Last year, I became a mom after 40, and I’ve discovered that there is a large potential for injury from starting to mommy later in life.
After realizing the full potential for bodily damage (mine not his), I decided to try and proactively PREVENT getting injured. So I asked at my gym for the right type of personal trainer to help me with these goals. She’s been wonderful. Although I asked Sarah for exercises to help me “get strong” in my arms and stay ahead of my son’s increasing weight, she redirected me and gave me strengthening exercises that multitask by strengthening my arms, core muscles (back and stomach), and gluts at the same time.
I’ve always known that I’m a bit of a weakling, but was still slightly bummed to learn that I needed to start with 3 pound weights. I got over it quickly, because my aim was to get stronger, so what did it really matter where I was starting?
I asked my trainer to only teach me 2-3 exercises because I have limited capacity for remembering these things and didn’t want to feel burdened by having to spend too much time strength training at any one session, given I’d want to do it about 2-3 times per week.
I’m happy to say, I learned how to it and stayed quite regular. But I want to be clear, I followed the advice that I’ve been giving women for years: If you don’t have time for or want to do the whole schabang on any day (e.g., all the exercises, reps, etc), then just grab what you can and want, guilt free. There’s no need to do it “perfectly” every time because it’s only one day out of the rest of our lives.
I’ve gotten stronger, straighter, and more sturdy. Most of all, I’ve felt proud of myself for continuing to this regularly enough that it made a difference in how I feel when I carry my son and lift grocery bags. And, I have also enjoyed witnessing the development of muscle in my arms and stomach, even though this wasn’t my motivation.
