Fit Mama Perth

Did you know the movement guidelines for adults were updated recently.

The headline change is this: movement, sitting less and sleep are now looked at together, as one connected picture rather than three separate things. What you do outside your workout matters too - getting up regularly, moving throughout the day and giving your body time to rest all add up.

For a mum whose day rarely goes to plan it's a great way to think about it, because it means the ten minute walk, the floor play with your toddler and a decent night's sleep all count toward the same goal.

We're talking about this all week, starting with what the new adult guidelines actually say and then what changes and what does not, when you're pregnant. Save this and come back for the rest.

Can relate to this, does the idea of your whole day counting in your movement quota feel more doable than a workout you can never quite fit in?

A modification isn’t “taking the easy option”

Some days your body needs a different version of an exercise and that doesn’t make your workout any less valuable.

Pregnancy, postpartum, injury, energy levels… there are so many reasons we might need to change how we train.

At Fitmama, we’re all about meeting your body where it’s at and progressing from there 💪🏻💕

Working with a MumSafe certified trainer means working with someone who understands the pelvic floor, the postpartum core, the hormonal landscape of motherhood and midlife and the kind of training that actually serves your body at every stage.

Sessions are built around you, where you are right now, what your body has been through and where you want to go.

The link in my bio is where to start.

This week I am asking the mums in this community a question.

If you could go back and tell yourself one thing about your body at any stage of motherhood, what would it be?

Comment below, I will be reading every one.

Not all core exercises are created equal after birth and timing matters more than most people think.

Here are the four phases of postpartum core rebuilding, what each one involves and how to know when you're ready to move forward. Save this one.

Sometimes we’re so busy doing all the things that we forget to stop and appreciate just how special this really is. 🥹🩷

Turning our passion for fitness into a career, working alongside one of our best friends, being part of MumSafe, helping woman return safely to exercise , and getting to support an incredible community of women every day.

We really do get to call this our job.

Kinda chic, really. ✨ ™️

The postpartum core is more than a set of abdominal muscles, recovery involves restoring the relationship between your diaphragm, pelvic floor, deep abdominals and spine.

The deep core is a group of structures working together: the diaphragm at the top, the pelvic floor at the base, the transversus abdominis wrapping around the front and sides and the multifidus supporting the spine from behind.

These four structures create what you might think of as a canister of pressure management and after pregnancy and birth, that canister needs to be reconnected and retrained before it can handle load.
What this means in practice is that the timeline for returning to core-intensive exercise is based on what your body is demonstrating, not on how many weeks it has been since you gave birth.

This week we are talking through what a properly progressive return to core training actually looks like, so you know what to expect and why each phase matters.

I want to know how you can relate to this, did anyone explain postpartum core recovery to you in a way that made sense?

I got this question from a client recently and I think many women going through menopause are wondering the same thing.

"I have started leaking a little when I laugh or sneeze and I am also feeling drier than I used to. Is this simply menopause or is something wrong with me?"

These symptoms are incredibly common during menopause, but they're not something you just have to put up with.

There's actually a name for what you're describing: genitourinary syndrome of menopause or GSM. As oestrogen levels fall, the tissues around the va**na, bladder and pelvic floor naturally change. For some women, those changes show up as bladder leaks especially with things like laughing, coughing or sneezing.

If these symptoms are affecting you, don't wait to ask for help. A pelvic health physiotherapist can properly assess what is happening for you and build a plan around it and pelvic floor muscle training has been shown to help improve both the physical symptoms and how they affect daily life. Depending on your situation, your GP may also talk to you about treatment options that support the tissue itself, that is a conversation worth having with them directly.

As your trainer, I can’t diagnose or treat these symptoms, but I can make sure your training is supporting your pelvic floor rather than working against it and I will always encourage you to get the right support alongside it.

Please don’t sit with this in silence, there is so much that can be done.

Has menopause brought changes you weren’t expecting? Share your experience below, let’s make these conversations more normal.

So much of what happens to the body during menopause gets dismissed as something to accept without question and I don’t think that is good enough.

Understanding what is actually happening in your body is the first step toward doing something about it, whatever that looks like for you.

What's one thing you wish you'd known about menopause sooner? Share it in the comments below.

Not every mum who follows this page is in the newborn stage and not every mum who trains with me is either.

Many of the women in this community are years, even decades, past having their babies and moving through a completely different chapter, perimenopause and menopause.

Their pelvic floor is still important and so is their core. Bodies at this stage are also going through significant change and they deserve the same depth of support and information as a mum bringing home her first baby.

So this week we are talking about menopause and the pelvic floor, what actually happens in the body during this transition and why so many women are never told about it.

Genitourinary syndrome of menopause, often shortened to GSM, is the clinical term for a group of changes that happen to the va**na, v***a, bladder and pelvic floor as oestrogen declines. Research suggests it significantly affects quality of life for around half of women going through menopause, yet only around one in four ever seek treatment for it.

That gap between how common this is and how rarely it gets addressed is exactly why we are opening the week here.

Save this and stay with us, this is information every woman deserves regardless of her age or stage.

I want to know how you can relate to this.