Nerth Growth, Fitness & Health by Samantha Ackerman

‼️Announcement‼️
The countdown begins for PT sessions! You have until the end of July to book your in-person sessions with me before I start winding down for maternity leave. I will still be available for online support/consultations/online programs, so please reach out if you’d like to secure a spot (spaces will be limited).
I’ve already got some clients who will be on standby until I return in early 2027, if you’d like to get your name on the list early, let me know. Again, spaces will be limited when I return as I navigate being a working-mum with 2 littles at home & 2 bigs at school.

A massive thank you to everyone who has supported my business this year and put their trust in me as their trainer. I love watching you all grow in strength and confidence to be the best versions of yourselves. Everything you do, whether it’s booking sessions with me, coming to classes, or simply engaging with my content, makes a massive difference to my small business. Which, in turn, supports my family. You all rock 🫶🏻

I’ll just leave this here…

The hardest part is getting started.

From the outside, I may make it look “easy”. It isn’t easy, I just know the alternative is to feel worse.

If you don’t know where to start, please reach out to me or any other ante & postnatal specialist who can give you the help and guidance you deserve 🫶🏻

I promise you when I say, the information is out there!! The research has been done and there are guidelines for safely and effectively healing your Diastasis Recti, but it really does help to speak to a specialist.

Your instinct can be to rush the whole process and go straight in for those crunches and planks, but this can make your separation worse!! Remember that if your Diastasis Recti is a result of pregnancy, it will have taken 9 months for your body to stretch as much as it did, so it’s going to take time to repair. Give yourself the time, grace and patience you need.

Just watch me…
Because I’m fully trained & qualified, I’ve done my research and I know what’s best for me and my baby.
Pregnancy does not equal fragile!

As promised, a demonstration on core engagement.
There are many mistakes people make when engaging the core, simply “sucking in” is one of them. Tensing the superficial abdominals and creating an outward pressure is another.

Correct engagement, pressure & breathing are all key to improving Diastasis Recti, improving posture, improving performance in the gym, improving pelvic health and so much more.

Learn to maintain this pressure while breathing first, it may take some time, weeks even. But if you can master this, the next steps become a lot easier.

The reality that pregnancy & postpartum has on the body. For some people, this may be a negligible amount of loose skin & body fat, but for me it is something that affects how I look at myself every day, thanks to societal pressures on what a woman’s body “should” look like.

I’ve been working on my relationship with my body since I left school, and it’s been a long journey. I’ve come so far. But my little pooch has been something I’ve thought about EVERY SINGLE DAY for the last (almost) 9 years since my first c-section. It affects what clothes I feel comfortable in, it means I look when I walk past any mirror or shop window to see if it’s noticeable, it means that I often feel like a fraud working in the fitness industry.

But I can tell you this, my body is not the most interesting thing about me. I am strong, I am healthy, I can dance, I have a crazy good memory, I’m ambitious, I’m kind, I know my craft and I continue to work on it each day to make sure I’m up to date with the latest facts on fitness. There is so much more to me than the way I look.

AND THE SAME STANDS FOR YOU!!!
Be kind to yourself, and in a world that keeps trying to shrink you in every way possible, be loud, take up space, be you.

Core stability is so important and so underrated! It’s an area of training that a lot of people neglect, or if they are training their core, they’re doing some mindless sit-ups & a few crunches hoping it’ll give them a six pack.

But the function of the core muscles is so much more important than getting a visible six pack. Even though this aesthetic is actually mostly obtainable with low body fat percentage, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Your core is responsible for posture, core stability, aiding in breathing, continence, pelvic floor function and so much more. Don’t neglect it!!