Ep 15. Getting back into shape

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15. How to get back into shape after having a baby with Michelle, Founder of ReBalance & prenatal/postnatal fitness specialist

Getting back into shape

Michelle talks to me about all things fitness and exercise. Our bodies change drastically during pregnancy and have a lot of healing to do after birth, ReBalance has been designed by Michelle and her team to support women through the process of getting back into shape. She shares what to focus on after birth and what to do during pregnancy to stay fit without harming your body or growing baby.

Season 1 Ep 15

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hi mama you’re listening to the mama

00:05

podcast it’s Sumayya here the co-founder

00:08

of mama

00:09

ME app, Mama ME is the first app to

00:12

exclusively connect mothers across the

00:14

middle east

00:15

connect with like-minded mamas and

00:17

create lifelong friendships

00:19

at mama we are all about connecting

00:21

mamas to empower women

00:23

so let’s join together and make this

00:25

mission a reality

00:26

so this week i’m talking to the

00:28

wonderful Michelle who

00:30

is the founder of rebalance i actually

00:32

started the rebalance blast

00:35

this week with them so it started on

00:37

sunday and i’m telling you my body

00:39

is aching it’s working so well

00:42

in today’s episode though we talk all

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about what rebalance is

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how it helps postpartum mums and how

00:49

they

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help moms get back into shape and what

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they can do to support moms during their

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fitness journey

00:55

hi michelle thank you so much for

00:57

joining me and thank you for coming to

00:59

speak to me on the mama podcast

01:02

oh thank you so much for having me um

01:04

it’s really exciting and nice to be able

01:06

to have a chat with

01:07

um your listeners as well yeah i’m so

01:11

excited to speak to you because

01:12

for me fitness especially before i gave

01:16

birth and the first year after i gave

01:18

birth is a big big aspect of my life

01:20

um of integrating it into becoming a mom

01:23

so i’m really excited to learn more

01:25

about from the other

01:27

perspective from someone who actually is

01:29

into fitness and like delivering that to

01:31

moms

01:32

um so yeah i’m really excited to hear

01:34

what you have to share about that

01:36

and before we start i think it’d be

01:37

great way to start just by explaining

01:40

what rebalances

01:42

um what you do and how you manage to get

01:44

to

01:45

sort of building rebalance and so

01:47

rebalance is

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um well the name says a lot actually

