Thursday, October 30, 2008

Mom- An Isolated Word

I picked my baby up from daycare today and she looked at me and said MOM clear as day, she has been mumbling it for a while, but I am now officially "MOMMA", this is all she can say. I am bursting I need to share this, she is 7 months and time is flying by.

My arm cramp feels better so I did a chop workout yesterday, 7 sets- 4 with small kettle bell and 3 with large kettle bell.

Today I trained clients and then did my workout- 4 sets of front barbell squats, super-set with resistance band kettle bell front chop (very explosive) and finished off with planks. My legs were wobbly.

I have lots of friends who are new mothers, people who have come together from all walks of life with the common thread of being a mother. There is a bond, it is like this unwritten code. When I had my first baby one of my clients/friends called me and said "welcome to the other side", I knew exactly what she meant. The reality is motherhood is great, it is overall extremely rewarding, but the general day to day service for others is extremely hard. Even though you may be surrounded by others you can still feel isolated, lonely, a lack of accomplishment and overwhelmed. I truly believe fitness can help. It allows you to do something for "yourself" and can elevate your mood tremendously. Whatever your level of fitness their is something out there for everyone, it may be tennis, jogging, thai chi and something as short as the one minute fitness solutions I have been posting. If you start small it will lead to greater things. Starting with the front plank may lead to chin ups or it may just allow you to hold your baby a few moments longer.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Arm Cramp- trouble shooting using early post partum exercises

So the baby was up every 2 hours last night to feed and I could not get enough water into me. I constantly felt dry with the change of weather coming so quickly. All of the sleep deprivation, baby holding and dehydration the inevitable happened today. When I was working I suffered a muscle cramp in my coracobrachialis (biceps area). I can feel my scapula is unstable, my forearm is tight and my upper arm has a knot in it. My workout for dealing with this today-
2 sets of shoulder external rotations with cables, 3 sets of hand behind the back shoulder isometric wall pushes, push presses, pull up position shoulder protraction/retraction, squat high pull with my left arm only, front plank, side plank, wall shoulder rotations with stick ups, laying on the foam roller small arm circles, pec stretches, and rolled my armpit area along the boarder of my scapula, 1 legged leg lowers for abdominals. This is part of being a nursing mother. This happened more often to me when the baby was first born and I was just starting post partum exercises. This workout is a typical example of a more involved early post partum exercise routine.
After work I picked up the girls, I unloaded our 10 bags and all of the soiled clothes (both) into the house I was ready for some quality time with them. I poured the bath and put the baby in with the toddler, we made a nice dinner of chicken pasta and pears with rice cereal and talked about the day. My previous sleepless night, arm cramp and bed wetting are all a distant memory.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Out To Lunch

Today I completed a 10 minute blaster workout just before the baby interrupted me with a hunger scream. She has a six sense of know when my 10 minutes to myself is done. This has happened many times before, but I was on to the babies tactics. I made my post workout drink in advance, did my workout and as she screamed in her crib I was able to gulp my drink before I got to her. It is a simple thing, but big, having my recovery meal ready is the value of 2 workouts in half the time. I was able to feed the baby and not feel light headed as well. Every Minute Counts, that is my mantra.

I was able to catch up with my best friend for a birthday lunch today. I was unaware, but she has been reading my blog, as she has a newborn and a toddler as well. When my lunch arrived half the plate was covered in french fries. She commented "your blog said you didn't eat fries", I ate a few, but left most. That's right when trying to lose the extra pregnancy pounds cut the fries out.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Time's Ticking On

It was off to the gym to train clients early this morning. It was a good day and I had my typical 30 minute break when I did my workout.

My workout- 8 sets of pull ups and 8 sets of burpies done as super sets. I then had my post workout drink and was ready to train clients again. I feel good about my strength and am getting close to my pre pregnancy body. My baby is over 6 months now and although I started my fat loss training about 2 months ago I feel like I am really getting some great results now. I am strong enough to consistently preform my workouts as intense as they need to be for post partum fat loss. It was an up hill battle to get to this point. I was using every spare minute throughout the day to integrate fitness into my baby routine. I kept motivated by telling myself "if I can push a 9 lb baby out over 3.5 hours I can do anything." I believe this is true for any busy new mom, if you can put up with pregnancy and delivery what's another 10 minutes of fat loss hell a few times a week.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Healthy Meal Tips for Busy New Mom's

Today I was up early and off to work armed with my gym bag of clothes and food, my laptop, kettlebell and breast pump in hand. It was a full day of training and at the end my sessions it was my turn to workout. I asked my newest client to stick around and watch my 8 minute whirlwind of a workout. I think she got the just of it fat loss training is intense and short.



