Author: Marika Hart, PT

If you’re a new mom, you’ve probably noticed your midsection looks different than it did before pregnancy. Maybe you have new stretch marks or lax skin, or perhaps people are still asking when your baby is due. Some women also...

It’s Monday morning, and you are pumped and ready for your bootcamp class. A new client comes in and heads over to you. “Hi, I signed up for your bootcamp online, but I just want you to know I’m pregnant....

Have you ever been in one of these situations? Situation #1: A client you’ve been training gets pregnant. She asks you what this means for her strength training program. What do you say? Situation #2: A new client wants to start...

What do you do if your new client is not only pregnant, but has never really been an “exerciser?” This can be a challenging situation for a fitness professional, especially if you are new to training pregnant women. You will...

Things happen quickly in the third trimester, and if you’re working with a client through her pregnancy, you may sense her growing excitement — and a healthy dose of anxiety — keeping pace with her growing belly as the big...

This question is asked frequently by women who are pregnant and fear doing harm to themselves or their baby. Many women enjoy running and find the thought of having to stop — for pregnancy, injury or other reasons — distressful to consider....

A woman’s body goes through significant physiological and psychological changes during pregnancy, and labor and delivery. As a health and fitness professional, you have a duty to understand: How your client’s body changes during pregnancy Any potential birth trauma they...

Diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) is one of the more notable changes that takes place during pregnancy. To accommodate the growing baby, the abdomen expands, stretching the skin, muscles and connective tissue (including the linea alba). As the abdomen expands in pregnancy...

In the United States, 85 percent of women will get pregnant in their lifetime (and that number is higher in other countries). While the majority of women will have vaginal births, about 32 percent will have C-sections. And the percentage...