01:52

and so rebalance is all about helping

01:55

and moms to be

01:56

and new moms find balance and

02:00

i mean becoming a new mom is probably

02:03

the most unbalanced time and that you’ll

02:07

feel both

02:08

mentally and physically and so for me

02:12

that was the kind of big idea behind it

02:14

was the fact that we were helping women

02:16

find

02:16

balance both physically and mentally and

02:21

from a mental perspective we built up a

02:24

really really nice community for the

02:26

moms

02:27

um and then physically um we we

02:30

obviously do

02:31

like strength based style training and

02:33

we also do things like pilates as well

02:35

and but really trying to um build up an

02:38

overall strength

02:39

so that you’re balanced and so that your

02:42

whole body is balanced

02:43

and and effectively that will cause

02:47

less injury and for mums but we can

02:49

delve deeper into those kind of things

02:51

later on

02:52

and so for us it was just about and this

02:54

idea of helping women just

02:56

physically and mentally and we do

02:59

everything from

03:01

prenatal classes and strength and also

03:04

pilates

03:05

and postnatal classes as well once again

03:08

strength and pilates

03:09

and before the lockdown we did some

03:11

really fun classes

03:13

and called carry babyfit and trx babyfit

03:16

where actually you held your baby and

03:19

because we just kind of

03:20

although we have an amazing we had an

03:22

amazing service where we looked after

03:24

the babies

03:25

we did find that a lot of those moms

03:27

actually wanted to kind of hold their

03:28

babies and

03:29

and incorporate them into the exercises

03:32

so for post native we had baby wearing

03:34

and non baby wearing classes

03:36

and and then once you have kind of

03:38

finished your postnatal journey or we

03:40

felt that you were strong enough to

03:41

progress

03:42

you then went on to um a thing called

03:45

the rebalance blast

03:47

and it’s effectively a blast like we

03:49

blast you

03:50

and but we 100 take into consideration

03:54

that you have had a baby and you know

03:56

you still might have abdominal

03:58

separation

03:59

so we will always um offer those

04:01

alternatives

04:02

um and also offer like a low impact

04:05

option

04:06

for every exercise so it’s really that

04:07

kind of like

04:09

start as soon as you get pregnant come

04:11

along you don’t have to wait 12 weeks um

04:14

but if you feel more comfortable you do

04:16

so it’s that kind of

04:17

as soon as you get pregnant all the way

04:20

through and when we say all the way

04:21

through

04:21

we mean all the way through i want to

04:24

see you

04:24

at 39 weeks and i want to be able to

04:27

help you with your optimal fetal

04:29

positioning

04:29

everything and get you ready for like

04:32

labor and birth effectively

04:34

and then after that we’ll still be in

04:36

touch with you but it’s that kind of

04:38

like six weeks period where no one knows

04:40

what to do and

04:42

but we can give you advice and tips on

04:44

what you can do during that period

04:46

after your six week checkup you go to

04:47

your physio and then you commence our

04:49

classes and that might commence with

04:51

kind of you can start with some pilates

04:54

and then progress into our circuits and

04:57

then move on to the blast

04:58

but everyone is individual and

05:01

everyone’s recovery is very different

05:03

and that’s effectively what we do and

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it’s all done on

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zoom at the moment and but we are

05:08

looking to do more outdoor classes soon

05:11

so i hope that sums it up and gives you

05:13

the answer to what rebalance does

05:15

yeah i mean that you’ve definitely

05:17

explained what rebalance does and we’ll

05:18

go into how you set up rebalance and why

05:20

you set up what sort of encouraged you

05:22

to set up rebalance in a second

05:24

but what i love about rebalance is that

05:26

you take everything into consideration

05:28

so you do have a physio on like

05:31

as part of the team and you know you

05:34

think about all of those things as well

05:35

which i think

05:37

i didn’t realize that i mean i

05:40

personally did have a physio checkup

05:42

after i gave

05:42

birth but i i have a lot of friends that

05:46

didn’t

05:46

sort of understand the importance of

05:48

having your body checked before you went

05:50

back into exercise and i think that’s

05:52

great that rebalance

05:53

so that’s what you guys do offer that

05:55

you offer the whole package so you don’t

05:56

have to worry about all the little

05:58

things

06:00

yeah and um and and just that point on

06:03

seeing a physio

06:04

i mean it’s so important to go see a

06:07

physiotherapist after you’ve had a baby

06:10

you know we get so many ladies that come

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in and say i had my six week checkup i’m

06:13

ready to go

06:15

and that doesn’t mean you know go out

06:18

and run a marathon

06:19

it means like come to us

06:22

or or you know actually before you even

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come to us go see a physio

06:26

because your gynecologist hasn’t done

06:28

all of the checks that a physiotherapist

06:30

will will do and if you come to us with

06:33

all of that information we can liaise

06:35

with the physio and actually work with

06:36

you better

06:38

in a group class setting and

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so so it’s incredibly important to go

