival of summer with our friends and family. Summer is that glorious season during which we frolic in pools, build castles on the beach, and try to keep our core body temperature down even as the sun heats things up.

If you live in a hot climate like I do, summer means that outdoor exercise must be carefully planned. In Austin, you get the choice between ‘cool’ mornings (temps in the 80s) and high humidity or hot afternoons and low(er) humidity. Either way, it is critical to be well hydrated before, during, and after outdoor exercise.

Most people wait to drink until they get the thirst signal from their body. By the time this happens, though, you’re already behind the eight ball and significantly dehydrated. Make sure you drink throughout the day so that your muscles are well hydrated even before you begin your workout.

Drinking a cup of water every 15 minutes while exercising helps to replace the water your muscles need. The average person loses about a quart of water every hour of exercise just through sweating. Even if you are swimming or doing water aerobics, keep a bottle on the pool deck– you still need to hydrate, too! As for sports electrolyte drinks, those aren’t really necessary unless you are doing exercise in hour-long (or longer) sessions. Although they may taste better than water to you, you’re drinking extra, unnecessary calories.

As the temperatures rise and the sun gets hotter, do yourself a favor and pay attention to your hydration. Avoiding the sluggish feeling that comes from dehydration is a good start to keeping your workouts on track.

Good health and great happiness to you.

A Weighty Issue

Weight is a troubling measurement for those interested in fitness. It is so easy to measure, but it’s not a great indicator of fitness. Many people get hung up on the number on the scale to the detriment of their overall workout routine and fitness progress. I often advise my clients to throw away their scale (I don’t own one) and focus instead on body composition by taking measurements of specific parts of the body or even just noticing how their clothes fit. Doing so gives one a much more accurate understanding of fitness than weight itself.

As a pregnant woman in America, even outside of the traditional medical model of prenatal care, I’m subjected to weighing myself regularly. (I was never weighed when pregnant with my first child; we lived in London at the time.) I can see how obsessive I’ve become about how much weight I’ve gained, both overall and since my last prenatal appointment. This obsession only reaffirms my belief that weight is a misleading fixation when talking about health and wellness. After all, I’m confident that my body will do what it needs to do to grow a healthy baby. And I’m also sure that my healthy lifestyle will help me shed the weight once the baby is born.

There was something incredibly enlightening that happened yesterday regarding my pregnancy weight gain. I had a prenatal appointment, and I learned that I’ve gained 30 pounds in the first 34 weeks of pregnancy. As I talked with my midwife (who felt my weight gain is totally appropriate), I told her that I’m still eating pretty well (although I did admit to my recent brownie cravings), still getting quality exercise, and overall still feeling pretty well. I also told her that I’m starting to feel a bit more tired a bit more quickly. While I know all of this is normal, it’s still disheartening to an active person!

I got home from my appointment to find that my order of new fitness equipment to use with my personal training clients had arrived. One of the items was a 30 pound VersaBar. As I bent down to lift the package off of my porch (using my knees and not my back, of course!), I was shocked at how heavy it felt. I realized that this is the same amount of weight I am carrying around as pregnancy weight; no wonder I’m getting tired more easily!

So while I’m not going to run out and buy a scale and start recording my weight regularly, I do have a greater sense of understanding of those people who find measuring their weight motivating. For me, feeling my heart beat and my lungs expand as I work out is motivating enough.

Good health and great happiness to you.

30-Day Yoga Challenge

In my last post, I wrote about ways to explore wellness services at a discount. A few months ago, I purchased a LivingSocial voucher for $30 that gave me access to unlimited classes for 30 days at Dharma Yoga. I am now at the end of my 30 day pass, and committing to my yoga practice has allowed me to reflect on the role yoga has played in my life.

I started to practice yoga eight years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child. I was living in London at the time, and I found a fabulous community of women at The Life Centre who helped me feel physically and emotionally capable of transitioning to motherhood. As someone who has been active her whole life, yoga taught me to calm down, use my breath productively, and recognize how powerful feeling connected to my body– and my growing baby– could be.

I’ve continued to have an on-and-off yoga practice ever since. Over the years I have embraced the idea that yoga is about whole-being wellness rather than a workout. Once I stopped looking at how ‘inefficient’ yoga is as exercise, I started to enjoy it more. I’ve felt drawn to yoga as a component of my prenatal fitness because of the mind-breath-body connection on which it is based.

