Have you ever considered hiring a pre or postnatal coach but were unsure of what was involved? Today I want to take some time to shed some light on how this could look, what is involved and how it may look different from a typical personal training or coaching situation.
To start off I want to say this. Exercise and training in pregnancy was something that was very briefly touched over 5 years of school…I’m talking a handful of powerpoint slides in a lecture briefly and that was the end of it. These slides covered some very basic modifications required during pregnancy and didn’t touch on adjustments postpartum at all. All of this is to say that a few slides on pregnancy and/or postpartum doesn’t make someone an expert in the area so ensure that you are looking into these things when looking for a coach. Ask them questions about their background and experience and ensure that you are choosing a good fit for you. If you are looking for more information about what to look for in a coach you can check out this blog post for more here for more tips and tricks.
So how is pre/postnatal coaching different than regular fitness coaching? Well, your body changes a lot in the pregnancy and postpartum period, so to start, your coach should understand what these changes are and how they may impact your ability to exercise. That is not to say that you can’t exercise, nor is that to say there is a lengthy list of things you can’t do. However there may be some small tweaks to make to your exercises and/or programming and your coach should understand and be able to explain these changes to you. I’m not going to go into detail here about all these tweaks because that would make this post lengthy and I like to respect your time but your coach should explain to you why these slight changes are important with respect to the changes that are occurring in your body. If you have questions about what to do, what to be cautious of and what to avoid during pregnancy and the postpartum period please contact me here directly and I can give you some insight specific to your situation.
Pre and postnatal coaching assessments may also look different than you are used to with a traditional coach. Although there will be some overlap here your pre/postnatal coach will likely ask you questions about diastasis recti and pelvic floor function and they will likely recommend that you work with a pelvic health physiotherapist (if they aren’t making this recommendation consider it a red flag). Your pre/postnatal trainer will be able to work in collaboration with any recommendations coming from a pelvic health physio and will be able to help you with exercises that may be prescribed by a physio. They may also assess some things that you would see in a typical situation like body composition, measurements, sleep, nutrition and others. Things like sleep and nutrition may look very different during pregnancy and postpartum and that is okay (in fact they should look slightly different depending on your situation) but be aware that often these are things that are also addressed by a typical coach as well.
A well educated pre/postnatal coach will be able to adapt to your specific situation. While I will argue this is true of all well educated trainers during pregnancy and postpartum periods you can experience a wide range of symptoms and situations and what’s appropriate for one person at a specific point in pregnancy or postpartum may be vastly different for another. A good coach will recognize this and will educate their clients on what to watch for and things to note and will be able to adapt to what the client is feeling instead of what the general recommendations are. During pregnancy and postpartum having a coach who is flexible and able to adapt to how you are feeling on any given day is an important part of pre/postnatal training so be aware of how you feel and mention it to your coach.
If you are looking for pre/postnatal coaching with me you can reach out directly here. This process will begin with an assessment and get to know you session in which we will discuss what you are looking to get out of your coaching and what your goals are. We will also look at some assessment forms and paperwork to be filled out to get you started on your training journey. From there your first session will be a combination of assessments that are appropriate for you and assessment of common movement patterns to help create a starting baseline. At this time I am working with clients virtually using the Zoom platform so all meetings and assessments will happen in this manner. Based on the results of those assessments and what you are looking to achieve with your coaching I will design a personalized program for you which will help you target these goals. Programs are flexible and can be designed based on the equipment you have available to you, the time you have available, and more. I believe that it is important that your health and fitness suit your lifestyle and I will ensure that we develop a collaborative training program that will work within your constraints and boundaries. If you are looking for more information about training one-on-one with me or if you have a small group of women you would like to train with please contact me here for more additional information.
While pre/postnatal coaching will have some overlap with traditional training, there are a number of things that we must be aware of during pregnancy and postpartum periods. A well educated pre/postnatal coach will be able to help guide you through these periods in your life and help you make fitness and lifestyle changes and choices that suit your needs.
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