3 Reasons you want your Coach to be a Pre & Postnatal Specialist - even if you'll never have children
There’s a common misconception in our industry, in fact, I’m going to do a major call out and say that it’s a result of the patriarchy - it’s this belief that anything that is typically for women... Is less than.
I noticed it when I began specialising in pre and postnatal exercise. At first, I wasn’t taken very seriously by my peers, there was an assumption that because I worked with pre and postnatal people that what I was doing wasn’t challenging or exciting enough for those with more experience. I was faced with this constant battle to prove that what I was doing wasn’t coaching ‘lite’ it was coaching ‘squared’ And this didn’t just come from other coaches, or other men, it came from women too. I had many clients assume that they wouldn’t be challenged enough or that working with me was something they “had to” do for 6 weeks or so then they could move on to the cooler, more exciting stuff.
When I opened The Mutha Ship I saw this bias in full swing - I had people overlook me constantly because they assumed it was “just a woman's gym”
The thing is - there is no other specialism where you are considered less of a coach. If you become an Olympic weightlifting coach it is not assumed that you know less and can now only coach people who want to weight lift. It’s known that the skills you learned in that specialism can be transferred to other aspects and make you a better coach.
So today I want to do a bit of ceiling smashing and share with you 3 ways that our specialism has enhanced the experience of ALL our members and how it has made our gym such a unique space.
1 - Our knowledge of breathwork and how it affects core function
When you become a PT there is little to no information in your training about the power of your breath. Thankfully breathwork education is becoming way more mainstream now, but it’s still rare to find a coach who has an innate knowledge about how your breathing can not only help you recover but can also make your performance better, strengthen your core and enhance your life experience and knows exactly how to integrate that into your sessions.
Enter - the pre and postnatal specialist- because our breathing mechanics are so affected in pregnancy, a big part of the training to become a specialist involves a deep knowledge and understanding of proper breathing mechanics, how to coach them, how to use them to strengthen and support core function and how to integrate them into client sessions - This is the knowledge that has TRANSFORMED our member experience.
We have included unique breathing practices into our sessions that have seen our members improve performance, technique, manage injury and so much more, giving them a better chance at a lifelong, positive journey with exercise that enhances, not hinders their life experiences.
2- Pelvic Floor knowledge serves everyone!
We all have pelvic floors and they are ALL affected by load. That’s the bottom line. Yet the basic PT training barely mentions the pelvic floor.
At SLAM we’ve worked with humans of all genders and we have seen many, many people who suffer leaking of urine and faecal matter on impact, hernias, urge incontinence, even back and shoulder pain related to their pelvic floor, some of whom have never had children or are male!
With advanced knowledge of how the pelvic floor functions, what it needs and how to read the red flags, a specialist can understand what adaptations to make and what information and education to share with you regardless of whether you have had children or not! Making your overall exercise experience better and helping you to take care of your long term health.
3- Getting you through the plateau!
We’ve all been there, you start weightlifting, you’re smashing it, getting PBs every week and then... the beginner gains disappear, you start to feel super tired, you don’t recover as well and you cannot for the life of you move past your current deadlift PB
But… because a pre and postnatal specialist has learned how to work from the ground up. They have a unique formula of learn, control, load and explode that they are well versed in applying to their clients' needs.
They are used to working with complex birth experiences and finding ways to reintroduce movement. They work with people who get very little sleep, so their recovery knowledge is second to none! If you’re lucky enough to go to a gym or trainer where they have this specialism- you’ll be expertly guided through those plateaus and back on your way to moving forward with more education, knowledge and resources that stop you from giving up or getting stuck in a rut!
I could go on but hopefully, those reasons have helped open your eyes and mind to just how useful it is to work with or even become a pre and postnatal exercise specialist - even if you don’t plan to have children or don’t want it to be your niche as a coach.
More knowledge and education is always better and I’d love it if we had more coaches in this industry who were armed with it!
Remember not all pre and postnatal education is created equally, doing the basics doesn’t make you a specialist so always do your research when it comes to finding a coach- a good one will never be offended by you asking about their education and experience and if you’d love to work with us we have 4 spaces left in our next postnatal exercise course for new parents.
And 2 spaces left on our mentorship course for coaches, helping you bridge the gap between knowledge and action when it comes to serving pre and postnatal people.