Exercise Information

Pregnant and Pre-Pregnant Women

Often when women fall pregnant or plan for pregnancy, our health and fitness levels come under scrutiny. Are we providing the optimal conditions for our unborn babies to ensure the best start to a healthy life?

Looking on the internet will provide a myriad of answers and often the only advice is to listen to your body and take it easy! Although this is very true, there is a hangover from fairly recent history, when confinement was the order of the day for pregnant women.

Government guidelines now recommend that pregnant women engage in 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. » Learn More

Many of the women already participating in mishfit mothers intend on having more children and mishfit mothers is specifically designed to help during pregnancy. Exercise helps to maintain fitness, strength and endurance, making the physical demands of pregnancy more manageable and comfortable. The pregnant woman who has maintained regular exercise thought her pregnancy will approach labour with increased confidence and stamina, and postnatal recovery will be faster.

Here are some benefits of exercise during pregnancy:

Increased aerobic fitness can assist in enduring a physically demanding labour and faster return to fitness after birth
Improved muscular tone and strength for prevention of injury
Increased self esteem and sense of well being - you will be doing the best thing for you and your developing baby
Develop positive body image - helps accept changes in your developing shape
Reduced risk of gestational diabetes - exercise is the only cure!
Relaxation/ stress reduction - exercise can provide a mental break from the worries that can be associated with pregnancy
Promotes good posture - developing strength in the deep stabilising muscles to support the joints
Reduces fatigue - improves sleeping patterns
Helps prevent constipation - constipation can put an extra strain on the pelvic floor

Postnatal Women

Often the initial motivation to join mishfit mothers is to lose weight gained during pregnancy, but one of the things you will quickly notice is an increase in energy and an improved frame of mind. Also, increasing your strength and functional fitness makes everyday things like housework, lifting your children and dealing with the demands of running a busy household etc, much easier. Your body is less prone to injury and most clients report that problem areas like lower back pain and pelvic floor dramatically improve.

Here are some benefits of exercising postnatal:

Strengthening abdominal and pelvic floor muscles
Helps to strengthen muscles supporting pelvic and other joints which have become more mobile during pregnancy
Positive psychological benefits - reduced feeling of isolation, coping with stress, body image and self-esteem
Improves self esteem as body shape returns to normal
Understanding how to recruit your core muscles to get your tummy back in place!

Remember that it takes nine months to undergo all of the changes associated with pregnancy and contrary to what the Hollywood hype would have us believe, those changes are not going to be reversed by themselves overnight!

mishfit believes that pregnancy and post pregnancy should be viewed as a bell curve.

1st 3 months postnatal: your body still has the pregnancy hormones (including relaxin) pumping through your body and there is swelling internally (and possibly externally). In terms of exercising, this means that we should treat your body as if it were still pregnant. However, exercising should start immediately with pelvic floor contractions and pulling in the abdominals to start activating the Transverse Abdominus muscle. After your 6 week check from your doctor/obstetrician you are welcome to join mishfit mothers.

mishfit trainers will encourage you to follow the guidelines we set for pregnant women during this phase. mishfit trainers will also ascertain whether you have diastasis and what this means for your training.