After my son was born I walked away from the gym. I had been teaching group fitness classes for 5 years and as heartbreaking as it was I left the gym the Wednesday night after my 5:30pm Barbell Strength class at 39 weeks pregnant and decided that would be the end...for now. I am hopeful that in another season of my life I will return as a group fitness instructor, but right now it just can't be part of my life.
When my son was born I knew that after a long day at school (and a long day at daycare for him), I could not justify giving up an hour of the 4 hours I get to see his precious face each weekday to hit the gym (and put him into childcare again...). **Now, moms out there who do this- please know that I am NOT judging you. Each family is different, each situation is different, each decision we make based on those circumstances is different. Keep on keeping on at the gym!**
But, let's be honest. If you love to workout and it is part of who you are, you can't just walk away from that. So the way that I workout and when I workout looks a lot different than it did a year ago. I'm just glad to say that I am still working out! I know many families are trying to stay fit and making decisions about their budget so I just thought I'd tell you a little bit about how we tackled the home gym.
First of all - my husband still has a gym membership. He sells fitness equipment in gyms, so we felt it was really important for him to continue working out at a facility that uses his equipment so that he can be a better salesman of the product. Also, he travels some with his job and his clients all over welcome him into their gyms, so he always try to hit the gym hard when he is on the road...because we just never know when he might get to the gym when he's at home!
Here is a little tour of our home gym....
First we had to find a space. This took a while. I worked out in a living room for a while, but that wasn't very practical as more and more baby stuff started taking over every square inch of our home. This past summer I worked out in the garage for a while, but then it got August hot and I begged my husband to let me figure out a solution inside in the sweet AC. We have this really oddly shaped room above our garage so I did some rearranging and now we have it set up so half of the room is like a living room and the other half is my little workout space. And it is little - but it is exactly the amount of space one me-sized person needs to workout.
Over the years we have collected a variety of fitness gear. Above you can see the swiss ball, kettle bell, dumbbell, foam rollers, resistance bands and assistance bands. The assistance bands are what I use with our pull-up bar (that hooks on the door) to help me actually do a pull-up.
Another thing we decided to get was a piece of cardio equipment. We went with this awesome yellow spin bike (mostly because it came at no cost to us).
In the spring Forrest and I like to hit the Greenway near our home for a run or a bike ride, so we invested in this adorable blue (and super smooth riding) running stroller/bike trailer combo. It is AMAZING!
I realized early on that I was not going to be very successful trying to come up with my own workouts every week and decided to invest in my first challenge pack through BeachBody last April. The first program I purchased was Les Mills Combat. I lost over 13 pounds in 30 days using this program and actually got under my pre-pregnancy weight.
I wanted to make some changes in my body composition and wanted a program to help me build muscle while still burning lots of fat. That's when I decided to purchase Les Mills Pump. I absolutely love this program. I was a certified BodyPump instructor back before I left the gym, and it feels good to do those same workouts at home.
I've already seen some changes in my arms and legs using this program. For the first few months I was so overwhelmed at my new job, being back in the classroom and balancing mommy/teacher/wife responsibilities that I didn't make working out a priority. Now that I am more settled into my new job I have more time to workout in the mornings or late in the evenings like I was doing before.
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On a side note, if you are interested in learning more about BeachBody products, go over to my Muscle Mama Facebook page and send me a message. I'd love to tell you more and get you connected with one of my upcoming challenge groups. If you want to see what kinds of programs are available, feel free to check out my BeachBody coach site .