06:44

see a physiotherapist

06:45

and on top of that and you know some

06:47

ladies

06:48

are not even able to come into a group

06:51

class setting you know they need to do

06:52

one-to-one training before

06:54

they even start and a lot of these

06:57

ladies they don’t

06:58

know that they’ve got an issue until

06:59

months down the line where they have

07:01

this chronic back pain

07:03

and suddenly potentially notice a

07:05

bulging in their tummy and they have

07:07

like this huge abdominal separation had

07:09

no idea that they had it

07:10

and you know ladies like that they need

07:12

to have this kind of one-to-one training

07:14

rather than going into a group setting

07:16

so with the physio she can tell us you

07:19

know

07:20

what to do with that person whether it’s

07:21

one-to-one or whether it’s a group

07:23

setting

07:23

and we can kind of work with that person

07:26

and to build them

07:27

up to where they want to get to so it’s

07:29

even though we take

07:30

we do do group classes it’s very much on

07:32

a one-to-one and level basis and we know

07:35

all of our clients inside out that’s

07:38

that’s great to know that’s incredible

07:39

so does that mean

07:40

like sort of your post-partum you’re

07:42

kind of like oh your graduated rebalance

07:45

um to be honest if you’ve done if

07:49

if you have done nothing like absolutely

07:52

nothing

07:53

and you just came to us and you were

07:54

like oh you know i want to do these

07:56

rebalance blast challenges

07:58

i would ask you all the same questions i

08:00

would say you know how’s your pelvic

08:02

floor we’d ask

08:03

several questions about kind of

08:05

different things when you cough when you

08:06

sneeze your urgency to go to the

08:08

bathroom so

08:09

because if you’re someone who hasn’t

08:11

done anything for a year

08:13

you could still be the same as someone

08:15

who’s six weeks post natal you could

08:17

have a really weak pelvic floor and

08:18

you’ve done nothing about it

08:20

you could still have um quite a bit of

08:22

um

08:23

abdominal separation which isn’t

08:24

functioning because it’s all about its

08:26

function it’s not about the size it’s

08:28

about how it functions

08:30

so like even though you might be a year

08:33

you might actually be best to go into

08:34

our post-single circuits or go into a

08:36

postnatal

08:37

class for a couple of months and then

08:39

progress through

08:41

that makes sense so really if you’ve

08:44

not done much exercise and you want to

08:45

kind of get back into it then the first

08:47

point

08:48

is to actually look into something like

08:50

rebalance and see if it’s

08:52

yeah i mean like and the other thing is

08:54

to remember is that like as mums

08:57

you’re moving all the time like so we

08:59

talk about functional movements you know

09:01

and especially if you say for instance

09:02

you have a one-year-old you’re picking

09:04

up your baby

09:06

you’re rocking your baby to sleep for

09:07

hours on end we’ve all done that

09:10

you know you’re patting your baby’s bum

09:12

in the cot

09:13

you know you’re leaning over all of

09:15

these things are actually strengthening

09:17

your muscles so

09:18

never feel that you’ve done nothing

09:19

because believe me you’ve done a lot

09:21

already and so it

09:24

you know you might be strong enough to

09:26

be able to go into the class into into

09:28

into a deeper progression class which

09:31

might be the rebalance blast

09:32

or alternatively as i said it might mean

09:35

that you need to

09:36

go back to postnatal so it would really

09:39

be like an assessment

09:40

um on our part to see where it’s where

09:42

where is best suited for you

09:45

and what made you set up rebalance what

09:48

actually

09:49

what what was it for you that made you

09:50

think that this is what’s needed

09:52

it well it goes back a little bit and so

09:56

i i got into this business and because i

09:59

used

10:00

when i was pregnant with my daughter

10:01

freya so i’ve got three kids um

10:03

oscar freya and beatrix and freya it’s

10:07

just about to turn

10:08

three and when i was pregnant i wasn’t

10:10

actually pregnant

10:11

but i was going to do a review for a

10:13

prenatal class

10:15

and i was like oh this is really good oh

10:17

this is interesting i thought they only

10:18

did kind of

10:19

uh pilates and yoga for prenatal

10:22

and um so i went to this gym in jlt and

10:26

