In owning a personal training studio I am often confronted with a Mom trying to find time and energy to get back in pre-baby shape. Walking, jogging, spin class, yoga maybe even some boot camp interval type classes are the standard go to’s they try.
The second common scenario is Moms that did not get back to their younger body and thinking they need to be realistic that their pre-baby body is gone forever. They simply can’t keep up the cardio and can’t always eat like a bird because they need energy, as well as help, relaxing and ‘keying down’.
Enter the best, yet most unknown solution – once a week weight training. What Mom has lost isn’t her figure but her muscle. She may have put on some fat but that is for feeding the child. The reason the fat doesn’t come off well is cardio won’t do it. Lost muscle from a changed hormone profile has reduced her metabolic rate. She has become the best fat storage machine on the planet.
The side effects are:
– lowered overall energy
– change of body shape
– the beginning of osteoporosis
– disrupted sleep
– back and joint pain
The crazy fact is Mom’s who have stuck to once a week strength training find the bulk of the side effects listed are staved off almost entirely! Even Mom’s who are relatively young and don’t immediately notice big changes in their body see them crop up big time in their 40’s. Again they chalk it up to their lot in life and slowly lose the cardio battle of the bulge and ‘sag’ wins out.
What we have witnessed over the years is those Mom’s and mom to be’s’ who retain once a week strength training do not face these supposed aging issues and in fact often improve their overall body fitness over the years. This because women, as opposed to men, already deal with having less lean mass. Working on the muscle they have in their 30’s pays huge dividends later in life.
The number of drugs and semi-helpful holistic remedies being prescribed to Mom’s is in the billions of dollars…all of which can be almost completely replaced by a simple solution. It is time the fitness and wellness industry stop feeding into the combination of an anxious and overtired mentality of a Mom with sales of symptom masking band-aids.