I knew that a 30-day yoga challenge would be good for me as I started the third trimester of pregnancy. As my running wound down, I needed a new component to my fitness plan. I decided that I would try to go to at least 10 classes in 30 days. This may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that each class is 90 minutes, and I have drive time each way, two hours a day three days a week is about all of the yoga my work/life balance could handle!

(I should note that Dharma Yoga does not offer prenatal yoga. While I wouldn’t recommend a pregnant woman who is new to yoga to go to Dharma, I found the teachers all very encouraging of my frequent modifications of poses and an overall welcoming atmosphere.)

There are two ideas that surfaced for me during the past month: one is that the individual, non-competitive nature of yoga, while antithetical to my dominant personality, suits me well during the introspective period of late pregnancy, and the second is that the weight and physiological changes of pregnancy force me to face the unwelcome truth that I can’t do everything I can normally do.

To the first point, I am reminded of the origins of my yoga practice: learning to breathe, learning to feel my baby’s movements within me, and learning to appreciate the blessing of being chosen to be a creative life force. Certainly these are ideas that are worth considering, appreciating, and feeling awash with awe at the significance of it all.

And the second lesson is one of humility. Being able to recognize my shortcomings and asking for help is not something that comes naturally. But community can be built only when others are allowed to take action, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of the excitement of new life?! I am trying to recognize that by asking for help I am including people in the miracle of the new life I am soon to meet, and everyone can use a little more positive, joyful interaction in life.

To the teachers at Dharma, I express my gratitude for creating a community where individuals are honored and encouraged to experience yoga in a way that is meaningful, both physically and emotionally.

Namaste.

International Walk to School Day

As much as I wish that there were no need for such a proclamation, today is International Walk to School Day. Founded to promote establishing safe routes to school so that children can reap the social and health benefits of walking to school, the organization also notes the environmental benefits walking provides.

My family is fortunate to live very close (under 1/4 mile) from our local Austin ISD elementary school. We walk to and from school every day, collecting a slew of neighbor children on our way. I can attest to the social benefits of our morning walk: the kids chatter about what they did the night before, and the adults swap sports scores and daily to-do lists. We have met a lot of neighbors by way of our walking to school, and having a friendlier community is better for everyone.

If you don’t have a safe, walkable (or bikeable) route to school, check out these resources to get some ideas for how improvements can be made in your neighborhood. These routes can pave the way (pardon the pun) for a safer neighborhood for all, not just children on their way to and from school. For many families, the morning time crunch may be an impediment to walking or biking to school. Perhaps you can set a goal of just one morning per week of leaving the car at home and getting to school under your own power. The kids will likely enjoy the adventure, and I’ve long promoted exercise first thing in the morning as a way to boost energy all day. And what an efficient way to establish a routine of regular exercise!

Walking to school provides one other significant benefit: I am grateful every day that I do not have to participate in the carpool line rodeo. Isn’t that motivation enough to lace up your shoes?

What’s Your Plan?

With Spring here, it’s a great time to think about setting some new fitness and wellness goals. Maybe you have a new year’s resolution (or three) that has fallen by the wayside; maybe you have a friend who has signed up for an event that sounds like a lot of fun; maybe you’d just like to get outside more while the weather is really nice.

Regardless of your goal, making a plan will help you achieve it. Just like goal-setting in any other part of your life, defining a fitness or wellness goal should be specific and achievable. Having mini-goals along the way can help by providing useful checkpoints along your journey. Finding someone else to work toward the goal with you can keep you motivated while also providing accountability. Most importantly, remind yourself daily why you chose the goal and the feeling you anticipate having upon reaching it.

After your decide on your goal, checkpoints, and accountability, think about how you are going to get there. What concrete steps do you need to take in order to reach your goal? Are these steps required daily or weekly? Is your timeline realistic? Get out your calendar and check! Do you need help or guidance from someone else so that you stay injury-free? Do you own the necessary equipment already, or must you purchase something new? These questions will help ensure that your goal is achievable.

By committing a fitness plan to paper (or pixels), you demonstrate a commitment to your goal. Although you should allow yourself the flexibility to deviate from the plan when necessary, having a plan anchors you should life interfere. Keeping a workout log is a great way to track your progress and provide feedback to yourself about how you feel about your workouts. Know that steady work toward your goal will be rewarded.

Good health and great happiness to you.