it was i was like this is

10:27

amazing and a week later lo and behold i

10:29

was actually pregnant so i joined the

10:31

classes at four weeks

10:32

i’m pregnant so i joined these classes

10:36

of this prenatal strength style training

10:39

and which included elements of cardio

10:41

and included elements of

10:42

um prenatal strength and it was all done

10:45

with these um

10:47

biokinesis and also pre and postnatal

10:49

trainers and these girls were amazing

10:51

they were really really good and i was

10:53

just in awe of them of their knowledge

10:55

and their expertise bearing in mind i’d

10:56

never

10:57

like really step foot in in like a

11:01

macho kind of gym thing i did a few like

11:03

boot camps back in london and the likes

11:05

you know on on clapham common

11:07

and but i hadn’t done anything like this

11:10

before that was so

11:11

specific and i had done none of that for

11:14

my

11:14

uh son oscar so um this was really

11:18

starting from week four pregnancy i

11:20

might as well have just walked in with

11:21

the pregnancy test stick and

11:24

so i really started from week four all

11:26

the way through

11:27

and the biggest thing for me in this

11:31

that got me into this was um

11:34

how it made me feel you know i felt so

11:37

much stronger

11:38

and late into my second trimester and

11:41

third trimester with my son oscar i had

11:43

terrible back pain and i mean

11:45

awful you know with your first baby you

11:48

like i was like oh i’ll leave the

11:49

shopping like

11:50

to like the end of my second trimester

11:52

and then i’ll start and sure i could

11:53

barely walk like i was in

11:54

agony all the time with my lower back

11:57

and but i just wasn’t strong you know i

11:59

wasn’t doing nothing i was like just

12:01

being pregnant walking around and doing

12:03

my thing

12:04

and i think i did like the odd yoga

12:06

class i think my husband bought me like

12:08

a 10 pack of something that i might have

12:09

used a couple of classes

12:11

um so with this training

12:14

um it it was just incredible so

12:17

you know my back pain went and like

12:21

the absolute biggest thing was

12:24

um i suffer from gestational diabetes

12:27

with all of my pregnancy

12:29

and uh strength training hugely

12:33

um changes the way that your body

12:37

uses insulin so i we kind of turned

12:40

myself into a bit of a science

12:42

experiment

12:43

and so i would go in and i would do this

12:46

strength

12:46

training as such i don’t mean like

12:48

really really heavy weights or anything

12:49

like that you know it was weights that

12:51

felt good for me

12:52

um and my sugar levels just suddenly

12:56

like would not drop because they never

12:58

really drop when you’ve got gestational

12:59

diabetes you don’t suffer from

13:01

dropping levels you tend to just suffer

13:03

from higher levels

13:05

so i would just find over a long period

13:07

of time that my sugar levels were

13:09

amazing and i would go back and forth to

13:12

my endocrine to endocrinologist

13:15

and she was like you know this is

13:16

totally due to the strength training

13:18

that you’re doing so any gaps that i

13:20

used to have

13:21

where i wasn’t training my sugar levels

13:23

would shoot up

13:24

so i i and and so i just kind of just

13:27

kept going

13:28

you know like so if it wasn’t every day

13:30

it was every other day

13:32

and so that massive change that it had

13:35

from a gestational diabetes perspective

13:37

was amazing you know it was really

13:39

really incredible

13:41

but you really have to kind of like hurt

13:43

your muscles a little bit to kind of tap

13:45

into those

13:46

um insulin reserves so it was um

13:49

so that was a big thing for me was was

13:51

to really

13:52

like it was the it was the gestational

13:55

diabetes it was the lack of lower back

13:57

pain

13:58

and overall i just felt amazing and i

14:00

wanted to kind of give that back to

14:01

other

14:02

moms so so this gym that i went to i

14:04

ended up

14:05

kind of effectively becoming part of

14:07

their team

14:08

and and i went through my whole

14:11

pregnancy with them

14:12

and and then once i had the baby and i

14:15

then

14:16

kind of had this big gap of no exercise

14:18

and i was like where are moms meant to

14:20

go

14:21

when you have a baby and it’s true

14:25

you know there’s lots of classes that

14:27

you can go and you can have your baby on

14:29

