Fitness gives mothers the strength and confidence to raise their families.
Like many moms, Valerie Merriweather was determined to get back into shape after the birth of her first child. She seemed to be doing all the right things: walking, eating right and reading up on the latest “lose weight fast” articles. So she assumed the excess weight would “fall off.” At that time, Merriweather made her fitness choices based on the latest hype, and more importantly, made the mistake of not strength training on a regular basis. Frustrated by the lack of results, she resorted to extreme dieting, but ended up sabotaging her body composition. The scale indicated that she had lost weight, however; she gained fat and lost muscle at the same time. She was convinced it took much longer to get her pre-pregnancy body back because she didn’t include strength training in her fitness routine.
During Merriweather's second pregnancy, she did a variety of pregnancy workout videos to stay in shape. Most of the videos focused only on aerobics and didn’t stress the importance of strength training, which is critical in weight management and muscle loss prevention.
After becoming a certified personal trainer, the mother of four began to strength train 2-3 times per week during her pregnancies, while still maintaining variety in her routines by adding walking, biking, flexibility, balance and core training. It was important to specifically train using movements that are similar to caring for the baby such as multi-directional lunges, squats, push-ups, pulling and reaching exercises. (In the fitness business, this is called "functional training")
Her postpartum workouts consisted of the same movements although they were modified at first. Since this California native nursed all of her children for over a year, her fitness goals were adjusted in order to maintain an adequate milk supply.
The only difference between the first and fourth pregnancy was knowledge. Initially, Merriweather, owner of
Fitwell Training Solutions, was terrified that she would hurt the baby by exercising. However, by the fourth pregnancy, she was confident in her ability to exercise effectively. She had also learned how to listen to her body.
"All I can say is that my pregnancies and recoveries were directly tied to my fitness level. The more fit I was, the better my delivery and the better off I was postpartum. Working out consistently helped me get in tune with my body and better understand my tolerance for discomfort as well as my amazing strength," she explains. As she reflects on 16+ hour labors and her incredible birthing experiences, she knows that exercise and in particular strength training made a huge difference. Strength training has given her the strength, literally, to manage the physical demands of parenting and to be a healthy role model for her children.