I was off to pick up the girls and home to make dinner. I had put a chicken carcus into my crock pot at 5:20am and by the time I got home I had wonferful stock. I found 2 red peppers and pured them in my blender, added salt, parmesan, garlic, rosemary and some noodles with a touch of milk and there you have it, chicken pasta red pepper soup. The reason why I'm writing this is to help busy new mothers organize healthy meals. We ate a great homecooked meal that took me about 5 minutes to prepare. My pattern for cooking is night 1- roast meat (chicken, beef, veal), night 2-use the left over roast meat and bone to make soup/stew stock, I just repeat this cycle with different meats that make for quick, healthy meals for J fit mom's. I can cram all the veggies (pureed or cooked) into the stews and soups so your toddlers don't even know that they have eaten them, and after diet introduction these are perfect meals for your infants. Diet is very important for post partum recovery, nursing and fat loss

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Great Family Lifestyle

Yesterday I did a photo shot for an upcoming program that mothers can do with their toddlers. My almost 3 year old daughter was a star, she looked at the camera while exercising first try, every shot! I hope she doesn't want to be a model. I was so proud of her and she loved it. I believe children should learn about activity and exercise at an early age, don't hide your activity from them, let them watch and join in when safe. I do understand that exercise is "your time", but explain to your toddler this is a very important part of your day and you will be setting your child up with great mindset for life. This is just one way you can prevent childhood obesity. (more to come on that latter)

I took my toddler to the ski swap today, we were looking to get her a small kit so we can, again do another activity together. Then it was down to the park to run the dog. I realized today our weekend revolved around exercise, not directly working out, but it hit home that we have an active lifestyle.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Furious Five Progression-stage 2

Front plank- aim for 2 minutes continuos
Chin Retraction- hold 10 seconds 6x
Side Plank- from the fully extended leg position, lift the top leg at the peak of your lift
Reverse Fly- use a light resistance band and retract you chin 20x
Shoulder Rotations- perform against a wall, elevate elbows to 90 degrees, retract chin, shoulders down and back and rotate

Enjoy

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Confessions of a Trainer

I could not believe my ears today. I ran into another trainer at the gym when I was in my workout shorts. The trainer asked what I was doing, by this time I only had 20 minutes before my next client. I said I was starting my workout, it should only take me about 12 minutes and this is all the time I can afford with a busy schedule and 2 little ones at home. The trainer confessed "I don't even workout, by the time I get home I don't want to go back out to the gym to train myself." My response, "you can do a lot in a minute, that's my mantra" The trainer agreed with me, I'll be watching to see how they use their spare time.

What the hell does this trainer think they are doing. I cannot believe people pay you for exercise programs and you don't even exercise, what a fake. Another point if your a good trainer why do you have to go back out to the gym to workout, there are infinite possibilities to do in your home, this makes me wonder they must be one of those people on the cardio machines in the gym(waste of time). I get it, your burnt out from being in a gym all day, you don't want to think of a program for yourself because you have been organizing others all day. Well, you only need about 10 minutes for a solid workout and myself I have a coaching system to organize my workouts. In our industry you can trade programs easily with colleagues to take the stress off yourself. Pump up, or get out.

A Solid Day

Trained 2 clients and then I had a 30 minute break, that I was able to complete my workout, shower and have my post workout drink. I completed a fat loss workout with 4 exercises- decline pushup, pullups, standing dumbbell press and reverse abdominal curls- each exercise was performed for 15 seconds and followed by 15 seconds of kettlebell chops. I did three rounds of this circuit and stretched. My gluts were tired immediately after my workout.
In between training clients I can usually complete some rehab exercises for 1 minute, this is when I complete my planks, side planks, glut rolling, glut medius exercises. So yes I do follow the Furious Five whenever I have a spare minute.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Birthday Weekend-tips for eating out

It was my birthday this weekend and for a family treat we went to Marineland. My girls LOVED it, this was very rewarding as a mother to see both of them excited. Being away on our mini vacation we were able to reconnect as a family and give the girls our undevided attention. Niagra Falls is full of the worst fast food chain restaurants I have ever seen. It was a struggle to find a healthy snack and even worse trying to order something off of a menu.

Tips for ordering at a restaurant-make the best of a bad situation.

1st-realize that by leaving something off the plate that is stated in the menu is ALLOWED, your not missing out because even the best of the food is most likely tasteless and submaximal quality. Leave the fries off, or the bread or sauces.

2nd- order salad instead of bread or fries
3rd- ask for extra veggies instead of a potatoe
4th-don't order a soft drink, get water instead (but still enjoy 1 alcoholic beverage)
5th-leave the desert out, get a coffee or tea to finish your meal because they have no calories

Customize your meal and you will realize that all of the plate fillers like fries, bread and pop are not enjoyable anyway

Thursday, October 9, 2008

A Day In The Life...