the ground beside you and all this kind

14:31

of stuff but you know

14:32

with the new mom and you’re

14:33

breastfeeding like

14:35

some of the classes you end up feeding

14:37

the child the baby for half of it i

14:39

totally get that

14:40

so um we just kind of created this

14:42

really nice

14:43

thing where we had this childcare side

14:45

of things so i

14:46

became part of this team um in jlt in a

14:49

gym

14:50

we had prenatal and we had postnatal and

14:53

unfortunately that gym closed down

14:55

um and i later then started rebalance

14:59

and but started it with with the mindset

15:02

of

15:03

really kind of helping mums from a

15:06

um helping them mentally i mean like

15:09

really

15:10

starting to push more into the idea of

15:12

events

15:14

and when we do events having all the

15:16

speakers that they need

15:17

there then um from a training

15:20

perspective not

15:21

just do strength training add other

15:23

things you know

15:25

and because everyone has their own like

15:26

some people the idea of like picking up

15:28

weights and stuff isn’t

15:29

really their bag so then we incorporated

15:31

things like um

15:32

the pilates and we incorporated the baby

15:35

wearing

15:36

so we really tried to like take all of

15:38

the boxes for rebalance

15:40

and that’s kind of where i’m going and

15:42

in between all of them i had another

15:44

child

15:44

and so rebalance was actually set up

15:48

and the week that she was born which was

15:51

kind of crazy but

15:52

but but i did it and so

15:55

that’s kind of where it all began and

15:57

throughout that

15:58

i um during all of this journey um i

16:02

i became a trainer myself so i did my

16:05

level two my level three my pre and post

16:07

native training as well

16:09

and and i’ve gone on to do kind of

16:12

public floor workshops

16:14

and fashion release workshops and

16:17

and i’m just trying to continue my own

16:19

training

16:20

but what i try to do is actually try to

16:22

look in the market as some really

16:23

amazing trainers to bring them on board

16:25

as well

16:26

and because i can’t do everything at all

16:28

and there’s

16:29

so many amazing trainers out there that

16:31

can help um

16:33

and they have a lot more time than i do

16:36

to

16:36

to continue their education so for me

16:39

the most important thing is that we have

16:42

excellent trainers for our moms um and

16:45

and mums to be and just a really really

16:48

nice

16:49

community and and i drive a lot of the

16:51

kind of community aspect of things as

16:53

well

16:54

so that’s where it’s all come from um

16:57

kind of strange times at the moment with

16:59

um with the lockdown and things like

17:02

that we do a lot of stuff on zoom but

17:04

i mean we we’re we’re continuing to try

17:07

and the classes are doing really well

17:09

wow that’s like it’s so inspirational

17:12

one thing i want to ask you

17:13

is you you compared your first pregnancy

17:16

with the second pregnancy because you’re

17:17

working out

17:18

was labor any different with the second

17:19

pregnancy because you’ve been working

17:21

out throughout

17:22

um would you believe that i’ve never

17:24

gone into labor ever ever ever

17:26

oh wow and so due to the gestational

17:28

diabetes in my first pregnancy

17:31

i had to um i went in at 38 weeks

17:34

and they didn’t even want to induce me

17:36

so long story short she was like you

17:38

have to have a c-section and

17:40

it may have been the wrong decision but

17:42

you know i was naive i didn’t know any

17:44

better

17:45

so then for the second um

17:48

i ended up with the c-section again

17:52

i think i wanted a v-buck but can’t

17:54

remember why i didn’t have you know the

17:56

diabetes again

17:57

bearing in mind your diabetes gets worse

17:59

and worse as you as you have more and

18:00

more pregnancies

18:01

so with the exercise i fight it like

18:05

crazy to stay off

18:06

medication as much as i can and but you

18:09

know there’s only so much they can push

18:11

it so i think they pushed it to 40 weeks

18:13

with freya

18:14

and there was no baby coming so they

18:16

took her out

18:17

and so yes to answer your question i’ve

18:20

never had

18:21

um labor but what i will say from

18:24

a c-section um recovery perspective if i

18:29

look at my son

18:30

when i first had him no exercise

18:34

i was in agony like it was

18:37

horrendous and i felt like the recovery

18:39

took

