Let me tell you a little story…

I started training prenatal and postnatal women when I was at Queen’s University doing my undergraduate degree in Physical Education. There was a personal training studio in town that was purely for women in pregnancy and mamas. This is where I really found a love for working with these populations.

Looking back at that experience makes me feel pretty terrible though, to be honest. I feel like I owe everyone a refund that I worked with between 2007-2008 😉 Can you guess why?

As I said, the company that I worked for mostly trained pregnant women and new moms. I loved it. BUT. But….

There was so much running, jumping, crunching, and leg raising. You guys, so much.

Running classes for new moms. A million variations of crunches and sit-ups, and “ab” exercises. Dear lawd.

What is that supposed to mean?!

I remember when I was shadowing during one strength training class and the head trainer had me and all the other moms in class doing crunches followed by some leg raising type exercises.

She walked around the class and felt all our bellies while doing the crunches and when she got to me, she felt my stomach and said, “Those are the abs of someone who hasn’t had a baby!”.

Whaaaaaat. “What is that supposed to mean?”. “What happens to your abs after having a baby?”, my 20 year-old self thought.

Looking back, it’s alarming to me that:

1). This is what we were doing for “core training” for new moms.

2). Why are having women continue with the exercise you’re prescribing if you’re feeling bulging, abdominal separations, and doming bellies? (I’m assuming this is what the trainer was feeling.)

After this experience I wanted to learn anything and everything I could about what happened to the body in pregnancy and postpartum. Surely it didn’t have to be doomed abs forever?

I didn’t know any better at the time and neither did our mamas.

There was never any conversation about proper rehab for the core, diastasis recti, the pelvic floor. Nothing. Certainly no conversation about assessing Diastasis Rectus Abdominis (DRA) or the connection between the abdominals and the pelvic floor.

Here’s the thing: while this may have been the best I knew then, I now know these are unacceptable ways in which to train my clients who are pregnant and my new and seasoned mums.

There’s no excuse for it. I repeat, there’s no excuse for it.

The kicker? It’s still happening. Everywhere.

Everywhere I look there’s mom and baby bootcamps, strollercise, and personal trainers hurting women’s bodies unnecessarily. It’s crazy making for me.

We know SO much more now.

The worst part is that core training is front and center of the harmful exercise classes and training methods that so many women are being put through. And, this is the part of the body most affected by pregnancy and that requires healing postpartum.

Yet, crunching, leg raising, and kegels continue.

Mamas, you deserve better. Your girlfriends deserve better. Your sisters and your own mothers deserve better.

You don’t have to live with aching hips and backs. You don’t have to plan your runs around the nearest bathrooms on your route.

You don’t have to be afraid of throwing your back out when you lift your toddler out of the car. You don’t have to do hundreds of crunches a day in hopes of getting your abs back.

You deserve to feel better. To feel comfortable and confident in your body.

Jess