GLOBAL PARENTS DAY
New parents, and especially new moms, are in a vulnerable state. They’re embarking upon new territory in life, restructuring their entire schedule, and seeking balance between their past and present selves. Roughly one in five GoodForm clients have children, so for Global Parents Day we want to honor their commitment to being the best version of themselves possible–in spite of the constraints they face.
“You want to be strong for your kids,” GoodForm member Samantha, mother to a 3.5-year-old and 17-month-old, told us. “You want to be active for them, so that you have the endurance and ability to keep up.”
Client Tamar, who also has two children, one who is almost two and one who is four and a half, expressed a similar sentiment: “Just trying to figure out how to physically manage two kids can be mentally challenging. When they both need you to hold them at the same time, it’s a lot of collective weight. Carrying sixty plus pounds of unruly children is a regular physical demand at my house.”
Being physically capable in new ways isn’t the only benefit to working out. GoodForm gym owner and Rockaway resident Monice Small believes that more parents should know how important it is to have their children see them enjoy being active so that they are inclined to see exercise as a positive. Additionally, prioritizing fitness can be a wonderful option for self care.
“I have zero arrangements for self-care,” says Samantha.
My sessions with Mo are the only times I get physical self-care. If I don’t go, I get nothing.
I’m a mom with two to three businesses. GoodForm holds me accountable. I needed something close to me. My office is in the Rockaways so I needed something I could walk to within ten minutes of work.”
Tamar began working out with Mo when she was pregnant with her second child. “I loved the class setup, the group of people that go there, the proximity to the house, and the one-on-one attention.”
When Mo gets started with a new client, she starts by asking if they have seen a pelvic floor specialist and refers out when needed. “For their first session, I focus on teaching them the proper breath technique. Once we have the breath down, then we focus on how to engage the core and lift the pelvic floor.” Setting the proper foundation, especially if one wasn’t active pre-pregnancy, is extremely important. “I usually give my postpartum clients a guide to take with them for homework. The techniques take a while to learn and take a ton of focus.”
Samantha, who classified herself as a “historically unathletic person” prior to training at GoodForm, knew the importance of finding the right fit when it came to choosing which gym to work out in–and who to see. “I wanted a woman,” she told us, “A woman who would push me in a way that was realistic. Some trainers are more concerned with being able to post ‘before and after’ progress pictures, but I wanted someone who was concerned with me. I wanted convenience and a private session, but I needed someone to push me at a speed that was reasonable for me.”
That’s why Mo starts her sessions with parents by asking them how they slept the night before. “I base everything on how much sleep a parent has had, especially new parents! If you’re not getting sleep then there’s no point in even doing a session! SLEEP ALWAYS COMES FIRST.”
“You don’t need to do much for it to count,” according to Tamar.
“Even if it’s just five minutes a day, doing something you love, that’s what it takes. If you have more time, you’re doing more. If you don’t, that’s fine!”
Samantha advises new moms to not get discouraged–and to start right away. “Mo and I began training six weeks after I gave birth. I couldn’t even lift myself off the floor that first session.” Still, she wanted to hit the ground running. “As a mom and business owner, I didn’t want to wait for the ‘right time’. If you want to start, you should start as soon as possible. It gets harder and harder the more time that passes. Mo is really great with new moms. She respects that journey. She will work with you to create a vision of the best you, for yourself. She lets the client set the tone. She cultivates the right amount of accountability with the understanding that you are a working mom. Her flexibility is important. A lot of the reason that post-partum moms wait is because they don’t know where to start or who to go to or how they’re going to fit the time in— or all the one thousand questions that run through our head all DAY! The gym itself is really good at setting the tone for the importance of accountability while also staying flexible and positive.”
Mo, and all the personal trainers and class instructors at GoodForm, understands that new parents are not only dealing with a lot of uncharted territory mentally, they are at the same time trying to get back to a place they once were physically. “They will probably never get to that place and that's a hard pill to swallow,” says Mo. “I’m not a parent, but I one day hope to be. I hope I’m able to work with someone who cares more about my mental state then helping me ‘snap back’.”