18:40

ages i went around with lower back pain

18:43

until i was about

18:44

eight or nine months pregnant and then

18:46

like i i suppose i just naturally

18:48

started to kind of get better

18:50

second um it was a game changer

18:54

i like i was strong in my legs i was

18:57

strong in my glutes

18:58

i knew all of the muscle groups and i

19:00

was able to kind of like

19:02

stand with confidence and that’s one of

19:04

the things that i teach in my prenatal

19:06

classes

19:07

is the idea of really working these

19:10

muscle groups as much as possible for

19:12

these scenarios because

19:14

you don’t know what kind of birth you’re

19:15

going to have right

19:17

and so be prepared for everything and

19:20

your core is going to be incredibly weak

19:22

afterwards so having strong legs and

19:24

strong

19:24

arms will be able to really support you

19:27

as you

19:27

as you stand and so recovery wise

19:31

absolute game changer and exercising in

19:34

pregnancies

19:35

versus not exercising pregnancy my

19:38

husband

19:39

was shocked and actually he was even

19:41

more shocked

19:42

with beatrix he was my last one like

19:44

within a couple of hours i was in the

19:46

bathroom put

19:47

makeup on for whatever reason don’t know

19:49

why instagram

19:50

obviously um and

19:54

but he was like what like i just can’t

19:56

get over this and i was just like

19:58

walking around doing my thing so it was

20:00

um yeah it’s

20:01

total total and utter game changer and

20:04

but you know you still very much need

20:06

the recovery

20:07

you don’t want to move too quickly i

20:09

love that because i mean i get

20:10

asked all the time how labor was so

20:13

quick for me

20:14

and i honestly put it down

20:17

a lot of it down to the fact that i was

20:20

working out throughout the whole of

20:21

pregnancy and i did

20:22

i mean i was into strength training for

20:24

a while before i became pregnant and

20:26

then so was strength training throughout

20:28

pregnancy

20:28

um and i really do put it down to

20:32

being active and so that’s why i was

20:33

curious as to why whether it was

20:35

like if it’s something that you

20:36

experienced but no i mean and

20:39

to be honest like i am i recently

20:43

um asked all of the top

20:46

as many as i could and ex the top

20:48

experts look like the top gynecologists

20:51

and and like all of our kind of pelvic

20:53

floor gurus and

20:54

physiotherapists about

20:58

the importance of exercise during

20:59

pregnancy and how it can impact your

21:01

labor

21:02

um and because you know who am i to say

21:06

like how it might impact us you know

21:08

like i i i know

21:10

that it does i know that it does from

21:11

what i’ve read but like

21:13

let’s listen to the experts who were

21:15

down the end of the bed seeing these

21:16

babies pop out

21:18

and you know i’ve been working in this

21:20

industry for

21:22

four years and and works with a lot of

21:24

people who’ve done strength training in

21:25

pregnancy

21:26

and doctors have asked them afterwards

21:28

what they were doing

21:30

because they just just did incredibly

21:32

well you know like a couple of pushes

21:34

and the baby was out

21:35

we had one girl i’ll never forget she

21:38

had a water birth

21:39

and when the baby was coming and i think

21:41

she got out or something like that but

21:43

she was in a squat position

21:45

and she was like she could hold it for

21:46

so long and she was holding that squat

21:49

position and afterwards she sent us a

21:51

message and she was like

21:52

i would have never been able to hold

21:54

that position for so long if it wasn’t

21:56

for you and

21:56

we all know that it’s better much better

21:58

to birth your baby not

21:59

lying on your back so you know if if

22:02

you’re strong and you can do it in

22:04

in um in different ways like for

22:06

instance in a kind of more squat

22:07

position

22:08

and then all of these kind of having the

22:11

strong muscles will will really really

22:12

help you

22:13

so so yeah as i said um all of

22:17

the doctors were all saying it makes a

22:19

huge difference

22:20

and on top of that labor is called labor

22:22

for a reason right

22:24

it’s it’s difficult it’s hard so if

22:26

you’re fit

22:28

and you’re healthy and well fit you know

22:30

like you’ve got your

22:31

your your your fit in your heart

22:34

that’s going to help you as well

22:36

everyone can birth the baby right well

