To be honest I haven't come here a lot since Frankie was born.
There is always something else to do and with a very small window whilst Frankie sleeps there are a million other things that need to be done around my home or admin work for my business.
I have sat her for half an hour trying to work out what to write so I thought I would write about how I have gotten myself strong after having baby Frankie.
At this point in time, I am strong...
I am the strongest I have ever been. I see a lot of girls on Instagram and Facebook who are super strong. I am not strong like them, but for me I am strong. Strong is currently in fashion. It is a good trend to be a part of. There is a hashtag on social media #femaleliftingarmy I like this hashtag, it makes me smile and think of deadlifting.
For the first twelve months after having Frankie I worked on re-building my body. I was left with a five centimetre separation in abdominals. I also had lots of work to do on my pelvic floor following Frankie's birth. I was weak and had done nothing but swim for the last six weeks of my pregnancy so I really did feel like I was starting from the beginning.
It took me a good nine months to start to feel any resemblance of my former fit self. I made a decision to not rush getting back to where I had once been. My prioritise shifted from wanting to be lean to just wanting to be stronger. When you are used to being strong you take it for granted. When your strength is gone you miss it, all I wanted was to be strong.
Training around a baby is hard, finding the time, finding the child care when your husband works, training through lack of sleep is horrible.
But I did it. I trained consistently four times a week; sometimes three, sometimes five.
I walked everyday that I did not train. Walked for an hour pushing Frankie whilst she slept.
I ate nutritious food and I ate a lot of it as I was breastfeeding. And the days I trained I ate more food. I stopped constantly obsessing about what I was eating and just ate good, wholesome food that served me, my training and most importantly my breastfed baby.
And then I was back. My body was back. I had worked hard but it was the consistency in my training and nutrition that got it back.
I was lifting weight that I was lifting before I was pregnant.
And then I lifted heavier.
And I realised that I really liked getting stronger. And as I got stronger I realised I was not caring so much about how I looked. I wasn't caring about how lean I was or how ripped my stomach was.
And the less I cared about how I looked the more I started to really like what I saw in the mirror. I actually like my strong body now more than I liked my ripped, lean body from before I was pregnant.
I have focussed for the last eight months on the three main strength lifts; Deadlift, Squat and Bench press.
I have written my own programs for these lifts along with the accessory exercises needed to continually improve my strength on these lifts.
My deadlift has gone from a shaky post-pregnancy 20kg to a 1Rep Maximum of 95kg
My squat has gone from non-existent due to a hip impingement to a 1RM of 72.5kg
My bench press from a 5RM of 25kg to a 5RM of 40kg
**
And these increases in these lifts have transferred across to every other exercise I do. I am literally picking up weights that used to be super heavy and finding them easier. Very, very empowering and I am filled with self-pride at how I have focussed on something and every week I am getting better and better.
This has also carried over in to how I am training my clients. I have a number of girls that have also been bitten by the strength training bug and I am getting them strong as well. Having clients that now train for strength instead of purely focusing on training to lose weight/fat is truly wonderful to see. And they, like me, are changing their body composition whilst doing training that they love.
Training becomes less of a chore and hitting numbers you've never hit before is f*cking awesome.
So where to from here? Would I love to powerlift....yes! Will I get there....one day!
x
** please excuse the terrible music on the video, the very funny camera man added it, yep I love myself <3
