photo by Tasha Lawton

Recently, I got in touch with an Australian pilates instructor who specializes in pre and post-natal pilates and has her own site at Pregalates.com.  Tasha Lawton has dedicated her life to pilates fitness and helping other mom’s maintain their fitness and core body strength throughout their pregnancy and beyond.  Tasha has developed a series of pilates videos that focuses on each trimester of pregnancy and post-natal exercise, they are a great way for expectant mothers to maintain their fitness.  Interestingly enough, Tasha filmed these videos while she was pregnant with her own child, so she knew exactly what pregnant women are capable of!  I want to take this opportunity to let Tasha Lawton introduce herself to all of you “active mommies.”

Introducing Pilates Instructor Tasha Lawton:

Ok, who am I? Well, I’m a 33 year old everyday mum of two kids (5 and 3) with a passion for well-being and exercise just trying to create a balanced life. Along my road to discovery, I fell upon pilates roughly 9 years ago.

I will never forget the day I realized just how beneficial pilates is for pregnant women. I had been training a woman for her nine month term and at the end of a drug-free, 6 hour labour, she successfully managed to give birth naturally to a baby girl born posterior. Midwives believed pilates had made it possible to avoid intervention. That baby girl was my daughter.

I qualified as an instructor in both mat and studio exercises after fifteen hard months training with PICP (Pilates International) in Melbourne. My specialism was in ante and post-natal pilates and that led me to present on Australian national television for Pilates TV as their pregnancy expert. Since then, I’ve also appeared and demonstrated at national expos and on the radio.

Over the years of working with pregnant women, I realised that there weren’t any pilates for pregnancy DVDs on the market that featured a pregnant instructor. So when I fell pregnant with my second child, I decided to make the most of my situation and filmed four separate trimester specific pilates workouts. These dvds are now available for sale on my website: www.pregalates.com

My broader pilates experience includes training professional athletes including an AFL footballer suffering from a condition that he was told would only be cured by surgery. Six weeks later, he was injury free with no operation necessary.

It is my dream to make pilates a regular part of every pregnant woman’s preparation for birth and their ongoing recovery. I want to promote its benefits to as wide an audience as possible.”

Thank you to Tasha for sharing her story with all of us and being dedicated to helping pregnant women achieve maintain their fitness and core body strength.

photo by Soja Martial Arts

I realized today that while I enjoy teaching pilates, it is hard to get a workout in while you are teaching.  Luckily,the advanced class I was teaching tonight allowed me to workout with them.  It was a great workout and we all enjoyed doing it together.  Group camaraderie is so important, most of the advanced students could easily do a workout on their own, yet they consistently attend class to get a workout together.  As their instructor, I challenge them to reach new goals and challenge their level of intensity, but truly working out together and motivating each other is their best energizer.  They laugh and groan together, but enjoy the company and the workout.  If you are having trouble getting motivated to workout find a class that interests you or a workout partner who will keep you moving.  I swear by pilates, if you are looking for a way to get rid of that mommy pouch, improve your other activities, and feel strong, pilates is for you.  There are two new mothers in the advanced class and they are losing their baby weight and toning up very quickly.  I know other moms who have committed to yoga who have had similar results, it really depends on the type of workout you want to get.  Whatever that workout is, stay active!

Other exciting news, I am being featured on http://workoutmommy.com for being “one fit mommy” please go to the site and check me out!

photo by flickr family

So I haven’t blogged in a couple of days.  On Thursday night the flu hit our family.  My son has been miserable and I was home from work with him on Friday and up with him the last two days of the weekend.  As a Mom, it is extremely hard to watch your child be sick.   I just wanted to be able to make him feel so much better and there was nothing I could do.  We watched countless hours of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (ok that made him feel a little better) this weekend and he now loves red gatorade, which he calls “Gator Juice.”  Unfortunately, we were up quite a few times during the night and we are a very tired group in our household, but I am proud to say I still got a workout in!  My mother showed up on Friday afternoon to help out with my son and I was able to get a good run in and enjoy the great Phoenix weather.  On Saturday, I made it to pilates class for an hour and actually was able to go for a bike ride with the whole family (my son needed to get out of the house).  During nap time today, I did a Stott Pilates BOSU workout video that was amazing and very challenging.

It is extremely hard to keep up with your workout routine when your family is sick.  As mothers, we seem to take care of everyone else and not ourselves.  I find when I get stuck at home with a sick child that workout dvd’s come in very handy.  Getting in a workout in your own living room, usually during nap-time, is convenient and quick.   I am very excited to review some pre and post-natal pilates DVD’s that a British pilates instructor is sending me, I will have more information soon.  I also enjoy all of the Stott Pilates videos, you can get anywhere from an easy to extremely advanced workout from 25 minutes to an hour.  I usually stick to ab and core work for at home workout videos, I prefer to go to the gym or get outside for my cardio and strength activities.  I highly suggest finding some great videos to use when you get stuck at home and need that extra core and ab workout.