22:38

they can hopefully fingers crossed um

22:41

and if not that’s what c-sections are

22:42

there for you

22:43

um but that’s why in the in the prenatal

22:47

classes that we do you know we do cardio

22:48

as well don’t be scared

22:51

to get your heart rate up when you’re

22:53

pregnant it’s actually really really

22:54

important it’s like super important for

22:56

things like labor

22:57

and so but obviously you do it within

23:00

the means and you do it with a prenatal

23:02

trainer

23:03

and but like it’s really important

23:05

aspect to do that too

23:06

so i went through my pregnancy and then

23:09

post pregnancy the first few months so

23:11

five months of pregnancy

23:12

after i gave birth sorry in the uk so a

23:15

lot of the advice in the uk

23:16

from like midwives and doctors and

23:19

people from day one as soon as you’re

23:20

pregnant not like

23:22

there’s no advice as to like to stop

23:24

training so they

23:25

as long as you don’t do anything past

23:27

what you were able to do before you were

23:29

pregnant

23:30

like you know obviously if you’ve never

23:31

strength trained before they say don’t

23:33

go and just start strength training by

23:35

yourself you need support to do that

23:37

um but i wonder how it’s different here

23:40

because there’s so many cultures here

23:42

and in some cultures

23:43

it is normal to be advised to stop

23:46

training

23:47

or stop exercise or not lift bags um

23:51

do you know like not lift the shopping

23:52

bags etc yeah

23:54

gene my mum and and it’s funny like my

23:57

mom

23:57

i’m i’m i’ve finished giving bit or

23:59

having babies now

24:01

just to let you know just my eye and

24:04

but my mum used to always say to me and

24:06

as soon as i got pregnant now michelle

24:08

you know that you need to be very

24:10

careful when you lift boxes

24:12

and now honestly michelle your ligaments

24:14

and that’s

24:15

all that it is it’s that your ligaments

24:18

get blacks

24:19

during pregnancy okay so if you don’t

24:22

know what you’re doing

24:24

and you’re not using um your breath

24:27

to control your core and you’re not kind

24:31

of

24:32

loading properly um you could pick up a

24:35

box

24:35

incorrectly or you could pick up a

24:37

weight incorrectly and you could do

24:38

yourself a lot of damage

24:39

right that’s where it comes from so

24:42

that’s where it comes from and

24:44

you know there’s a point to it have i

24:46

ever seen

24:47

anyone like massively injure themselves

24:49

from that kind of thing no

24:50

but we would do things very very

24:53

carefully

24:53

you know and and and and everyone does

24:56

things at their own

24:58

at their own pace and like when i say

25:00

like strength

25:01

training you know like we we use

25:04

resistant bands a lot that’s not

25:06

difficult at all we use elements of

25:07

pilates in our classes a lot because

25:09

breath is incredibly important

25:12

and we use weights like 2kg

25:15

you know i’m talking for someone you

25:16

know it’s not it’s not heavy

25:18

but actually if you hold 2kg and you do

25:20

arm circles

25:22

you’ll be killing me afterwards so um

25:25

don’t think this when people think of

25:28

strength training

25:29

they they immediately see a barbell in

25:32

their head

25:33

and they’re like oh my god like i can’t

25:35

do that like we’re not going to be doing

25:37

anything like that

25:37

okay um and not to say that you can’t um

25:42

but you don’t go directly into that kind

25:44

of exercise if you haven’t done it

25:46

before or you don’t start running

25:48

during pregnancy if you haven’t done it

25:49

before does that answer your question

25:51

but that totally makes sense

25:53

and it’s interesting because um yeah if

25:55

you’re doing it in a class setting it

25:57

makes sense to have

25:58

like a strength but load in a slightly

26:01

like

26:01

in a lighter way so 2kg is not that bad

26:04

it’s 2kgs like a kind of

26:06

beans isn’t it yes a bit more than that

26:08

yeah but

26:09

yeah not too far off but you know a lot

26:10

of our classes we use tin cans

26:12

or you use your body so you go body

26:15

weight

26:16

tin cans this is this is what this is

26:19

what’s happened since locked

26:21

and so it’s um body weight

26:24

tin cans water bottles and then it’s

26:26

like go out to the shelf and get some

26:28

weights

26:30

that’s right as the progression starts

26:33

