A Man’s View

I have worked in the Health and Fitness industry for numerous years now, following my passion of helping others become fitter, stronger, healthier, and happier. I am working full time for Active Northumberland and also a part of our ‘Mams on the Move’ programme, where we offer numerous classes pre and post-natal, reaching out into groups that normally don’t exercise. Because I love what I do, I also set up my own Personal Training business (AP Personal Training).

As an Advanced Fitness Instructor, I have trained people with various abilities, goals, and conditions. I firmly believe that any instructor should only give advice and exercise plans within their qualifications.

When I qualified as a Pre and Post Natal Exercise Instructor it opened my eyes to understanding the potential risks of trainers ‘helping’ pre and post-natal women without knowing their duty of care, not only the woman, but also the baby! From learning training principles relating to pre and post, I found it extremely interesting how training sessions must be adapted as trimesters develop. I enjoy thinking about how to adapt certain exercise motions for different abilities and later trimesters etc. So, mums, please ask your instructor if they have the relevant correct qualifications to train you, otherwise you are putting yourself at risk!

At first when I started the classes for Active Northumberland, the new Mams maybe questioned ‘A man doing post pregnancy exercise….?’

However, once the sessions started and I was able to show them my style and workout structures to aid themselves, we all clicked which allowed my rapport with the Mams and babies flourish.

I would like to see pregnancy and postnatal fitness run properly across all of the UK especially, as I feel qualified knowledgeable instructors can help all of our communities which will have a positive effect on everyone’s mental health.

I also became a Father at the end of March 2019 to my beautiful daughter, which became my life’s number one focus. During the pregnancy with my fiancé, seeing the incredible changes the female body went through to have a baby, just blew my mind! I understood what happens to the body from our training course but actually seeing it all unfold was crazy (in a good way).

Pre and Post Natal Women will certainly be common throughout the fitness industry – but if we can all learn to think and do positive changes – I believe it can have an overall positive impact on our general wellness/ our body.

My Top 3 Tips for any new Mam is…

Number 1. Enjoy your time with Baby.

Number 2 would certainly be to remember to look after yourself. Not just for now, but the way you work now will also have a knock-on effect for your future and even future pregnancies. Therefore, as mentioned, remember to seek professional QUALIFIED Instructors to help you, like our ‘Mams on the Move Group’ and Instructors holding a Level 3 Award in working with Pregnant and Postnatal Women.

And finally, nothing will be ‘Perfect’

Attending sessions is like going to the shop with a baby, it can be daunting… I understand myself as a Dad. But at the end of the day, your baby is loved and will be fine, but you have to look after yourself too. If you need to stop a session to see to your baby or cut your workout short sometimes… that’s not a problem. At least you did something other than nothing.

Let us all work to become FITTER-STRONGER-HEALTHIER-HAPPIER…. TOGETHER!

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