My son is slowly recovering from his flu bug.  I think my husband is now taking his turn at being sick.  Hopefully I will miss the sickness and be able to just take care of my boys.  I cleaned the entire house this weekend in order to get rid of all the germs.  Luckily, we had great weather in Phoenix this weekend and were able to air the house out and be outside with the family.   Goal: get rid of the sickness and be healthy and stay in great Mommy shape!

photo by Theo1996

Today at the park, my son wanted to swing, swing, swing.  For a two year old, my son is pretty brave on the swings, he constantly asks to go higher and higher and to twist around.  He giggles and laughs, kicks his feet around, and generally has a grand old time swinging.  On the other hand, my son is still a little timid on the big slides.  He will go down the slide one or two times by himself, but he doesn’t like to do much more than that.  Today was different, my son was a “risk taker” he actually went right up to the slide and asked my to push him down.  He got stuck the first time at the end of the slide and I had to rush down to get him off, the next time he took the “risk” and jumped off the end.  My son also wanted to swing from the monkey bars today and even tried climbing the little climbing wall.  He was into trying new things and changing his usual playground routine!

photo by n-n

So I truly started thinking about taking “risks” today.  We all seem to get stuck in a rut with our exercise and our daily life.  We get into a regular routine and don’t want to challenge ourselves to change it up.  Now having a routine is important, but we need to have variety in our exercise habits as well.  I am not always the most motivated person to change things up in my daily workout and take new “risks.”  I have tried new classes here and there, 8 years ago I went to a running store in Iowa City because my hips hurt when I was running.  The owner suggested new shoes, but she also suggested checking out the pilates studio next door.  That was the beginning of a passion for pilates that led me to become certified as an instructor and totally eliminate my hip pain.  I never would have ended up in that studio or tried pilates without taking that risk back in 2001.  I challenge you to find a new activity to try or a new way to workout.  I have tried yoga and kick-boxing (didn’t really like those!) and spinning and circuit training (loved those!), but in the end I am glad that I have tried many different forms of working out.  I am getting stuck in a rut with my workout routine again and I am looking for another new exercise to experiment with, any suggestions?

photo by novamade

Finding motivation is extremely important.  What motivates you to get out there and get your workout in?  I think one of the most important things we should consider about our daily fitness routines is the example we set for our children.  My son loves to run, do pilates, and play outside.  I think he finds “exercising like Mommy” to be fun and enjoyable.  He loves to race me outside and even wants me to say “take your mark, get set, GO!”   In turn, he will get down on the floor and do downward dog, cobra, and plank.  It is rather cute to watch him get into each of the positions, he actually finds it to be a lot of fun and actually asks me to do pilates with him.  Funny enough, all those moves are actually yoga moves, but that it is ok he knows mommy as a pilates person!  I am excited that my son finds exercise fun, I believe establishing a love for fitness early in childhood is extremely imporant.  In addition, kids need to get at least an hour of exercise each day and getting them outside or doing an activity will establish this goal early on.

So what other motivations do we have?  For most of us we want to be in shape, be healthy, and lose weight.  I recently received a couple of emails from former swimmers of mine.  Some are mothers, others are not, but they each were motivated to run their first marathon.  Two of them will be running races in April and I am so proud of them and their commitment to the training.  It is always hard to get motivated, but having that marathon goal makes you get out there on the road.  You can’t run a marathon without training!  I am considering doing the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon in May as my next goal.  The last and only marathon I ran was a year and a half after my son was born, it was a great goal to get back into shape and an amazing accomplishment.  Now after my miscarriage, I am again trying to lose weight and get back into great shape.  Of course I have already talked about the motivation of workout partners and having a group weight loss goals, but finding that internal motivation is so important.  While my internal motivation is multi-layered, I believe setting a good example and being healthy are the most important.   Of course, there is always that motivation of fitting into the pre-pregnancy jeans, looking good in your favorite outfit, or being in a swimsuit.  So find your motivation and get going!  What is your motivation?

photo by sionfulla

For most mothers getting rid of that belly pooch is one of our biggest exercise goals.  As we all know, a combination of cardio and ab work is essential in working off this problem area.   I have seen the most success when I combine pilates with running.  I wanted to pass on some of my favorite pilates abdominal moves, these are moves I always do when I am teaching pilates classes.  Now, you can decide to do these moves with or without a stability ball, I have described the exercises with the ball.  I suggest doing them at least three days a week and mixing in other abdominal moves. 

• Double Leg Stretch – Lie on your back with your knees in a table top position and hold the ball over top of your shins.  Lift head and curl up towards your knees, keep back imprinted into the ground (this is your starting position).  On an exhale extend arms and legs while keeping head and shoulders in crunched position, inhale and return to starting position. Repeat 8-12 times
• Spine Twist – Lie on your back with legs straight up, head on the floor, and arms out to the side, if using ball put ball between ankles and squeeze.  Keeping your shoulders on the mat, slowly lower legs to the right, hold, then use abdominals to lift legs to the center, and slowly lower legs to the left.  Repeat for 12 repetitions.
• Reverse Crunch – Lie on  your back, bend your knees with ball squeezed between thighs and heels, leave hands down beside your body.  Inhale to prepare, on the exhale bring your knees in towards your chest and raise your hips off the floor.  Do 8-12 repetitions.