E240. Redefining Fitness in Motherhood

so true and I think often like when we've exercised outside of motherhood there is like a specific goal and that might be like an event maybe you're training for or to look away aesthetically and then when you become a mum it's almost like well what's what's my goal and I think motherhood is so unique in the physical psychological 24-7 relentlessness yeah challenges that there are such clear goals but they just look a bit different and sometimes like reflecting on why you're doing it and trying to understand that for you as an individual is such a good way to kind of get off the blocks isn't it and get moving towards that

totally it's that redefining of the goals right it's that understanding that you know the goal the goal just looks a bit different and and you need it to work for you rather than you trying to push yourself into a mold you know

Yeah, I love that.

The phrase you mentioned, Jen, that bounce back, I feel like we had a period of time where we really started to move away from this idea.

But I'll be honest, I feel like recently it's kind of come back a bit in terms of like what we're seeing in the media.

Maybe it's because we're just hitting like a pinnacle of lots of celebrities having babies.

But I just feel like I've sensed more of this kind of culture again, which I absolutely hate because why would we ever want to go back? back to ourselves pre-motherhood.

Like the learning that comes from that is immense, isn't it? But from your perspective, like working with women, working with mums, why do you think that kind of message is so damaging? Because I know it's one that you also absolutely detect.

Yeah, I

come across it all the time, to be honest.

And I absolutely despise the phrase.

I really don't like it.

I find like, you know, women are not rubber bands.

You know, they've grown a human.

They birthed a human, you know, and then quite often they're handed a baby baby.

broken sleep patterns you know a body they don't really recognize you know it's and then they've got this societal expectation to look like nothing happened but actually something really major did happen you know I think the phrase implies there's a bit of a right timeline there and actually that timeline is completely divorced from reality it just you know postpartum, especially it's, you know, it frames recovery around health function and well being.

and not trying to bounce back to a previous body.

I think the research suggests that full physical recovery can take anything from sort of 12 months, two years, however many years.

I know from my own experience, it took a lot of years having had three kids.

It takes a lot of years to come back from that and to understand that it's actually about growing into it rather than trying to bounce back into it.

You know what I mean? And I think that whole, you know, I've never come across anyone who's benefited from the phrase bouncing back.

You know, I've seen women rushing back too soon and ignoring signals that their bodies are giving them, not listening to real symptoms.

And actually, they then look inwards and they start to feel like they're failing because they're not fitting some sort of arbitrary timeline that was put out in front of them.

But I also think there's a psychological layer to that too.

Becoming a mother is such a profound identity shift.