and then do you do they kind of graduate

26:36

rebalance

26:36

is that the kind of um concept you kind

26:39

of get to a point where you’ve done

26:40

like you know all of your training you

26:41

get to a point where you’re strong

26:43

enough and then it’s like

26:45

right maybe you should move on to sort

26:46

of gym classes that are a bit more sort

26:49

of

26:51

i don’t want to use the word advanced

26:52

because it’s probably not the right word

26:54

and the right word is high impact okay

26:58

yeah so um and high impact would be the

27:01

likes of maybe an f45 class

27:04

when you’re finished like rebalance

27:06

classes for example where you’re doing

27:07

your post sales training

27:08

and then you would move up to the

27:11

rebalance blast and we’d say

27:12

like stick within if you’re not if

27:14

you’re finished your postnatal training

27:16

and you’re having

27:17

absolutely no issues at all and you

27:18

really want to progress

27:20

properly like say you want to like start

27:22

running again you want to do a half

27:24

marathon you know all of these things

27:26

are so important actually sometimes for

27:27

moms to have this bit of independence

27:30

like

27:30

minus the baby for a while sorry to say

27:33

that but it’s true

27:34

and and that’s when you should actually

27:37

go

27:37

back to your physio and see what’s going

27:40

on

27:41

and see if you’re strong enough and

27:43

you’re ready to take that next kind of

27:45

big progression and if you’re someone

27:48

that just wants to kind of keep up

27:49

exercise

27:50

then you could start things like our

27:52

rebalance blast classes where we

27:54

really kind of pick up the tempo a lot

27:56

we do add a little bit of um

27:58

higher we do add higher intensity but we

28:00

we offer a lot of um

28:02

alterations because your pelvic floor

28:04

might still be weak and that’s okay

28:06

and so we just offered the alterations

28:09

within that

28:10

and so yeah it is definitely like a

28:12

progression thing and how your body’s

28:14

coping with

28:15

and with the exercise and what you’ve

28:17

been given but we can see

28:19

in the class how people are getting

28:21

stronger in the way that you move

28:23

in the way that you squat and the way

28:25

that you lunge you know you can watch

28:27

the knees you can see how

28:28

that person is really starting to kind

28:31

of pick up strength

28:32

and so yeah and then we challenge them

28:35

and then we offer kind of

28:36

different things that they can do that’s

28:38

awesome um

28:40

so if a listener wants to find out more

28:42

about rebalance

28:44

where would they do that and how do they

28:45

contact you

28:47

so they can go on to rebalance me now on

28:50

instagram

28:51

and alternatively they can email on info

28:55

rebalancemeno.com and

28:58

and that’s kind of the two ways to do it

29:01

put all of that into the show note is

29:02

there anything

29:03

you’d like to add before we end i think

29:06

the only thing that i would say

29:08

is if there’s any time that um

29:12

if you’re a person who’s never done any

29:14

exercise and you’re like oh i’m not

29:15

really bothered about this

29:17

i totally get it we’re not trying to

29:18

push everyone to do these kind of things

29:20

but even for just your mental well-being

29:24

you’re gonna see a big difference

29:27

um in terms of how you’re feeling

29:30

mentally when you exercise

29:32

um so i would kind of even if you’re not

29:35

that keen on it

29:36

just do it even for that for that factor

29:38

and

29:39

and even if you’re like you know if

29:41

you’re not into classes or whatever just

29:42

get out and walk

29:43

steps steps are absolutely incredible

29:47

you know just walk and

29:50

and even just that will make you feel

29:52

better and

29:54

so yeah just take care of yourselves

29:56

both

29:57

mentally and physically yeah i i 100

30:00

agree with that and i love that thank

30:02

you again michelle

30:03

for making the time today i really

30:05

enjoyed our conversation i know this

30:06

will be so valuable

30:08

for listeners no worries it was lovely

30:10

to um to have a chat

30:12

and now it’s back to mummy duties i’m

30:14

sure that they’ll all wake up soon and

30:16

pick ups and all sorts

30:17

and but yeah no thank you so much and

30:20

hopefully see you

30:21

at one of our events at some point

 

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Category:
The Mama Podcast