The “Fit Mom” who wants to maintain
A Fit Mom can use a combination of workout methods to strengthen muscle, burn calories and maintain body flexibility and range of motion.
- Yoga: For the fit Mom, yoga’s biggest benefit may be peace of mind. Yoga burns some calories, but since it is not enough of a workout to keep off the weight, it’s best used as a complementary workout. If you’re pregnant, you might want to inform yourself about prenatal yoga.
- Pilates: Pilates can help sculpt muscle tone and strengthen the body, but does not burn sufficient calories on its own. If you enjoy Pilates, continue to keep it a part of your aerobic exercise routine and use other forms of cardiovascular workouts and strength training to maintain.
- Weight Lifting: Already shapely Moms will need to lift more weights or do more reps to continue to challenge muscles. By building muscle, you’ll help your body burn more calories even while resting. Over time, this is key to helping maintain your healthy weight.
- Piyo: PiYo combines the muscle-sculpting, core-firming benefits of Pilates with the strength and flexibility benefits of yoga. It’s a true fat-burning, low-impact program, and you’ll get incredibly defined.
The Mom-to-Be who wants a healthy pregnancy
The health benefits of yoga, Pilates and strength training while pregnant are vast. Of course safety is first, so consult your physician before starting any new fitness regimes. Separated by activity, benefits include:
- Yoga: For expectant mothers, yoga helps with relaxation not only while practicing, but also in other aspects of your life. Learned methods can help ease your delivery, plus you can improve your flexibility, balance and muscle strength. There are a ton of yoga classes that cater to a pregnant woman’s physical changes. Another option is to ask a classic-style yoga instructor to modify yoga poses to accommodate your needs.
- Pilates: During pregnancy, strengthening your spine, pelvic floor and core is highly beneficial to expectant moms. If you decide to try Pilates, start slow; look into enrolling in beginner or prenatal Pilates classes or, if you prefer to practice alone, there are instructional Pilates videos you watch and follow at home.
- Weight Training: While it may seem counterintuitive for pregnant ladies to lift weights, it is in fact safe. Lifting now will help prepare your body for all the lifting you’ll be doing when baby comes.
- Piyo: PiYo combines the muscle-sculpting, core-firming benefits of Pilates with the strength and flexibility benefits of yoga. It’s a true fat-burning, low-impact program, and you’ll get incredibly defined.
The “Empty Nest” Mom who is getting back into shape
To moms who may have put fitness on the back burner to raise families: yoga, Pilates and/or strength training will get you back into shape in no time.
- Yoga: Yoga offers a gentle and fun way to begin building muscle mass and flexibility. Once you’ve mastered the basics in beginner classes, you can try more aerobic styles of yoga like Bikram or Power Yoga, to continue to challenge yourself.
- Pilates: Pilates offers benefits similar to yoga, albeit with more of a focus on gaining core strength than stretching and toning the whole body. Pilates can be used together with yoga for a complementary stretching and strengthening routine.
- Weight Training: Weight training can help to build muscle mass and stave off age-related muscle loss in women. Armed with a few sets of dumbbells, you can perform many weight training exercises from the comfort of home. According to Prevention, whole-body weight lifting can help women regain 5 to 10 years worth of muscle in a few months.
- Piyo: PiYo combines the muscle-sculpting, core-firming benefits of Pilates with the strength and flexibility benefits of yoga. It’s a true fat-burning, low-impact program, and you’ll get incredibly defined.
Bonus: Here are some additional eco-friendly yoga mats to check out!
Identity Magazine is all about guiding women to discover their powers of Self-Acceptance, Appreciation, and Personal Achievement.
We ask that every contributor and expert answer the Identity questions in keeping with our theme. Their answers can be random and in the moment or they can be aligned with the current article they have written. In that way, and as a team, we hope to encourage and motivate each other, thus inspiring you to Get All A’s.
1. What have you accepted within your life, physically and/or mentally? Additionally, what are you still working on accepting? Now, we’re not talking about resignation, rather stepping into, embraced, and owned.
Getting my degree in counseling was very testing, but worth sleepless night of studying.
2. Appreciation is everything. What have you learned to appreciate about yourself and/or within your life, physically and mentally? On the other hand OR in contrast, are there elements of who you are that you’re still working on appreciating?
I appreciate my god given gifts for helping others overcome obstacles in life. Seeing others flourish gives me great satisfaction.
3. Share with us one of your most rewarding achievements in life? Tell us not only what makes YOU most proud but also share the goals and dreams that you still have.
Being able to help families during times of crisis is the most rewarding thing. I would like to travel to other countries to help children in poverty and to help others.
Lindsey Radcliffe from Social Monsters – Marital counselor, Relationship blogger, Yoga enthusiast
