Today I have a guest post by none other than my lovely wife. She is going to talk a little bit about her experience with the process of training here, what is momentum, and how it all ties together.
I hope you guys enjoy the post!
November 10, 2014 is one of the best days of my life, also one of my worst (physically). It’s the day our daughter was born! If you have had a baby, know someone that’s had a baby, don’t live in cave… you know that having a baby is hard. It’s freaking hard. I mean you’re making a human.
But one busted tailbone later, our daughter was here! (Note: I love my daughter dearly and would take 1,000 busted tailbones for her). Once I recovered I was left with a tailbone that took about a year to fully heal and was also left with some minor diastasis recti (abdominal separation), which is normal.
Around nine months I was finally to a point with my tailbone that I could start slowly working out and weight training again. Why did this take so long? I challenge you to try and find one exercise out there that doesn’t put pressure on your tailbone, it doesn’t exist. Even ring rows make you tighten your core and inadvertently your ass which felt like 100 knives shooting up my back.
When Brad started writing the most basic programs for me squats were 100% out of the question. We couldn’t attempt those until Everly was over 1 year old. But I wanted to get back. I had never been weaker, flabbier, etc.
As it is for most people guess what my main focus was for training? If you guessed stomach/abs you are the winner! I told Brad this and guess what he made me do, not one damn “ab exercise.” Not one! My thought process was, “If I want my abs to get better we need to target just abs!” WRONG. You should know that Brad and I are both “oldest children” so for one of us to admit we are wrong, big deal. 😉
Brad told me that we need to focus on my overall core and my stomach would follow. Since I had our daughter I had muscles not activating correctly and therefore muscles overcompensating for the muscles that are essentially in a coma. We had to get my muscles out of their comas. If we did not get the muscles activating two things will happen: 1) never reach my potential 2) injury.
So here we were, work out 101. Relearning everything. But like most things in life, it’s all about momentum.
Have you ever seen underneath a carousel? There are massive engines and robust mechanical engineering that goes into getting a carousel started. As the carousel starts going the engines shut off. There is so much momentum that the engines don’t need to keep running to perpetuate the motion. There is also an incredible breaking system that slows the carousel, even more robust than the engines.
But why am I talking about carousels? Because I had no momentum, I knew I had to get that momentum going and starting was the hardest part. But it got better, sometimes worse before it got better. I started seeing a change here and there and then more frequently. I started dropping sizes. (To scale, I was a size zero before I got pregnant, I couldn’t really button an eight after I had Evie).
So, why am I telling you all of this? What’s the point? My point is, the process worked. My point is that Rome was not built in a day. It takes work, dedication and faith in the process. Squats 100% strengthen your core. Lunges suck but help your glutes. Bear crawls also suck more than lunges but help your core. In a year I have maybe, maybe done a handful of ab targeted exercises but I’ve never had a stronger core. But I’ve also never trained like this.
I had a huge win last Saturday while doing skull crushers. For the first time in my life, pre-pregnancy and all, I was able to activate my entire core at the same time to stabilize my body. I felt it. I knew that every muscle at that point was out of their respective comas and my body was working together. It was awesome.
I know that there are a variety of people that train with all sorts of different fitness levels, starting points and reasons for training. But I promise you, if you stick to the process and put in the EFFORT you will get there. It’s not overnight and you will struggle. Without the struggle there is no progress. Keep focusing on what you can control: attitude, energy, effort and learning. You will get there.
