Preconception Health: A Guest Post by Jennifer November, ND

How to be your healthiest self prior to getting pregnant The decision to get pregnant is a big one.  One of the biggest an individual and a couple face. So much goes into the decision — are you ready as a couple? Are you ready as an individual? Is the timing appropriate with your chosen career path?  Are your finances …

Why aren’t sit-ups safe after birth?

I’m going to start by saying that the Fitness Industry, like many other industries, is an ever-changing one. It’s full of trends. Exercises come in and out of fashion, research is done to prove exercises safe or unsafe, and as Fitness Professionals, we listen and make changes to our program content accordingly. Sit-ups, or any variation of this movement where …

When Can I Return to High Impact Exercise After Birth?

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question, and I’m going to use “running” as an example of high-impact exercise in this article. We’ll start with a hormone called relaxin which is released into your system in the early stages of your pregnancy. Relaxin relaxes your muscles/joints/ligaments to help prepare your pelvis for childbirth. BUT, relaxin doesn’t just affect …

Julia O’s Birth Story: Welcome, Elizabeth!

Julia O’s Birth Story: Elizabeth Rebecca Orme was born Saturday, July 23 at 10:30 a.m.  I can’t thank you enough for helping me prepare for labor, and here’s why. At 4:30 a.m. on my due date, I started bleeding lightly and shortly thereafter having contractions 8 minutes apart for an hour. Throughout that day, I bled consistently and had contractions varying from …

How to Exercise in Third Trimester

safe pregnancy exercise seattle

Your pregnancy is progressing nicely now; you keep checking off those milestones!   You may be seeing your provider more frequently if you’re nearing the finish line and your body is adjusting well to some pretty amazing anatomical, physiological and hormonal changes. No doubt, you’ve had to slow things down a bit, but you’re probably fairly impressed with your fitness …

How To Exercise in the First Trimester

Prenatal Fitness Seattle

TOP 5 TIPS FOR EXERCISING IN THE FIRST TRIMESTER You’ll be pleased to know there are very few exercises that you can’t continue doing in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.  Although you may struggle with fatigue and nausea, if you do no exercise for the first trimester, you’ll probably feel more tired, your fitness level will drop and chances …

Safe Core Exercise in Pregnancy

This can be so confusing!  Sit-ups?  Crunches?  Leg-lifts? Planks?  If you are pregnant, hopefully you are no longer performing traditional abdominal exercises such as crunches or sit-ups.  If you have been, that’s okay…but this might be a great time to transition to more beneficial, safer core exercises.  I will explain more about why and how to do so safely in …

Diaphragmatic Breathing in Pregnancy & Postpartum

“Damn it!  What?!” I exclaimed, exasperated as my little one called for me for what felt like the 80th time in five minutes.  I again went to his side imploring, “I am right here, Honey, I’m just trying to cook dinner and I need to write a blog post about deep breathing tonight!” I immediately started laughing at the irony …

Reasons Why You Can’t Lose Your Mummy Tummy–Part II

Ok, so this is part two of a three part series of articles concerning your “mummy tummy”. Recently, I discussed how new moms often feel a bulge or layer of fat around their mid-section, and no matter what they do, they can’t shift it! That’s the pillow-like feeling I referred to—and it can be a bit of a surprise postpartum. …

How do I lose my Mummy Tummy?

 PART I How are you feeling about your postpartum belly? Personally, I’ve always been conflicted. Physically, mine felt like a pillow for quite some time and I even remember resting my arm on it while I nursed my newborn son!  What an odd feeling that was!  A belly that had been full and taught for so many months was now …