The final part of my pregnancy journey with CrossFit was surprisingly the hardest.
My little baby came into the world hard and fast. I had someone joke that they had done workouts longer than my labour. I know that I was very lucky for such a quick labor and I was very surprised at my physical strength. I spent a majority of my labour supporting myself with my arms and I know that my years of strength training really assisted me in that. Wham bam thank you mam and I have another beautiful little girl.
With consultation with my midwife I was back in at gym a week after giving birth. My training going back was low impact and the intensity level was similar to that before giving birth. Still establishing a routine with a newborn and sleep deprivation in the first few weeks, I only made it in 2 times a week. My biggest hurdle was a mental one. Like rocking up to the hospital expecting to fit into my size 10 jeans straight after giving birth, I was naive enough to think that once my body was no longer carrying a baby that my results would mirror that of my pre pregnancy ones. As I was constantly reminded by my friends and coaches, it took months for me to be at my current fitness level, it was going to take a while to build it back up.
After a couple of months, I made the silly mistake of weighing myself. I was still 10kgs off my pre pregnancy weight. At this stage however I was still breastfeeding and my training schedule was still quite inconsistent. I let this consume me in a negative way. My whiteboard scores were still not great, I was still scaling a lot and my clothes were not fitting me. What I needed was a reality check and action plan. Luckily my husband/coach helped me out with both. I started making it to classes 4 to 5 times a week (baby in tow). I also started taking time to build up my strength by working the technique on my lifts and in pull ups by breaking the movements down.
By 4 months post baby I started to feel good again. I started to move a little on the whiteboard and dropped a size in my clothes. I was pushing myself harder and the results were showing. I recently went on a tropical holiday and as you can imagine a lot of swimming was to be done. I’m not the size 10 I was 12 months ago but I felt confident in putting my bikinis on rocking it. My tummy wasn’t flawless but I felt I worked hard enough to earn the confidence to wear my body with pride.
My baby girl is now 5 months old and to throw a new hurdle in to my training I have returned to work part time. This has just meant readjusting my training times to early morning or afternoon sessions. With this my journey has completed its cycle. I’m just a working mum who loves to CrossFit. CrossFit has made my journey one of new strengths. Not just the strength built in my muscles but my new found mental strength. I have had continued support within my CrossFit community.
I hope my story will encourage other to-be mummies to keep at it because in the end the continued training has so many benefits. Do the research, speak to your coaches and look after yourself
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