The day starts at 1am to feed the baby, she wakes again at 2:30am with gas pains, cries until about 4am. I sleep until 5am and she cries again, wakes me 20 minutes before my alarm is to go off, at least this time she is hungry and falls back to sleep. I get ready for work and leave the house at 6am. Train clients until 11am, then it's my turn. I complete a warmup, then 8 minute circut and cooldown. I leave work and travel uptown to my next destination, stop for gas and continue. I make it to the other gym I train at for 12:20, pick up my much needed vitamins and figure out some business nutrition with the naturopath and get an updated diet for the gassy baby. It's off to home for 1:30pm where I work on registering a business and getting domain names, jump in the shower for 2 minutes and off to pick up my eldest from preschool. We go get the baby from the daycare and get home at4pm. Baby gets a bath, then barfs on herself, baby gets a bath again. Toddler gets a bath, then I make dinner. Feed the baby, feed the toddler, eat. Put baby to bed, make a business call just as my husband walks thru the door. He is my relief and I'm straight out of the house 40 minutes late for parents night at my daughters school. I have just sat down for the day 10:22pm

My workout- dynamic warmup 20second on 10 second off circuts, I use pullups and burpie presses for every interval and my 4 exercises are dive bomber pushups, front chops, heavy push press, v steps

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Workout Oct 7

Trained clients all morning on about 2 hours of sleep. Then it was my turn to workout, I warmed up and within my first sprint interval pulled my calf muscle (cannot roll the dice twice). I changed my intervals on the fly to burpie shoulder press combo for 20 seconds between iron cross, pullups, walking lunge, dbell swings. Yes, that is 8 sets of burpies. I'm glad it's done and will take tommorrow off working out.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Furious 5 -Exercises Introduced

Frantically trying to figure out why the baby is crying so much. I'm eliminating everything out of her diet now and starting again. Don't know if it's a cold, food or teeth?

Have sent out the Furious 5 exercises to some mothers and waiting for feedback.
Furious 5- 5 early recovery exercises that can be started right away. Front Plank, Reverse Fly, Neck Protraction/Retraction(chin tuck), Side Planks, Shoulder Rotations.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Sleep Deprived and Working Out

The baby was up all night with a cold and teething, I am still plugging away at a cold as well. I missed my workout last night so did 2 sessions this morning. It took me 17 minutes to complete 2 fat loss workouts before being interrupted by my toddler who has a knack for knowing the end of my training and comes in to "stretch" with mommy. I feel GREAT for accomplishing this today. Not looking forward to another sleepless night, but there is still no tooth in that babies mouth.

Fat loss Workout- arm swings, arm circles, leg swings, inchworm- followed by 8 exercises done for 20 seconds 2x, then preformed a different 8 exercises for 20 second intervals 2x. Exercises used today- lunges, squats, mountain climbers, push press, squat pull, push ups, back extensions, burpies, double leg raise, sprints.

Baby crying gotta run.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Fitness Solutions for Early Pregnancy

I was teaching a cycling class one day and we were taking our heart rates when I realized my heart was racing, nothing clicked, I thought maybe I was coming down with a cold. The next month we decided to try to get pregnant. My heart rate was still racing while I was working for that month. I took a home test when the time was right and it was positive to my surprise, it worked. After I went for my first ultrasound I realized I was already pregnant when we started trying. My high heart rate was explained, my blood volume was increaing putting demand on my cardiovascular system. Now What Do I Do. I followed the current heartrate guidelines for pregnancy and still do when training pregnant clients.
Some experts suggest using the rate of perceived exertion scale, but being in the fitness industry I guide people to push past their comfort limits daily. I thought maybe my perception of what is hard or easy was squed, so I personally decided to keep my HR below 150bpm. I still had many options for exercise in my first tiresome trimester as I was laying on my back still. I slowed down my current workout and dropped my anaerobic fat loss workout. I stuck to methodical strength training with some prehab exercises.

Second pregnancy wasn't much different. I was climbing the stairs to one of the gyms I worked at when I felt out of breath. I decided to jump on the bike that day at work (much to every one's surprise) and remember expressing to a colleague my cardio capacity had diminished. I thought "maybe my express workouts aren't as efficient as I thought", although I had never had this feeling before. Long story short number 2 was already in the oven, and I was breathless again. I decided to stick to my heart rate limit again and I did not have any energy to even think of going beyond that with the exhaustion of caring for a 20 month old as well. While performing weight lifting exercises my hr would spike over my limit sometimes and I was advised by one of the physicians I worked with that during short lifting exercises this is OK because the response was physiological and not cardiovascular (that causes your core body temperature to rise) putting stress on the baby. I stuck to short 20 minute express exercise sessions and added in much more foam rolling as my ligament and muscle pain was almost immediate during the second pregnancy.

Keep checking this post for 1st trimester and foam roller download, for samples.
 
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