As the countdown to Christmas (and 2019) is well and truly on, I wanted to make clear my class arrangements over the festive period and into the new year. The last week of classes this year will be w/c 10 December 2018 (so finishing up with Boxercise on Thursday 13 December) and classes resume on Wednesday 2 January 2019. Existing …
I regularly get asked about the benefits (and safety considerations) of exercising whilst pregnant and why my pregnancy exercise classes are different, so here goes… The benefits: 1. This is perhaps the most obvious one…helping you to stay active throughout your pregnancy. It’s perfectly safe for most women to exercise during pregnancy and doing so can make you more physically …
After several fabulous years operating as Frombumps2babies Birmingham, I’ll be trading exclusively through my own Female Fitness Matters brand going forwards (when those ejits at Facebook finally allow me to update my page name, that is!) This is purely down to circumstances changing over time. As many of you know, I’ve recently added Boxercise® for moms to my offerings, with pregnancy, …
Whilst your GP may give you the green light to get back to exercise at your 6-week check, your body needs time to heal post birth – particularly if you had an episiotomy, stitches, C-section or an assisted birth. There are 4 stages of wound healing and this process takes at least 1 year to be complete and in …
Pregnancy typically alters our posture away from its usual or intended “neutral” alignment and this doesn’t necessarily reverse straight after birth. Particularly when you’re carrying a small person around & bending over them for much of the day! Whilst every woman is different, it’s extremely common to see: rounded shoulders rounded upper back lowered head hands falling forwards anteriorly tilted …
27.8% of recorded UK births* in 2016-17 were via Caesarean Section and I’d love to know what percentage of those 174,720 women were advised or shown how to massage their scars and/or told why this is beneficial. Frustratingly it’s likely to be a very small number. When your body is healing, it produces internal scar tissue and these adhesions (as …
Pregnancy can have a huge impact on our breathing patterns due to the growing baby and this can have a potential impact on our core muscles. When you breathe in, your diaphragm contracts and moves downward to increase the space for your lungs to expand and fill with air. And this downward pressure should mean that your abdominal muscles and …
The most common concern of moms joining my postnatal classes is whether pregnancy has left them with a separation of their “6-pack muscles”, or a diastasis recti as it’s more formally known. I think this is largely due to the positive focus of many professionals now on female core and pelvic floor muscles, but also due to the associated confusion …
According to Neal’s Yard Remedies, 70% of women in their 40s and 50s feel they are largely ignored by mainstream media. But if I were to do a poll of my clients I’d suggest that many younger women feel equally disconnected with the images and narrative that they see on a daily basis – particularly new and expectant moms. Somehow, …
Women love boxing in my experience. It’s always noted when I leave it out of the circuits in both my pregnancy and postnatal classes. Not every woman feels confident in a boxing gym, however, or in male dominated classes with reputations for beastings or where throwing up is a badge of honour. And if you’re a postnatal women with a …