Talking to kids about exercise

That’s a page out of The Bear’s first grade journal. While my immediate reaction was to be proud of him for wanting to focus on being healthy this year, with more thought I became a bit worried. Part of my desire to raise my kids with an awareness of wellness was to take the pressure off of body image-related issues they may face later in life. But have I really gained anything if I’m raising a kid who is fitness obsessed, even for the right reasons?

It’s a tricky topic. Obviously, our home is filled with discussions of ‘healthy’ and ‘growing’ foods and encouragement to go outside and play. We hike together, play basketball, and swim together all summer. Along with my husband, it is our goal to have our kids *want* to exercise because they realize how good it makes them feel and how much fun it is.

Fortunately, there are some great programs to support our philosophy. Austin is home to the now nationwide Marathon Kids program. In this program, kids run the equivalent of a marathon (26.2 miles) over the course of several months. They are also encouraged to eat their fruits and vegetables in marathon amounts– five servings a day on 26.2 days of the month. They celebrate the first and final lap of their run in a big city-wide ceremony, complete with local celebrities and associated fanfare. As you can see, earning the Marathon Kids medal filled The Bear with pride:

I want to continue to think about this topic so we parents can better support our kids in their healthy endeavors. But I need your help!!

How do you talk to your kids about living well? Is it possible to over-emphasize this topic? What ways do you and your family integrate exercise into your together time? Are there other community events I should know about to help support growing healthy families?

I look forward to reading your ideas. Good health and great happiness to you.

More about Motivation

I must admit that the idea that so many of my friends lack the motivation to exercise has been nagging me for the past few days.  As someone who has always enjoyed exercise, I don’t identify easily with those who don’t like a good workout. 

But as a personal trainer, I continually learn new ways to motivate people based on individual likes, dislikes, needs, and wants.  I have a standard list of questions I ask my clients when starting to develop a fitness program for them.  Maybe they’ll be useful to those of you who need a little push to get going.  Finding out how you think about health and fitness can be an enlightening exercise itself.

• What kinds of exercise do you like?  Dislike?
• Did you ever play on a sports team?  What about that experience was positive/negative?
• Why do you want to be more fit?
• Are you impressed by people who have fit bodies?  Do you judge people who are unfit?
• Do you encourage your children to exercise?
• Does your significant other exercise regularly?
• Where do you place health & fitness in your list of *idealized* priorities?  Where does it fit in reality?
• Do you think your attitude toward fitness affects other parts of your life?
• Does your fitness level hold you back from doing activities you’d like to do?
• How do you feel before a big workout?  Afterwards?
• Have you ever regretted making & taking time to exercise?
• Do you deserve time (and money) to make your body healthier?

Think about it.  Be honest with yourself.  Finding out the real reasons you lack motivation to exercise may help you open new paths in other parts of your life as well.

Good health and great happiness to you.

What’s holding you back?

I posed a question to my favorite citizens of mama-nation this week: what is the single biggest obstacle keeping you from achieving the level of fitness you’d like to have?

As you might imagine, a lot of the mamas said time.  After all, who doesn’t wish for a secret hour or two of ALL ME time each and every day.  Alas, that doesn’t exist.  So we press on with our multiple and always-changing priorities, often forgetting to put ourselves anywhere on that list.  Time then goes by, we haven’t done much to take care of our bodies, and we fall asleep exhausted at the end of another long day.

My mamas were honest that the siren song of food is another stumbling block.  I think that the powerful stigmas associated with food make us feel far worse about our diets than the food itself.  Perhaps allowing one’s self to eat a little of what one craves isn’t so bad– it keeps us from bingeing and also reminds us to savor what we consume.  Eating thoughtfully is key to gaining not only fitness but also wellness.

I think the biggest surprise to me was that a lot of my mamas admitted lacking motivation to exercise.   Sure, we all know exercise is good for us.  We all know that to be healthy we need to exercise.  But at the end of the day, sitting on the couch feels so good.  How do we resolve the lack of motivation? 

I recommend exercising first thing in the morning.  Even if it just 10 minutes, you have started the day off positively, and you’re more likely to keep those positive actions going all day.  Also, a workout buddy or a personal trainer can provide the accountability some people need to exercise regularly, and they also give you someone to talk with during your workout.

Aren’t you worth it?  What is more motivating than knowing that you’re doing something beneficial for yourself?  Keep a journal of your feelings after you exercise, and I guarantee you’ll see a pattern of positivism develop.  Imagine the power of that positivism spreading throughout your life.  Motivating, isn’t it?!

Good health and great happiness to you.