Establishing a well-balanced exercise program during your pregnancy is arguably one of the most important components of prenatal care. 

While there could be an entire blog post dedicated to outlining the reasons why you should exercise during pregnancy, this article specifically addresses some considerations you should be taking when exercising in the first trimester. Let’s dive in!

Tight muscles? Feel like you need to stretch all the time? Foam rolling may be the missing piece of your puzzle! 

What is foam rolling? Foam rolling is a form of myofascial release, a technique used on skeletal muscles to decrease tightness and improve blood flow. It applies pressure to the fascia on your muscles using body weight and a foam cylinder. Foam rolling helps promote muscle recovery and improve mobility.

Diastasis Recti is the thinning of the linea alba, which is the connective tissue that runs down the middle of your rectus abdominis muscle (more commonly known as the “6-pack abs.”) This often occurs as a result of pregnancy, but can also occur in women and men due to inefficient breathing, posture, and muscle firing.

Practicing diaphragmatic breathing during pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond is one of the most foundational exercises to be focusing on for building strength. Let’s begin with talking about what the “core” is.

I am speaking directly to all those moms who are frustrated with having a year or more pass by without “feeling back to normal” yet. You nourished, grew, and carried a baby for approximately 9 months. Then, you gave birth, which is an extremely physical feat for your body to accomplish. After that, your body needed time to recover both physically and emotionally, which takes several months. This is close to a one-year journey.

The expectation placed on yourself to “bounce back” in a much shorter timeframe is unfair and unrealistic. So, if you find yourself one (or more) years postpartum and just starting to feel ready to get back into a more serious exercise routine, then you are right on track. So, what action steps can you take today to get started?

Although strength training does not always increase your heart rate to the same degree as cardio exercise, there is just as much benefit that you can experience by practicing it consistently. More often than not strength training is associated with changing how the body looks on the outside, but many benefits go beyond what we see on the surface.

Do you find yourself in the cycle of starting an exercise routine full steam ahead, then feeling burnt out and giving up? You go weeks, months, or years without regular exercise until you inevitably find yourself saying “okay, I need to get back on track!”

I can’t tell you how many clients seek out my help to solve this problem. Time is arguably our most precious non-renewable resource. The more time we waste starting, stopping, and restarting an exercise routine, the longer it takes us to reach our goals.

Starting a postpartum exercise routine can often feel confusing, overwhelming, and at times near impossible. My question to you is: why does beginning a postpartum fitness journey have to feel this way? Let’s talk about five ways you can make your experience more enjoyable, sustainable, and successful.

It’s time to break the glass ceiling on the limitations and expectations we set for ourselves, especially when it comes to our health and happiness. You can absolutely set goals and number marks, but please do not fixate on them. Living healthy is a lifestyle; a state of mind. It is not a destination to be reached, but a journey to be traveled. And if we keep waiting for “when” we get there, we miss all the happy, emotional, difficult, and rewarding times in between.

Enjoying the holidays while still prioritizing your health can sometimes seem stressful. But I’m here to tell you that with proper planning you can do it! Let’s break down my top 5 strategies for a happy and healthy Turkey Day.

The next question I would like to ask you is— how much time during the day do you find yourself sitting? Recent statistics from the American Heart Association show that sedentary jobs have increased by a whopping 83% since 1950. As a result, physically active jobs in the U.S. now make up less than 20% of the workforce. Let me put these numbers into perspective for you… the average office worker sits for more than 10 hours daily. Sitting for more than 10 hours a day can significantly increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other serious conditions.