What Fitness Does for Birth

I follow a page on facebook called Made to Birth, and she asked a question: How do you go with your body? What do you do to be tuned in to birth? For me it always goes back to fitness, because that’s how I’m wired and trained to think. Babies and workouts are my two biggest passions, so here is how I answered her…

“As a pre/post natal fitness specialist, I must answer this awesome question from my experience. From what I’ve seen in myself through 3 pregnancies and in other women, the more a woman exercises in safe ways, the more in tune she is during the ultimate workout of birth. She is unafraid of a little cramping, a little rush of pain. She knows the payoff is worth it, and she knows her limits. Each contraction is just one more set in the workout, one more exercise in the routine. And we breathe… and we tune into our core’s deepest muscles, and we summon strength we didn’t know we had to bring forth a healthy NEW life! Okay… I gotta go blog this!”

Most of my members come to me hurting and injured. They are recovering from birth or being beat up in bootcamps – military and gym style – and they realize they need to start at the beginning because they are finally tuning into what their body really needs: progression.

Just like labor starts with a tiny twinge, a braxton hicks tightening of the transverse, then a tenseness that wraps around the belly and into the back, and then a menstrual cramping feeling in the low belly, and all of that builds and fades, builds and fades, builds bigger and comes quicker, over and over… So a workout routine must start small. Fit mamas know this: You don’t get pregnant and give birth the next day. There is progression, development, growth, adaption, and then you’re ready for the biggest workout of your life. Keep reading below…

It’s a workout that is exhilarating and painful and emotional and rewarding and difficult and wonderful and you’d never want to do it again anytime soon, but maybe you do because WOW! That is how my two natural births felt. I was in tune. I knew the power and the push was all me. I was as strong as the contractions because I was the contractions. It was my birth, my children, my womb, my core muscles working in unison to bring forth LIFE!!!

Birth is the day of the race that you supposedly have been training your body for. There is a warm-up, then the interval training with the peaks of contractions and the rest in between, then the burner set of pushing and – just like at the gym – sometimes we yell to get through those final reps. We call on spotters and assistants to stand beside us and support the weight we are pushing … And then it’s over, and you’re cooling down and shivering with the excitement and adrenaline of muscles that have been pushed to their max. Only, unlike the gym, you don’t just move onto the next set – unless you’re having twins.

Just as a life starts as a microscopic joining of egg and sperm and grows into a human ready to breathe, cry and crawl to the breast… AND just as birth starts as a small flex and grows into the biggest marathon event of your life, so your workouts should start small as you get going. And that’s what we offer here at Fit2B Studio: Progression. You start with short, easy workouts that are safe for if you’re dealing with injuries like split abs or sore knees (because it’s really not safe to just go right into Turbo Fire after having a baby). Then you move forward through over 50 more videos that will build your strength, challenge your endurance, and lower your body fat percentage OVER TIME. It’s all about progression and tuning into your body’s pace, your body’s rhythm, your body’s needs. Are your ready? If so start by checking your belly for a diastasis!